Note to A.A. Zhdanov, September 19, 1946

Source: Tom 18

To Comrade Zhdanov

I have read the report on the journals "Zvezda" [The Star] and "Leningrad." The report is satisfactory. But I think that the matter should not end with the report alone. It is necessary to adopt a resolution of the CC that would serve as a guide for all party organizations.

The resolution should clearly and firmly state that the journals "Zvezda" and "Leningrad" have permitted serious ideological errors, publishing works permeated with a spirit of servility before modern bourgeois culture and literature. The resolution should name the specific works and authors who bear responsibility for the ideological degeneration of the journals.

I. Stalin

Note

This note preceded the famous CC Resolution of August 14, 1946, "On the Journals Zvezda and Leningrad," one of the opening salvos in the ideological campaign known as the Zhdanovshchina (1946-1948). The resolution targeted in particular the poet Anna Akhmatova and the satirist Mikhail Zoshchenko, condemning the former as decadent and the latter as vulgar and anti-Soviet. A.A. Zhdanov (1896-1948), then Secretary of the CC, delivered the main report and became the public face of this ideological campaign.