The Astrakhan Section of the RSFSR Union of Writers and the editorial boards of regional newspapers at the «Thaw» termination period. A divergence of views on the «Communist education of people». Part first

Abstract

The article considers the interaction of the Astrakhan Section of the RSFSR Union of Writers with the editorial boards of the two Astrakhan regional newspapers, the «Volga» and the «Komsomolets Kaspiya», in 1963–1965. The research focuses on the «official» as well as on the personal relationships between the writers and journalists of the two editorial boards. The archival documents reveal that during the transition from the «Khrushchev Thaw» to the «Brezhnev Frosts» in Astrakhan, there was an increase in mutual «misunderstanding» between writers and journalists. The main cause of that «misunderstanding» became a disagreement over the publication of the writers’ literary works in the two newspapers. The editorial boards expected the writers to supply vivid, interesting journalistic essays about the «communist construction» and the «people of labor», which needed to be printed to activate ideological work among the population. The journalists, as the «fighters of the ideological front», believed that «ideology» was more important than «literature» on the pages of newspapers. But the writers, for their part, insisted on publishing their poetry and prose in the newspapers, believing that fiction was no less important for «communist education» than journalism.