The European Writers’ Community and USSR from the Thaw to Seventies

The article analyzes the activities of the European Writers’ Community (Comunità europea degli scrittori - Comes) in the changing context of Italian-Soviet political relations during the thaw era. This organization existed from 1958 to the early 1970s and was created with the aim of improving communication between writers in Western Europe and in the countries of the Eastern Bloc. The organization consisted of more than 2,000 members from nearly thirty countries, including such famous writers as Jean Paul Sartre, Giuseppe Ungaretti and William Golding. However, the creators (above all G.B. Angioletti) and members of the administrative center of Comes were mostly Italians. We analyze the internal documents of the organization and the correspondence of Comes General Secretary Giancarlo Vigorelli with the official representatives of the Soviet Union of Writers and take into consideration the main activities of the Community: international meetings of writers with the participation of Soviet delegations; negotiations on the creation of a common European space for the observance of copyright; human rights activities to help authors who suffered from political reprisals.

Keywords: Comes, European writers, Soviet cultural relationships, dissent in USSR, Giancarlo Vigorelli, L’Europa letteraria

Marco Sabbatini, Evgeniya Litvin, La Comunità europea degli scrittori e l’Urss dal disgelo agli anni Settanta in "MONDO CONTEMPORANEO" 2-3/2020, pp 45-63, DOI: 10.3280/MON2020-002003