Word: russian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Czechoslovakia, which, he says, turned Russia's intelligentsia against the Soviet regime. He began planning his escape. His pretext for traveling abroad was perfect. How could Moscow deny a Soviet writer the opportunity to research a book on Lenin's stay in Britain? Kuznetsov transferred his Russian royalty payments to his wife and nine-year-old son. After photographing the pages of his unpublished works, he sewed the 35-mm. film into the lining of his coat. Into his suitcase Kuznetsov crammed copies of his published works* and other manuscripts...
Whislced Away. Free of mamka, Kuznetsov immediately dashed for the nearest British government office. A civil servant telephoned a Russian-speaking journalist, David Floyd, the Daily Telegraph's Soviet expert. Floyd instructed the defector to take a cab to his home. Since the evening was warm, Kuznetsov had left his coat in the hotel. He insisted that they return to his single room in the Apollo Hotel to get his film-laden coat and documents. Kuznetsov also retrieved his typewriter ("my old favorite") and some Cuban cigars ("They are so cheap in Moscow"). Then the two men rushed...
Floyd telephoned Kuznetsov's plea for asylum to the Home Office. A short time later, an official auto picked up the Russian writer at Floyd's residence and whisked him to a government-owned "safe house" in the suburbs. While British intelligence agents began an interrogation, Home Secretary James Callaghan conferred with Prime Minister Harold Wilson about the case. Their decision: to grant Kuznetsov an unlimited residence visa...
...then 100-to-l that what they write will not be published. It will simply be buried. It may even be the cause of the author's physical destruction. It is a sad thoueht that Russia has long and deep "traditions" in this connection. The best Russian writers were always persecuted, dragged before the courts, murdered or reduced to suicide...
...prevailing Party dogmas. I could not force my way through their ranks. [Evgeny] Evtushenko managed to achieve a little in this way. [Al-exanderl Solzhenitsyn managed a little more, but even that is all over now. The cracks were noticed and cemented up. Russian writers go on writing and keep hoping for something. It is a nightmare...