Trudy i dni izdatel'stva Academia [15-08-1937] - [D040]

Concise description of the directive:

A few years ago, many Trotskyites protected by the criminal Kamenev worked comfortably at Academia. The enemies were defeated and new workers arrived in 1935, but they were not vigilant enough with Kamenev’s “legacy”. The publishing house is again invaded by the rule of silence and nepotism. Polonskaya, editor-in-chief of the publishing house, is ignorant. He accused Anatole France of being counter-revolutionary and Prosper Merimée of slandering Soviet women by demanding the epigraph to his novel Carmenbe removed. Some people were paid for nothing: for example, editor S. Rykov received more than a thousand roubles for the special editing of Torquato Tasso’s poems, although this work was done by another editor. Tens of thousands of roubles were paid to external and even hostile people. The publishing house paid a lot of money to many editors and illustrators (also outside the editorial plan) who did not finish their work or delivered it late (Shakespeare, Hugo, Diderot). Furthermore, the publishing house does not pay attention to the political conscience of the employees. In many almost ready-made books, one finds errors or incorrect ideological approaches. A total of 497 printing errors were found in Giambattista Vico’s pre-printed copy. The director of the publishing house Janson not only did not object to this, but even supported Polonskaya in every respect. He made deals with enemies and invited dubious people to collaborate in the drafting, including people who had been kicked out of the party. The publishing house needs serious help “from outside”.