The event of August 14, 1946 determined the fate of Mikhail Zoshchenko and Anna Akhmatova for many years. The Decree of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (On the magazines "Zvezda" and "Leningrad") stated: "Providing the pages of" Zvezda "to such vulgar and scum of literature as Zoshchenko. Zoshchenko portrays the Soviet order and Soviet people as primitive, uncultured, stupid, with philistine tastes and morals. Zoshchenko's malicious hooligan portrayal of our reality is accompanied by anti-Soviet attacks."
Harassment of Mikhail Zoshchenko
Before that, the magazine "October" published chapters from the book by Mikhail Zoshchenko "Before the Sunrise". The writer suffered from a serious mental illness from which doctors could not cure him. This was discussed in the book. The press called it "nonsense, needed only by the enemies of our homeland" (Bolshevik magazine). There was no question of printing a sequel. After the decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks "On the magazines" Zvezda "and" Leningrad "was issued, the then party leader of Leningrad A. Zhdanov called the book" a disgusting thing."
Expelled from the Writers' Union, deprived of his pension and ration cards, Zoshchenko made his living by translating from Finnish. But the publication of translations of M. Lassil's novels "For the matches" and "Resurrected from the dead" in 1948 remained unnamed. When in June 1953 Zoshchenko was again admitted to the Writers' Union, he worked for the magazines Krokodil and Ogonyok. However, until the end of his life, he did not receive a pension.
From the very beginning of this persecution, there were those who were especially active in taking part in it. Almost immediately after the Central Committee Resolution was issued, all three of Zoshchenko's books were seized. The printing and distribution of Akhmatova's books was also stopped. By order of Glavlit # 42 / 1629s of August 27, 1946, books were withdrawn not only from libraries and trade networks. Even on ships and polar stations it was forbidden to keep publications of disgraced authors.
But there were those who defended the writer. Thanks to K. Chukovsky, Vs. Ivanov, V. Kaverin, N. Tikhonov, at the end of 1957, Zoshchenko's book "Selected Stories and Novels 1923-1956" was published.
Opal of Anna Akhmatova
Anna Akhmatova in that 1946 Resolution was called “a typical representative of empty, unprincipled poetry alien to our people. Her poems cannot be tolerated in Soviet literature. " Back in September 1940, in the Kremlin, the head of affairs of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) Krupin presented a report to the member of the Politburo and secretary of the Central Committee on ideology Zhdanov. It was called "On the collection of poems by Anna Akhmatova." At the same time, the publishing house "Soviet Writer" published a solid collection of poems by the poetess.
The main accusation against Anna Andreevna was that there were no poems in the book about revolution, socialism.
Being in disgrace, she was deprived of ration cards. Unknown people helped. They constantly sent cards by mail. The apartment was under surveillance. Against the background of neurosis, my heart ached. It was impossible to write more than one poem per year.
In 1949, his son Lev Gumilyov was arrested for the third time. After that, she creates a cycle of poems dedicated to Stalin in the hope of freeing her son. But in the same year, Akhmatova's ex-husband, Punin, was again arrested. He died in the camp three years later.
However, the eulogies paid off. The result was her restoration in the Writers' Union, permission to engage in translations. But Lev Gumilyov was imprisoned for another 10 years.
For almost more than 14 years, all of Zoshchenko's plays and stories, and Akhmatova's poems were removed from the repertoires of theaters and even amateur performances.
In October 1988, the decision was canceled as "erroneous", as reported by the newspaper Pravda.
