Dissent among Non-Russian Writers of the U.S.S.R. – A Philologist's Analysis

Extract

On December 21, 1972, the Soviet Union celebrated what was called in the official press the “50th Anniversary” of the birth of the multinational Soviet state. Brezhnev spoke at the festive meeting and in his speech he underlined the unity, mutual understanding and independence of the people who make up the Soviet Union. As a demonstration of the equality of all nations within Soviet boundaries, leading Soviet literary periodicals, such as Novyi Mir, or Yunost' published more and more authors with non-Russian names. Indeed, these periodicals began to look like a Soviet Reader's Digest, publishing a “little bit from everywhere for everybody.” On the surface it was multinational literature all right, but upon a closer reading one was surprised by the uniformity of it. The Kazakh poet sang of the heroes of the Second World War in the same terms as the Lithuanian writer, and the Tadzhik kolkhoz life was depicted in the same glowing terms as in the poems from the Moldavian countryside. A little bit boring, perhaps, but still, judging by these publications, Brezhnev was telling the pure truth talking about the brotherly union of “our multinational” state. The press was also inundated with articles, essays, poems, etc. on this theme.