1990 Reports

Famine in Time of Feast: Soviet Literary Publishing Under Glasnost

Nepomnyashchy, Catharine Theimer

In recent years glasnost has served up a virtual feast for Soviet readers starved for decades of easy access to interesting and quality reading matter. Every month, even every week, new “hot items” capture the attention of the reading public as previously suppressed literary works flow into periodicals and out of publishing houses. The volume and speed at which works by previously unpublished emigré, foreign, and dissonant Soviet writers have been appearing in print has radically transformed the reading habits of a significant segment of the Soviet readership.