Solzhenitsyn and Natalia Reshetovskaia question

[E Wayles Browne]

I remember reading the American edition when it came out:

Author/Creator:
Reshetovskaia, Nataliia A., 1919-
Uniform Title:
V spore so vremenem. English
Title:
Sanya : my life with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn / by Natalya A. Reshetovskaya
; translated from the Russian by Elena Ivanoff.
Published:
Indianapolis : Bobbs-Merrill Co., [1975]
Description:
English language ed.

284 p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 24 cm.


My reaction was approximately "The authorities asked Reshetovskaya, who
was angry at Solzhenitsyn already, to write a book that would discredit
Solzhenitsyn before an English-speaking audience. But they wanted it to
look sincere, not like heavy-handed propaganda, so they allowed her to
include personal details and information about his works." What I can add
now is that the same authorities presumably realized that their book would
be less successful if the English-reading audience discovered that it had
never been distributed in Russia, so they decided to print a small number
of copies (in fact, what is the tirazh on your copy of V spore so
vremenem?) in Russian. But how many of them in fact reached the
bookstores?


-- 
Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu

> I hope someone on the list has an answer to this:
> I came across of Natalia Reshetovskaia (Solzhenitsyn's first wife) book of
> memoirs titled V spore so vremenem. It describes somewhat critically but
> with attempt of being objective her history of life with the writer. The
> book is published in 1975 by Izdatel'stvo Agenstva pechati Novosti,
> presumably in Moscow. Author's date on the book is 1969 - 1974 gg. And
> this is mostly period that she is talking about.
> The book freely mentions unpublished in the USSR and highly controversial
> there at the time books such as V kruge pervom, Avgust 14go, and even
> Archipelag GULAG. The book was published at the time when even
> Solzhenitsyn's name was anathemized. These forbidden and unpublished books
> were only mentioned in most critical context as works of a traitor, as
> slander and utter lie and disgrace. Though in Reshetovskaia books they are
> mentioned rather matter-of -factly, and no specific criticism of these
> books is given. My question is what is the story of this strange Soviet
> publication? How Reshetovskaia book was even possible in SU in 1975? Who
> in Agenstvo Novosti published it? Why was it published if the book was not
> utter slender of Solzhenitsyn, though it is critical of him? What
> censorship/ideology apparatus stands behind this publication? Who was an
> editor? For what audience this book was intended?
> I would appreciate any information or theories on this subject.
> Mark Yoffe, GWU
>
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