Soviet editing in the 1970s (On the example of Uladzimer Karatkievich’s Christ Landed in Grodno: The Gospel of Judas)

Abstract

Branches of editing (field of scientific knowledge and a sphere of practical activity) in the 1970s were often in the state of contradiction. On the one hand, freedom of the author’s expression and the editors’ careful attitude to authors’ manuscripts were claimed; on the other hand, publishing saw numerous facts of intervention of ideological party bodies and censorship: without their approval no book could be published. To reveal the degree of intervention into a literary text, the author compares two (1972 and 1980) editions, with preserved typewriting, of the novel Christ Landed in Grodno: The Gospel of Judas by the Belarusian writer Uladzimer Karatkievich. He analyzes the reasons for deleting separate fragments, erasing and replacing words and parts of sentences, and suggests the possible motivation for the editors’ activities. The author pays attention to the novel’s complexity for editorial analysis, to the necessity of reference to the texts of the Holy Bible and different reference materials on religious history when editing. The research revealed numerous corrections. The main reason for deleting separate fragments was the revealing of the author’s position, which was extrapolated on the Soviet society and did not correspond to the formation of Marxist-Leninist ideology with its expressive atheistic orientation. Editors often showed arbitrariness and leveled the author’s style, destroyed the author’s intention, and groundlessly replaced words and expressions uncomfortable for them. The author found differences in the editions of 1972 and 1980. They testify to the lack of the editors’ professionalism. The author mentions the fact that Karatkievich’s novel became a phenomenon in the Belarusian literature of the second half of the 20th century, and it was only in 2015 that the original text of the novel was published in the Republic of Belarus. The research proves that all the writer’s heritage published in Soviet times needs a rigorous study, including comparison of manuscripts and typescripts (if available), and the publishing of the heritage in the author’s edition. This will entail the need for new translations which will acquaint foreign readers with Karatkievich’s original texts.