FROM THE SECOND CITY MOST RUSSIAN INTELLECTUALS LISTENED IN TIGHT-LIPPED SILENCE AS 
WORD OF NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV'S LATEST CULTURAL CRACKDOWN (TIME, MARCH 22) FILTERED 
OUT TO THE PROVINCES . NOT SO THE WRITERS AND ARTISTS 
OF LENINGRAD, RUSSIA'S SECOND CITY . WHEN THE LOCAL COMMISSARS MET 
TO GIVE THEM THE WORD, THE INTELLECTUALS TALKED RIGHT BACK . 
THE LENINGRAD EDITION OF PRAVDA REPORTED ACIDLY LAST WEEK THAT THE 
CURATOR OF THE WEST EUROPEAN ART HISTORY SECTION OF LENINGRAD'S FAMED 
HERMITAGE MUSEUM ROSE TO DEFEND " FORMALISTIC DISTORTIONS AND ASSERTED THAT 
" THIS IS BUOYANT, CREATIVE ART . " ' WHAT'S MORE, 
THE PROMINENT DIRECTOR OF THE COMEDY THEATER, NIKOLAI P . AKIMOV, 
" FURIOUSLY DEFENDED THE RIGHT TO UNLIMITED EXPERIMENTATION WITH FORM . 
" PAINTER LEONID A . TKACHENKO NOT ONLY BACKED UP COLLEAGUES 
WHO WERE UNDER ATTACK, BUT " DID NOT GIVE A CORRECT 
EVALUATION OF CRITICISM DIRECTED AT HIMSELF . " THAT WASN'T ALL 
. " THINGS EVEN CAME TO SUCH A PASS, " SAID 
THE NEWSPAPER, " THAT SOME BEGAN TO FEEL " SHY' ABOUT 
SPEAKING ON SOCIALIST REALISM . " SHYEST OF ALL INTELLECTUALS IN 
THE SOVIET UNION WAS POET EVGENY EVTUSHENKO, USUALLY THE MOST OUTSPOKEN 
OF THE LOT . EVTUSHENKO HAD BEEN SINGLED OUT BY KHRUSHCHEV 
FOR A SCATHING ATTACK BECAUSE OF THE POET'S POPULARITY IN THE 
WEST . AFTER THE PREMIER'S BLAST, HE WENT INTO SECLUSION WITH 
HIS WIFE IN A DACHA SOUTH OF MOSCOW, AND LAST WEEK 
LET WORD CIRCULATE THAT HE HAD INDEFINITELY " POSTPONED " LONG 
SCHEDULED TRIPS TO ITALY AND THE U.S . ALONG WITH VETERAN 
NOVELIST-PROPAGANDIST EHRENBURG, WHOSE CONTROVERSIAL MEMOIRS WERE BEING SERIALIZED IN THE LITERARY 
JOURNAL NOVY MIR . LAST WEEK IT WAS REPORTED THAT THE 
NEXT ISSUE WOULD NOT CARRY THE USUAL INSTALLMENT AND THAT NOVY 
MIR EDITOR ALEKSANDR T . TVARDOVSKY HAD BEEN FIRED . 