Word: yevtushenko
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...Yevgeny Yevtushenko's A Precocious Autobiography; one of the few Soviet books to be published abroad in recent years without official approval, does little to enhance the author's literary reputation. While admitting the difficulties involved in translating Russian, one can hardly term Yevtushenko a great poet, or even a very good one. But then he is most important as a political and social figure, not as a man of letters. And this slim volume, a reflective account of Yevtushenko's first 30 years, does contribute greatly to an understanding of his politics...
...Yevtushenko and others have branded such attitudes "dogmatic." They claim there is room in the Soviet Union for both the influx of foreign art and literature, and also indigenous creativity that does not-necessarily hue to the line of socialist realism. Again, the Party's policies are dictated primarily by political considerations. When Premier Khurshchev decided the publication of the startling novel One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovitch would be a wise political move, he made it. When it appeared the pressure for more intellectual freedom was growing out of hand, Khrushchev summarily squashed the dissident voices...
Among those reprimannded last spring was Yevtushenko, who evidently went too far when he gave the manuscript of A Precocious Autobiography to the French weekly 'L'Express for publication without official sanction. We are fortunate to have it, even though the indiscretion incurred for the author a great deal of public defamation, and cost him a projected trip to the United States...
...clear now that the popular image of Yevtushenko is largely the product of over-zealous western imagination, eager for some sign of the decay of Soviet society. On the contrary, the phenomenon of Yevtushenko is a sign of vigorous health. It means Soviet society is beginning to accept the important doctrine that "a strong man is not afraid of showing his weaknesses...
...Yevtushenko will recover from his most recent disgrace. He will remain loyal to the regime, but he will also criticize it, for he firmly believes self-examination is the only way to inner strength. He will make no great literary contribution of his own; but by his relentless campaign for increased freedom for intellectuals, he has, and will continue to make, an important-contribution to the artistic achievements of others. He and his allies will suffer setbacks, as they did last spring, but each time they will cause the sphere of freedom to be widened a little further...