SOVIET LITERATURE TODAY (187 pp.)George ReaveyYale ($3.50).
In 1840, Russia's leading literary critic tried his hand at prophecy. Wrote Vissarion Bielinsky: "We envy our descendants who are destined to see the Russia of 1940, standing at the head of the educated world, imposing its laws in science and art, and receiving the respectful homage of the whole of enlightened humanity. . . ."
The timetable was off but the objective remains. Today, says Moscow's Literary Gazette, Soviet literature "penetrating abroad . . . must convince the reader of the advantages of the Soviet social order."...