Maxim Gorki’s charge in the Isveztsia that Boris Pilnyak, one of Soviet Russia’s leading novelists, and who is now in the United States, had manifested anti-Semitism in some of his writings, was categorically denied by Mr. Pilnyak in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“I was amazed when I read Gorki’s statement as published in the American press,” Mr. Pilnyak declared. “Not only am I not an anti-Semite but I have the utmost admiration for the Jewish people who gave to the world so many geniuses from Christ to Karl Marx. And as a matter of fact I am of Jewish descent, my grandmother having been a Jewess.”
Mr. Pilnyak said that he could not understand on what Gorki based his allegation. “There must be some misunderstanding which I will, of course, seek to clear up on my return to Russia at the end of this month,” Mr. Pilnyak said. “But for the time being I simply want to make it clear that not only have I written nothing that can be characterized as anti-Semitic but on the contrary my two novels which deal with the subject of Jews, have been translated into Yiddish and Hebrew and enjoy the greatest popularity in Palestine.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
