Defining a New Culture in a New Republic: The Regulation of Udmurt Culture and Literature in the Early Soviet Union

• In Event: Otherness in Early Soviet Culture: Gender, Ethnicity, Eccentricity

Abstract

During the first few decades of the Soviet Union, writers in Udmurtia sought to (re)define their culture and identities through both a return to folklore and traditions and experimentation with the new trends in art production throughout the rest of the country. However, with time, the accepted subjects and themes of literature narrowed and those who continued to overstep the boundaries faced persecution, arrest, and even death. My paper explores the work of the first female Udmurt poet Alshachi Oki in the tumultuous period of the late 1920s-early 1930s and the ways in which she and her peers were targeted for their work.

Author

• Andrey Ridling, Ohio State U