Letter to L.M. Kaganovich, June 7, 1932

Source: Tom 17

Greetings, Comrade Kaganovich!

1) I have at last managed to read Demyan Bedny's play "How the 14th Division Went to Heaven" (see Novy Mir). In my opinion, the play turned out badly -- mediocre, coarse, with a tavern-like spirit and an abundance of barroom witticisms. If it has any educational value, it is most likely a negative one.

We made a mistake by putting the Politburo's stamp of approval on this flat and inartistic thing. Let this be a lesson to us. In the future we shall be more cautious, especially with regard to the works of Demyan Bedny.

2) Novy Mir is publishing a new novel by Sholokhov, "Virgin Soil Upturned." An interesting piece! Evidently Sholokhov has studied collective-farm life on the Don. Sholokhov has, in my opinion, a great artistic talent. Moreover, he is a deeply conscientious writer: he writes about things he knows well. Quite unlike "our" flighty Babel, who keeps writing about things entirely unknown to him (for example, "Red Cavalry").

3) Pravda publishes two "cellar" feuilletons almost every day, dealing with all sorts of trifles. Cannot Pravda be made to drop one "cellar" and use the freed space for a section (such a section should be created!) "Letters from Workers and Collective Farmers"? The bureaucrats at Pravda have replaced letters from workers and collective farmers with letters from professional correspondents and "plenipotentiaries." But the bureaucrats must be reined in. Otherwise Pravda risks completely losing touch with the living people in the factories and on the collective farms. Well now, try to rein in the bureaucrats at Pravda.

Greetings! June 7, 1932 I. Stalin.

P.S. I have just received your letter of June 6.

1) Try somehow to resume the negotiations with the oilmen.

2) It would be better to remove Yaroslavsky from Pravda.

3) Okhtin, it seems to me, should be removed, but this matter -- that is, the replacement of Okhtin -- should be prepared carefully.

Greetings!

Stalin.

Source: Stalin i Kaganovich. Perepiska. 1931-1936 gg. [Stalin and Kaganovich. Correspondence. 1931-1936], p. 149.

RGASPI, f. 81, op. 3, d. 99, ll. 58-60.