356
MAX HAYWARD
was vying with his colleagues for ·the popular support which
would accrue to the one who would first reveal the scope and
nature of their late master's misdeeds) for its timely intercession
and its determination never to permit such things to happen
again. Significantly this play was never attacked during the
"freeze-up" of 1954, and it was the first in a genre which should
be approached with caution. In the years since Stalin's death the
Party has undoubtedly been indulging
in
what might be called
'.'literary zubatovism"6 as one of its more intelligent efforts to
combat opposition without recourse to brutal repression. By al–
lowing certain writers to outbid genuine protest (it is noteworthy
that their '.'revelations" are always more "sensational" than those
of. genuine oppositionists who are naturally more cautious) it
is
evidently hoped that the true writers of the "thaw" may be
thereby disarmed and their effect on Soviet readers neutralized.
Another patently "zubatovist" work is Galina Nikolayeva's
Battle
on the Way
with its interesting description of Stalin's funeral.
The reaction against the first phase of "thaw" literature
came during 1954. Simonov attacked Ehrenburg's novel. Pomer–
ahtsev's article ·and Zorin's play were officially condemned in a
statement from the Ministry of Culture, and Tvardovsky (as
well as Feodor Panferov, the editor of another literary monthly
Oktyabr)
were dismissed from their posts following a public de–
nunciation by Surkov. On the face of it,
this
looked like a total
reversal to Stalinist methods, but in fact it was not. There was no
general campaign of intimidation and no gross interference by
the Party, which was now already committed to the creation of
a somewhat better public image for itself in the eyes of both
Russia and the West. There was much to live down and a repeti-
6, Zubatov was a Czarist police official in the early years of the century
who with the connivance of his superiors set up trade unions which at·
; ·' tempted, with some success, to canalize the workers' revolutionary ener·
. ;,.gies into the comparatively innocuous struggle for economic improve–
. .ment. It was difficult to tell
in
the case of many people associated ·with
this unprecedented experiment in "police socialism" who was genuine
and who was not.
