Thought Must be Societal and Historical: This is Primary

Abstract

Ten years is a comparatively brief period, although in the history of our Soviet literature ten years has more than once proved to be a historical era possessed of utterly unique features, the more so as the past decade (since 1954) has been full of giant events meaningful not only to the history of our own country but that of the world. All this calls for a particularly responsible attitude on our part. It is my opinion that this decade is awaiting both its exploration and its explorer. In B. Pankovs books, The Main Hero [Glavnyi geroi] and In the Mainstream of Life [Na strezhne zhizni], an attempt has been made to write a distinctive sort of critical chronicle of the development of our literature. There is much in these works with which one may disagree, some of it hasty writing done while the iron was hot, but much is persuasive and convinc ing.