Interpretation of the works and views of the poet Vilis Plūdons in the Late Stalinist Period

Abstract

This article examines the attitude of the late Stalinist Latvian literary space towards the publication and interpretation of the works of the poet Vilis Plūdons. Plūdons was not one of those authors who fully conformed to the Soviet literary canon. Even though in the early 20th century, the poet was fascinated by socialist ideas, his conviction in these ideas is not completely clear. In addition, doubts were also raised by his patriotic poems written during the period of the independent republic of Latvia. However, some of his works were powerful enough to be successfully used for propaganda, as they heralded the revolution of 1905, which stemmed from public dissatisfaction with social conditions. To understand the ideological positions of that time and the certain primitivism in which literary works were explained, a brief insight into the Soviet cultural policy of that time is also provided, which demanded that literature be a socially valid phenomenon, and not just art for art’s sake. In the main part of the article, attention is focused on an analysis of Plūdons’ personality and literary works published during that particular period. The article uses periodical materials which were an important propaganda channel at that time.