TARSIS REACHES LONDON

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30981, 10 February 1966, Page 13

TARSIS REACHES LONDON

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, Feb. 9. The Soviet writer, Valery Tarsis, whose book “Ward Seven” aroused bitter official 1 criticism in Russia I when it was published in the West, arrived in London by air last night to lecture at a British university. Tarsis, who is aged 59, said he was very tired and declined to answer questions. He told reporters: “I live here now.” Asked if this meant he was seeking asylum in Britain, Tarsis countered with: “You can’t ask that sort of question.” 1 Tarsis has a three-month visa for Britain. His arrival in London followed an earlier bitter attack by an official newspaper in Moscow which branded Tarsis as an “insane megalomaniac” whom the West wanted to use as anti-Soviet propaganda. The attack, by the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” lent weight to speculation in Moscow that the Kremlin hoped he would not return, United Press International press reported. Tarsis’s defection, it was said, would be considered as “good riddance” by Soviet officials. Tarsis told Western reporters in Moscow on Sunday that he planned to take to the West the manuscripts of a new anti-Communist novel, “Not Far From Moscow.” He said the novel features the same characters as “Ward

Seven,” sane people allegedly, confined in a mental institu-i tion because they questioned! the Soviet system. A Western reporter saidi Tarsis told him the new book I would “show that the whole! country is a lunatic asylum."! While Tarsis was on his | way to London preparations! were going in great secrecy!

.for the trial of two other] i Soviet writers also accused of | I writing anti-Soviet novels and publishing them abroad. The difference is that the ! Soviet authorities claim Tar- ! sis is mad while the two ! others—Andrei Sinyavsky and I Yuli Daniel—are held respons- ! ible for their “hostile” i activity.

It was thought likely the Government wanted Tarsis abroad before bringing the other two to trial. Sinyavsky, a critic. Is accused of writing abroad under the pen-name “Abram Tertz” and Daniel, a translator, of publishing antiSoviet books under the pseuidonym “Nikolai Arzhak.”