Aleksandr Tvardovskii

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

Buch, Englisch, 500 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 879 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.

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

Childhood and Youth

Aleksandr’s political beliefs

Aleksandr leaves home

Precarious Existence in Smolensk

Early struggles

The family crisis

Creativity and Danger

Strana Muraviia

The Literary Terror

A Correspondent at War

The German war

In Moscow

At the front again

Vasilii Tiorkin

After the War

The postwar Soviet Union

Tvardovskii’s integration into postwar society

Literary life after the war

Party control

Tvardovskii’s post-war experience

Novyi mir, 1950–54

Settling into his mission

Agricultural policy

Stalin’s death

Achievement and Humiliation: Grossman’s Stalingrad

The novel’s tortuous publication

The stormy aftermath

Tvardovskii’s First Resignation

Interregnum: Tvardovskii’s Personal and Public Crisis

Political changes

Simonov’s Novyi mir

Tvardovskii on course to return to Novyi mir

The Tragedy of Aleksandr Fadeev 233

Tvardovskii’s Return to Novyi mir

Why was Tvardovskii able to return?

The new atmosphere at Novyi mir

Tvardovskii’s program: Overcoming trauma and collecting memories

Tvardovskii’s own convictions

Über Autor(innen)

Hosking, Geoffrey
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.