Declassified archives: what books the KGB considered a diversion of the West against Soviet citizens

The KGB was sure: the West, wanting to destroy the USSR, uses for the corruption of the Soviet people not only rock music and movies, but also books. Present Tense publishes a review of ideologically harmful literature from the end of 1970, found in the archive of the Security Service of Ukraine.

Фото: Depositphotos

The document mentions both little-known pornographic publications and works that have become world classics: “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess, “The Day of the Jackal” by Frederick Forsythe and “The Sun and Steel” by Yukio Mishima, writes Present Tense.

Ideological sabotage

According to the KGB officers, the books they banned contained “malicious slander against the Soviet state and social system,” propaganda of violence and cruelty, pornography. All publications were discovered by employees and seized in the Kiev shop “The Foreign Book”.

Of course, books came to the store for a reason - it was an ideological sabotage planned by "intelligence services of imperialist states and foreign ideological centers," wrote the head of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR, Vitaly Fedorchuk, in November 1979, to head of the republic Vladimir Scherbitsky. The document compiled by him is called “On the omissions in organizing the sale of books by foreign countries in Kiev.”

Deliveries of Western literature in foreign languages ​​in the USSR increased after the 1975 year, when the Helsinki agreements were concluded, which included, among other things, book exchange between states.

The document also mentioned several “rejected” books from the socialist countries (they were sold in the Druzhba stores). Although these states were controlled by the USSR, the orders in them, as a rule, were more free - including in the cultural sphere. This explains the appearance of publications that did not meet, as stated in the message, “party requirements for literature”.

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From Steinbeck to Mishima

"The author portrays the future of England, in which communism supposedly triumphed: everywhere cruelty reigns, violence, arbitrariness, gangs of criminals terrorizing the population speak a vulgar semi-Russian language."

So the KGB in his message describes the novel “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burges. Ten copies of the book in English were delivered to Kiev in 1979.

The existence of the communist system in the anti-utopian world invented by Burgess is only one of the versions. The argument in its favor, some critics consider the use of the author of the "semi-Russian language" ("nadsat"). There is no direct evidence of the anti-communist background of the novel, but the KGB did not delve into such details.

At the same time, in the adaptation of “A Clockwork Orange”, Soviet critics for some reason did not find “evil satire on communist ideals”. The authoritative journal Yunost published a positive review of the film, which, on the contrary, draws a parallel between the cruel world in the Kubrick film and the modern West. But the film did not come out in the USSR. He was shown only to a few — for example, to students of the VGIK.

In Russian, A Clockwork Orange was published only at the beginning of 1990-x - in two different translations.

Malcolm McDowell in Stanley Kubrick's film based on the book A Clockwork Orange. Photo: Wikipedia / public domain

The attitude towards John Steinbeck and his work in the USSR was rather complicated. His most famous offspring, The Grapes of Wrath, was published and actively promoted as an anti-capitalist work. The American writer himself was twice the guest of honor of the country. But later the work of Steinbeck liked the Soviet officialdom much less. The transformation of the political views of the writer was perceived by the Communists as degradation. In addition, the writer was suspected of espionage during a trip to the USSR.

"Diary of a novel" - one of the little-known books of Steinbeck. This is a collection of his old letters to a friend and editor, published in 1969, a year after the author’s death.

One hundred "Diaries ..." Steinbeck in the original language was brought to Kiev. The text found "vicious attacks on the USSR." The writer argued that the Soviet system would inevitably collapse, unable to withstand its own contradictions, and the country would fall apart into belligerent nationalist states (as in the document - NV). That is, partly foresaw what happened afterwards.

“According to the author, Western countries should always remember that “the Kremlin regime, feeling in danger, can immediately start a world war in the hope of saving itself,” the KGB believed.

"The special service for any maniac who set himself the goal of committing a terrorist act," the secret service called, with reference to her source, the novel The Day of the Jackal.

The work of the English detective wizard Frederick Forsyth often received the same characteristics in Western media. It really describes in detail the sophisticated methods of murder used by professionals. The plot of the book is partly based on real events - it is about the assassination attempt against French President Charles de Gaulle.

