Controversies
Controversies tied to this brand in public sources. A listing is not a finding of fault.
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1973
Criticism of VAAP as a cultural-control mechanism
Critics viewed VAAP’s exclusive control over foreign licensing as a way to monitor and restrict tamizdat, or the publication of Soviet works abroad. Its standard contractual control over paratextual material further reinforced perceptions that the agency exercised ideological oversight rather than merely administering copyright.
1973
Voynovich’s public satire of VAAP
Vladimir Voynovich’s October 1 open letter proposed the mocking name VAPAP, suggesting that VAAP appropriated authors’ rights. After the letter was published abroad, Voynovich’s case was examined by the Moscow Writers’ Organization and he was expelled from the Writers’ Union.