PASTERNAK’S DEATH

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29716, 9 January 1962, Page 9

PASTERNAK’S DEATH

Authorities Criticised

(N ZJ 1 A.-Reuter—CopyrtgM) MOSCOW, January 7. The Soviet author Ilya Ehrenburg last night publicly condemned Russian authorities for their handling of the news of the death of th j Nobel Prize-winning author Boris Pasternak in 1960.

He told a meeting in the Moscow Polytechnic Museum that the four-line announcement of the death by the Soviet Writers’ Union in a single newspaper was unworthy of a great Russian poet “This fact reflects a certain attitude by certain people and a way of life which, fortunately. is more and more retreating into the background.” he said. Western observers said Ehrenburg’s remarks came in reply to a question handed on a slip of paper by a member of the audience. Another slip inquired "How did you survive the great Stalin purges’” to which Ehrenburg said: "It was a bit of a tottery. I had a winning number We were all accomplices in a great conspiracy of silence."

Fire Risk Reduced.—Rain on Saturday night and Sunday morning relieved the forest fire danger at least temporarily in the Gisborne district, said the district forest ranger (Mr A. M. C. Moore).—(P.A.)