Fascim in Italy
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn speaking in Moscow in 1998.Four years earlier he had returned to Russia after twenty years in exile.
In 1919 Benito Mussolini formed the Milan Fascio (combat troop).Within a month,Italian fascists had broken up a social rally and wrecked the priting plant of a socialist newspaper.In 1924,Mussolini gained control of Italy.Many Italian newspapers vehemently criticized fascism and the government,but Mussolini curbed press freedom by giving local authorities the power to suppress newspapers that published objectionable material.Many writers went into exile.
After World WAR II and the defeat of Nazi Germany,the Soviet Union brought Communism to the countries of eastern Europe,most of which had previously been under fascist control.Under Soviet rule there was always diossent,not just against Communism ideology but against foreign domination too.In Hungary,Poland,and Czechoslovakia,in partiular,writers and other intellectuals led attemps at achieving reform.In Czechoslovakia,writers who had been banned by the Nazis found themselves banned under Communism.They include the poet Herman Chromy and the writer Jiri Wolf.Most dissident writwers in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union spent some time in jail or prison camps- some were killed.Soviet journalist Victor Verkhin was arrested for investigating inadequate safety measures in Ulkranian mines.He subsequently died from the beatings he receive in prison.
After Stalin’s death in 1953,censorship was lifted in some areas,partly because his successor,Nikita Krushchev,wanted to distance himself from the previous regime.In 1962,Krushchev ordered the publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s book,A Day in the life of Ivan Denisovish.This detailed the horror of prison camps and exposed the truth about Stalin.But Solzhenitsyn did not remain in favor for long.In 1969 he was expelled from the Writer’s Union and forced to publish his books abroad,and in 1974 he was banned from the Soviet Union.
A number of Soviet writers published only abroad.Boris Pasternak’s Dr.Zhivago was first published in Italy and then banned in the Soviet Union.Pastermak was forced to refuse the Nobel Prize for Literature and condemned by the Writers’ Union .He had to earn his living doing translation work.
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