ИСТИНА

The aim of the paper is to give an idea of the policy and guidelines for translation and publishing of Blackamerican literature in Soviet Russia in 1917-1930-ies, as well as of the basis for establishing / maintaining contacts with African American writers. Ideology always being at the core of the Soviet literary policy, there exists, however, a drastic difference between the revolutionary 1917-1919, the 1920-ies (New Economic Policy) and Stalin’s 1930-ies. The key issues that allow to see the logic of the change are: the choice of the authors and their works for translation and publishing, the bias of literary criticism, the dynamics of Black writers’ literary reputation in the USSR, the activity of Soviet translators, publishers, periodicals “specializing” in African American literature, Soviet and international literary institutions (IURW, writers’ associations and organizations of the 1920-ies, the Soviet Writers’ Union). Special attention is paid to Black visitors (including major figures like Claude MacKay and Langston Hughes) and Black residents of the USSR, their essays, articles and travel-books about Soviet Russia, and the reception of these works in the Soviet Union, as well as to the correspondence between Black writers and Soviet institutions. The study is based mainly on the materials of the Soviet press (including newspapers, literary magazines and journals) of the period in question, as well as archived documents from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts (RGALI), Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF).