What is ASPI? In 2020, the five largest writers' organizations - the Union of Writers of Russia, the Union of Russian Writers, the Union of Writers of Moscow, the Union of Writers of St. Petersburg and the Russian Book Union - created the Association of Unions of Writers and Publishers of Russia. It was headed by a famous writer, editor magazine "Yunost" Sergei Shargunov (you may know him, for example, as the host of the "Open Book" program on the channel "Culture").

The Creative Council of ASPI includes Evgeny Vodolazkin, Dmitry Vodennikov, Tatyana Tolstaya, Pavel Basinsky, Sergey Lukyanenko and many other well-known writers.

What does the ASPI do?The main task of the ASPI is to support the current domestic literature. And this is a huge field of activity. literary workshops throughout the country, helps libraries, sends writers on business trips around Russia and opens literary residences nations in different regions: 42 writers become residents every month. And ASPI is also working to ensure that we can read the best books of the peoples of Russia: it translates and publishes modern national literature.

Where is ASPI located? The ASPI residence is one of the most amazing houses on Povarskaya. This city estate began to be built in the middle of the 28th century. In the 19th century, many Russian celebrities visited the house (princes Dolgorukovs, then Barons Bode). Leo Tolstoy has been here more than once. According to his secretary, Tolstoy admitted to the owner of the house, Baron Bode, that it was his house that became the prototype of the Rostov house in War and Peace.

After the revolution, the Cheka, the People's Commissariat for Nationalities and, finally, the famous Palace of Arts (before 1921).

Ariadna Efron, writer, artist, daughter of Marina Tsvetaeva: “This house is a friend of my childhood, the only one of my friends that has kept its external features unchanged; then, as now, the old mansion with a portico of columns was a charming example of so lyrical in its austerity "Moscow" classicism, now, as then, it embraces and frames the front yard "Palace" with winged semicircles of its outbuildings, open to all literary movements, the trends and winds of that time - with the dissonance of its evenings and discussions, young Soviet arts coexisted with old pre-revolutionary ones - it was always noisy and crowded in the "Palace of Arts", and anniversaries, and debates, and poetic evenings - of something and someone only there were no striking satin drawing rooms, under the shadow of marble Psyche!"

Later, the Higher Literary and Art Institute ("Bryusov Institute") and various writers' organizations worked here. Here, in the Writers' Club, civic memorial services were held for Mayakovsky and Bulgakov. And for almost six decades, the board of the Union of Writers of the USSR met in the Rostov House.