Obščemoskovskoe sobranie pisatelej (2 aprile) [06-04-1937] - [D057]

Concise description of the directive:

Among others, Giovanni Germanetto was elected to the presidium. Self-criticism of the functioning of the Writers’ Union at organisational and administrative levels. Debate on the work of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Writers’ Union. The committee does not know how to deal with today’s challenges. The best representatives of the western intelligentsia have realised the reactionary and Trotskyist essence of fascism and side with the revolution and the popular front. As a result, their interest in Soviet culture grows extraordinarily, their attraction to the Soviet country and the socialist reality strengthens. Can such a poor commission play a positive role in propagating our achievements in the field of culture and disseminating the best works of revolutionary literature and art among the masses of the Soviet people? …André Gide’s rotten book Retour de l’U.R.S.S. was harshly criticised by the best French anti-fascist writers, but the commission ignored this fact; the commission is oblivious to the processes taking place in the literature of the West, it is oblivious to the successes of anti-fascist literature and the manoeuvres of our opponents.