HOWARD FAST’S CORRESPONDENCE WITH SOVIET WRITERS: CONVERSATION ABOUT LITERATURE
Aim. The purpose of the paper is to analyze Howard Fast’s correspondence with Soviet writers and track down the changes of his literary assessments.Methodology. The historical and literary context has been restored based on archival materials. Documents deposited in the funds of the RGALI and other Moscow archives, Soviet and American press, memoirs and autobiographical sources have been carefully examined. Representative examples from Fast’s correspondence with two Soviet writers, namely P. Pavlenko and B. Izakov, demonstrate how literary and ideological policies differed in the Stalinist era (early 1950s) and the thaw period.Results. The analysis showed that Fast’s letters to Soviet writers in which he addressed literary issues serve as an illustration of the radical changes in his aesthetic attitudes that took place when he left the US Communist Party.Research implications. The results contribute to the study of literary contacts between left American writers and the USSR.