Abstract

This paper examines the evolution of the Soviet publishing world during the relaxation of Soviet censorship brought about by Perestroika. It focuses on the so-called "returned literature" ("vozvrashchennaia literatura"), or the texts that were previously censored from the Soviet official press that became available during Perestroika. By focusing on the magazine Druzhba Narodov, the paper argues that the restructuring of the Soviet literary canon began with a focus on Russian-language literature, which gradually expanded to include the “Executed Renaissance” — writers from non-Russian Soviet republics who were repressed during the Stalinist era. Starting as an enterprise in the literary history, this process required editors to consciously work with readers’ horizon of expectations, explaining the impact of Soviet policies on the composition of Soviet literary canon. Consequently, readers and editors of the “returned literature” began criticizing Soviet models of cultural production based on state monopoly over printed media and demanding more cultural autonomy for non-Russian republics of the USSR. However, while the editors of Moscow-based periodicals sought to revisit the outcomes of Stalinist nationality policies, they still operated within the existing regime of power relations by publishing repressed writers — most notably Ukrainians — in Russian translations. In the final years of Gorbachev’s rule, however, this editorial work enabled local political activists to reach Union-wide audiences.