KONSTANTIN FEDIN. A PORTRAIT OF A PUBLISHER

The paper deals with the little-known aspects of the famous writer K. Fedin’s publishing activities. In the years from 1927 until 1934 he held an uninterrupted record as chairman of the editorial board at the Publishing House of Writers in Leningrad [Izdatelstvo pisateley v Leningrade, IPL], a cooperative that printed works of contemporary authors. Despite dramatic turns in history, the press enjoyed a steady growth in output, expanding its range of authors and genres; the story of the covert struggle between literature and politics is examined by the team of research fellows of the Saratov-based state museum of K. Fedin. With the help of their open archives, particularly letters and journals, they meticulously reconstruct Fedin’s activities as publisher: from the creation of the new publishing house, which united the poputchiks (satellites, fellow-travellers): authors who advocated preservation of the Russian literary tradition, free of ideological pressure, until the moment when Fedin’s much-cherished project was cannibalized by the mammoth publishing institution called The Soviet Writer [Sovetskiy Pisatel].