THE SOVIET LITERARY PURGE
Thus, a Ukrainian History of Literature issued by the Ukrainian
Academy (authors: Maslov and Kiriliuk) is criticized as follows:
a)
It describes Ukrainian literature as unconnected with the class
struggle.
b)
It considers the national factor as decisive.
c)
It ignores the positive influence of Russian literature on
Ukrainian.
d)
It does not mention the Ukrainian-Russian literary ties and
exaggerates the influence of Western European literature.
The first point is not really important, since "historical ma–
terialism" as a method was given up in the Soviet Union many years
ago. How can one explain the deviations of the Ukrainians? They
misunderstood the patriotic line of the last fifteen years, believing
themselves to possess the same rights as the Great Russians. They
should have known that, although patriotism and nationalism do
exist, there is only one kind: the licensed Soviet (Great-Russian)
patriotism. It should also
be
taken into account that during the war,
to counteract the German propaganda machine, the Ukrainian na–
tionalists were given more freedom. Now that this danger no longer
exists, we witness a return to cultural centralism.
Similar reproaches have been made against many other Ukrain–
ian writers and poets, as well as representatives of other Soviet peo–
ples. The criticism was invariably the same: non-Russian nationalism,
stress on the hostility (and not friendship) between these peoples and
the Great Russians in the past. Some Uzbeks, Tatars, etc. (Shukurov,
Kassimov, Tadjibayev) were also accused of having glorified princes
and khans. In this connection it
will
be recalled that during the past
few years, dozens of novels, plays, and poems were published about
Ivan IV, Peter l-and nobody dared say a word against their glori–
fication.
The only book by a Great Russian author which suffered the
same fate was
Brussilov
0
ffensive
by Sergeyev Zensky. It appeared in
1943, was published in huge editions, and was described by the critics
as one of the greatest achievements of Soviet literature. Thus, its con–
demnation. came after a delay of some three years, after Mr. Zensky
had made a few hundred thousand roubles on it. We cannot devote
much space to its contents, but there is no doubt that, even for Soviet
conditions,
it
was more than an average scandal. It justified the very
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