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Report on the International Liaison Office for Proletarian Literature

Lunacharsky's report "On the International Communications Bureau of Proletarian Literature" took place on January 9, 1925, at the evening meeting of the First All-Union Conference of Proletarian Writers, which took place from January 6 to 11, 1925 in Moscow, at the Press House. The report is published according to an uncorrected transcript (TsGALI, f. 1698, op. 1, item 882, fol. 2-11). Missing words are inserted in angle brackets, the most significant corrections are specified under the line.

Publication by L. K. Shvetsova

Comrades, my report will be very brief and will consist mainly of reminding some people and reading to others, maybe for the first time, some essential documents concerning our organization. I have no intention of defending the necessity of this organization and pointing out its goals, because from what has been said in general, in particular in my report and in other reports, 1 it is quite clear how important organization is for us in this matter, in the matter of proletarian literature, and the importance of proletarian literature itself, and the importance of being organized in our ranks, escapes no one. If this is true of the literature of a particular nationality, then it is true of the literature of our Union and of the International. Therefore, attempts to found something like Littern2 —not as something separate and closed in relation to the Comintern, but as an auxiliary organization—such attempts had already been made long ago at the Third Congress; and at the Fourth Congress a conspiracy with our foreign comrades on the subject of an international organization of proletarian writers came to a head. 3At the Fourteenth Congress of the Comintern, representatives of fourteen different countries held a conference, outlined some work, wanted to organize themselves, but thought about it a little too late. The meetings came to an end, the audience dispersed and left behind some unformed grain, which, of course, could not work officially and work systematically. Yet it did not sit idly by. It tried to bind the writers of all languages ​​available here; many evenings were organized dedicated to the literature of the different languages ​​of our Union and separately to the literature of the various peoples of Europe. So, some work—to be sure, preparatory work, mainly within the framework of Moscow—was carried out in this way, but almost all the literature of the Union and even of Europe is represented in Moscow in one way or another. To the V Congress 4it was decided to advance this matter to such an official birth and recognition. An international group of writers under the Comintern and the WAPP set about arranging the conference and successfully expressed in their address to the delegates of the Comintern the fundamental principle of the organization they had decided to implement. Although everyone knows this appeal, I will still read it because it is a historical document concerning the birth of our society, and because it clearly sets out all the main goals:

To the delegates of the Fifth Congress of the Communist International.

Dear comrades! The strengthening of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the USSR under the NEP is accompanied by incessant attempts by the bourgeois ideological envelopment of the proletariat. In countries where the bourgeoisie is still in power, the main prerequisite for winning the dictatorship of the proletariat is the liberation of the working masses from the grip of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois prejudices. Here and there the ideological arming of the proletariat is one of the most important tasks. One of the strongest types of ideological weapons is art, in particular fiction.

To use the word of art to educate the revolutionary will of the working class and proletarian youth—such is the imperious command of the revolution.

Here it should be remembered that our great teacher Vladimir Ilyich valued the artistic word very highly and attached great importance to it. And in this we need to follow his precepts.

Back in the 1940s, Marx addressed the German workers with prophetic words: “You must survive 15-20-50 years of civil and international wars, not only in order to change relations, but also in order to change yourself and make yourself capable of political domination. five

Separate steps towards the creation of proletarian art, the art of the working class have been made and are being made in all major countries, but all these attempts are so far scattered, dispersed, carried out without a single ideological line, often outside the leadership of the Communist Party and the Comintern.

This dispersion must be eliminated. The construction of literature, the construction of the art of the working class, the conversion of art to the service of the cause of the proletarian revolution must proceed not as the activity of isolated initiators separated from each other, but as an organized proletarian social movement. Communist parties cannot be indifferent to questions of art. In one of the resolutions of the Thirteenth Congress of the RCP(b) there is an extensive paragraph that speaks of the policy of the RCP(b) in fiction. 6This fact alone is a clear indicator of the serious force that fiction is growing into. It is the direct duty of all the parties of the Comintern to closely monitor the activities of proletarian literary associations, to help them free themselves from the harmful influences of the decadent, individualistic, mystical, reactionary art of the resurgent bourgeoisie, and to help strengthen them organizationally.

