In the editorial office of "Novy Mir" I was introduced to the telegram:

"NM0177 Frankfurt am Main Ch2 9 16.20 Tvardovsky New World

We inform you that the State Security Committee, through Victor Louis, sent another copy of "Cancer Ward" to the West in order to block its publication in "Novy Mir"

The editorial board of the magazine "Grani"

I should like to protest against the publication both in Grani and in the work carried out by W. Louis, but the murky character of the telegram requires first of all to clarify

1) Is it really submitted by the editors of the magazine "Grani" or by a figurehead (this can be established through the international telegraph, by a request from the Moscow telegraph to Frankfurt am Main)?

2) Who is Victor Louis, what kind of person, whose subject is he? Did he really take a copy of "Cancer Ward" out of the Soviet Union, to whom did he give it, where else does the publication threaten? And what does the KGB have to do with this?

If the Secretariat of the Chamber is interested in finding out the truth and stopping the threatening publication of "Cancer Ward" in Russian abroad, I think it can quickly get answers to these questions.

This episode makes you think about the strange and dark ways in which manuscripts of Soviet writers can reach the West. It is an extreme reminder to us that literature must not be brought to such a position that literary works become a profitable commodity for any businessman who has a travel visa. The works of our authors should be allowed to be published in their homeland, and not given to foreign publishing houses.

Solzhenitsyn 18.4.68

[9]

TO THE EDITORIAL OFFICE OF "MOND", "UNITA", "LITGAZETA"

From the report of the newspaper "Le Monde" of April 13, I learned that in the West in various places fragments and parts of my novel "Cancer Ward" are being printed, and a dispute has already begun between the publishers Mondadori (Italy) and Bodley Head (England) about the right of "copyright" to this story.

I declare that none of the foreign publishers received from me the manuscript of this story or a power of attorney to print it. Therefore, I do not recognize anyone's past or future (without my permission) publication as legal, I do not recognize anyone's publishing rights; any distortion of the text (inevitable in the uncontrolled reproduction and distribution of the manuscript) is detrimental to me; I strongly condemn and forbid any unauthorized screen adaptation and staging.