Graciliano Ramos in the Soviet Union:

Viagem (1954) and the PCB

Abstract

In April 1952, Graciliano Ramos (1892-1953), then a member of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCB), traveled to the Soviet Union to attend May Day celebrations, where he visited schools, factories, and cultural and tourist sites. This experience resulted in Viagem (1954), a posthumous and unfinished work compiling the author’s observations on socialist Eastern Europe. This study is divided into two parts: the first examines four of Ramos’ reflections, three set in Moscow, the Russian capital, and one in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. The second explores the PCB’s reception of the work in three key phases: the attempt to discredit the book, the initial critiques, and, following the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1956), the Brazilian communists’ self-criticism regarding their treatment of Party-affiliated writers.