Andreas Saks and the Union of Soviet Writers: At the Crossroads of Literature and Bureaucracy (1920s - 1930-s)

The article studies the initial period of the literary activities of Soviet German writer Andreas Saks (1903 - 1983). The author mainly uses the documents from the State Historical Archives of the Volga Germans. The inhabitant of the Volga Germans Republic, Andreas Saks has gone the path from a peasant to a professional writer and the leader of the Union of the Soviet Writers of the Republic. The major factors of his social mobility were his social background (a worker's son), his service in the Red Army, membership in the Bolshevik party, an active participation as a party activist in the grain campaign, collectivization and the elimination of the kulaks, his self-education and higher partite qualifications, and his work in the editorial staff of the major party newspaper of the Republic. Moreover, his literary gift was used to advantage in his propaganda work. All this allowed Saks to be promoted to "those in charge" of the Republic's state and partite apparatus. His literary growth facilitated his party and state career. The forced combination of creative work and the career of a "responsible employee" amidst cultural and propaganda bureaucracy largely determined Saks' destiny, personality and literary activity, formed his literary and social position.