Censorship

Eastern Europe has been provocatively defined as ‘that part of the world where serious literature and those who produce it have traditionally been overvalued’ (Baruch Wachtel Remaining Relevant after Communism (2006)). This situation arose because of the particular modes of production and circulation of texts brought about by strict censorship and routine state interference in literary matters. This chapter illustrates how this shaped a model of the Russian writer as ‘conscience of the nation’ and opponent of tyranny. It then traces what happens to this model of authorship in the post-Soviet era in the face of different forms of censorship. Despite there no longer being official pre-publication censorship, legislation that limits freedom of expression has created the pervasive phenomenon of ‘self-censorship’ or ‘censorship readiness’ among authors and other agents in the literary field.