Réforme et culture

Abstract

Reform and Culture, by Yves Hamant The new cultural policy constitutes an essential element of Gorbachev's perestroika and it began to be implemented after the XXVIIth Party Congress of February-March 1986. Administration of the cultural sector has been put into new hands. New bodies have been created. Many previously banned works are being published, writers who died in disgrâce are being rehabilited, works of a critical nature dealing with realities of Soviet life both past and présent are appearing. However, résistance to this renewal of cultural life does exist and in spite of having encouraged it, the Soviet leadership also defines its limits. Freedom for spontaneous cultural creativity is in no way envisagea, and the mechanisms for ideological control remain. The feeling is also widerspread in intellectual circles that the new climate is precarious.