Down On The Collective Farm SIR,—It was most gratifying to
see that Messrs Wood and Henry, however strongly they disapprove of my choice of words (September 23), could find no factual faults in my quotations or my résumé of From the Life of Fyodor Kuzkin. I am afraid I cannot return the compliment, for in their preoccupation with ton- ing down the harsh picture of collective farm life that emerges from Mozhaev's novel they take con- siderable liberties with the author's text. Thus, in the postscript the hero, Kuzkin, says 'Afterwards things got a bit better' (Dalshe polegshe poshlo). Messrs Wood and Henry, however, make Kuzkin say 'Things got a good bit better then' (my italics). If this is a fair sample of their translation then the completed work should hold many surprises This mistranslation plays a significant part in their argument: one should not 'throw up one's hands in horror at what was happening thirteen years ago' (another curious little slip—the novel actually ends ten years ago) but rather 'be glad' that things have improved immeasurably since 1956. Might I suggest that Messrs Wood and Henry take a look at Fyodor Abramov's story, published in this country under the title of The Dodgers, which in 1962 describes collec- tive farm life in terms practically indistinguishable from Mozhaev's depiction of the 1953-56 period?
I doubt though whether this would influence Messrs Wood and Henry, since according to them 'the situation described is surely not peculiar to the Soviet Union.' Do they know of many other coun- tries where, to mention only one feature, the peasants are bound to the land by being denied the internal passports without which travel and residence any- where outside the kolkhoz is impossible? Incident- ally, perhaps Messrs Wood and Henry could tell us whether anything has changed in this fundamental respect since 1956, or 1961, or 1964—or, indeed, 1932?
In their letter, of course, they make no mention of this or of a number of other important points raised in Mozhaev's novel—some of which I refer to in my article—since that would have made non- sense of their bland assertion that the book is con- cerned not with the system, but merely with one 'badly-run kolkhoz.'
Finally, I wish to express my regret that Messrs Wood and Henry should have felt it necessary to buttress their defence of the collective farm system by resorting to the unsavoury method of the poli- tical smear. In accusing me of 'forging new weapons in the Cold War' they are reacting in a manner de- pressingly reminiscent of the officials in Mozhaev's novel, ever prompt to pin the label of 'anti-Soviet propaganda' on to any expression of opinion with which they happen to disagree.
TIBOR SZAMUELY
Department of Politics, The University of Reading
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