◆ SpookStack

The George Washingtons, Thomas Jefe is and Abraham | colng who struggled for justice and frecdom in Nincteenth ¢ tury Russia were not statesmen but writers. This traditi interest in literature has been increased and reinforced by phenomenal rise in literacy rates achieved by the Soviet emph on universal education. Another reason is that the rangi reading matter available to Russians in their bookshops is narrower than the range available in most non-Commu countries in the West. The authoritarian control of all publ ing by the Soviet state gives the Russian reader no chance be tempted by crime comics, magazines of movie gossip or s sensationalism. (It also gives him no chance nowadays to cb the works of a number of distinguished Russian writers of period just before and just after the Revolution.) If the Rus: wants to read anything at all, his choice is limited virtual}, political books, technical books, carefully selected classic: Russian and foreign literatures and Soviet works written in officially recommended spirit of optimistic idealism whicl called “socialist realism.” The popularity of the Ninetee Century Russian classics requires no particularly ingen explanation; they are simply great literature. The popula of foreign literature, however, seems to be due not only to Russians’ robust appetite for culture but also to the fact they have so long been cut off from most normal contacts ' the rest of the world. Translations from foreign literatures virtuatly their only first-hand contact with the thought of outside world. Reading Choice Restricted ‘ This paternalistic control of literature by the Soviet thorities would be insufferable to most Western readers, whc accustomed to deciding for themselves what literature they sider good and what literature bad. Nevertheless, it will be i: esting to see what finally comes of this state-enforced lite tutelage in the Soviet Union. Today, thanks to his narrow r of choice in reading matter, to his isolation from the ou world and perhaps also to the rather drab reality of his life, the average Russian—especially in the cities—read: more and far better books than the average American or 1% ern European. We saw taxi drivers reading Dreiser and I Zola, discussed Pushkin’s and Lermontov’s poetry with a miner on a Volga excursion boat, saw ordinary people in tr busses reading Leo Tolstoy (and others uncritically devo: Jack London!), and lstened to a pretty airline stewardes 6s