Soviet Union Speaking Up: A lecture from a poet

For years Moscow's stringent ideological standards have kept Soviet artists and writers in a creative straitjacket. To some, however, Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev's recent calls for more "openness" and "grass-roots creativity" signaled that a new age was about to dawn. Apparently intent on extending that proposition to literature, Soviet Poet Yevgeni Yevtushenko, 52, delivered a rousing speech before a congress of the Writers' Union of the Russian Federation objecting to the limitations placed on writers by the state. Judging by the official caution with which the Soviet press last week reported his address, he may have spoken up too soon.

Invoking...