As Penkovsky Saw It

By their automatic attack on The Penkovsky Papers (there is no need to imitate the publisher’s mysterious refusal to put names in the usual transliteration) as “a crude U.S. forgery,” the Communists have made the question of authenticity the axis of critical discussion. In this way they divert readers as well as reviewers from serious reflection on what the author— whether Soviet Colonel Oleg Penkovsky, shot (or allegedly shot) as a spy and traitor in May 1963, or an imaginative CIA consultant—has to say.

One may take it for granted, governments being what they are, that the manuscript has been processed in some degree by a U.S. agency. The editor (Frank Gibney) mentions cuts to eliminate “repetition” and there are no doubt cuts for other reasons. It would not be surprising if there were also a few educational additions. But for the most part the text would seem to be the genuine article composed by Penkovsky himself and smuggled out, as other manuscripts (e.g. those of the recently imprisoned ”Abram Tertz”) have been, through winding channels.

JB

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James Burnham

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By their automatic attack on The Penkovsky Papers (there is no need to imitate the publisher’s mysterious refusal to put names in the usual transliteration) as “a crude U.S. forgery,” the Communists have made the question of authenticity the axis of critical discussion. In this way they divert readers as well as reviewers from serious reflection on what the author— whether Soviet Colonel Oleg Penkovsky, shot (or allegedly shot) as a spy and traitor in May 1963, or an imaginative CIA consultant—has to say.

One may take it for granted, governments being what they are, that the manuscript has been processed in some degree by a U.S. agency. The editor (Frank Gibney) mentions cuts to eliminate “repetition” and there are no doubt cuts for other reasons. It would not be surprising if there were also a few educational additions. But for the most part the text would seem to be the genuine article composed by Penkovsky himself and smuggled out, as other manuscripts (e.g. those of the recently imprisoned ”Abram Tertz”) have been, through winding channels.