Delo "Metropolja"

Maria Zalambani presents the transcript of the meeting of the Secretariat of the Moscow section of the Union of the Writers, held on January 22, 1979, in which they formulated and adopted the policy to be used against the authors of the literary almanac, “Metropol.” This transcript, which is being published here for the first time in Russia, was taken down by the hand of one of the editors of the almanac, the writer Evgenij Popov. In her presentation of Popov’s transcript, M. Zalambani gives a brief history of the materials which have been published about the “Metropol’” affair in post-soviet time. Situated against this background, the importance of this document becomes all the more evident. The ‘Metropol’ affair shows that the changes which were taking place in the system of Soviet censorship during the time of “stagnation” were only superficial, and that the Soviet structure, in spite of its attempts to reorganise, preserved, in its essence, an archaic character. Finally, this transcript provides an example of the discourse practices adopted by the Soviet system in order to bring the society into submission, and make it docile.