Meaning of "Literator"

[Natasha Kurchanova]

Dear Seelangs' Members:

I am a Ph.D. candidate at CUNY working on my dissertation on Osip Brik -- a
critic, writer, editor, and Maiakovsky's friend.  In connection with my
work on one chapter, I need your help in figuring out history of the word
"literator," which he used to describe his activity in the late 1920s.  In
Dal's dictionary (1914 edition), a separate entry for the word is absent,
instead there is one for "litera," an archaism for "bukva".  "Literator" is
a subentry of "litera" and given three meanings: "slovesnik, pisatel',
sochinitel'," two of which are also archaisms. In the dictionary of the
Soviet Academy of Sciences (1957 edition), "literator" is given a separate
entry and defined as "a person who is engaged in literary work, writer, or
a publicist."  As example of its usage, the Academy of Sciences dictionary
provides quotes from Lenin and Gorky, who both call themselves
"literators".  My question is:  was the word rarely used before the
revolution and then became popular after 1917, when its connotation of
current, politically oriented writing became more acceptable?

Sincerely,

Natasha Kurchanova
324 West 83d Street
New York, New York 10024

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