Paul Goble
Staunton, July 15 – Under the terms of a law that will go into effect as of September 1, writers will be formally recognized as a distinct profession within the Russian legal system. Most observers see it as a positive step that will allow writers to formalize employment relationships and qualify for social benefits, but some see it as a potential tool for bureaucratic control.
Nakanune journalist Elena Rychkova, in reporting on this debate, says that after the Soviet Union collapsed, “writers, composers and other freelancers lost the system of creative unions that had previously provided them with pension contributions and healthcare coverage” (nakanune.ru/articles/124847/).
Most of the professionals who lost such standing in the legal system have already regained it, but writers are only doing so now, she continues. They will now be accruing employment hours and pension contributions, something they have not been able to do since 1992.
But the question arises, Rychkova points out, as to “who will decide whether an author is professionally qualified or not.” Presumably most firms which employ writers, such as publishing houses, will make that determination on their own and so the new law will benefit the writers without limiting their opportunities.
There is, however, “an even more important question,” she suggests. “Might the existence of the standard defining a writer lead to the homogenization of creative work, where meeting formal criteria becomes more significant than artistic merit.” The bureaucrats who will decide who is a writer in legal terms will thus have a powerful and perhaps adverse effect.
That happened in Soviet times when the Writers’ Union expelled those its political masters did not approve of; and that could happen again under this new arrangement. For most writers, however, the new legal arrangement will be a net plus, although as Rychkova’s interlocutors say, abuses of various kinds remain quite possible.
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