Astrakhan Writers and the CPSU Regional Committee: The “Personal Case” of Nikolay Polivin (1964 – 1966)

The historical documentary essay narrates about three years of life and literary activities of writer Nikolay G. Polivin (1925 – 2007). Born in the city of Astrakhan and surrounded by the dignified beauty of the Lower Volga, he was a talented poet, the author of several books published during Khrushchev’s “thaw”. In 1957 he was admitted to the USSR Union of Writers. In 1961–1963 Nikolay Polivin took an active part in establishing the Astrakhan Writers’ Organization and was elected its first executive secretary, that is, its first elected leader. The executive secretary’s duties comprised a big amount of organizational and purely bureaucratic work, particularly, numerous financial and logistical issues, as the writers’ organization was funded from the budget of the Astrakhan Region. This sort of work took a lot of his time and efforts. He had to tackle many problems independently, some of them being resolved in his own interest. Finally, in 1965 the Astrakhan CPSU Regional Committee qualified his actions as “violation of party ethic”. As a result, Nikolay Polivin was strictly reprimanded by the Communist party organization of the editorial board of the “The Volga” regional newspaper where he was registered as a party member. This was followed by his dismissal in 1966 from the elected post of executive secretary of the Writers’ organization. This case is one of the many episodes of the “persuasion and education” of Soviet writers that the CPSU practiced in the post-Stalin era.