LETTER TO VICTOR BATOR FROM ALLEN W. DULLES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R000400580002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 20, 2002
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: January 22, 1959
• Content Type: LETTER

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CON F1 )E ; i L
JAN
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Victor Bator;, Bsg.
Dear Victor:
Thank you for your kind letter of January 5 :din the
Pasternak case, and for the copy of Zd vnand Wilson' a Now
Yorker review of Dr. Zhivago. According to our worm*.
tion Dr. Zhirego in foot has been or is being translated
into more than 220 languages, am,g them, Polish, Serbian,
Finnish, Chinese and several Indian tongues.
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Sincerely,
SIGNED
Allen W. DL_
Director
1 (12 Jan. 1959)
Signature Recommended:
Deputy Director (Plans)
1953
STAT
"P. S. I hope ve can get
together soon.
'I Ts L..
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January 5, 1959
L L
I have not written to you or seen you for more than two years.
That is a long enough interruption to permit me to write to you
without any severe self-reproach for claiming too much of your
time. Of course, I am not writing this letter just for this
reason. What I have in mind has probably occurred to others,
but in case it has not, I feel I should bring it to your attention.
The idea is in connection with the Pasternak-case. By the build-
up Pasternak has received I believe that it is not exaggerated to
consider him as the foremost Russian intellectual figure of our
time. Moreover, this is combined with the fact that he is the
only Russian who lives in the Soviet Union and yet succeeded in
asserting his spiritual independence. He had been known before
his excommunication as one of the two great poets of the Soviets,
but "Doctor Zhivago" has given him a prominence that is not equalled
by anyone else. Also, the book is a remarkable artistic achievement
and it is the first description of the Russian revolution not by
an emigre Russian or Western historian but by a top-ranking Soviet
artist whose work casts more light on the inhuman destructiveness
of the Bolshevik Revolution than volumes of factual material --
were it accessible.
I think that "Doctor Zhivago", if read by people who have been
and are being treated extensively to the Soviet ideology, may con-
siderably widen and deepen the realization of discrepancy between
dogma and truth, and thereby add to the source of intrinsic strain
of the intellectuals behind the Iron Curtain. Thus the Socrates-
like gesture of Pasternak refusing the haven of exile and the safe
enjoyment of fat royalties abroad, further, the artistic value of
"Doctor Zhivago" may make the book a factor of major political
importance.
I know that the book has been translated into the main European
languages and is going to. be published in Italy in Russian. It may
be of great importance, however, to have the book translated into
Czech, Serbian, Bulgarian, Rumanian, Hungarian, Finnish, Turkish,
the different Indian dialects, Japanese, Chinese etc. and channel
it into the hands of the people in their native tongue. In countries
outside of the Iron Curtain this could be done openly by making the
book available at a nominal price to the reading public. Behind
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the Iron Curtain distribution would pose a more difficult problem,
but the book could be trickled into those countries where each
copy might be read by many hundreds.
Since the book would be aimed at the top intellectual layer of
each nation, the translation ought to be done by leading literary
figures whose name would add to the significance of the publication.
Such artists are available for all the suggested languages and they
should be entrusted with the task of the translation even if this
meant some delay in the finalizing of the project. It would be
worthwhile to retain an eminent aesthete like Edmund Wilson to
select the translators and to check on the quality of the result.
You may be interested in Edmund Wilson's review of "Doctor Zhivago"
published by the New Yorker. It is a beautifully written and in-
spiring article. You will find it enclosed. (%" 1c
Sincerely yours,
&- a-
Victor Bator
Allen W. Dulles, Esq.
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
2430 E Street
Washington 25, D.C.
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Allen W. Dulles, Esq.
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
2430 E Street
Washington 25, D.C.
Dear Sir:
January 6, 1959
By mistake the enclosure to Mr. Victor Bator's
letter of January 5th was not mailed in the same
envelope. I am sending the article of Mr. Edmund
Wilson enclosed.
Yours very truly,
Sec'y to Mr. Bator
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