DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2022-23-146-163

УДК / UDK: 821.161.1.0
Issue:

2022 №23

Author: Olga A. Simonova
About the author:

Olga A. Simonova — PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4802-7750

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract:

The study of the history of censorship in the USSR attracts a large number of researchers, but publications of censors’ memoirs are not so common. The memoirs of E.A. Gilyarova represent one of the most interesting periods of the Soviet press, i. e. the 1930s. The introductory article to the publication examines the significance of the censors’ memoirs for the history of literature. A brief biographical note is given about Gilyarova, who, being a prominent Bolshevik, an employee of the People’s Commissariat of Education, was repressed in the 1930s. Subsequently, she contributed to the study of the Bolshevik movement’s history by publishing her memoirs and compiling several collections about the participants of the Revolution and the Civil War. In the being publishing memoirs, Gilyarova describes the internal routine of work in Gorlit, (the General Directorate for Literature and Publishing which carried out censorship in USSR), direct interactions with writers. The above episode with the B.A. Lavrenev’novel “The World in a Piece of Glass” shows how censorship changed the text: subsequently it was reproduced without the final author’s conclusion. Also, Gilyarova remembers how she took off an obscene poem from Nekrasov’s poetry collection. In the narrative about her work at the GIHL, Gilyarova pays the greatest attention to the figure of K.I. Chukovsky. She describes the editorial work on his book about N.A. Nekrasov, tells about the prohibition of Chukovsky’s works at the turn of the 1920s — 1930s. The present text allows us to form a more comprehensive picture of the pre-War development of Soviet literature, to make conclusions about the influence of censorship and editorial interference factors on it and to show this influence on concrete examples.

Keywords: Censorship in the USSR, Editorial Work, Gorlit, GIHL, K.I. Chukovsky, N.A. Nekrasov, B.A. Lavrenev.
For citation:

Simonova, O.A. “E.A. Gilyarova’s Memoirs about her Censor’ and Editor’ Work.” Literaturnyi fakt, no. 1 (23), 2022, pp. 146–163. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2022-23-146-163

References:

1. Blium, A.V. Sovetskaia tsenzura v epokhu total'nogo terrora. 1929–1953 [Soviet Censorship in the Era of Total Terror. 1929–1953]. St. Petersburg, Akademicheskii Proekt Publ., 2000. 311 p. (In Russ.)

2. Petrov, F.N., editor. V ogne revoliutsionnykh boev (Raiony Petrograda v dvukh revoliutsiiakh 1917 g.): Sbornik vospominanii starykh bol'shevikov-pitertsev [In the Fire of Revolutionary Battles (The Districts of Petrograd in Two Revolutions of 1917): A Collection of Memoirs of Old Bolsheviks from St. Petersburg], issue 1. Moscow, Mysl' Publ., 1967. 583 p. (In Russ.)

3. Iakovlev, A.N., editor. Vlast' i khudozhestvennaia intelligentsiia. Dokumenty TSK RKP(b) — VKP (b), VChK — OGPU — NKVD o kul'turnoi politike. 1917–1953 [Power and Artistic Intelligentsia. Documents of the CK RKP(b) — VKP(b), VChK — OGPU — NKVD on Cultural Policy. 1917–1953]. Moscow, Mezhdunarodnyi fond “Demokratiia” Publ., 1999. 868 p. (In Russ.)

4. Giliarova, E., Itkis, M. Aleksandr Krusser (Ist.-biogr. ocherk) [Aleksandr Krusser (Historical and Biographical Essay)]. Chișinău, Kartia moldoveniaske Publ., 1962. 94 p. (In Russ.)

5. Giliarova, E., Itkis, M. Boets leninskoi gvardii (A.S. Krusser) [Fighter of the Lenin Guard (A.S. Krusser)]. Chișinău, Kartia moldoveniaske Publ., 1968. 143 p. (In Russ.)

6. Goriaeva, T.M. Politicheskaia tsenzura v SSSR, 1917–1991 [Political Censorship in the USSR, 1917–1991]. Moscow, First Russian President B.N. El'tsin’s fond, ROSSPEN Publ., 2009. 405 p. (In Russ.)

7. Zhenshhiny goroda Lenina: Vospominanija i ocherki [Women of Lenin’s City: Memoirs and Essays], comp. by Giljarova, E.A., Popova, M.N., Razumova, M.Ja., Savchenko, M.G. Leningrad, Lenizdat Publ., 1963. 408 p. (In Russ.)

8. Zelenov, M.V. Apparat TSK RKB(b) — VKP(b), tsenzura i istoricheskaia nauka v 1920-e gody [Apparatus of the Central Committee of the RKB — VKP(b), Сensorship and Historical Science in the 1920s]. Nizhniy Novgorod, 2000. 438 p. (In Russ.)

9. Ivanov, A.V. “Spektakl' K.K. Tverskogo “Razlom” (Bol'shoi Dramaticheskii teatr, 1927): siuzhet, zhanr, kompozitsiia, sposob akterskogo sushchestvovaniia” [“K.K. Tverskoy's Play “Fault” (Bolshoi Drama Theater, 1927): Plot, Genre, Composition, Method of Actor's Existence”]. Manuskript. Tambov: Gramota Publ., no. 11 (97), pt. 1, 2018, pp. 143–148. (In Russ.)

