ABSTRACT
The fourth all-union Congress of Soviet Writers was intended to be a solemn affair to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Soviet power, which was one of the reasons why it had been held over from the preceding year. Just about every delegate present was aware of Solzhenitsyn’s letter, and by the second or third day all of them had read it. It was the main topic of conversation in the intervals between the sessions, at mealtimes and in the corridors of the congress hall, completely dominating all other concerns. Solzhenitsyn had divided his letter into three parts. In the first he confronted head-on a subject that had not been tackled since the late twenties: the censorship. In the second part of his letter, he dealt with the role of the Writers’ Union. Thirdly and lastly, Solzhenitsyn called on the union to consider his own case and defend him against the persecutions to which he had been subjected.
