Kamkin and the banned books

[Alina Israeli]

One thing bothers me:

>Kamkin often had books in Russian that were banned in the Soviet Union,
>including works by Pasternak and Osip Mandelstam, a poet who was tortured
>in Stalin's prisons.

And I've heard it repeated again in the news today. One might think that we
are talking about "Posev" or "YMCA Press". Kamkin sold Soviet published
books, non-Soviet editions were added only lately. (Granted, in China,
prior to coming to the US, Kamkin was in publishing of emigre Russian
authors.)

Take the volume of Mandelshtam published in "Biblioteka poeta" which would
have been sold for 3.75 or 4.35 rubles or something like that, were it
available in a Soviet store upon its publication. But it wasn't, the whole
printing was going abroad (minus a few thounds copies stolen from the
presses and surfacing at the black market at 30-70 rubles a copy). By
shipping it abroad the authorities killed three birds with one stone, not
two: a) get currency, b) get rid of the undesirable poet's verses, c) if
foreign journalists ask why are some poets not published, the answer would
be: wrong, they are published but already sold out (and show a very
respectable edition from a distance). Some of those copies were available
at Kamkin's.

"Doctor Zhivago" was published by Feltrinelli and, I believe, was not
destributed by Kamkin bookstore. Neither were the Posev editions of
Solzhenitsyn.

AI

_____________
Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Mass. Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20016

phone:  (202) 885-2387
fax:    (202) 885-1076

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