At the Threshold of Stagnation: Reflections on Soviet Reality of the Late 1960s in the Novels of Alberts Bels

The aim of this paper is to provide a contextual insight in the story of two novels written by Alberts Bels in the late 1960s: Izmeklētājs (The Investigator) published in 1966, and Bezmiegs (Insomnia), which was written in 1967 but denied publication by Latvian SSR officials. Analysis of the situation in the Latvian SSR at the time in question allows us to understand the reception of Bels’s published novel by the literary critics of that time, as well as the conditions that prevented the publication of his second novel. Instead of providing a textual analysis of the novels’ poetic and stylistic qualities, my intention is to look at these literary texts as indicators of the cultural and political situation of that period.