For decades, the book has been at the center of scandals several times - for example, it was discovered by the killer of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The nickname of Carlos Jackal to the well-known terrorist Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez also stuck because of the novel - after a false press report about a copy of the book found in the things of his comrade.

In 1974, the Day of the Jackal was first published in the USSR - in the Almaty Prostor magazine. Soon the chief editor of the publication was fired. Glavlit (a structure that censored books and periodicals, NV) in 1977, banned the publication of the novel in the USSR. But thanks to the book exchange, 70 copies came to Kiev.

The works of Yukio Mishima, one of the leading figures of Japanese literature of the twentieth century, were also practically inaccessible to the Soviet reader (in the KGB document, another version of transcription was used - Mishima, - НВ). No wonder - in the middle of 60, the writer sided with the far right, which was reflected in his work.

On Kiev counters got an essay by the late Mishima "The Sun and Steel."

The negative review of this work is very short: “the so-called is preached. "neo-samurai" What “neo-samurai” is is not specified.

The ideals of the writer in those years were military service, strength, self-improvement, including physical - through exhausting workouts, the adoption of death. In 1970, Yukio Misima committed ritual suicide by ripping up his abdomen (seppuku).

Yukio Mishima A photo: Wikipedia / public domain

Forbidden art of love

The unwritten rule “no sex in the USSR” extended, of course, to books. Literature for adults still got into the country, including during the book exchange. The KGB cites as an example the work entitled “Songs of the penis and thoughts about it” by a certain American R. Cooper. In the book, it is claimed, there is a “description of all kinds of sexopathological scenes”. The author is probably inaccurately expressed, and the word "sexopathological" is used here in the sense of "sexual." With the help of search engines and online catalogs of the largest libraries, this edition could not be found.

In the Soviet Union, not only porn and erotica were banned (usually both categories were recorded in pornography without understanding), but also popular sexological publications. The Polish doctor Michalina Vislotskaya has published several works on the culture of sexual relations, including the practical manual “The Art of Love”.

Warsaw censors found the book too frivolous, the author had to fight for its release. Finally, in 1978, four years after writing, the publication was released. To achieve a compromise, among other things, illustrations with sex positions (first printed in the Polish People’s Republic) had to be reduced four times.

But a compromise is not about the Soviet regulatory authorities. Two copies of the Polish edition, which arrived at the Kiev base, were awarded a separate paragraph in the document. “A manual on technology of sex with appropriate illustrations,” the Chekists characterize the book.

In Poland, “The Art of Love” has become a bestseller and is being reprinted so far - the total circulation is estimated in millions of copies. In 2017, the film “The Art of Love. The story of Michalina Vislotska.

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Oshpechentsy, grafomany, decadents

The relatively liberal order in the Eastern European countries of the "people's democracy" made it possible to publish the work of Ukrainian and Russian writers included for one reason or another - as a rule political - in the black list at home.

For example, the Chekists had a lot of questions about the Polish-language Anthology of Ukrainian Poetry, published in Poland in 1977. The compilers were accused of tendentiousness in the selection of material: in the collection they found the works of “persons known for serious nationalistic manifestations”.

“Some of them (Goloborodko, Kiryan, Kordun) published several graphomaniac poems 10-15 years ago and currently have nothing to do with the literary process. At the same time, in the publications of foreign OUN, these individuals were presented as “unrecognized geniuses”, “victims of party terror in literature,” the document states.

Vasily Goloborodko, Nadezhda Kiryan and Viktor Kordun at that time really were not involved in the Soviet official “literary process” - they were not members of the Writers Union and had no right to publish. Because of political views and the spread of samizdat, all three were deprived of these opportunities for a long time.

The works of disliked poets were published abroad - including in translation. From the number of "undesirable" they were excluded only in the years of perestroika.

By the way, recently the honored poet, laureate of many Vasily Goloborodko awards, the Ukrainian media often recall because of a coincidence: the same name bears the main character of the TV series “Servant of the People”, played by the famous comedian and presidential candidate Vladimir Zelensky.

