The Reception of Alejo Carpentiers Works in the USSR in 1960 – 1980s

A lot of famous novels were translated and published the first time in the USSR during the 1960s. That process was highly controlled by the ideologists. The Soviet perception of Alejo Carpentier’s works was motivated by the international relationship between the USSR and Cuba and socialist views of the Cuban writer. It was quite specific, because the disposition of accents was close to the ideas that were considered to be the most important in the postcolonial theory, although the Soviet critics did not have such aim. By highlighting these accents and structuring the Soviet criticism we solve the question of understanding the manner in which the USSR pointed the reader’s view to the necessary direction. Moreover, the books’ content was not changed at all, but all of them were chosen carefully. The result of the analyse of the prefaces, the postfaces and the critical essays is the image of Alejo Carpentier and the complex of his ideas, that the Soviet ideologists wanted to present to the readers as a symbol of the Cuban fight and freedom. Placing the emphasis on the ideological part of Carpentier’s works, the critics leave beyond attention the thing that actually attracted the Soviet reader, the novelty of his poetics. Nevertheless, the object to represent the writer and make the publication of his works possible was perfectly realised by the Soviet critics and the specialists in study of literature.