Serapion Brothers
After his death, Lunts's works were suppressed, but strangely also publicized. In 1946, to stifle the people's expectation of increased freedom after World War II, and to kill a lingering nostalgia for the colorful literary life and unrestricted debates of the early Soviet period, the Party seized on the Serapion Brothers and its so-called “manifesto.” All the writers but Lunts were still alive, but no longer working together as a literary group. Some were prominent members of the Union of Soviet Writers and enjoyed wide readerships. Party spokesman Andrei Zhdanov (1896-1948), formally addressing the Soviet writers in Leningrad, quoted Lunts (as above) and declared: “This is the preaching of rotten apoliticism, philistinism and vulgarity.” He proceeded to attack the most popular writer among the former Serapions, Mikhail Zoshchenko (1894-1958), characterizing him as a decadent anti-Soviet malcontent and instantly destroying his career. Thus he served notice that the party was resuming its prewar policies and would not tolerate free-thinking writers.