LITERATURE AND MORALS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500380058-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 8, 2003
• Sequence Number: 58
• Publication Date: February 3, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2003/09/29 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500380058-4
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
25X1
25X1
25X1
25X1
SUBJECT Literatul'e qn t 1oru].e
25X1
x14 000000nT cOw roln4 1110100111-lcrln0 T.[ (0110. Al 0[r 1104[
I r r.[ 0101110 STABS. II Tx Ix 1x1.1 AR t*O Or 1111? 10, (10110N1 113
0 114. 01 101 11,4. C^OC. Al Aniwoi0. Iii 174110113103 011 x[vi?
U1... To On 1LC(VT 11 An UN(01101 If0 1[.[0. 14
wT r1 . 1i
SUPP. TO
REPORT NO.
"the i ul r rie.:. ; ..,.. ?, 4.1_..,14 y rl ... _.. i.i1.; htrHt inn from, the Soviet Union. The
.111.tL.'tll ttt,Cr h r::ri .he t"C 17t??,'i
? ~:.:' ' " -' , : ahs nr+: LeinE; emr.haoized. as never
1u J et'e jnr, l %i' , t'; +': 1: '?.1 ey.o lctf, IT 1 ct'kliCi j:Eil1C 1 thee $111.F1i'j.un . The chief
of the bulE'o)"'aa '1 tilt 4.i..1 i:'l; TIS'1G.tO jtELG,C 1'115, Secretary General of
the Union of vu0 0ors impressed by Mcscow, which he
hoe only ec n:,, t visit 1!, iie ,11.,ke of the univer:;i: the intell.e,
' '.', :tUQ i
LU-hllerin~,U, oC the 1,;,eu17o-fj.:hcier:1
t IW% Zroil[ &w.:,ttt a itcrature, in
9L1 t.Le GLn w:'1.
? ~c~iwa?~ , !'n3o1_ov ,1013 other cmri-
ntn'L omen Of i_?t ?-t'. 171' n I?,t1t'_.'1/ 1".F)~:14'i? a j7Qit1'i IiIUCh rci:?ovca frump the
s ,il'i4 1 25X1
 Approved For Release 2003/09/29 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500380058-4
25X1
CONFIDENTIAL
25X1
O
5. "Anghel Todoraa, one of the Bulgarian critics, in his defense suggested: 'The
ties of the Bulgarian people, the Bulgarian intellectuals with Russian litera..
ture date back to the pre-evolutionary period. The close similarity between
the two languages, the ommon humanistic tendencies of the two people, direpted.
the attention of' the Bulgarian people:in their thirst for knowledge towards
Russian culture and literature represented by the gigantic figures of Pushkin,
Lermontov, Go ol, Tolstoy, and Gorky.'
6. Radevsky said. 'In Soviet literxtureour people, our intellectuals saw the
reflection of t.-rat new spirit coming to the fore in the Soviet Union which our
people so eagerly d.~:ix'erl.I This was not a platitudinous statement_
7. "Almost all Bulgarian l iterate 'e had some Russian i
fl
E
n
uence.
ven
the straight news reporting on a factory or a collective farm has taken on the
25X1 Soviet style of scerrari'-, de;_ criptiveness. A
piece on the Lenin Plant in an of-
ficial magazine begins thus. 'At night when the dim of the last train dies
down and the tail light of the last wagon vanishes in the darkness, quiet set-
tles on the little station. The late travelers scatter in the dark village
street. Here and there e. dog barks sleepily and the windows light up--a sign
that the owner has come home. 'Most of the travelers take the road coming
from Tsurkva village; they are headed towards the hundreds of lights which
look like a beaut:tful arrrphitt-heatrica:tly-built harbor from a distance. These
are the lights of the Lenin Plant--the first metallurgical plant in our coun-
try.'
8. "In poetry Vl!Jdimir Maya.lcot alcy is the great Soviet writer who has inspired a
full half-century of Bulgarian writers.' Geo Milev, the Bulgarian poet who
first took to German. expressionism, was the first to adopt the 'revolutionary
poetry.' Hristo Smyrnenslsy, the Bulgarian revolutionary darling, became
another of Mayakovsky's admirers, followed a host of living Bulgarian writers.
