Representation problems of authorial writing strategies in the almanac “The Ural Contemporary”

   The artistic consciousness of the Soviet socialist realism era implied addressing the topics of building a “bright future”. The literary and artistic almanac “The Ural Contemporary” was published within the framework of this consciousness from 1938 to 1957. The publication was issued as a printed edition of the Sverdlovsk branch of the Union of Soviet Writers. Authors, wishing to be published in “The Ural Contemporary”, were supposed to take into account both current ideological and socio-political demands and the goals of the almanac. The writers’ own attitudes often did not coincide with the requirements put forward by the editors and censorship. Based on the experience of “The Ural Contemporary” and archival documents, the article explores the authors’ attempts to preserve originality in the conditions of ideological limitations and narrow thematic focus. According to our assumptions, the editors, along with embedded in the system collections of cliched texts that did not captivate the reader, published the works that aroused public interest in order to demonstrate the literary possibilities of the region, to represent the diversity of genres, to show a variety of authors and to assemble thematic issues. Writers who disagreed with the requirements, imposed on their texts, did not participate in the creation of “The Ural Contemporary”. Among the successfully published authors were such well-known writers of the Urals as Pavel P. Bazhov, as well as some cultural figures, evacuated during the Great Patriotic War. Their authorial strategies were fully implemented. When it was possible to meet all the specified conditions, the almanac created a literary ground for the demonstration of local writers’ texts, laying the foundation for the further development of Ural literature.

1. Zhuravleva, N. S. (2015). Konflikty sredi sverdlovskikh pisatelei v 1930-e gody [Conflicts among Sverdlovsk Writers in the 1930^текст]. Vestnik IuUrGU, No 2, t. 15, pp. 22–26. (In Russian)

2. Tsentr dokumentatsii obshchestvennykh organizatsii Sverdlovskoy oblasti [Documentation Center of Public Organizations of the Sverdlovsk Region]. F. 304. Op. 1. D. 1. L. 95–97, 114–118, 134–138. (In Russian)

3. Tsentr dokumentatsii obshchestvennykh organizatsiy Sverdlovskoy oblasti [Documentation Center of Public Organizations of the Sverdlovsk Region]. F. 304. Op. 1. D. 2. L. 55–57, 95–99, 139–144. (In Russian)

4. Ob"yedinennyy muzey pisateley Urala [United Museum of Writers of the Urals]. F. 32. Op. 1. D. 25. L. 1–4. KP–5611. (In Russian)

5. Tsentr dokumentatsii obshchestvennykh organizatsiy Sverdlovskoy oblasti [Documentation Center of Public Organizations of the Sverdlovsk Region]. F. 304. Op. 1. D. 5. L. 1–4, 27–41, 42–54, 55–58, 94–99, 100–109. (In Russian)

6. Tsentr dokumentatsii obshchestvennykh organizatsiy Sverdlovskoy oblasti [Documentation Center of Public Organizations of the Sverdlovsk Region]. F. 304. Op. 1. D. 4. L. 180–188, 238–240, 259–271. (In Russian)

7. Karavaeva, A., Kataev, V., Korneichuk, A., Tolstoi, A., Fadeev, A. (1938). O nedostatkakh v rabote Soiuza pisatelei [About the Shortcomings in the Work of the Writers’ Union]. Pravda, No. 25 (7350), p. 4. (In Russian)

8. Ural'skii sovremennik 3 (1940) [The Ural Contemporary 3]. 227 p. Sverdlovsk, Sverdlgiz. (In Russian)

9. Ural'skii sovremennik 2 (25) (1953) [The Ural Contemporary 2 (25)]. 256 p. Sverdlovsk, Sverdlovskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo. (In Russian)

10. Ob"yedinennyy muzey pisateley Urala [United Museum of Writers of the Urals]. F. 31. Op. 1. D. b/p. L. 1–2. KP–8183/32, KP–8183/35. (In Russian)

11. Gosudarstvennyy arkhiv Sverdlovskoy oblasti [The State Archive of the Sverdlovsk Region]. F. r. 1615. Op. 1. D. 54. L. 97–102. (In Russian)

12. Gosudarstvennyy arkhiv Sverdlovskoy oblasti [The State Archive of the Sverdlovsk Region]. F. r. 1615. Op. 1. D. 50. L. 96–112. (In Russian)

13. Tsentr dokumentatsii obshchestvennykh organizatsiy Sverdlovskoy oblasti [Documentation Center of Public Organizations of the Sverdlovsk Region]. F. 304. Op. 1. D. 3. L. 40–89. (In Russian)

14. Litovskaia, M. A., Nekrasova, Iu. S. (2021). “Ne uznal by praded gorod svoi”: obraz Ekaterinburga / Sverdlovska v literature Urala vtoroi poloviny 1940-kh gg. [“My Great-Grandfather Would Not Have Recognized His City”: The Image of Ekaterinburg / Sverdlovsk in the Literature of the Urals in the Second Half of the 1940^s]. Ural'skii istoricheskii vestnik, No. 1 (70), pp. 97–104. (In Russian)

15. Ural'skii sovremennik 6 [The Ural Contemporary 6]. (1942). 181 p. Sverdlovsk, Sverdlgiz. (In Russian)

16. Ural'skii sovremennik 7 [The Ural Contemporary 7]. (1943). 199 p. Sverdlovsk, Sverdlgiz. (In Russian)

17. Nekrasova, Iu. S. (2021). Figura P. P. Bazhova kak redaktora al'manakha “Ural'skii sovremennik” v poslednie gody zhizni avtora [The Figure of P. P. Bazhov as the Editor of the Almanac “The Ural Contemporary” in the Last Years of the Author’s Life]. Vestnik SVFU, No. 4 (84), pp. 67–77. (In Russian)

18. Pavel Petrovich Bazhov: bibliogr. ukaz. (1913–2010) [Pavel Petrovich Bazhov: Bibliographic Index (1913–2010)]. (2011). 606 p. Ekaterinburg, Izdatel'stvo Ural`skogo universiteta. (In Russian)

19. Riabinin, B. S. (1988). K. Rozhdestvenskaia – pisatel' i redaktor : Biograficheskii ocherk [K. Rozhdestvenskaya: A Writer and an Editor : A Biographical Sketch]. 166 p. Perm, Knizhnoe izdatel'stvo. (In Russian)

20. Klark, K. (2002). Sovetskii roman: istoriia kak ritual [The Soviet Novel: History as a Ritual]. 261 p. Ekaterinburg, Izdatel'stvo Ural. un-ta. (In Russian)

21. Luk'ianin, V. P. (2018). “Ural”: zhurnal i sud'by [“The Ural”: A Magazine and Destinies]. 600 p. Ekaterinburg, Kabinetnyi uchenyi. (In Russian)