The Red Pencil

Artists, Scholars, and Censors in the USSR

Marianna Tax Choldin, Maurice Friedberg

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781032868547
• eBook ISBN: 9781040184837
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Russian History
• Index: History

The Red Pencil (1989) examines the many ways in which Soviet censorship interfered in the creative process – in the words of those who experienced it first hand. It helps to identify the ways in which Soviet artistic and intellectual production was shaped by the practices of Soviet censorship. The book goes beyond the simple recounting of banned books and taboo subjects to examine the more subtle issue of how Soviet writers attempted to strike a balance between accommodating the demands of government censorship while retaining for themselves a modicum of unfettered expression and intellectual integrity. Most of the contributing authors were active as writers, critics, editors, film and theatre specialists, or scientists prior to their departure from the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• Introduction
• 1: Soviet Culture of the Mid-1980s: A New Thaw?Alexander Gershkovich
• Part I: Soviet Censorship
• Part II: The Scientist’s Laboratory
• Part III: Literature and Intellectual Life
• Part IV: The Mass Media
• Annotated Bibliography
• Appendix: Conference Participants
• Index