Soviet Union Opens Ears To New Stalin History

The Soviet Union is increasingly opening its ears to revisionist history about the Stalinist regime, Soviet author Anatoly Rybakov told a crowd of 200 people at the Kennedy School Forum last night.

Rybakov, who recently published a historical novel on the Stalin era, said the willingness of Soviet publishers to print his book signalled a new chapter in Glasnost.

Rybakov's book, "The Children of the Arbat," was completed in 1978, but was withheld from publication until last year.

"It became possible to publish the book because finally we understood that our society in such a moral atmosphere could develop no further," Rybakov said.

When asked about the official Soviet response to his novel, Rybakov said, "My wife and I have been in the United States for two months. I guess that says something."

The speech comes a week after Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev criticized Stalin.

"You have to tell the truth, and that is Glasnost. You have to tell the truth not only about today, but about yesterday," Rybakov said. "A society which doesn't know its own past doesn't have a future."

Rybakov explained that his was the first book which clearly showed the personality of Stalin. He said that there are others which are waiting to be published, and that the government and the publishers were more willing to discuss Stalin than ever before.

The Soviet Union is starting a spiritual reform in literature, cinematography, theater and the media, he said. "We hope that the changes in the moral-cultural area will go into other levels of our country. It's a long process, but we have no other way," Rybakov told the largely Russian audience.

Rybakov's novel will be published in the U.S. this spring. He said that he plans to follow it quickly with a second novel about Stalin's rule from 1935 to 1939, and then with a third about Stalin and the war.