‘Private Opinion’

[p033] * * A Note on Private Opinion This story has been subjected to the same sort of attack as has Dudintsev’s ‘Not By Bread Alone’. The journal Party Life published a letter from a certain Colonel Starodubtsev, deploring the appearance of ‘A Story Which Causes Bewild- erment’. This provoked letters from a number of other read- ers, supporting Granin and opposing any attempt to discour- age him. Among the readers who wrote in this way was Vera Ketlinskaya, whose ‘Days of Our Life’ came out not long ago in an English translation published by Lawrence & Wishart. She upheld ‘Private Opinion’ as ‘a story that touches on an important subject and denounces an utterly disgraceful and still widespread phenomenon.’ Party Life, in its editorial rejoinder, declared that the trouble was that Minayev was shown ‘not as an anomaly but as a common phenomenon of our reality and as something inherent in it—the implication being that Minayev’s fault was not just personal. If he became a time-server and double- dealer, ‘the fault lies with our reality’. Even Petrishchev, the leader-writer complains, ‘is shown as a bureaucrat and a heartless person, although this is done very subtly’. The article concludes on a note of fatherly warning to all concerned: ‘In publishing Colonel Starodubtsev’s letter the editors of Party Life meant to help the writer of the story and the editors of Novy Mir to realise the mistake they made. If they succeed in doing this, it will be useful to both the writer and the magazine.’ ft Still Goes on...