Engineers of Human Souls

[Cynthia A. Ruder]

For what it is worth, Kornelli Zelinsky's archive at RGALI contains a
document "Beseda I.V. Stalina s pisateliami, 26 oktiabria 1932 g."
that states that Stalin uttered the "engineers of human souls" phrase
at a dinner at Gorky's house on 26 October 1932.  Even though
Zelinsky's revised the manuscript of these memoirs four times, his
attribution to Stalin of the "engineers..." phrase always remained
exactly as he first wrote it.  The quotation, in part, is as follows:

   Stalin said, "Your tanks won't be worth anything if the souls in
them are made of clay.  No.  The production of souls is more
important than the production of tanks..Here someone correctly noted
that a writer must not sit still, that a writer must know the life of
the country.  And that is correct.  Man is remade by life itself.
But you, too, will assist in remaking his soul.  This is important,
the production of human souls.  That's why I raise my glass to
writers, to the engineers of the human soul."   RGALI, f. 1604, op.
1, d. 21, ll. 32-33.
(Also cited in translation in Making History for Stalin:  The Story
of the Belomor Canal, p. 44.)

Hope this helps.

Best, Cindy Ruder
--
Cynthia A. Ruder                                        Russian &
Eastern Studies
Associate Professor                             Modern & Classical Languages
raeruder at uky.edu                                        1055 Patterson
859-257-7026                                    University of Kentucky
859-257-3743 (fax)                                      Lexington, KY
40506-0027

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