On the agenda there is one announced issue: "Information of the Secretary of the Union of Writers of the RSFSR Taurin on the decision of the Secretariat of the Union of Writers of the RSFSR "On measures to strengthen ideological and educational work among writers".

The information itself does not take much time, F. Taurin reads the decision of the secretariat of the Union of Writers of the RSFSR, caused by the escape of A. Kuznetsov abroad, indicating new measures to strengthen control over writers traveling abroad, as well as measures for the ideological education of writers. He reports that similar meetings have already been held in many regional writers' organizations and were held at a high level, especially in the Moscow Writers' Organization, where charges were brought against Lydia Chukovskaya, Lev Kopelev, Bulat Okudzhava, as well as against a member of the Ryazan organization of the SP - Solzhenitsyn.

Debate (time limit - 10 minutes)

Vasily Matushkin (member of the Union of Writers, Ryazan). After a few general phrases about the state of the Ryazan organization: "I cannot but mention Comrade Solzhenitsyn's attitude to literature and to our writers' organization. There is also my responsibility: I once gave him a recommendation when entering the Writers' Union. Thus, when I criticize him today, I also criticize myself. When "Ivan Denisovich" appeared, not everything in it was immediately accepted, many things in it were not liked. But after the reviews by Simonov and Tvardovsky, we could not argue. Still, we had hopes that Solzhenitsyn would become an adornment of our writers' organization. These hopes did not come true. Take his attitude to our writers' organization. For all these years - no participation. True, he attended re-election meetings, but did not speak. Assistance to young writers is one of our most important duties according to the charter, he did not provide it, did not participate in discussions of the works of novice authors. He had no work. There is an opinion and pain that he is arrogant about our writers' organization and our small achievements in literature. I will say honestly and frankly that all his latest work (although we do not know him, have not read him, we have not been invited to the discussion) runs counter to what we, the others, write. For us, there is a Motherland, and there is nothing more expensive. And Solzhenitsyn's work is published abroad, and all this is then poured out in our homeland. When our mother is poured with mud, using his works, and Alexander Isayevich is given instructions on how to respond, and even an article was published in the "Literaturnaya Gazeta", and he did not react, considering himself smarter.

Sergei Baranov (chairman): Your time limit is over, 10 minutes.

Matushkin asks for more.

Solzhenitsyn - To give as much as a comrade asks (extend).

Matushkin - The Writers' Union is a completely voluntary organization. There are people who are published, but are not members of the Union. The Charter of the Union directly states: the Union unites like-minded people, who build communism, give it all creativity, who follow socialist realism. And then Solzhenitsyn has no place in the writers' organization, let him create separately. As bitter as it may seem, I must say: you and I, A. I., have different paths and we will have to part with you.

Nikolai Rodin (member of the Union of Writers, Kasimov, urgently brought to this meeting in a sick state to create a quorum): - Vasily Semyonovich said so that there is nothing to add. If we take the Charter of the Union and compare the civic activities of Alexander Isayevich with it, we will see great discrepancies. After Vasily Semyonovich, I have nothing to add. He did not fulfill the regulations, did not reckon with our Union. It happens that there is no one to give the manuscript of a novice writer for review, and Solzhenitsyn did not review. I have big claims against him.

Sergey Kh. Baranov (member of the Union of Writers, Ryazan) - This is a very serious question and it is timely raised by the board of the Writers' Union. We in the Union must know each other's souls well and help each other. But what will happen if we scatter to the corners, who will educate the youth? Who will lead the literary circles, of which we have many in production and in educational institutions? Vasily Semyonitch was right to touch upon the question of A. I. We do not know his work, we do not know his work. At first, there was a lot of hype around his works. And I personally have always seen solid black colors in "Ivan Denisovich". Or "Matryona's Yard" - where did he see such a lonely woman with cockroaches and a cat, and so that no one helped - where to find such a Matryona? I still hoped that Alexander Isayevich would write things that the people needed. But where does he publish his things, what are they about? We don't know. You need to raise your opinion of yourself and of each other. Solzhenitsyn has broken away from the organization, and we will obviously have to part with him.

Solzhenitsyn asks permission to ask one general question to the comrades who spoke, the chairman refuses.

Evgeny Markin (member of the Union of Writers, Ryazan) - It is the hardest for me to speak, the hardest of all. Looking the truth in the eye - we are talking about the stay of Alexander Isayevich in our organization. I was not yet a member of the Union at the time when you received it. I am in a depressed state for the following reason: an unprecedented swing of the pendulum from one amplitude to another. I worked as a contributor to Literature and Life at a time when Solzhenitsyn was receiving unprecedented praise. Since then, on the contrary: I have never heard such harsh opinions about anyone as about Solzhenitsyn. Such extremes then affect the conscience of the people who make the decision. Let's remember how Yesenin was vilified, and then they began to exalt him, and now someone would like to drown him again. Let us recall the harsh judgments after 1946. It is the most difficult for me to understand this now. If Solzhenitsyn is expelled now, then accepted, expelled again, accepted again - I do not want to participate in this. Where then will those who have left the discussion today find a second appendix? And we have big ulcers in our organization: members of the Union are not given apartments. For two years, our Ryazan writers' organization was commanded by the crook Ivan Abramov, who was not even a member of the Union, he hung political labels on us. And with Anatoly Kuznetsov I studied together at the Literary Institute, intuition does not deceive us, we did not like him because he was a hypocrite. In my opinion, the articles of the Charter of the Union can be interpreted ambiguously, this is a double-edged sword. But, of course, I would like to ask Alexander Isayevich why he did not take part in public life. Why didn't he speak in our press about the hype that the foreign press raised around his name, didn't he tell us about it? Why did Alexander Isayevich not try to properly explain and popularize his position? I have not read his new works. My opinion about A. I.'s stay in the Writers' Union: he did not belong to the Ryazan writers' organization. I completely agree with the majority of the writers' organization.

Nikolai Levchenko (member of the Socialist Party, Ryazan) - Basically, the previous comrades covered the issue. I would like to put myself in A.I.'s place and imagine how I would behave. If my work were put into service abroad, what would I do? I would come to my comrades for advice. He isolated himself. I join the majority.

Povarenkin - For many years, A. I. was separated from the Writers' Union. He did not come to the re-election meetings, but sent telegrams: "I join the majority" - is this a principled position? And Gorky said that the Writers' Union is a collective body, it is a public organization. A. I., apparently, joined the Union for other purposes, in order to have a writer's card. The ideological qualities of his works do not help us to build a communist society. It blackens our bright future. He himself has a black inside. Only our ideological opponent could show such a wingless person as Ivan Denisovich. He placed himself outside the writers' organization.