From: VIZNYUK@MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU (SERGEI VIZNYUK)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Shafarevich
Date: 3 Sep 92 20:35:00 GMT
Reply-To: "soc.culture.soviet via ListServ" <SCS-L@indycms.iupui.edu>

Return-path: <RUSSIA@INDYCMS.BITNET>
Received: from OHSTVMA.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU (MAILER@OHSTVMA) by
 MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU (PMDF #12887) id <01GOCRMO2DU88WW7G1@MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU>;
 Thu, 3 Sep 1992 16:30 EDT
Received: from OHSTVMA.BITNET by OHSTVMA.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU (Mailer R2.08
 R208004) with BSMTP id 1857; Thu, 03 Sep 92 16:28:38 EDT
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 15:07:30 EST
From: "Darrell P. Hammer (Political Science)" <HAMMER@UCS.INDIANA.EDU>
Subject: Shafarevich's letter
To: Multiple recipients of list RUSSIA <RUSSIA@INDYCMS.BITNET>
Reply-to: Russia & her neighbors <RUSSIA@INDYCMS.BITNET>
Message-id: <01GOCRMO2DU88WW7G1@MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU>
Comments: To: russia@indycms.iupui.edu

What follows is a translation of Igor Shaferevich's letter
to the National Academy of Sciences, as published in
"Literaturnaia Rossiia."  I take full responsibility for the
translation.
			Darrell P. Hammer


The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
President F. Press.
Secretary for Foreign Affairs J. B. Vaingaarden [phonetic].

	Mr. President Press!
	Mr. Secretary for Foreign Affairs Vaingaarden!
	This letter is an answer to your letter of July 16, 1992,
concerning my work "Rusophobia [sic]."  I do not know how you
discovered statements there that are not in it.  The work contains
a criticism of certain tendencies in publicistic writing in which
marked Jewish national emotions are combined with marked
anti-Russian emotions, and also a criticism of Jewish radical
groups which played an active role in the Revolution.  At the
same time there is a detailed argument showing that these
tendencies do not include the entire Jewish nation.  In
particular there are citations of authors of Jewish ancestry who
also criticize these tendencies.  Thus my work can be considered
anti-Semitism in the same way that criticism of Russian communism
can be considered anti-Russian.  I have never permitted myself to
use such terminology about an entire nation or country as "evil
empire."
	Further you write: "We are informed that...."  Can it be
that you regard as acceptable a consideration of such anonymous
accusations?  You hold me responsible for the makeup of employes
of the Mathematics Institute of the Academy of Sciences, where I
am director of the division of algebra.  This is quite comical,
because for many years I was barely tolerated in this institute
and from my department employes were only fired and no one added.
If you still consider it possible to continue your research, I
recommend that you turn to the materials of the International
Colloquium on Anti-Semitism, Paris, 1979, the report of L.
Shvarts [phonetic], "On the Situation in Soviet Mathematics."  He
regards the country's reaction to this situatin as passive, "with
the exception of a tiny minority of such individuals as Sakharov,
Shafarevich, and the physicist Orlov."
	Finally, you raise the question of my membership in the
National Academy.  In the worst years in our country, my
membership in the USSR Academy of Sciences was never placed in
question, regardless of my book, published in the West, which
contains a radical criticism of socialism and communism.  No
question was raised about the membership of Sakharov even when he
was in exile.  In proposing that I myself leave the academy, you
propose that I agree with your accusations, which I consider to
be silly and disgraceful.  I did not apply for membership in the
National Academy (although I was pleased with the honor shown to
me).  Therefore I consider that the question of my continued
membership in it is the Academy's own problem.
	P.S.  In your letter are the words: "Personal and
confidential."  As a result I have declined to comment on it in
the press.  Later, however, I learned that you had simultaneously
communicated to the press the content of your letter together
with your comments.  Therefore I believe that I now have the
right not to look on your correspondence as confidential.
	Sincerely yours,
	I. R. Shafarevich
Moscow, August 4, 1992.