Komunistiskās partijas kontroles mehānisms Latvijas Padomju rakstnieku savienībā: Žaņa Grīvas piemērs

Abstract

It was in the interests of the Communist Party to create a representative image of Latvian Soviet writers, which would represent the interests of the party and at the same time oversee the course of literary life in the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union. Such was the writer Žanis Grīva in the Latvian Soviet literary process. The influential positions in the Soviet nomenclature gave him power in the creative environment and created opportunities to monitor the implementation of the Communist Party’s course. The article aims to put forward the personality of Žanis Grīva in the context of the research of the Latvian soviet literary process and the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union, proposing several issues to be further researched and developed in the future. The article is based on the documents of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union and the Communist Party local organization of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union, and the personal file of Žanis Grīva in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia, and documents of the Žanis Grīva collection that are available at the Latvian State Archive of the National Archives of Latvia, as well as Žanis Grīva’s personal documents regarding his life and professional activities that are available at the Aleksejs Apinis Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room at the National Library of Latvia. Memories of contemporaries were also investigated. It is concluded that the role of Žanis Grīva in the Latvian soviet literary process and the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union is political and purposefully constructed by the Communist Party, and has little to do with literature and literary talents. It can be assumed that Žanis Grīva has negatively affected the creative activity of some members of the Writers’ Union, such as Gunārs Priede.