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Thelate1980sandearly 1990s saw the end of 60 years of state control over literature as the USSR moved toward its collapse in 1991. The Writers’ Union disintegrated under the impact of the policy of glasnost (openness) established by President Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s. In 1990 official censorship ended and the government proclaimed freedom of the press. This new independence had profound effects on Russian literature. On the positive side, writers were now free to write as they pleased and about what they pleased without fear of reprimand or prison. They now had open access to foreign literatures and the possibility of publishing their writings abroad. Works of writers who had been previously banned, such as Nabokov and Solzhenitsyn, reappeared in large editions.
Buttherewerealsonegative repercussions to the new freedom: The end of the dominance of the Writers’ Union also meant the end of lucrative publishing contracts and privileges for writers willing to publish within the limits set by the government. The loss of state subsidies for literary magazines and publishing houses, coupled with skyrocketing publishing costs, led to sharp price increases for books and magazines and a correspondingly sharp drop in sales and circulation. By the mid-1990s most of the established magazines had begun to adjust to the new realities of the marketplace. This often meant catering to the demand for lowbrow and middlebrow literature, a demand to which the Soviet regime had paid little attention. While an enormously broad range of books became available to readers, much of this variety consisted of translations of foreign detective novels, romances, and sensational literature. At the same time, however, new publishing houses and quality literary magazines appeared.
Somenewwritersappeared on the Russian scene and dealt frankly with controversial issues. The stories and novels of Oleg Ermakov present a grim picture of the brutalities of the Afghan war of the 1980s. Liudmila Petrushevskaia wrote of the pains and moral dilemmas of daily life among urban intellectuals. The relatively small output of Tatyana Tolstaya showcased her rich use of language and sympathy for the misfits of society. Viktor Erofeev made perhaps the most striking efforts to expand the limits of literature. His complex and controversial novel Russkaia krasavitsa (1990; Russian Beauty, 1992) blends stark realism with bizarre fantasy and, in its open defiance of literary taboos, presents a case for creative freedom.
Russianliteraturethrough almost all of its existence lived under some degree of state control and censorship. Despite this, it managed not only to survive but also to produce masterpieces of prose, poetry, and drama. How literature would thrive under the radical changes in political, social, and economic conditions near the end of the 20th century remained to be seen. Many promising new writers had begun to make their mark on literature. As conditions in Russia stabilize, readers can look forward to the development of these new talents and, perhaps, to a Golden Age yet to come.
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