LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters from Olga Franklin, A. E. C. Vince, Tibor Szattruely, Paul Dehn and others.
Khrushchev's memoirs Sir: I do agree with Mr Szamuely that the Times, Life etc, were con- ned over the Khrushchev memoirs. But, for my own sake, 1 must point out that my good friend Mr Szamucly has himself made one bad mistake.
Svetlana's book was 'doctored' only by herself and her reasons for doing so were given in an inter- view with Richard Evans in New York. She cut out several un- pleasant words which Stalin used to his elder son. The only sub- stantial alteration was that Svetlana cut about 4,000 words from the sixteenth chapter (or letter) des- cribing the development of her love affair with film producer Alexei Kepler, after the death of Stalin. It was a most moving and touching story, beautifully told, and if she had left it in, the book might have been a world best- seller. Only Svetlana herself and publishers Hutchinsons were the losers over this. I think I am the only person who holds the Nis of both versions in Russian.
Nor was the whole venture 'unsuccessful' as Mr Szamuely says. It gave me and our newspaper group a justifiable scoop.
After all, the Khrushchev memoirs are not the first to be 'ghosted' by a pretty lavish hand. Money and journalistic 'free enterprise' are just as likely to be the reason. I think we tend to overlook that the KGB also like making lots of lovely money (especially in dollars) not only for political reasons but also just for a giggle.
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