Introduction (Robert Conquest)
The poems collected here are the results of an extraordinary movement which has swept the mind of the creative writers of the countries of Russia and Eastern Europe over the last few years. All the poems were printed and published in the countries concerned. Their writers were almost all Communists so many of them favourites of the regime. At the end of 1955, and even more in 1956, for various political reasons it became possible for writings to appear which did not simply ring the changes on the ‘Ode to Stalin’ stereotype.
The Communist rulers is only made their concessions reluctantly. Yet Beria’s Police empire have been broken, and many leading police officials were about to fall on charges of having framed the Titoites - an unavoidable result of the Soviet reconciliation with Yugoslavia. In general, the Russians were discouraging over police action in literature and were themselves experimenting with a slight tempering of Zhdanovist rigour. And the denunciation of Stalin's repression, with the rehabilitation, amongst others, of imprisoned and executive writers, led to a further comparative relaxation in the intellectual atmosphere………..
 
Hutchinson & Co. Ltd.; 1958. Hardcover, no dust cover. Black boards with gilt lettering to front and spine. Boards slightly faded and spine sunned. Previous owners name to FFEP. Some pencil annotations throughout. Binding tight and text clean. Pre-owned. No ISBN.