Writers’ society
The USSR writers’ society and its republican branches were established in 1934 after the abolition of all creative unions in the Soviet state. The organization was needed to centralize and control the work of authors, especially those who had previously allowed themselves to write texts that went far beyond the ideology of the Party.
The writers’ society became the center of the literary process in the USSR. It provided material support for writers, various benefits, and the opportunity to be published in state-owned publishing houses, all in exchange for ideological loyalty. Authors who disagreed with the party’s politics were weeded out and thrown out of the society’s infrastructure, rendering them unable to legally continue their creative work.
Ukraine’s modern day National Writers’ Society of Ukraine has largely inherited the apparatus of the Writers’ Society Union of the Ukrainian SSR.