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Abstract:

The article dwells on the first years of the Writers’ Village in Peredelkino (1936–1938), an exclusive settlement which was established prior to The First Congress of Soviet Writers. In particular the article focuses on the short period of 1937 when the dachas received the status of a cooperative and became the property of the writers. This happened to be the period of refurbishing of the cottages and readjustment of the writers’ community: the moving in coincided with the beginning of bashing, expulsions and arrests. The considerable and long-desired improvement of living conditions led to the development of unusual hobbies with the writers, which would become an attempt to return to the pre-revolutionary dacha life for some, build their own household for other, and an attempt to escape the reality of the Great Purge for each. This alienation, an endeavour to regain control over their lives and creative work, did not pass unnoticed with secret services and the leaders of the Soviet Writers’ Union: Peredelkino is mentioned in classified papers as a place of artistic and personal freedom. In the summer of 1937 arrests of some writers were made. The follow-up annulment of the cooperative put an end to the paradox of the collective estate and contributed to turning the dachas into communal houses. The phenomenon of the writers’ collective living, a sort of a collective estate of the first residents of Peredelkino, is reviewed basing on ego-documents and archival materials about the establishing and annulment of the Cooperative “Pisatel” in Peredelkino.