LETTERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200800004-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 14, 2004
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: April 12, 1970
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

15
Approved For Release 2005/08/22 : CIA-RDP88-013508000200800004-2
$EW YORK TD W MAGAZI
12 April 1970
1% r% 0- Z
6 QA
- ABOUT ALMARIIi;
TO THE EDITOR:
Albert Parry ("Samizdat Is
Russia's Underground Press."
March 15) presumably pos-
sesses some information to
support his innuendo that
The Integrity and courage "Courageous and honest Al-11
of Andrei Almarik defy the marik may be, but erratic, too.
imagination of men of nar- A careful reading of his texts
row mind, within the Soviet, raises doubts about certain of,,
Union and without. his facts of history and even'
HENRY KAMM. geography. Mr. Kamm's per-;
Bangkok, Thailand. sonal fondness for Almarik
Andrei Almarik either wrote Professor Parry replies: "No-
his essay, "Will the Soviet, where in my text did I say
n
i
U
i
t Ai
ik
n
o
.+ VL
mpJly tha
mar
wrote
at the behest of the K.G.B. or his essay 'at the behest of
that the K.G.B. had a hand in the K.G.B.' Nor do the Rus-
spiriting the work to the sian Intellectuals, whom I
Alexander Herzen Founda-, interviewed during my re-
tion for publicationu How else. searches on- samizdat, make
could he justify his comment any such accusation. These
that the foundation may have sources on Almarik, whose
been "duped by the K.G.B., viewpoint I find plausible, are
who may be using Almarik as liberals, not 'rightist dmigrfi
an unwitting agent'? It would groups and Intelligence net-
be fair to his readers and to works,' and they do not doubt
Almarik if he came forward Almarik's personal Integrity.
with this information. "The suspicion of my lib-
Failing this, those who eral Russian friends that Al-
know Andrei Aimarik will marik has unwittingly been
.
a
v'man the Hcrzen Foundation has
part of m'y sentencg.,is what
a man of independent and 'b
duped into
original mind who has set een ,publishing Mr. Kamm omits. But stop
down, uninfluenced by any- Almarik's essay, is based on
ping short of it, as Mr. Kamm
one, his own lucid and un- the following: does, may make it seem that,
sensational analysis of his 'To the Russian people Almarik is accused of being
country, and that such inde- the Brezhnev-Kosygin regime a K.G.B. agent who unwit-
pendent scholars as Prof. wants to present the, nation's tingly Informs and betrays.
d id i
I 1
I
Karel van het Reve of the
Herzen Foundation are more
immune to being duped by
the K.G.B. than Is Mr. Parry
to being duped by the sus-
picious "Russian Intellectuals"
who are tainting Almarik
with whispered slanders of
s r
ss en p mars y not as And this is not what Russian"
anti but as Rus- + intellectuals, with whom I"
sin-haters who are ready to i talked, fling at Aimarik. All
,dishonor their country and, they do charge is that Alma-
their people.. Almarik's essay tiles writings, naively honest;
fits into this program per-., or spottily brilliant though
fectly. Foi he writes that the . they be, are of definite use i
morals, nor. culture, that they . ,secret pollee '
police. diets a war with China and,.
It is a Soviet tragedy that as its result, Russia's breakup
Almarik must be a prophet and perdition. He calls upon
without honor in his own America to be friendly with:,
country. It is the West's China rather than Russia. .
shame that even beyond the' "Despite his dissidence, Al-`
walls of the intellectual "pris- marik is not arrested, while
d other and rather milder dis-
li
hi
h h
i
ves, an
c
e
n w
on
which his free spirit has sur-
mounted, those who labor in
the arcane and Interlocking
labyrinths of Soviet studies,
rightist dmigrd groups and in-
telligence networks cannot
conceive that a man of free
mind can publish his own free
thoughts without somehow
owing something to someone's
sidents-not advocating out-,
right treason as he does-rot
In jails, concentration camps
and insane asylums. There Is
nothing 'narrow-minded' about_
those Intellectuals at home
and abroad who question this.'
circumstance: Is Aimarik.
spared because the K.G.B.1
hopes for more writings from
Approved For a ease 5/08I22?' -CIA-RDP88,Q'1,350R000-2OO800004-2
witting or unwitting service
on behalf of the Soviet secret
should not mislead him into
unreserved applause for his.
essay, applause that is a bit
too hasty, to say the least.
"Finally, with all my long-
standing admiration for Mr.'
Kamm (The New York Times
Southeast Asia correspondent,
formerly stationed in Moscow)
as an able journalist,' I must.
nevertheless protest against
his quotation of my text out ;
of context. In his quotation .
of me he should have com-
pleted my sentence, about the
K.G.B's 'using Almarik as an
unwitting agent to drive home
Its lesson that dissidence
leads Russia to a' 'national
' The ' Italicized
catastrnnhe
.STAT