The Polish book and Polish authors in Soviet party documents, 1954–1971

Abstract

State Archive of Contemporary History (Российский государственный архив новейшей истории – RGANI), and encompassed the declassifi ed materials from the fond of the Soviet Communist Party. The materials demonstrate that the Kremlin monitored closely issues concerning the book in Poland during the whole period in question. Moscow was predominantly interested in the Polish writers and their literary production from the point of view of its divergences with the communist ideological paradigm, and the way Russia and the Soviet Union were presented to the Polish public. Apart from that the Soviet authorities analysed and evaluated the Polish publishing sector. Efforts were undertaken to infl uence the publication of Polish books in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet literary output in Poland. To this end bilateral and multilateral agreements were negotiated and signed, during periodically conducted meetings of publishing officials from the Eastern Bloc.