When I returned to Moscow after a summer journey, the entire affair concerning my novel We was already finished : it had been decided that the publication of excerpts from We in the Prague journal Volya Rossii was my act, and all the appropriate resolutions in regard to this "act" had already been passed.
But facts are stubborn, they are more stubborn than resolutions. Every fact can be confirmed by documents or people. And I want to make these facts known to my readers. They consist of the following :
1. The novel We was written in 1920. In 1921 the manuscript of the novel was sent (by the simplest method-by registered mail through the Petrograd Post Office ) to the Grzhebin Publishing House in Berlin. This publishing house had branches at that time in Berlin, Moscow, and Petrograd, and I was bound to it by contracts.
2. At the end of 1923 a copy of this manuscript was made available by the publisher for translation into English (this translation appeared only in 1925 ) , and later into Czech. I made public mention of the appearance of We in translation several times (in my bibliographies and autobiographies -see Vestnik Literatury, Literaturnaya Rossiya, etc.); there were also items about it in Soviet newspapers. Up to now, I have not heard any protests in connection with the appearance of these translations.
3. In 1924 it became clear that, owing to difficulties with the censorship, my novel We could not be published in Soviet Russia.
In view of this, I declined all offers to publish We in Russian abroad. These offers came from the publisher Grzhebin and, later, from Petropolis (the latest offer came in 1929 ).
4. In the spring of 1927 fragments of the novel appeared in the Prague journal Volya Rossii. I. G. Ehrenburg was comradely enough to inform me of this in a Jetter from Paris. This was how I first learned about my "act."
5. Soon after that, in the summer of 1927, Ehrenburg wrote at my request to the editors of Volya Rossii, demanding in my name that they discontinue publication of fragments from We.
A similar demand was sent to Volya Rossii in my name by another Soviet writer who was then abroad. Volya Rossii chose to ignore my demands.
6. From Ehrenburg I learned one more thing: the fragments from We published in Volya Rossii were supplied with a preface, informing the reader that the novel was being published in translation from Czech into Russian. I have not seen Volya Rossii and do not know what came of this translation of a Russian novel from a foreign language back into Russian. But whatever the results, the most modest logic should make it clear that such an operation on a work of art could not take place with the knowledge and consent of the author.
This, then, is my "act." Does it resemble what has been said about it in the press? (Such as the direct assertion, for example, in the Leningrad Pravda where I read several days ago [September 22, 1929] that "Yevg. Zamyatin has given Volya Rossii carte blanche for the publication of his novel We."
The literary campaign against me was launched by an article by Volin in number 19 of the Literary Gazette. In his article Volin forgot to say that he remembered my novel We nine years late ( as I have said, the novel was written in 1920 ).
In his article, Volin also forgot to say that he remembered the publication of fragments from We in V olya Rossii two and a half years late (these fragments, as I have said, were published in the spring of 1927).
And, finally, Volin forgot to mention the editorial preface of Volya Rossii, from which it is clear that the fragments of the novel were printed without my knowledge or consent.
This is Volin's act. Whether his omissions were deliberate or accidental, I do not know, but they resulted in the subsequent presentation of the case in a false light.
The matter was discussed in the executive committee of the Federation of Soviet Writers' Unions. The executive committee's resolution was published in number 2 1 of the Literary Gazette.
In paragraph 2 the committee "decisively condemns the acts of the above-named writers," Pilnyak1 and Zamyatin. And in paragraph 4 of the same resolution, the executive committee recommends that the Leningrad branch of the Federation of Soviet Writers' Unions "make an immediate investigation into the circumstances of the publication abroad of Zamyatin's novel We."
Thus, we have first-condemnation, and after that-investigation. No court in the world, I believe, has ever heard of such a procedure. That is the act of the writers' federation.
To go on: the question of the publication of the novel We in Volya Rossii was taken up at the general meeting of the Moscow branch of the All-Russian Writers' Union, and after that, at the general meeting of the Leningrad branch.
The general meeting in Moscow, without waiting for my explanations, without even expressing a desire to hear them, adopted a resolution condemning my "act." The members of the Moscow branch also took the occasion to express their protest against the contents of the novel, written nine years ago and unknown to the majority of them. In our times nine years are, in essence, nine centuries. I have no intention here to defend a novel that is nine centuries old. I merely think that it would have been far more timely if the Moscow members of the union had protested against the novel We six years ago, when it was read at one of the union's literary evenings.
The general meeting of the Leningrad branch of the union was held on September 22, and I know of its results only from a newspaper report ( in Vechern Krasnaya of September 23). From this report it may be seen that in Leningrad my explanations had already been read and that opinion at the meeting was divided.
A number of the writers, after reading my explanations, considered the incident closed. Nevertheless, the majority found it more prudent to condemn my "act."
Such is the act of the All-Russian Writers' Union. And from this act I draw my own conclusion: I find it impossible to belong to a literary organization which, even if only indirectly, takes part in the persecution of a fellow member, and I hereby announce my resignation from the All-Russian Writers' Union.
Yevg. Zamyatin
Moscow
24 September 1929
**Pilnyak and Zamyatin were among the first victims of the RAPP when it became virtual dictator of the Soviet literary scene in the late 1920s. Pilnyak recanted of his "sins"; Zamyatin refused to submit.
