CONCERNING iREVISIONIST ,iEIIEttE iEIX*+ H!N+ H E I 4tHm&HU( Jhfi) 1966+H-ffi ffiE: (4)1oo5o-648 00037 10-E-781P FOREIGN LANGUAGES PEK I NG SOME QUESTIONS CONCER.NING MODERN REVISIONIST LITER.ATURE IN THE SOVIET IJNION FOREIGhI LANGUACES PRESS PEK]:NG 1986 CONTENTS SOME QUESf,IONS CONCERNING MODERN RE|VISION' IST LITERATURE IN THEi SOVIEII UNION By Hsiang Hung and Wei Ning 1 Foreword 1 I. Playing Up the Horrors of War and Opposing Rev- olutionarY War 3 II. Peddling the Philosophy of Survival and Propagat- ing CaPitulationism I ftf. P,mUettishing the Class Enemy and Advocating the Reactionary Theory of "Human Nature" 15 IV. Extotling the United- S;tates and Going A1l Out for Soviet-U.S. Collaboration 22 Brief Conclusion 27 SEiLECTED STATEMENTS BY SEIOLO'KHOV, TIIEI RENE- GADE AUTTIOR. Compiled by Chang Chun 30 THE TRUE FEATURES OF THE RENE,GADE S'HOLOK' HOV By Tsai Hui Printed in the People's Republic of Cfuina r) SOJUE QUESTIONS CONCERNING MODERN IiEVISIONNST I,ITtrRATURE IN TIIE SOVIET UNICIN By Hsiang lTwng and. Wei Ning FOREV['ORD Since its usurpation of the leadership of the Soviet Farty and government, the Khrushchov revisionist clique has pursued the political line of Soviet-U.S. collaboration for world domination in literature and art as in alI other spheres, betrayed Lenin,s principle of party spirit in liter_ ature, and sold out the interests of the revolutionary people of the world, thus writing a most shameful and decadent page in the history of Soviet literature. - Even worse, this clique tries to impose a revisionist literary line on the people of the world. In, defiance of their wishes, it has formulated a revisionist general 1ine consisting in what it cails the development of 20th century ,,the literature, asserting that general line of developmeni jiterature of 20th century is to grasp and enrich the tradi_ tion of critical realism and socialist realism, that is, the tradition of Maxim Gorky, Andersen Nexij, Romain Rol_ land, Theodore Dreis Pablo Neruda and Leon Kruchkowski, Asian dimir Mayakovsky, Vit6zslav Nezval, Mihail Sadoveanu and African people on the one hand and towards U.S. imperialism, and Johannes Becher"'1 the No. 1 enemy of the people of the world, on the other. I. PLAYING UP THE TIORRORS OF WAR AND OPFOSING EEVOLUTIONARY W.{B As Chairman Mao Tse-tung has said, the oppressed U.S. revolutionary struggle. This is a complete exposulre nations and peoples of the world have discovered from of their attitude of hostility and negation towards Asian their common experience and actual struggles that the and African revolutionary literature' Through their imperialists and the reactionaries of various countries "general line of development of 20th century literature"' "a11 have swords in their hands and are out to kil1". In ,rli"n is a hotchpotch of revolutionary, non-revolution- the face of the wats of aggression and armed suppression ary and counter-revolutionaly writers and which makes carried out everywhere by imperialism headed by the no distinction between enemies and friends, they actually United States and by its lackeys, they have come to real- want to peddle the wares of Sho okhov's renegade litera- ize that they have no choice but to rise in resistance if ture under the banner of Gorky's revolutionary literature' they want to win liberation. In particular, the people of They are conducting criminal counter-revol'utionary ac- Asia and Africa today are more and more firmly grasping prating tivities under the banner of socialism' While . the irrefutable truth that "political power grows out of about support for the anti-irnperialist revolutionary strug- the barrel of a gun". One after another, they have taken have busied gle of the people of Asia and Africa, they up arms, using that most effective magic weapon, peo- ihemselves rvith a meeting to commemorate Kipling, a p1e's revolutionary war, to deal with U.S. imperialism colonialist writer in an imperialist country' and its lackeys. and "social- Because it wears the cloak of "revolution" Like U.S. imperialism, the Soviet modern revisionists deceptive than im- ism", Soviet literature today is more who have degenerated into its accornplices are scared to perialist literature. We must strip off its cloak and ana- death by the surging tide it of the armed revolution of the iyse its essence to see whom it benefits and whom people of the world, and especially of Asia and Africa. the liberation h"r*u, and what attitude it adopts towards In addition to ta}<ing "united actions" with U.S. imperial- the world and the struggle of the revolutionary people of ism politically to sabotage the revolutionary struggle of the Asian and African people, they have also used litera- 1"Art