Lenin and problems of literature / Vladimir Shcherbina

This text includes bibliographical footnotes throughout the chapters.

I. Lenin and the destinies of culture -- II. Literature and reality in Lenin's view -- III. The principle of partisanship in literature -- IV. Lenin on problems of artistry -- V. Lenin and problems in the history of literature -- VI. Lev Tolstoi, artist and thinker -- VII. V.I. Lenin and Maxim Gorky -- VIII. Lenin and the development of soviet literature.

"This book by Vladimir Shcherbina, a leading Soviet literary critic and corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, is a study of the literary process with reference to Lenin's stated views and judgements. The author has attempted and exhaustive treatment of the subject, presenting all the wealth and depth of Lenin's aesthetic views and showing their relevance today. The questions discussed range from the most general problems of 20th century progress in the arts and the role of Lenin's theory of reflection in aesthetic apprehension of reality to the analysis of particular aspects of Russian Soviet literature. Classic examples of Lenin's scientific criticism such as his writings on Herzen, Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Tolstoi and Gorky are cited. Contemporary foreign aesthetic ideas and literary phenomena are also discussed in the light of Lenin's teachings." -- From the book jacket.

From the library of Roscoe and Oletta Proctor.

Translated from Russian into English.