International Union of Revolutionary Writers

an organization of proletarian and revolutionary writers throughout the world. It was founded in 1925 as the International Bureau of Revolutionary Literature (IBRL). The first conference of the IBRL, held in Moscow in 1927, adopted a political program and founded the journal Vestnik inostrannoi literatury (Journal of Foreign Literature) in Russian. Membership was open to any writer who opposed fascism, imperialist war, and White terrorism.

The second conference of revolutionary writers, held in Kharkov in 1930, reorganized the IBRL into the International Union of Revolutionary Writers (IURW). In 1931 and 1932 the union published the journal Literatura mirovoi revoliutsii (Literature of the World Revolution) in Russian, German, French, and English. The work of the IURW was conducted through national sections and groups, and among its prominent members were L. Aragon, J. Becher, T. Dreiser, H. Barbusse, and B. Brecht. In 1935 the IURW was replaced by other international organizations of progressive writers, such as the International Congress of Writers in Defense of Culture (Paris, 1935). The archives of the IURW are preserved in the M. Gorky Institute of World Literature in Moscow.