Aleksandr Tvardovsky’s Journal “New World” in Memoirs

The article is devoted to the history of the journal “New World” of the second half of the 1950s — the 1960s, and the work of its chief editor A.T. Tvardovsky. It focuses on the second period of Tvardovsky’s editorship, the first part of which fell on the era of “thaw” (1958—1964), the second one — on the era of early “stagnation” (1965—1970). The article assesses the professional qualities of A.T. Tvardovsky as an editor. There are considered his literary preferences, attitude to the editorial work, and the factors that influenced the radical changes in his worldview. The author examines the editorial policy of the journal in the context of political changes in public life. Within the topic, the article shows the impact of various party and state bodies, including censorship, on culture and, in particular, on literature. There is traced the outline of events around “New World” journal, the publication history of the novel “One Day of Ivan Denisovich”, and the relations between A.T. Tvardovsky and A.I. Solzhenitsyn. There is analyzed the controversy surrounding A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s book “The Oak and the Calf”. The article notes the different level of publications’ information content of the “stagnation” and perestroika eras.

The purpose of the study is to determine the place of Tvardovsky’s “New World” in the literary and political struggle of the second half of the 1950s — the 1960s, and the journal’s impact on the worldview formation of the generation of intellectuals, who played a significant role in the restructuring of the 1980s. The article is relevant because the journal “New World” of the second half of the 1950s — the 1960s occupies one of the central places in the history of Russian Soviet literature and journalism. A.T. Tvardovsky’s “New World” was the most consistent conductor of the policy of de-Stalinization in the “thaw” era, and continued the chosen course, despite Brezhnev’s policy of re-Stalinization, thus becoming a legal journal opposing the current government. The novelty of the article lies in the fact that this topic is studied using memoir sources: recollections and diaries of the events’ participants — famous writers, literary critics, members of the Editorial Board and employees of the journal “New World” — as well as A.T. Tvardovsky’s “Workbooks” and “New World Diary”. These sources allow to supplement the known facts and to reconstruct events related to the legendary journal’s history. Conclusions and observations made by the author can be used to further study the history and work of “New World” journal.

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