The Red Pencil: Artists, Scholars, and Censors in the USSR [Paperback]

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.

1. Soviet Culture of the Mid-1980s: A New Thaw? Alexander Gershkovich? Part 1. Soviet Censorship? 2. Soviet Censorship: A View from the Inside Leonid Vladimirov? 3. Soviet Censorship: A View from the Outside Maurice Friedberg? 4. Censorship Via Translation: Soviet Treatment of Western Political Writing Marianna Tax Choldin. Soviet Censorship: Discussion.? Part 2. The Scientists Laboratory? 5. Coping with the Censor: A Soviet Scientist Remembers Yuri Yarim-Agaev.? The Scientists Laboratory: Discussion.? Part 3. Literature and Intellectual Life? 6. Censoring Artistic Imagination Maurice Friedberg, Vassily Aksyonov, Vladimir Voinovich and Andrei Siniavsky.? Literature and Intellectual Life: Discussion.? Part 4. The Mass Media? 7. Film Censorship in the USSR Valery Golovskoy? 8. Censoring the Journalist Ilya Suslov? 9. Censorship at the Editorial Desk Boris Zaks? 10. Censorship in the Theatre Alel#~