I hesitated for a long time about whether I should write this letter to you. Your time is precious not only to you but to all of us. If I finally decided to write to you, it is because the issue of organizing the Western and American literature that is dear to us can hardly be resolved without your participation.

You have probably noticed the extent to which the makeup of the foreign delegations that attended the Writers' Congress failed to measure up to the weight and significance of the event.

See note 8 to document 95.

With the exception of two Frenchmen—Malraux and J.-R. Bloch—the Czech poet Nezval, the two German fiction writers (not first-rate, but still gifted) Pluvier and O. M. Graf, and, finally, the Dane [Andersen] Nexö, there were no representatives of Western European or American literature of any importance. This is partly attributable to the fact that the invitations to the congress, which for some reason were sent out not by the Organizational Committee but by MORP [International Association of Revolutionary Writers], were composed in an extraordinarily inept manner. The people they invited were by no means those who should have been invited. But the main reason for the low-level makeup of the foreign delegations at our congress is the entire literary policy of MORP and its national sections, which can only be described as typical of RAPP [Russian Association of Proletarian Writers].

The “International Congress of Revolutionary Writers,” which was held in Kharkov a few years ago, proceeded from start to finish under the influence of RAPP. Since then 23 April has occurred.

See document 89.

For us this is a sharp boundary between two eras of our literary life. Unfortunately, 23 April has failed to change the policy of MORP.

Who is running MORP? A few third-rate Hungarian, Polish, and German writers. They have been living in our country for a long time, but this settled way of life has had no effect either on their psyche or on their creative work. And they have lost touch with Western life once and for all, and they do not see the profound changes that have taken place in the mainstream of the Western intelligentsia since the fascist offensive.

I will cite several examples. The “RAPP-ites” in America are alienating from us such significant writers as Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, and Dos Passos. They rebuke novelists for the “inconsistent” political line of some characters in their literary works, and I am not talking about criticism but about charges of renegadism and so forth.

The organ of the French section of MORP, the journal Commune, conducted a survey among writers. The writers responded, but the responses were printed this way: twenty lines by the writer, and then forty of clarifications by the editors in extremely crude and comprehensive personal attacks. Such conduct by the MORP section alienates from us even the writers we hold most dear: André Gide, Malraux, Roger Martin du Gard, Fernandez, and others. Suffice it to say that even Barbusse is in the position of someone barely tolerated.

As for the Germans, Radek in his concluding remarks at the congress clearly displayed the narrow-mindedness and, worse, the self-conceit of the literary circles that have seized the leadership of German revolutionary literature.

I could add that the same thing is occurring in other countries as well. In Czecho-Slovakia, Vančura and Olbracht have been repudiated. In Spain, there are a few snobs and adolescents in the organization. In the Scandinavian countries, antifascist writers are treated as “mortal enemies.” And so on.

The situation in the West right now is extremely favorable: the majority of the most important, talented, and best-known writers will sincerely follow us against fascism. If a broad, antifascist writers' organization existed instead of MORP, the writers who would immediately join it would include Romain Rolland, André Gide, Malraux, J.-R. Bloch, Barbusse, Vildrac, Durtain, Giono, Fernandez, Roger Martin du Gard, Geenaux, Chanson, Alain, Aragon; Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann, Feuchtwanger, Leonhard Frank, Glezer, Pluvier, Graf, Mehring; Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Dos Passos, Gold, and others. I have listed only three countries, and those authors who are well known in our country from the translations of their books. I will say it more succinctly—with rare exceptions, such an organization would unite all important and uncorrupted writers.

The political program of such an organization must be very broad and at the same time precise:

The Western European and American intelligentsia pays heed to “big names.” So the value of a large antifascist organization that is headed by famous writers would be extremely high.

But the establishment of such an antifascist writers' organization requires, first, the approval of our leading bodies and, second, the dissolution or radical reorganization of both MORP and its national sections.

The All-Union Writers' Congress will play an enormous role in attracting the Western European intelligentsia to us. The full range of issues on culture and craftmanship were raised for the first time at the congress, commensurate with the growth of our country and its right to worldwide spiritual hegemony. At the same time the congress showed the extent to which our writers, both nonparty people and party members, have united around the party in its creative work and its preparations for the country's defense. The way our writers greeted the delegates of the Red Army will enable the Western intelligentsia to comprehend our position inside the country and our organic connection with the task of defending it.

Similarly, the disagreements that occurred at the congress on questions of creativity and technique will show the same intelligentsia how amazingly fast we have grown in recent years. The majority of the congress warmly applauded the reports or speeches that insisted on raising the cultural level, on overcoming provincialism, and on the necessity of exploration and inventiveness. These speeches and applause also generated warm sympathy among the foreign writers who attended the congress. One can safely say that the work of the congress paved the way for the creation of a large, antifascist organization of Western and American writers.

Forgive me, Iosif Vissarionovich, for taking up so much of your time, but it seems to me that, as well as its importance for our literature as such, an organization of this kind will now be of militant, general political importance.