I have read the article in “Literaturnaia Gazeta.” I am surprised that it can actually produce an impression on anyone here, since it contains a ludicrous phrase suggesting that our publishing house “pursues the goal” of printing works “that due to reasons of ideological and artistic immaturity” (highlighted by me - G.C.) have not been published in the USSR”: who in his right mind can apply such characteristics to Gumilev, Mandelstam, and Akhmatova?!

Have you seen the article in the September issue of “Mezhdunarodnaia zhizn’,” where we are accused with transporting contraband works by Sinyavsky and Daniel to the USSR with the help of the CIA? I myself have not seen it yet, but have read only the publication about it in the Parisian edition of the “New York Herald Tribune.” This publication appeared the day after the closing of the Belgrade congress, when my communications with Soviet scientists have already ceased. As I have written to you, it was overall very pleasant. I do not know if they already knew about this article back in Belgrade. Hardly. Zhirmunsky, Alekseev, and Berkov left back for Moscow that day, and their “younger comrades” (as they called them) set out on a tourist trip around Yugoslavia (I ran into one of them – a Georgian – on the street in Dubrovnik, and he very courteously said hello to me).