Soviet Literature - Glasnost’

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.2.00: Post-1917 Writing and Culture in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, 1917-present.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Domains

Movements, styles and periods (literature)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1986-1991

Places

Russia (Location)

Resources

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Glasnost’

, a word with the original meaning of “giving

voice

to” (Old Church Slavonic

glas

, modern Russian

golos

), was the name given to the policy of cultural and journalistic “openness” – by implication, at least, the freedom to publish, to criticise and to expose past failings – introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev into the Soviet Union sooon after his 1985 assumption of power. It thus signified the gradual (though rather rapidly gradual) breaking of taboos.

The period from 1982 to 1985, following the death of Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev, saw the brief leadership interregna of Andropov and Chernenko. These years saw the last throes of the “period of stagnation”. With the accession to the Party General Secretaryship (in fact the leadership) of Gorbachev, there

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1393 words

Citation: Cornwell, Neil. "Soviet Literature - Glasnost’". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 September 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1592, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Soviet Literature - Glasnost’

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