The KGB prevented the realization of the “harmful” collection, but the Kiev literary environment managed to find out about the new admission - and many wanted to buy it.

“According to our sources, the sale in Ukraine of this anthology can contribute to the inspiration of nationalist sentiments among individual writers,” concluded the KGB.

“According to the same methodologically unacceptable principle,” an anthology of Russian poetry of the Soviet period, published in Hungary in Russian, was compiled, according to the source of the special services. Among the authors, the report highlighted “Gumilyov, the decadent Khodasevich, etc., who was shot for subversive activities against the young Soviet state.”

Фото: Depositphotos

In 1921, Nikolai Gumilyov was sentenced to death on charges of involvement in the so-called “Petrograd military organization of Tagantsev” in the anti-Soviet conspiracy. In 1992, the poet was rehabilitated. Until now, there is no consensus about whether he was in fact a participant in the conspiracy.

Vladislav Khodasevich in 1920-x emigrated from the USSR, realizing that "with the Bolsheviks, literary activity is impossible." In Europe, the poet became close to anti-Soviet circles and worked in the monarchist newspaper Renaissance. Most of the time the poet lived in Paris, where he died in 1939 year.

Only five copies of the Hungarian anthology were brought to Kiev, while it is noted that “it caused a stir and was sold out among the top managers of Kievknigotorg and higher organizations”.

Even the books of the “right” content, in which publishers placed advertisements for “works of various anti-Sovietists,” were brought to the attention of the KGB. In the novel by John Cheever an advertising booklet “Lenin in Zurich” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn was found. And in the collection of poems by William Blake "on a separate tab, the works of the poet Joseph Brodsky, who left the USSR in 1972, were actively promoted, taking an active part in various anti-Soviet campaigns."

An interesting detail: in the document, Shcherbitsky briefly explains who Brodsky is, but no additional comments were required on Solzhenitsyn — in 1970-s, this name was among the most frequently mentioned in KGB messages.

Those "harmful" publications that have not yet had time to disassemble, the KGB withdrew from sale. An exception was made only for the books of Steinbeck and Blake. Why it is for them, the document does not specify, but in the case of Blake, we can assume that the tab with Brodsky's advertisement could be cut out without damaging the book itself.

The KGB clarified that Western literature came to Kiev not directly from abroad, but through Moscow. On the Moscow base of the International Book Association, the books were reviewed and distributed for deliveries to different regions. Moscow literary critics, who were responsible for the content of these publications, for some reason did not notice the sedition brought (although we still do not know how many editions were rejected).

In Kiev, there was no one to engage in censorship - there were practically no foreign literature specialists in the book trade institutions who knew foreign languages. As a result, "enemy" works were sold freely, until a certain expert noticed this and did not inform the KGB. Probably, something similar happened in those years in other capitals of the Soviet republics and simply large cities.

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Deficit and hard currency

The books brought from the West were in considerable demand on the Soviet black market. Well-illustrated albums with pictures were especially valued - the KGB cites publications about Rubens and the Washington Gallery as an example.

Speculators, it was alleged, asked for such goods for 300-500 rubles (then it was the average salary of a Soviet citizen for several months), convincing buyers that these books themselves are hard currency.

A large amount of such literature, including art albums, was found by the KGB officers during an inspection of the building of the State Committee on State Statistics of the Ukrainian SSR in 1978. Packages with a deficit lay in two closets in the typewriting office. The owner was the head of the bureau B. Polesskaya. The KGB has already “studied” it before - a woman approved the emigration of Jews from the USSR.

The special service names the director of the Kievknigotorg base B. Burinov the central figure of the Kiev black market of literature. He reportedly tried to hide the receipt of scarce import books from his superiors, considered the base to be his property and in general was the shadow owner of the whole Kievknigotorg. The base director’s apartment has actually become a warehouse of valuable publications.

About Polesskaya and Burinov reported leadership of the State Committee of the Ukrainian SSR. Their fate is unknown.

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