WRITERS IN EXILE
355
months before the coup, we see a.fairly clear example of literary
fiction creating a social fiction. And in a very short time, in two
or three months after the ending of political repression, Polish
literature and even the Polish newspapers and universities came
back to Western culture, to the free Wittenberg-or,
to
use
another expression, to the open society. The greatest experience
of Poland was that, under the Yalta pact, without any surcease of
repression, without a change in the political situation, without a
change in its domestic life, in its soul, Poland was free for eight–
een months, and Poland was free wi th the highest hopes. One of
the greatest crimes is the killing of hope. The coup was the kill–
ing of hope.
Let us return, then, to our preliminary question. To whom
are we writing? Who is our audience?
It
seems to me that the
greatest thing for us-writers from the Soviet Union and from
all the countries in which freedom does not exist, in which
human
life is impossible-the greatest thing we can do is to give
this experience to the open society where we are not mute, where
we do not have a deaf audience. But if the West does not listen, if
the West fails to understand this feeling of hope, if the West fails
to understand what the crackdown of liberty really is, then it will
mean the death of the open society!
WILLIAM PHILLIPS: Thank you. Pavel Litvinov is next.
PAVEL LITVINOV: This morning I believe it was my friend
Vassily Aksyonov who told a joke about the leaflets that were dis–
tributed by somebody in Moscow and found by the KGB to be
blank. He was asked why he did this, and he said, "Everybody
knows everything, so you don't need to write anything in leaf–
lets." I wish it were true. Unfortunately, not everybody knows
everything. The longer I live in this country-and I've already
been here eight years-I understand more and more that nothing
can replace information. I believe in Russia people just become
cynical and assume anything and everything, but continue to be
defenseless against those who really know at least something. In
fact, in our century, more than before, I believe, those who have
information have power. I will tell a joke, more relevant in my
opinion, one that has more to do with reality. The joke, which
some people here probably already know, is that once Alexander
the Great and Napoleon were invited to watch the Soviet Army
parade on Red Square. And after they'd watched the parade,
