Thought Censorship under Totalitarianism: A Precarious Relationship between Thought and Voice in Mandelstam

Abstract

"The purpose of this paper...is to explore the nature of thought and non-thought vis-à-vis language through the life and works of Osip Mandelstam in his confrontation with Soviet mind control and in relation to the psychologist/linguist Lev Vygotsky....Mandelstam was one of the victims of the interrogation of Liubianka during the Great Terror...for his composing a satirical poem referring to Stalin..."