Yevgeny Alexandrovich Yevtushenko: We Humiliate Ourselves

In language strikingly blunt and colorful, the Soviet Union's best-known poet denounces his countrymen for endlessly tolerating the shortcomings of their society and warns that such patience may be th

With the flowering of glasnost, some extraordinary things have begun appearing in the Soviet press. Among the more remarkable is this essay by Yevgeny Alexandrovich Yevtushenko, 54, published last month in the journal Literaturnaya Gazeta. Excerpts:

I can't remember the first time I heard that profoundly Russian, tragically all-embracing word priterpelost ((servile patience)). But it came to mind of late.

"Forgive the present, Yevgeny Alexandrovich, but it's a precious thing nowadays," said a distant relative as she put a sack of sugar, almost impossible to find, on our May Day holiday table. This was in the 71st year of Soviet power,...

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