Todorov even suggested.: 'Today one cannot speak of the renaissa4ce of present-
day Bulgarian poetry, ox its great successes without pointing out Mayakovsky's
influence. We s';udy the spirit of' his poetry and follow his example in link-
ing the artistic work ?rile the fundamental interests of the people in their
struggle for socialism.'
9. "Hristo Smyrnensky, the late Bulgarian revolutionary poet, who died in 1923
and whose 3Oth anniversary of his death, was being celebrated
25X1 in Sofia `about late October 1.953], was a colorful personality. He died at
the age of 25 and Dimitrov cared him 'with his talent and the nature of his
militant literary w'ssks, Smyrnensky is our Bulgarian Mayakovsky.' And perhaps
a glimpse of Smyrnensky's works may give an idea of the overall Bulgarian lit-
erature today. His poem Moscow, which is his ideological homage to the Mecca
of Communism, is a tribu+,e ?to a 'flame, throbbing pulse again:'
'Moscow: ..MoW~OW:
Against your firmly armored gates of stone
Were dashed. the hostile 'waves of hate,
.And woe and misery for ever gone,
Where'er you cast your ruby shale.'
10. "But it is his short story '!(he Story of the Stairs' --dedicated to all those
'Vho will say--'this has nothing to do with me..' which can compare well inter-
nationally. It deals with the development and decline of fascism in a
slightly surrealistic style. It is about & oung man with unbowed head and
tightly clenched fists who climbs a st"rcase, is confronted by a devil and
made to give at each step something dear' to him. At first his limbs and at
last his heart anu memory. The young man gives it all to eventually find him-
self on the ?bp of 'the world. 25X1
CONFID=1AL
Approved For Release 2003/09/29 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500380058-4
 Approved For Release 2003/09/29 : CIA-RDP80- $A000500380058-4
25X1
25X1
25X1
25X1
0
11. "'He looked at the feasting princes, then looked down where the ragged grey mob
raged and cursed. He looked, but not one muscle twitched in his face; it re-
mained radiant, gay, pleased. Down below he saw crowds in their holiday
clothes and their moans were hymns. U1+7ho are you," the devil asked him in his
hoarse voice.
12. "'1 am a prince by bir;;h, axed the gods are my brothers; Oh, how beautiful is
the earth and how happy are the people. '
13. "Such is the school of i_?iteratu.r e that abounds in Bulgaria today. Internation-
ally it does not have much influence, for it is at best a second-rate version
of Russian and Polish literature. But occasionally some new and refreshing
pieces are `Tritten. Bulgaria. is a country which has hitherto been lost to the
world--both Western and Eastern. World intez'est in. her `has been very meagre
and Bulgaria hEu-self played no role in the modern world as such.
14. "Nevertheless, there is a strange magic in the air
15. "The parrot-like expressions of the glories of the People's Republic, the in-
herent contradictions in their own economic achievements, and the very messy
form of Marxism practiced makes reality an enigma itself. Here have inter-
mingled bourgeois courtesies and fas@ist scrutiny, Marxist doctrines and Mos-
cow's state capitalism, the uupe:oturbe.d, uncollectivized Macedonian peasant,
and the highly Party-:Lined worker at the major plants--all in a way to make
Bulgaria the greatest enigma for the Western mind.
16. "The morale of the people is nevertheless quite in keeping with the spirit of
a change. It is not the intrinsic change which Marxism promises but the
change and the promise of prosperity people like. And never before have the
people been offered prosperity. This hope keeps Bulgaria where it is today.
When this hope fades or else disappears, there will be the same humdrum exis-
tence but no volcanic eruption. The bulgarians are just not made of that stuff.
17. "In Bulgaria no stimulant ideology haunts the masses as such, or determine any
course for them. And there will be no significant change either for, or
against, Moscovite Cominformism in the coming years."
12)4. i? N([3I)
124 . I j 2OM(tl)
t;Li7 20M
25X1
D
Approved For Release 2003/09/29 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500380058-4