Aleksandr Tvardovskii

Memory and Truth in the Soviet Union
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-963-386-747-1
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, 506 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 2100 g

Reihe: Historical Studies in Eastern Europe and Eurasia - CEU Press

Aleksandr Tvardovskii was not only one of the finest, most popular and most important poets of his epoch, but also the editor of Novyi mir, the most prominent Soviet literary journal of the postwar period until the 1970s. This book is a detailed biography of the writer and journal editor who probably changed the literary culture of the Soviet Union more than any other person in the two decades after Stalin's death. Geoffrey Hosking shows how Tvardovskii gradually evolved from being an ardent Stalinist who renounced his own so-called “kulak” family to becoming a convinced advocate of tolerance, an all-human morality, civil rights, and free literary creativity.

By giving a balanced account of his strengths and weaknesses, his achievements and failures, the author succeeds in giving the fullest picture available anywhere of a controversial man who turns out to be more complex than he has been portrayed so far. To understand him better is to understand why the Soviet intelligentsia changed so fundamentally in the USSR’s final decades, a change that helps to explain the rise of Gorbachev twenty years later. The study—which includes an in-depth analysis of Tvardovskii’s major works—also helps to better understand the fate of culture under an authoritarian regime and the intricacies of the struggle against censorship.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hosking, Geoffrey

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Ethische Themen & Debatten: Zensur
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Biographien & Autobiographien: Historisch, Politisch, Militärisch

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Figures, Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1 Childhood and Youth, Chapter 2 Precarious Existence in Smolensk, Chapter 3 Creativity and Danger, Chapter 4 The Literary Terror, Chapter 5 A Correspondent at War, Chapter 6 Vasilii Tiorkin, Chapter 7 After the War, Chapter 8 Novyi mir, 1950-54, Chapter 9 Achievement and Humiliation: Grossman's Stalingrad, Chapter 10 Tvardovskii's First Resignation, Chapter 11 Interregnum: Tvardovskii's Personal and Public Crisis, Chapter 12 Simonov's Novyi mir, Chapter 13 he Tragedy of Aleksandr Fadeev, Chapter 14 Tvardovskii's Return to Novyi mir, Chapter 15 Editing Novyi Mir, Chapter 16 Ivan Denisovich: The Apogee of Novyi mir, Chapter 17 The Reaction Begins, Chapter 18 Open Conflict, Chapter 19 Solzhenitsyn: Admiration and Ambivalence, Chapter 20 The Russian Problem, Chapter 21 Tvardovskii’s Final Struggle, Chapter 22 The End of Tvardovskii’s Novyi mir, Chapter 23 After Novyi mir, Bibliography, Index

Über Autor(innen)

Geoffrey Hosking OBE, FR HistSoc, was Professor of Russian History, School of Slavonic & East European Studies, University College London from 1984–2007.He had previously taught at the Universities of Essex, Wisconsin (Madison), Cambridge and Cologne.He was BBC Reith Lecturer in 1988.