In the USSR, the unification of the forces of proletarian literature was achieved through the creation of a centralized, ideologically and creatively united All-Union Association of Proletarian Writers. The international group of proletarian writers that arose with its participation and acted in contact with it sets itself the goal of uniting and rallying the artistic forces of the proletariat on an international scale. Outlining concrete forms of this association and the practical establishment of international relations is the task of the near future.

We call upon all comrades who share these propositions to contact us in order to realize an international association of proletarian literature. International group of proletarian writers and poets in Moscow: Heinz Kagan - Germany, Peluso - Spain, Effert - Union of Latvian proletarian writers "Darbdena", 7 Sigismunds Valaitis, Vatsius Zhalionis - Union of Lithuanian proletarian poets, 8 Al. Z alik - Romania, Lacoste - France. Secretary of the Sotnik group.

Board of the All-Union Association of Proletarian Writers (VAPP): A. Bezymensky, Il. Vardin, G. Lelevich, Yu. Libedinsky, I. Modzalevsky, S. Rodov, A. Sokolov, I. Filippchenko

All-Russian Proletkult: 9 V. Pletnev

Bureau of National Minorities at the Moscow Association of Proletarian Writers (MAPL): Belarus and Ukraine - L. Rodzevich. Caucasian nationalities - D. Akopov; Mongolian-Turkic - M. Maksudov; Finno-Ugric - I. Vekshin; Siberian - Nikiforov

Moscow, 1924, VI

Quite a large number of comrades responded to this appeal, so that 35 people participated in the conference during* the Comintern. 10There were Russian poets and writers, Germans, French, Italians, Romanians, Letts, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Yakuts, Tatars, and one Negro from the French colonies. Various working circles were presented. Some of the comrades, who for various reasons could not take part in the conference, asked that materials be sent to them, expressed their sympathy, etc. literature in the USSR, finally, Comrade Rodov's report on organizational tasks. It was decided at this meeting to organize a liaison office for proletarian literature under the Comintern, to which comrades Bukharin, Serafimovich, Demyan Bedny, Lunacharsky, personally from the Board of the VAPP Bezymensky and others, from France, Lacoste were elected; representatives from Italy were elected, England and other countries. Lunacharsky was elected chairman, and Valaitis was elected secretary. At this time, I was not there. All this was produced by other bureau comrades. All this work and the conference left them with the tasks that they had outlined and expressed to a large extent in the resolution, which is a historical document of great importance:

* The transcript omits the word: congress .

The meeting of delegates to the Fifth Congress of the Comintern, together with the international group of proletarian writers in Moscow and representatives of the Board of the All-Union Association of Proletarian Writers, recognizes that fiction, as a powerful tool for influencing the psyche and consciousness of the masses, plays an important role in the liberation struggle of the working class. This tool can be used rationally by the working class only if the literary and artistic forces of the proletariat are united on an international scale. First of all, it is necessary to strive to create united Associations of proletarian writers in all countries (i.e., writers who organize the feelings and thoughts of readers in the direction of communism with their works), just as the proletarian writers of the USSR are united in a centralized Association. Absolute freedom of creative quest, steady participation by one's creativity in the liberation struggle of the proletariat—these are the main slogans of this association. Drawing in all the proletarians who are joining in poetic creativity, and developing these grassroots creative forces—this is the organizational principle and task. We should strive to turn these associations into centers of attraction for all writers who sympathize with the struggle for communism. In order to unite the preparatory work for the creation of such associations and to prepare for the creation of the International of Proletarian Literature, the conference allocates the Bureau of International Relations of Proletarian Literature, which first of all instructs: 1) to establish regular contacts with proletarian and revolutionary word artists and literary associations of all countries; 2) to provide mutual information and collect exhaustive material on the situation of proletarian and revolutionary literature in all countries; 3) to coordinate work on the creation of associations of proletarian writers in different countries; 4) organize the business of translating works of international proletarian literature into different languages; 5) based on the artistic and ideological platform and the organizational charter of the All-Union Association of Proletarian Writers and taking into account the specifics of each country, develop a draft platform and charter for the international association of proletarian literature; 6) to prepare the convocation of the founding congress of the International of Proletarian Literature.

