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_ Americans and Canadians saw

_ Policy.

ANTON CHEKHOV.

> 2s
.. great Russian writer

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NEW BOOK TELLS OF
-KHRUSHCHEV U.S. TRIP

FACE TO FACE WITH AMERICA — Foreign Languages
Publishing House, Moscow. $1.50.

This is the story of the

profound change in international relations — the thirteen
days of the visit of Khrushchev. to the United States, as
Seen through the eyes of the Soviet journalists and writers

who made the tour

It could not have come at
a better time. Now when the
United States is once again
Practising “brinkmanship,”
when the President who talk-
ed with Khrushchev. at Camp

David is seemingly a prisoner j

of forces he cannot control, it

_4s good to read this account of}:

the impact made by the head
of the first socialist state on
the people of the United States. |

Despite unnecessarily strin-
gent security precautions, thou-
sands of Americans saw
Khurshchey in the flesh, saw,
in his own words “a real live
Communist” and millions more

and heard him on television
and radio. The authors quote
a U.S. journalist as saying that
the American people “took an
all-American Seminar in Marx-

Hollywood Stars
for nuclear ban

Milton Berle, Groucho Marx,
Red Buttons, Joanne Wood-
ward, Jeff Chandler and
Arthur Miller have joined the
list of show people in the Coast
Chapter of the National Com-
mittee for a Sane Nuclear

The group urges a world-
wide ban on nuclear weapons.

' discussion — and he read his

thirteen days that marked a

ism-Leninism.” .

This book describes the
whole journey, beginning with
the tremendous send off given
the party at the airport in Mos-
cow; the flight in the TU-114,
even the conversation with the
Canadian navigator who was
aboard. 2

The impressions of the Soviet
journalists of the United States
are in themselves fascinating.
Striking indeed is the pro-
fundity of their observations of
American life.

The ironic description of the
dinner meeting of the Econo-
mic Club is alone worth the
price of the book, but that is
only one morsel in a volume
simply packed with good
things. Here, for instance, is
the full account of the famous
meeting with Reuther and the
other trade union leaders
where, to quote the book,
“Reuther had a thick file be-
fore him—the scenario for the

questions and retorts from it
without batting an eyelid.”

Mention must be made of the
splendid photographs and the
inclusion of a selection of the
letters received by Premier
Khrushchev from Americans in
all walks of life thanking him
for his visit.

A memorable book to read,
to keep and to lend.

(Available at People’s Co-

Co-chairmen are Robert Ryan}
and Steve Allen. —

op Bookstore, 307 W. Pender

CENTENNIAL MARKED

absolute and honest truth.”
He was born in 18690.

feckless family of

hov’s personal life was an un:
ending struggle against pov:
erty and. ill-health.

He determined to study
medicine and used his pen toa
pay his way through Univer.
sity. During this period, he
contracted tuberculosis from
which he died in 1904. As a
physician, he regarded healing
as a human right and most of
his patients came from the
poor. His writing continued to
provide his _ livelihood. He
wrote to a friend, ‘Medicine
is my lawful wife and litera-
ture, my mistress,” | ;

The youthful Chekhov was
influenced by Tolstoy’s ideas
on .non-resistance to evil but
his experiences while study-
ing. conditions in a Tsarist pri-
son camp caused him to reject
‘that doctrine in order to fight
the evils of bourgeois society.
His novel, “‘Ward 6” demolish-
ed hazy idealism in favour of
active struggle. :

In a society oppressed by a
dissolute aristocracy, he por-
trayed the frustrations of mid-
dle class life with ironical
truth. Throughout his writing,
one finds that men and women
become what they are through
the impossible social and econ-
omic stresses of their society.

Unimaginative critics have
said that his work lacks action,
shallow because Chekhov
makes use of the psychological
climax and his subtle restraint
conceals the immediate impact
of his writing. He depends on

Plan Soviet
science film

Producer Sergei Gerasimov
is thinking of making a film
about a Soviet engineer’s plan

so change the climate of vast
areas of the northern hemi-
sphere. Pe
But “it will not be a scienc
fiction film,” he said. “It will
rather be a study of the cir-
cumstances in which it would
become possible to tackle the
“project.” :

Gerasimov believes - science
and scientists will play a much
more important part in Soviet

His
father, a petty and tyrannical
grocer deserted his somewhat
six who
turned to Chekhov for moral
and financial support. Chek-

By KAY EDWARDS

Rights of man was the
credo of Anton Chekhov

_ “I too love my country and her people. I feel that as a writer, it is my duty to speak .
of their sorrows, of their future, of science and the rights of man.” Such was the credo
of Anton Chekhov, grandson of a serf, who instituted a revolution against the artificial
plays and slick short stories of his time and who aimed in all his writing to tell “the

Photo of Chekhoy and
Tolstoi taken around 19602.

delayed action to convey un-
derstanding to his readers.
Chekhov’s association with
Stanislavsky and the daring
young Moscow Art Theatre
was vital to the successful pro-
duction of his work. Indeed,
without “The Method,” and its

“ee shocking innovations, it is

doubtiul if “The Seagull” and
the “Cherry Orchard’ could
have suceeded at that time.
“My Life’in Art,’ by Stanis-
lavsky conveys much of the
richness of their relationship.

Chekhov’s influence on mod-
érn writers should be noted.
Katherine Mansfield was his
lisciple as was Ernest Heming-
way. His unusual combination
of realism and impressionism
created a new school of writ-
ing.

This year, we celebrate the
centennial of his birth. Could
we do better than to recail the
speech of Trofimov in the
“Cherry Orchard”? “Mankind
marches forward, perfecting
itself. All that we find unat-
tainable now, will some day
be near and clear; but we must
work, we must do our utmost
to help those who seek after
truth.”

CANNES—A Soviet pic-
ture of young love in war-
time moved the Cannes Film
Festival audience to tears
and _enthusiastic _applause
recently. _“Very _touching”’
wione a DrUiant tm 450.6
“certain to win an important
prize,’ were some of the
comments on “The Ballad of

a Soldier.”

The leading actors, Vladimir
Ivashov, who plays a soldier
on leave, and Shanna Prok-
horenkova, a girl he meets in
a military goods wagon, were

New Soviet film hit at Cannes

ours.

Both are stuxents at the
State Institute of Cinemato-
graphy and this is their first
Major picture, directed by
Grigori Chukhrai, whose first
film, “‘The Forty-First,” attrac-
ted world-wide attention.

The new film tells the story
of a 19-year-old soldier who
has a six-day leave to visit his
mother but the journey takes
so long he has only a few min-
utes to embrace his distraught
mother.

He departs for the front
where he will die. The last
scene shows the Russian moth-
er looking down a dusty road

immediately tipped as strong

as a vcice announces: “He

candidates for top acting hon- | might have lived.”

to dam the Bering Straits and| %

St.) R. Ross

film making in the future.

Chinese students in Peking are seen above celebrating

May Day with street dancing.

May 20, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5

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