Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 29, 1970, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press. Thursday january 29, 1970 soviet writers Are dissenting drops in a conformist Ocean in the following article Martin Newry who has just returned from a visit to the soviet Union describes the soviet writers unhappy. Condition in Lenin s Centen tary year by Martin Newry London special the guar Dian almost daily news filters out of the soviet Union about the Brave gestures of people like Pavel Litvinov Krasnov leptin am Alrik. And Solzhenitsyn. It is inevitable and right that their acts and words should be reported in a free press and there is some evidence that the soviet govern ment is sensitive to Western criticism of the treatment it accords to protesting writers and other intellectuals. Judging by the amount of coverage they receive however it is perhaps too easy to gain the impression that if the views of the oppositional intelligentsia constitute a statistical Sample which can be validly projected on to the attitudes of the soviet population As a whole then almost the entire country must be in a state of fermenting discontent close to insurrection. To see the writers situation in the . Clearly and realistically it is important not to run away with any such idea. To begin with thanks to censorship and propaganda the great majority of soviet people know far less than we do about the opposition movement of intellectuals in their midst. Nor is there anything so coherent that can be called a move in the blurred shifting spectrum of anti regime opinion there Are almost As Many shades of View As there Are individuals such groupings As exist Are no More than coteries lacking in the political will or 1 know How to bring about any of the changes or reforms they May advocate. They also Lack support outside the intelligentsia for it is a fact of which the intellectuals them selves Are Only too bitterly aware that the soviet masses i whatever their various Discon i tents Are either inert or easily manipulated into hostility to i wards views critical of the established order. Like a wafer thin slice of meat Between two enormous i doorsteps of stale bread the i tiny minority of critical thinkers in soviet society is almost rating modified i Hollywood a after 15 months of what the film Industry Calls Gratifying Suc its voluntary program of rating movies is being modified. Jack Valenti president of the motion picture association of America said tuesday one change was made because a Survey had shown considerable confusion Over them rating meant a film was recommended for mature audiences Only. So that category is being dropped in favor of this Means All Ages May View the movie but that parental guid Ance or discretion is advised. Here is the new set of stand Ards Ages admitted. Ages admitted but parental discretion recommended. Under 17 must be accompanied by a Parent or Legal guardian. One under 18 admitted. Obliterated by the twin pres sures of conformist passivity from below and repression from above. That it does not result in total resignation and despair is a tribute to the courage and sense of moral responsibility which have characterized rus i Sian writers in their resistance to successive forms of tyranny j for nearly two centuries. Inevitably however it does produce a sense of isolation even of alienation in those writers and other members of the literary world who on principle Are unwilling or unable to give in to the pressures from above requiring them to write or publish entirely to order. Life for these people can be intolerable and As one sign of this the incidence of alcoholism even among writers who manage to toe the party line is very High. There Are of course pressures of a different sort on writers in the non communist world too where it is also not unknown for intellectuals to resort to the bottle when the strains mount up. But there Are such qualitative differences be tween the open ended societies of the West with their multiplicity of options and the Claustro phobic no exit either or world created by soviet communism that the creative writer and thinker in that world is faced with decisions of a quite Dif Ferent existential order. The Choice of alternatives is drastically More limited and extreme and in a sense whichever Choice is made is wrong to conform sooner or later Means creative sterility to opt for Independence Means to be repressed and gagged possibly to suffer direct mental and physical violence. Some try a third Way walking the knife Edge Between these two while the fourth is to leave the country. For those who stay and try to keep their artistic integrity there Are still certain Safe outlets for Talent provided the writer is capable of adapting to them. Jim can turn to writing children s books preferably for i an age group where fantasy does not yet have to give Way to ideology. He can write about the past or if he knows foreign languages he can translate so i much Talent in fact goes into this Field that the Standard of literary translation into russian and the other languages of the . Is extraordinarily High. At the moment since 1970 is the Centenary year of Lenin s birth the demand imposed on All publishing houses is for works of All kinds celebrating the founder of the soviet state. So much of the available paper has been earmarked for Jubilee congratulations to _ m. Hurtic the Hurtis of Vaughan Street Jack that there is precious Little Chance of getting anything else published for the next i year and this even affects translators who normally find it relatively easy to keep up a i steady output because Publica i Tion of most foreign fiction has i been stopped to accommodate 1 the vast official programme. As a result although there will be a bumper crop of unreadable works of Lenino Latry 1970 is unlikely to be a Vintage year for soviet Litera Ture. With Luck though and some skilful manoeuvring by publishers and editors there Are a few things which May enliven the scene. The Veteran Kaveri has completed a new novel though it still await an Roval. And there is a possibility that one of the last remaining unpublished works by Bible Azov. A powerful Short Story about drug addiction May see the Light during the year. Dombrovsky author of the i recently translated keeper of antiquities has just published a most unusual Short novel about Shakespeare which could be of particular interest to English readers. Dyomin. Who wrote seven in one House is also working on a novel As yet u n t i 11 e d novy Mir has announced its forthcoming publication but at present it is unwise to predict the appear Ance of anything in novy Mir until the Issue is actually on Sale. Where poetry is concerned people Are whether Yevtushenko will end us by obliging with something of epic proportions for Lenin s Cente Narv. from three rather Good recent poems in novy Mir. Voznesensky is still conspicuous by his absence i from print. A much underwater 1 poet of an older generation is Yarkovsky whose retrospective volume entitled Mestnik the Herald is now enjoying a quiet Success. 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