The Letter of Forty-Two () was an open letter signed by forty-two Russian literati, aimed at Russian society, the president and government, in reaction to the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. It was published in the newspaper Izvestia on 5 October 1993 under the title "Writers demand decisive actions of the government."
Contents
The letter contains the following seven demands:
Criticism
Newspaper Pravda reacted by publishing a letter by three Soviet dissidents – Andrey Sinyavsky, Vladimir Maximov and Pyotr Abovin-Yegides – calling for Boris Yeltsin's immediate resignation.Mikhail Pozdnyaev. Новые Известия. It said among other things:
Nezavisimaya Gazeta's 2nd editor-in-chief Victoria Shokhina, mentioning Vasily Aksyonov's statement ("It was right those bastards had been bombarded. Should I have been in Moscow, I'd have signed [the letter] too"),В. Л. Шохина — заместитель главного редактора «НГ»: Перешагнув через могилы Уроки Октября 93-го и творческая интеллигенция on 3 October 2004, wondered how "all of those 'democratic' writers who were preaching humanism and denouncing capital punishment" all of a sudden "came to applaud mass execution without trial". According to Shokhina, writer Anatoly Rybakov, when asked, 'would he have signed it', replied: "By no means. A writer can not endorse bloodshed". "But people like Rybakov are few and far between in our 'democratic' camp, and such people there are being disliked", Shokhina remarked.
Support
A letter entitled "An appeal of the democratic public of Moscow to the President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin" ("Обращение собрания демократической общественности Москвы к президенту России Б.Н. Ельцину") was published on 8 October 1993, echoing key demands of the Letter of Forty-Two.Обращение собрания демократической общественности Москвы к президенту России Б.Н. Ельцину
Signatories
Ales Adamovich Anatoly Ananyev Viktor Astafiyev Аrtyom Anfinogenov Bella Akhmadulina Grigory Baklanov Zori Balayan Tatyana Bek Alexander Borshchagovsky Vasil Bykaŭ Boris Vasilyev Alexander Gelman Daniil Granin Yuri DavydovIn an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta published on 5 October 1996, he characterized his signing of the letter as "stupidity". – Дж. Кьеза. «Прощай, Россия!» Daniil Danin Andrei DementyevIn an interview on Echo Moskvy radio on September 30, 2012, Andrei Dementyev said that he had not signed the lette. Mikhail Dudin Alexander Ivanov Edmund Iodkovsky Rimma Kazakova Sergey Kaledin Yury Karyakin Yakov Kostyukovsky Tatyana Kuzovlyova Alexander Kushner Yuri Levitansky Dmitry Likhachov Yuri Nagibin Andrey Nuykin Bulat Okudzhava Valentin Oskotsky Grigory Pozhenyan Anatoly Pristavkin Lev Razgon Alexander Rekemchuk Robert Rozhdestvensky Vladimir Savelyev Vasily Selyunin Yuri Chernichenko Andrey Chernov Marietta Chudakova Mikhail Chulaki
Footnotes