The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-09-24
Congress Served AS the
Clearing House
For Ideas
BY vERN SMITH

MOSCOW, U. S. S. R-"What
did the First All Soviet Union Con-
gress of Writers accomplish" I
asked Leonov on the last day of its
two-week session in Moscow. Leonov
is known to American readers as
the author of Soviet River"
TITS main accomplishment was
to provide a clearing house for
ideas and problems" said Leonoy.
1T summarized everything in lit
erature both here and abroad that
has been written in the last Is
years, and gave chance for a
thorough discussion of all theories.
More important even than any
formal decision was the fact that
as result Of the discussion the
vast majority of the writers came
to a common understanding, a
knowledge that the basic type of
literature is socialistic realism,
within which every experiment in
style and any choice of theme is
possible. But it must ring true, is
must really interpret life, and since
our life is new and socialist, it must
interpret some or all of the many
sides of our struggle for socialism,
it must concern itself with the new
socialist man.
THE formal decisions are along
this line, the aims of the Writer'S
Union agree with this, and it was
actually the feeling of practically
all the Soviet writer's even before
the congress, only the congress
helped them to clarity it. Natur-
ally not all problems were solved.
Each writer who has a distinctive
style will think his is best. And it
is better for him that he make the
best of it. The congress will not re-
suit in more uniform literature,
but in a more varied, and, I am
sure, a still better literature"
Leonoy gave some illustrations of
what he meant by clarifying.
Take my example," he said. Il
Joined the army of Soviet writer's
as simple private, fresh from the
Red Army. The army of writer's was
marching through desert at that
time. The book of widest circula-
ton was Tarzan. Since then much
has been done. Not only has there
been a tremendous revival of the
classics, the old Russian masters of
literature being read by many
times more people than ever be-
fore, but there has developed an
Unsuitable demand for new litera-
ture, and a pretty general notion
among the masses OF worker and
farmer readers as to what they ex-
pect of that literature"
Leonov disclaimed any intention
to call the congress a climax. 1t
is in his opinion but step on the
way. "We are living in a house
without a roof" he said. THE
building is still going up
COMEWHAT similar was the opin-
y ion of Babel, whom I interviewed
the same day. Babel is known to
English readers from TRANSACTIONS
of his Red Cavalry" He put
little more emphasis on the neces-
sity of each writer developing that
approach to the common problem
of interpreting and stimulating So
cialist society which would be akin
to the writer's personal tastes and
abilities.
He followed Cork in emphasizing
the usefulness of hard work, of the
writer's thinking seriously on his
method of presentation, and on just
what he wants to present. He
agreed with Leonov, that probably
Russian classics were the best read
of all literature. But the new
classics that will be produced in
this epoch can not be a mere con-
tinuation of the DID," he said,
though of course they can use the
old as a hasis. This is a new time"