Essays on Literature, Philosophy, and Music

The first essay on literature was an official speech of greeting from the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet government to the first Congress of Soviet Writers in Moscow, August 17, 1934. The second essay on literature consists of the abridged and combined texts of two reports - one made at a meeting of Leningrad writers and the other at a meeting of active Communist Party members in the same city. These reports were part of the discussion in 1946 of certain literary trends exemplified by the work of several writers published in the literary journals, Leningrad and Zvezda. The English text was published in the December 1946 issue of Political Affairs. The essay on philosophy, printed in English in Political Affairs for April 1948, was a speech delivered at a conference on philosophy called by the Central Committee of the Communist Party in June 1947. Discussion at this conference, in which a large number of philosophers took part, centered around the fundamental criticisms of the textbook by G. F. Alexandrov, The History of Western European Philosophy. The essay on music was a speech delivered to a conference of leading Soviet musicians, also called by the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1947. The English text was printed in No. 55 of VOKS Bulletin, publication of the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations.