Alexis Adjubei, son-in-law of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and editor of the official Government newspaper, Izvestia, announced here today that “Judaism Without Embellishment, ” the book widely criticized in the West as anti-Semitic, has been confiscated and destroyed.
He said “all copies of the book have been destroyed, and the publication is no longer available anywhere in the Soviet Union. ” He made the announcement at a luncheon in his honor tendered by the French Association of Diplomatic Correspondents. The book was published in Kiev last year by the Ukrainian Academy of Science.
Mr. Adjubei added that: “As far as I know, the only copies of the book still available are reproductions being printed in the United States for purposes of anti-Soviet propaganda. ” His 90-minute discussion with leading French and foreign correspondents was centered almost entirely on the issue of Russia’s Jewish policy. A number of leading French newspapermen, including the editors of Le Monde and France Soir, severely criticized the Soviet Union on that issue.
In answer to a question on another issue, the Soviet editor said that the USSR. policy of peaceful co-existence applied also to the Middle East, and that Russia favored a peaceful solution of the “Palestine issue.” He did not indicate the nature of that solution. The Soviet Union has consistently favored the Arab position on such issues as that of the future of the Palestinian Arab refugees, and has supplied armaments to the Arab states.
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