Signatures: Rodov - VAPP, Sigismund Valaitis - Lithuania, V. Zhalionis - Lithuania, Heinz Kagan - Germany, G. Lelevich - VAPP, Raskolnikov - Russia, Gadzinsky - Ukrainian SSR, Vekshin, Khandrov, Sotnik - International Group of Proletarian Writers, Lacoste - France , Lunion - French colony <in Africa> (three signatures illegible).

This was the resolution that served as the basis for our further work. The Bureau included 25 comrades, and the Bureau has met several times since then. It has its own secretariat (and not a presidium, as we did not call it), which includes several comrades, quite active, who have devoted their work to the fulfillment of the tasks that appear in the resolution I read.

First of all, we wanted to regulate our relations with various large organizations that have a direct bearing on us. First, with the RCP as such. To do this, we entered the Orgburo of the RCP(b) with a special report on our existence and goals. But so far we have not achieved any official registration, because the Orgburo told us that since we exist under the Comintern, we can continue to exist on the same principles and do not need the approval of the party. But it did not refuse to enter into closer relations with us and receive more detailed reports on our activities, not to mention more detailed information. So far, our relations with the RCP(b) have been established on this. In the future we intend to contact our Party more closely. Then - relations with the government of the "Soviet" Union. We also wanted to enter into a certain organic relationship with him, mainly for financial reasons. The fact is that, as you understand, we are extremely poor, as proletarian writers should be, and we had no money even for the simplest stationery expenses. We now live on 2½ chervonets, which I, taking advantage of my position as People's Commissar of National Education, appropriated for our organization, taking it from the fund to support young talents, since I expected that we are both very young and very talented people with you and therefore we have full right to such support. But, unfortunately, this money only pays, it seems to me, the cost of ink for comrade Valaitis.<…> Then, despite the scarcity of funds that we suffer, but with unconditional sympathy from all sides, we set about implementing certain tasks which we have set, and first of all, the task of strengthening our ties with writers from other countries. We have done quite a lot in this direction. We printed and widely distributed an appeal to all proletarian writers,11 where we outlined our main approach to this matter and invited them to communicate with us. We have received a number of open letters. Further, I have already mentioned that we attach special importance to ties with worker correspondents. We are especially careful to establish contact with the workers' correspondents, seeing them as future proletarian poets and novelists.12 Then we compiled a list of works by Union writers that we recommend for translation. Partly it will be possible to translate here, partly we are asked * that we give some preference for translation into a foreign language and placement in various organs of our communist press <our foreign comrades>. This list is a very good thing. But the Comintern demanded of us that we supply them with works adapted to real European life. This is very difficult to do.** For example, they say - give us suitable fiction that could play a certain positive role in certain campaigns, for example, for Germany. It is very difficult - from here to give something on time and in such a way that this work, being placed in a newspaper, would have a favorable effect in the sense of the election process - it is very difficult. In general, to show such a lively response to the needs of another country is perhaps achievable, but here you need special knowledge and understanding of the conditions of another country, etc. So it is unlikely that this kind of mutual assistance can be widely organized here, at least in the future In the process of work, care will have to be taken to ensure a rich exchange of literary works between different countries. To this end, we have conceived a number of collections. The collection, which includes works of our literature, should be published by various publishing houses with which we enter into relations in foreign languages, and thus <it> would be distributed as widely as possible. On the other hand, collections of their works translated into Russian. For example, a collection of works of German literature is already being prepared for publication. Gosizdat went for it very broadly, he said that he would be happy to publish collections of our proletarian writers and, in general, any publications that we need, he promises to publish. Of course, we also need another type of collection, for example, a collection that would characterize in a "series" of critical articles the present state of our proletarian literature, which is necessary both for our internal and foreign acquaintance. So a number of literary works are planned. Some of the articles have already been written, but there is no such collection in finished form, with the exception of the collection about Anatole France. When A. France died, special attention was devoted to him, because we believe that this is a very interesting figure of a defector, extremely important, from the capitalist world to us.13 Three reports were made at the evening dedicated to his death, which we decided to publish separately collection, which will probably be out of print in a few days.14

* The transcript is erroneous: they request

** There is a mistake in the transcript: to know

In addition, we took an active part in those literary and political phenomena that have taken place in recent times. We sent special letters to the German comrades, in particular Comrade. Myuzamu, who is valuable to us and who, we hope, will be able to be useful, although he is not affiliated with our current, is certainly not the kind of person we call fellow travelers. This is a comrade, brother in political role and suffering. Thus, we think that the private ties we have already established with individuals and organizations in Western Europe will grow stronger, and we therefore believe that next year we will definitely come to the tasks of organizing Littern.

