“Emigrant” and “soviet” literature as covered by Georgy Cherkasov (G. Gazdanov) on Radio Liberty

Abstract

The paper considers G. Gazdanov’s journalistic and editorial work for Radio Liberty from 1953 to 1971 In this period, the distinctive literary-centrism of the writer’s creative personality was manifested in several cultural and educational programs (“In the World of Books”, “On Books and Authors”, “Round Table Talks”, “Before the Curtain”, “Diary of a Writer”), reviews (“Review of cultural life”, “Review of thick magazines”), and “special programs” related to literature. Using the pseudonym Georgy Cherkasov, Gazdanov talks about culture with his friends and professional colleagues: poets, prose writers, critics of the first Russian emigration, orders “scripts” and organizes the writer’s radio performances, and creates his own series of radio monologues. Apparently, he becomes a certain personified authority for Soviet listeners, shaping for them the images of Russian émigré literature, the European literature of the twentieth century and, finally, Soviet literature as seen from within a Western world. Currently available recordings of G. Cherkasov’s radio speeches were studied and his business correspondence with G. Adamovich, R. Gulym, Y. Ivask, L. Rzhevsky, Gen. myakov (Andreev), and other writers of the Russian emigration were analyzed. Gazdanov’s assessments and views on the literature of the Russian emigration and the literature created in the metropolis were collected, systematized, and examined. Despite Gazdanov’s desire to maintain parity between culture and politics, his journalistic, propagandistic, and culturist activities were found to be biased by objective and subjective factors, manifested primarily in a superficial, often tendentious, and intolerant attitude toward all the literary works bearing the stamp of Soviet life and influence.