The Soviet Union As an Empire by Fiction

Abstract

Since the First All-Union Congress of Soviet writers held in 1934, Socialist Realism had been officially considered the basis for Soviet literature and literary criticism. After the World War II its mission extended to the periphery of the Eastern bloc. Analyzing the aims of official propaganda through novels, one can consider the Soviet Union an “Empire by fiction”, to paraphrase Geir Lundestad’s fortunate title (who calls the United States an “Empire by Invitation”). To enhance unity inside the communist camp, writers often resorted to the perception of the enemy. Fearful and phantasmagorical, he is surrounded by an inspiring universe that unleashes the imagination of people. Then Yugoslav President Josip Tito became the case in question. “The Yugoslav Tragedy” (1951) came out three years after the Stalin-Tito split. Due to the acerbic condemnation of the “traitor” in the novel, together with a number of articles published in newspapers, Orest Maltsev, a stalwart of Socialist Realism, was awarded the Stalin Prize. Following Michel Foucault’s bi-functional nature of power, I argue that in Maltsev’s description of the Yugoslav enemy, not only does the Soviet regime punish guilty behavior, but it also legitimizes itself by enhancing Soviet prestige at war (the indisputable winner vs. the shameful resistance fighters) and so reinforces Soviet values. This paper offers a new perspective on those founding principles in the early Cold War era and explains how fiction was used as the main tool of imperial soft power.