Novy Mir editor who opened the Thaw and national poet of Vasili Tyorkin
Solzhenitsyn's obituary: 'There are many ways of killing a poet. The method chosen for Tvardovsky was to take away his offspring, his passion, his journal. Six months later, he took to his death-bed.'
Poet whose wartime Vasili Tyorkin made him a national voice. As Novy Mir editor, he published Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a defining act of the Thaw, before being forced out under Brezhnev and dying soon after.
Career Timeline
- 1931Published first narrative poem The Road to Socialism
- 1936Published The Land of Muravia; Stalin Prize 2nd class (1941)
- 1939–1940Served as war correspondent during Winter War; conceived Vasili Tyorkin
- 1942–1945Vasili Tyorkin serialized; Stalin Prize 1st class (1946)
- 1950–1954First tenure as Novy Mir editor-in-chief; dismissed over Thaw controversies
- 1958–1970Second tenure at Novy Mir; published Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962)
- 1961Lenin Prize for Distance After Distance; candidate member CC CPSU
- 1970Forced out of Novy Mir; died the following year
Related historical events
- 1939.11–1940.03The Winter Warwar correspondent
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarPoet of Vasili Tyorkin, frontline war correspondentServed as a war correspondent for frontline newspapers of the Southwestern and Western (later 3rd Belorussian) Fronts, serializing Vasili Tyorkin (1942–1945). The poem was adored by frontline soldiers and became a cultural emblem of the war; he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War 1st and 2nd class for his service.
Novy Mir and the Battle for Thaw Literature
Tvardovsky served two terms as editor-in-chief of Novy Mir (1950–1954, 1958–1970), transforming the journal into the epicenter of Thaw-era Soviet literature. His first dismissal in 1954 was triggered by the publication of reformist criticism by Fyodor Abramov and Vladimir Pomerantsev, capped by his attempt to print the satirical poem Tyorkin in the Other World. Reinstated in 1958 with Khrushchev's backing, Novy Mir became the headquarters of anti-Stalinist literary forces. The 1962 publication of Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, for which Tvardovsky secured Khrushchev's personal approval, was the Thaw's emblematic event.
The journal published major 1960s writers including Vasil Bykov, Yuri Trifonov, Boris Mozhayev, and Yuri Dombrovsky, guided by an editorial philosophy that judged literature by 'the truth of life' rather than ideological conformity. It functioned less as a Party organ than a vehicle of legal opposition. A fierce polemic raged between Novy Mir and the conservative Oktyabr (edited by Vsevolod Kochetov), while the censorship agency Glavlit routinely blocked the most important submissions.
After Khrushchev's fall, pressure intensified. In 1966 Tvardovsky refused to endorse the conviction of writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky; in 1968 he withheld his signature from the open letter supporting the invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1969, the magazine Ogonyok published an open letter from eleven writers attacking Novy Mir, launching a campaign to replace its editorial board. In February 1970, the Party replaced Tvardovsky's deputies with hostile appointees, forcing his resignation and effectively dismantling the editorial staff. Solzhenitsyn later wrote that taking away Tvardovsky's journal, his 'offspring, his passion', was how they killed him.