But if I am not a criminal, I beg to be permitted to go abroad with my wife temporarily, for at least one year, with the right to return as soon as it becomes possible in our country to serve great ideas in literature without cringing before little men, as soon as there is at least a partial change in the prevailing view concerning the role of the literary artist. (“Letter To Stalin”) Yevgeny Zamyatin
About This Quote

Nadezhda Mandelstam was a Russian poet, novelist, and close friend of Stalin. She was the wife of the poet Osip Mandelstam. When Stalin passed away, she was exiled to her homeland of Siberia. In her letter to Stalin, she wrote: "I want to ask you to keep me from being exiled for a year to Siberia, but if I am not a criminal, I beg to be permitted to go abroad with my wife temporarily, for at least one year, with the right to return as soon as it becomes possible in our country to serve great ideas in literature without cringing before little men."

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More Quotes By Yevgeny Zamyatin
  1. You are afraid of it because it is stronger than you you hate it because you are afraid of it you love it because you cannot subdue it to your will. Only the unsubduable can be loved.
  2. A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't even be worth reading.
  3. Don't forget that we lawyers, we're a higher breed of intellect, and so it's our privilege to lie. It's as clear as day. Animals can't even imagine lying: if you were to find yourself among some wild islanders, they too would only speak the truth...
  4. Cruel', O'Kelly laughed, 'it's cruel to tell children the truth. If anything convinces me of God's mercy, then it's his gift of making us unable to lie.
  5. Happiness without freedom, or freedom without happiness. There was no third alternative.
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