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Abstract:

The paper examines the most acute disputes that arose during the war in the Union of Soviet Writers (SSP). As a rule, individual works became the subject of discussion, but their discussion contributed to the identification of new aesthetic phenomena in Soviet poetry. The main material is the transcripts of meetings and plenums held in the SSP, as well as published documents of the highest party bodies in charge of literature and periodicals. The controversies reveal the most important acquisition of military poetry — its lyricism, the affirmation of a unique, often confessional voice in poetry. The boundaries of such confessions, in particular the inclusion of bodily experience in the sphere of image, became the subjects of controversy. The complexity of applying the category of the typical to poetry is shown, which sometimes became a kind of limiter of creative freedom. During the second period of the war, there was a return to stricter management of literature. A number of speeches by the leaders of the Writers’ Union reflect the emerging directives. It is noted that the reports at the plenum of the SSP were designed to stop many trends that arose in poetry during the war years. Nevertheless, the provisions of these reports were also debated.

Keywords: the Great Patriotic War, the Union of Soviet Writers, military poetry, lyrics, discussion, criticism, ideology.