Max Bremener’s Novella "Let It Not Match the Answer!" (1956) and the Program of Education and Literature Renewal at the Beginning of the Thaw

Abstract

Based on extensive archival research, the article analyzes the forgotten work of the mid-1950s, a novella by Max Bremener, Let it Not Match the Answer! Published in the most exciting moment of the “Thaw” era (November 1956), this novella can be considered as a reflection of and response to the earlier (1953-1954) discussions on the problem of “deception and truth” in children’s literature. Bremener radically transformed the very genre of the “school novella”, although he did not succeed in his search for the appropriate literary form, which could have encompassed harsh social critique of the Soviet school system as an institution in crisis. Nevertheless, the novella provides us with very interesting material for evaluating the current crisis in Russian education.

Keywords: The Thaw period, Max Bremener, Lydiia Chukovskaya, school novella, social critique, moral renewal