St. Petersburg PEN
Member organization
St. Petersburg PEN unites writers, poets, publishers, and journalists.
Being founded in the early 1990’s as one of the branches of the Russian PEN centre, St. Petersburg PEN – according to current Russian legislation, – was registered as a separate legal entity. From the very beginning this situation defined the dual position of our organization: on the one hand, we – during all these years – had to co-operate with the Russian PEN center (at that time – our associates), on the other, we conducted independent cultural and human rights activities, regardless of the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN center.
The situation changed radically in 2014. It happened due to a number of circumstances: but first of all because of the fact, that the leadership of the Russian PEN-centre has passed into the hands of people whose political views we do not share.
The events took openly conflicted character at the end of 2016 – after the General meeting of the Russian PEN center, organized and conducted with obvious violations of Russian legislation and the officially registered Constitution. This led to the final split. About eighty very well-known Russian writers, poets, publishers and translators have left the Russian PEN center. Later on they established a new center - PEN-Moscow, with which St. Petersburg PEN works in close cooperation.
In 2018, we established direct connection with PEN International to continue our human rights activities in the status of an independent regional organization and on an equal footing with other PEN centers all over the world.
Currently, St. Petersburg PEN unites about sixty writers, poets, publishers and journalists.