Page "Boris Pasternak" Paragraph 6

Soon after his meeting with Bukharin, the telephone rang in Pasternak's Moscow apartment.

A voice from The Kremlin said, " Comrade Stalin wishes to speak with you.

" According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak was struck dumb.

" He was totally unprepared for such a conversation.

But then he heard his voice, the voice of Stalin, coming over the line.

The Leader addressed him in a rather bluff uncouth fashion, using the familiar thou form: ' Tell me, what are they saying in your literary circles about the arrest of Mandelstam?

' ".

Flustered, Pasternak denied that there was any discussion or that there were any literary circles left in Soviet Russia.

Stalin went on to ask him for his own opinion of Mandelstam.

In an " eager fumbling manner " Pasternak explained that himself and Mandelstam each had a completely different philosophy about poetry.

Ivinskaya writes that he " went on for quite a time in this vein.

Stalin gave him no encouragement whatsoever, not interjecting, or uttering a sound of any kind.

At last B L came to a halt.

Stalin then said, in a mocking tone of voice: " I see, you just aren't able to stick up for a comrade ," and put down the receiver.