The Reception of Russian and Soviet Literature in Interwar and Postwar Greece

Abstract

Twentieth-century Greek reception of Russian and Soviet literature was largely shaped by the polarized political conditions historically prevailing in Greece; they can be most effectively examined within the comparative context of Greek-Soviet literary relations. This chapter offers a historical overview of the main stages, aspects and tendencies of the dissemination and reception of Russian and Soviet literature in this context, focusing on the period from its peak (following the October Revolution), to the approximate end of the Greek military junta in the mid-1970s. I also discuss the Greek appropriation of Socialist Realism. In this context, mediation by the exiled Greek Communist Party, which channelled in various ways the transmission of both Russian literature in Greece and Greek literature in the Soviet Union, is significant. Almost wholly monopolized by left-leaning intelligentsia, who promoted official Soviet literature, the Greek canon of twentieth-century Russian prose failed to introduce seminal Russian avant-garde and modernist poetics.