10. Lavrenev, B.A. Izbrannoe [Selected Works]. Moscow, Sovetskii Pisatel' Publ., 1937. 549 p. (In Russ.)

11. Lavrenev, B.A. “Mir v steklyshke” [“The World in a Piece of Glass”]. Proletarii: Khudozhestvenno-literaturnyi al'manakh, book 2, 1928, pp. 5–65. (In Russ.)

12. Leningradki: Vospominaniia. Ocherki. Dokumenty [Leningradki: Memories. Essays. Documents], comp. by Vinogradova, S.F., Giljarova, E.A., Razumova, M.Ja. Leningrad, Lenizdat Publ., 1968. 415 p. (In Russ.)

13. Nekrasov, N.A. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem: v 15 t. [Complete Works and Letters: in 15 vols.]. Leningrad, St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 1981–2000. (In Russ.)

14. Nekrasov, N.A. Izbrannye stikhi [Selected Poems], ed., introd. and comm. by V. Evgeniev-Maksimov. Leningrad, Molodaia Gvardiia Publ., 1935. 403 p. (In Russ.)

15. Nekrasov, N.A. Polnoe sobranie stikhotvorenii: v 3 t. [The Complete Collection of Poems: in 3 vols.]. Leningrad, Sovetskii Pisatel' Publ., 1967. (In Russ.)

16. Spirin, L.M., editor, Gogolevskij, A.V., Stepanov, Z.V., compilers. Oktiabriu navstrechu: vospominaniia uchastnikov revoliutsionnogo dvizheniia v Petrograde v marte-sentiabre 1917 g. [Towards October Revolution: Memoirs of the Revolutionary Movement’s Participants in Petrograd in March-September 1917]. Leningrad, Lenizdat Publ., 1987. 398 p. (In Russ.)

17. Petrograd v dni Velikogo Oktiabria: Vospominaniia uchastnikov revoliutsionnykh sobytii v Petrograde v 1917 g. [Petrograd in the Days of the Great October Revolution: Memoirs of Members of the Revolutionary Events in Petrograd in 1917]. Leningrad, Lenizdat Publ., 1967. 550 p. (In Russ.)

18. Potemkin, V.K. “Konstantin Ivanovich Kochergin (1901–1996) zamestitel' i glavnyi tsenzor Leningrada v 1932–1936 gg.” [“Konstantin Ivanovich Kochergin (1901–1996) — Vice- and Chief Censor of Leningrad in 1932–1936”]. Istoriia knigi i tsenzury v Rossii. Tret'i Bliumovskie chteniia [History of Books and Censorship in Russia. The Third Blium Readings]. St. Petersburg, LGU im. A.S. Pushkina Publ., 2015, pp. 222–248. (In Russ.)

19. Reifman, P.S. Tsenzura v dorevoliutsionnoi, sovetskoi i postsovetskoi Rossii [Censorship in pre-Revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet Russia], in 2 vols. Moscow, Probel-2000, 2015– (In Russ.)

20. Tsenzura v Sovetskom Soiuze, 1917–1991. Dokumenty [Censorship in the Soviet Union, 1917–1991. Documents], comp. by Blium, A.V., comm. by Volovnikov, V.G. Moscow, ROSSPEN Publ., 2004. 575 p. (In Russ.)

21. Chukovskii, K. Masterstvo Nekrasova [Nekrasov's Mastery]. Moscow, Goslitizdat Publ., 1952. 644 p. (In Russ.)

22. Chukovskii, K. “Nekrasov N.A.” [“Nekrasov N.A.”]. Nekrasov, N. Stikhotvoreniia [Poems]. Moscow, Leningrad, Detizdat Publ., 1936, pp. 3–39. (In Russ.)

23. Chukovskii, K. Nekrasov: stat'i i materialy [Nekrasov: Articles and Materials]. Leningrad, Kubuch Publ., 1926. 394 p. (In Russ.)

24. Chukovskii, K. Rasskazy o Nekrasove [Stories about Nekrasov]. Moscow, Federatsiia Publ., 1930. 315 p. (In Russ.)

25. Chukovskii, K.I. Sobranie sochinenii: v 15 t. [Collected Works: in 15 vols.]. Moscow, Terra — Knizhnyi klub Publ., 2001–2009. (In Russ.)

26. Sherr, Barri P. “‘Dve dushi’ — M. Gor'kii i K. Chukovskii” [“‘Two Souls’ — M. Gorky and K. Chukovsky”]. Gor'kii, Shmelev, Teffi i drugie. Iubileinyi sbornik k vos'midesiatiletiiu Lidii Alekseevny Spiridonovoi [Gorky, Shmelev, Teffy and others. Jubilee Collection for the Eightieth Anniversary of Lidia Alekseevna Spiridonova]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2015, pp. 13–28. (In Russ.)

27. Iarmolich, F.K. Tsenzura na Severo-Zapade SSSR. 1922–1964 gg. [Censorship in the North-West of the USSR. 1922–1964: PhD Thesis]. St. Petersburg, 2010. 209 p. (In Russ.)

28. Fainsod, Merle. “Censorship in the USSR — A Documented Record.” Problems of Communism, vol. V, no. 2, March –April, 1956, pp. 12–19. (In English)