We do not see any, so to speak, delicate problems on our way. The question of attitudes towards European fellow travelers (I, by the way, treat it in an article that will appear in a few days 15 ) is treated in exactly the same way - with minor changes - as with us, and no longer raises any doubts. We believe that in Europe it is especially important for us to rely on purely proletarian communist organizations, without them we will in no way be able to control the intellectual fraternity that exists there. Some seemingly delicate questions have recently arisen about our own foreigners, that is, foreigners in relation to the republics of the other countries of the Union. 16It seems to me that "there is" a certain misunderstanding and dissatisfaction that allegedly, when organizing this Bureau, we did not take sufficient account of the conditions for the development of proletarian literature in other countries of the Union. Such dissatisfaction is based on a misunderstanding, because we have no idea how to narrow this organization in any way. This is so alien to our ideology, our intentions, that any approach from this side is clearly absurd, but it is simply necessary that comrades from other countries of our Union, from the autonomous republics of our Federation, from the provinces show more activity. Nothing can be done - somewhere there must be a center. And, of course, Moscow will be the center, like the Profintern, like the Comintern, for a long time to come, you won’t get anywhere from here, and all that is required is that we strengthen the greatest possible connection, possibly more organically acted in this respect both within the Union and outside the Union. It seems to me that there are no problems here, except perhaps occasional misunderstandings that have arisen among individual comrades. If I mentioned this, it is only because some letters have reached me where such misunderstandings show up.

That's what I can say specifically about our Bureau, nothing more can be added, I consider the business side exhausted. But I would like to add a few more words on one particular case. Here I see as a participant in our meeting the proletarian poet Hakobyan, the people's poet of Armenia, whose works, the first in time, as major works of a proletarian poet in our Union, should be noted as having great value in themselves. I invite all comrades to honor comrade. Hakobyan with applause.

( Applause .)

At the same conference, Lunacharsky made a long report on the political situation and the tasks of proletarian literature. The full (uncorrected) transcript of the report is stored in the Archive of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The edited part of the report entitled " Ways of Proletarian Literature " was published in the Zvezda magazine, 1925, No. 1 (7) and in the collection of articles "Proletariat and Literature", L., Gosizdat, 1925. Included in the 2nd volume of Sobr. op. Lunacharsky. I. Bardin and S. Kanatchikov were speakers at the conference on the question of the ideological front and mass literature. A co-report on this issue was made by A. Voronsky. S. Rodov made a report of the board of the UAPP.

The idea of ​​founding the Litintern, an association of proletarian writers on a worldwide scale, arose in 1921 at the Third Congress of the Communist International, as Lunacharsky points out in his report. But this idea had no real basis, since proletarian literature in most foreign countries was at that time very weak or did not exist at all. Bela Illes said in 1928 in the information report of the International Bureau of Revolutionary Literature at the First Congress of the All-Union Association of Proletarian Writers:

“The first period of the bureau's existence, from 1923 to 1926, was a time of vain efforts, as the target setting was wrong. If you read today the program outlined six years ago, you will be amazed at the naivety of the founders of this bureau. They set themselves the goal of nothing more than to establish a literary international from the Napostovites of all countries. It can be said with certainty that at that time there were no Napostists in any of the capitalist countries <...> The Organization was on the wrong track ”(“ Bulletin of Foreign Literature ”, 1928, No. 6, p. 121).


