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BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 63-3-117
TITLE:             Soviet Writers' Appeal for the Release of Sinyavsky and Daniel
BY:                
DATE:              1966-11-16
COUNTRY:           Soviet Union
ORIGINAL SUBJECT:  USSR

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X/15 RUSS SOVIET WRITERS' APPEAL FOR THE RELEASE F-48
OF SINYAVSKY AND DANIEL

MUNICH, 16 November 1966, (Communist Area Analysis Department:
USSR).

TO: The Presidium of the 23rd Congress of the CPSU
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR

Respected Comrades!

We, a group of Moscow writers, address you with the request
that we be permitted to put up bail for the recently convicted
writers, Andrei Sinyavsky and Yulii Daniel. We consider that
this would be a wise and humane act.

While we do not approve of the means, publishing their
works abroad, to which these writers resorted, we cannot agree
that in their actions there was anti-Soviet intent, proof of
which was necessary for such stern punishment. Such malicious
design was not proved in the course of the trial of A. Sinyavsky
and Yu. Daniel.

At the same time, the conviction of writers for satirical
works is an extremely dangerous precedent, capable of holding
back the process of Soviet cultural development. Neither science
nor art can exist without the freedom to express paradoxical
ideas, to create forms of hyperbole. The complex circumstances
in which we live demand the expansion (and not the contraction)
of freedom for intellectual and artistic experimentation. From
this point of view, the trial of Sinyavsky and Daniel has
already caused incomparably greater damage than all the errors
of Sinyavsky and Daniel.

Sinyavsky and Daniel are talented persons, and they ought
to be given a chance to correct the political errors and
indiscretions they have committed. Released on bail, Sinyavsky and
Daniel would sooner recognize the mistakes they made, and in
contact with Soviet society would be able to create new works,

X/15 RUSS (1) - SOVIET WINTERS' APPEAL FOR THE RELEASE f-49
OF SINYAVSKY AND DANIEL

the artistic and spiritual value of which will redeem the harm
caused by their blunders.

For all these reasons we request that Andrei Sinyavsky
and Yulii Daniel be released on bail.

The interests of our country demand it. The interests of
the world demand it. The interests of the world communist
movement demand it.

Signed: Members of the Union of Writers of the USSR
There follows a list of 63 signatories headed by K. Chukovsky
and I. Erenburg. Owing to poor legibility of the available
Russian text, transcription of the full list must await a check
of names and initials.

  OSA / Guide / RIP / 1956 / RFE/RL Background Reports : Subjects | Browse | Search