(By a special correspondent, )
In our last issue we gave the first part of an article dealing with K.'s March 8th, speech, this is the balance.(Bd.Note) Khrushchov himself takes the artists very seriously he said: "Let us see what would happen... if the advocates of peaceful co-existence of various ideological trends in literature and art ged tho upper hand, Aa a first step, a blow would be dealt to our revolutionary gains in the sphere of socialist art. By the logic of struggle things would hardly end there, It is not impossible that these people ey would make an attempt to come out in opposition to the revolutionary gains."
emphasis) In other worls Kk, is saying that the Soviet state coulda be undermined if the artists have freedom of trends} This is a reflection of the bureaucracy's foar of political trands. Moreover, the fight the artists are putt “ing up has real political implications = and they are using the slogan "back to Lenin' to challenge the monopoly of power Ehrenburg, quoted Lenin as saying to Lunacharaky: "...I don't want to impose my tastes on others." Yevtushenko, to quote K,. again "... came out in defence of abstractionisam. Ha attempted to justify his position by alleging that there are good people both among realists and formalists, and he referred to the example of two Cuban artists who had sharply differed in their views on art and then died in the sama trench fighting for the revolution." Thus we see for the first time for a whole period the emergence of an open opposition in the Soviet Union, This opposition, arising out of the process of 'destalinisation' , will have a catalystic effect on Soviet society.