The III Congress of the Comintern was held from June 22 to August 12, 1921 in Moscow. The IV Congress of the Comintern took place in Moscow at the end of 1922 (from November 5 to December 5).
The 5th Congress of the Comintern was held from June 17 to July 8, 1924 in Moscow.
K. Marx and F. Engels. Works, vol. 8. M.-L., ed. 2nd, 1957, p. 431.
The XIII Congress of the RCP(b), held on May 23-31, 1924, adopted, among others, the resolution "On the Press". Paragraph 19 of this resolution stated: “The main work of the Party in the field of fiction should be guided by the creativity of workers and peasants who become workers and peasant writers in the process of cultural upsurge of the broad masses of the Soviet Union. Worker correspondents and rural correspondents should be considered as reserves from which new worker and peasant writers will be promoted...

At the same time, it is necessary to continue the ongoing systematic support for the most gifted of the so-called fellow travelers, brought up by school, comradely work together with the communists <...>

Considering that no literary trend, school or group can and should not act on behalf of the party, the congress emphasizes the need to resolve the issue of literary criticism and to provide the fullest possible coverage of samples of fiction by the party in the pages of the Soviet party press ”(sb.“ On Party and Soviet Press”, Moscow, Pravda, 1954, pp. 310-311).


The Union, or rather the group of Latvian proletarian writers “Darbdena”, was created in August 1921. In November of the same year, the First All-Russian Conference of Latvian Proletarian Writers was convened, which decided to create a Latvian section under the VAPP and elected a bureau of the section. The Darbdena group spoke at the conference against the formation of an all-Russian center. In 1923, due to the dispersed nature of the writers' cadres and the difficulty of establishing a publishing business, the bureau declared the Latvian section dissolved and recommended the Latvian writers to join the Russian organization (VAPP). The Darbden group joined the MAPP in its entirety, retaining its association and continuing its group policy. The meeting of the Latvian proletarian writers of Moscow, held in 1924, deprived the Darbden group of the rights of the Latvian section of the MAPP and included unorganized writers in the section.

Union of Lithuanian Proletarian Writers and Poets Y. Yanonis began its activities in 1920, but finally took shape on January 7, 1921. As a department of the UAPP, the Union initially maintained contact with the "Forge". In 1923, the Union adopted the platform of the Oktyabr group and became the Lithuanian department of the national section of the MAPP.

All-Russian Proletcult is the abbreviated name of the All-Russian Council of Proletcults, created at the 1st Conference of Proletcults in September 1917.
A meeting of a group of foreign proletarian writers and writers of the USSR with delegates from the Fifth Congress of the Comintern took place on July 10, 1924 (see about it on page 13 of this volume).

For the appeal "To the Proletarian and Revolutionary Writers of All Countries", see pp. 13-14 of the present. volumes.

The party, condemning the circle isolation that took place in the proletarian literary organizations, oriented them towards strengthening ties with the rabkor movement. (See the resolution of the XIII Congress of the RCP(b) "On the press".)

In connection with the death of A. Frans, a number of articles about him appeared in the Soviet press: A. Lunacharsky (“Pravda”, 1924, No. 234, October 14), P. Kogan (“Izvestia”, 1924, No. 235, October 14), G. Lelevich (“October”, 1924, No. 3), I. Luppol (collection “Militant Materialist”, book 1. M., 1924, pp. 81-105).
This collection has not been published. In 1925, a book about A. France with articles by Lunacharsky and Lelevich was published in the Ogonyok library.
Lunacharsky's article "Fellow Travelers in Europe" was originally published in 1925 in several January issues of the Izvestia newspaper (No. 9, January 11; No. 15, January 18; No. 16, January 20). The article was a response to a letter from B. Shaw to the editors of Izvestia, published in this newspaper on December 25, 1924. In this letter, Shaw spoke out in support of the Soviet Union, expressed hope for the conclusion of agreements (trade, etc.) between the USSR and Great Britain and in At the same time, he sharply attacked the Comintern, Marxism as an "outdated" doctrine, allegedly unacceptable in modern conditions. In the article “Companions in Europe”, Lunacharsky spoke about the contradictions in the worldview of such writers as B. Shaw, G. Wells, R. Rolland, and at the same time emphasized that her work ”(quoted from the book: A.V. Lunacharsky. Etudes are critical. M.-L., ZiF, 1925, p. 394).
"Other countries of the Union" Lunacharsky calls the union republics of the USSR