Age", in the Soviet magazine Communist' of the Heroic ture and art to spread the fallacy 1964, No. 10. that "even a tiny spark seas . I am the same for all of you" and "my deadliest cause a world conflagration",l and painstakingly can enemy is he who starts a war!" Take Aseyev's Harmony (1963). In this collection there is a poem which is ac- tuaIly entitled "Down with War !" and which reads in part: For the uhole uorld Not ta Lie in ruin, Doun with War! Doun uith tu(ff! Doun with war! With equal frenzy the young poet Rozhdestvensky clam- oured in his Requie'm (1961): "We must shatter war. KilI war! Curse war, people of the Earthl" We hold that there are two major kinds of wars: just, revolutionary wars and unjust, counter-revolutionary wars, and that imperialism headed by the United States is the root cause of all the wars of aggression of our time. We firmly oppose aII kinds of unjust wars rn hich obstruct progress, and especially wars of aggression launched by imperialism headed by the United States. As for just wars, and particularly the revolutionary wars of the peo- 'pie of Asia and Africa or anywhere else for national in- dependence and liberation, not only must we refrain frorl. lN'S.Khrr-rshchov,sreporttotheSessionoftheSupr.emeSo- opposing them but we must firmly support and actively viet of the U.S.S.R., October 1959' participate in them. Revolutionary rvriters must relent- 2 E. Mezhelaitis's long poer-n Mon, 1963' lessIy expcse and denounce all kinds of unjust wars and of poems' 3 Y. Martsinkyavichius, Blood, attd Ashes, a collection must enthusiastically support and praise the just, revolu- 1964. tionary wars of the people. Soviet revisionist writers /, "The Panic of the Century", the Soviet Yozth V. Pavlinov, have done their utmost to magazine, 1965. No. 11' blur the distinction of principie 5R.Rozhdestr,,enskY,"ALettertothe30thCentury",theSoviet between jr-rst, revolutionary wars and unjust, counter- Youth rnagazine, 1963, No. 10. revolutionary wars, they indiscriminately and wildly curse c A. Klein, ,,A Second", Kom,somolskaya Prauda, Seplember 8, all wars and shout "Down with warl" This completely 1963. I I exposes their renegacy in trying hard to cover up the Iiberately portrayed individual happiness as diametrically fact that U.S. imperialism is the arch culprit in launching opposed to that great war against aggression and done wars of aggression and in stubbornly opposing people's their utmost to play up the "cruelty" and "horrors" of revolutionary war. We would like to ask: Do you even that just war, alleging that it brought nothing but "death" want to abolish the revolutionary wars waged by the and "disaster". to millions upon millions of people. oppressed nations and peoples of the world to overthrow Let us first look at Sholokhov's story Fate of u Man the rule of the aggressors and oppressors? You shout (1956). Before the war Sokolov, the hero of the story, "Down with war!" at a time when the people of southern had built a 1itt1e house of his own and his wife had Vietnam, Laos and other regions are heroically resisting bought two goats. He said, "What more did we want?" U.S. imperialist aggression by their resolute, protracted When the war came, "everything was destroyed in a revolutionary wars. Isn't it your desire that we, the peo- single instant". The Anti-Fascist War ended in victory ple of Asia and Africa, should lay down our arms and and the whotre world was overwhelmed with joy, but surrender to U.S. imperialism and its lackeys and allow Sokolov, having iost his house and loved ones in the war, ourselves to be oppressed and enslaved in perpetuity? had an incurable wound in his heart. His eyes were Obviously, in cursing and opposing all kinds of wars, "filled with such inextinguishable yearning and sadness you aim at opposing revolution and revolutio'nary war that it is hard to look into them". At the end of the by the people of Asia and Africa and of other parts of story the author makes a special point: "Not only in the wor:Id for national independence and liberation. their sleep do they weep, these elderly men whose hair Soviet modern revisionist writels are serving as a grew grey in the years of war. They weep, too, in their special detachment of U.S. imperialism in literature; they waking hours." This giveS still greater stress to the are sabotaging the revolutionary struggles of the Asian spiritual wound which the great Anti-Fascist War aI- and African peoples. This renegade stand is especially Iegedly inflicted upon a whole generation. The author's clear in their treatment of the Anti-Fascist War and of -venomous aim is to spread hatred and fear of revolution- the struggle of the Vietnamese people against U.S.