Letter of Forty-Two

The Letter of Forty-Two was an open letter signed by forty-two Russian literati, aimed at Russian society, the president and government, in reaction to the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. It was published in the newspaper Izvestia on 5 October 1993 under the title "Writers demand decisive actions of the government."

The letter contains the following seven demands:

Criticism

Newspaper Pravda reacted by publishing a letter by three Soviet dissidents – Andrey Sinyavsky, Vladimir Maximov and Pyotr Abovin-Yegides – calling for Boris Yeltsin's immediate resignation. It said among other things:
Nezavisimaya Gazeta's 2nd editor-in-chief Victoria Shokhina, mentioning Vasily Aksyonov's statement, on 3 October 2004, wondered how "all of those 'democratic' writers who were preaching humanism and denouncing capital punishment" all of a sudden "came to applaud mass execution without trial". According to Shokhina, writer Anatoly Rybakov, when asked, 'would he have signed it', replied: "By no means. A writer can not endorse bloodshed". "But people like Rybakov are few and far between in our 'democratic' camp, and such people there are being disliked", Shokhina remarked.

Support

A letter entitled "An appeal of the democratic public of Moscow to the President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin" was published on 8 October 1993, echoing key demands of the Letter of Forty-Two.

Letter of Forty-Two

Contents

Criticism

Support

Signatories