RUSSIA THAT STRANGE TIME I AM NOT RETREATING ONE DAMNED STEP . 
IT IS GOOD TO BE ANGRY AT UNTRUTH . SO, IN 
THE FULL FLUSH OF DESTALINIZATION, WROTE EVGENY EVTUSHENKO, 29, THE RUSSIAN 
POET WHOSE HONEST RAGE AT THE CANT AND CALLOUSNESS OF SOVIET 
SOCIETY HAS MADE HIM THE IDOL OF HIS GENERATION . FOR 
A WHILE, IN FACT, IT SEEMED AS IF EVTUSHENKO (TIME COVER, 
APRIL 13, 1962) HAD BECOME A SEMIOFFICIAL ANGRY YOUNG MARXIST, WHOSE 
OCCASIONAL EXCESSES WERE TOLERATED BY THE REGIME BECAUSE THEY MADE IT 
APPEAR AS IF KHRUSHCHEV'S COMMUNISM COULD ACTUALLY ACCEPT CRITICISM . IF 
SO, EVTUSHENKO PUSHED HIS LUCK TOO FAR . VAIN APOLOGIES . 
DURING A SWING THROUGH FRANCE AND WEST GERMANY EARLY THIS YEAR, 
THE DASHING YOUNG POET WAS LIONIZED AT PARTIES (INCLUDING A MASQUERADE 
BALL DURING MUNICH'S ANNUAL CARNIVAL) BY PLEASURE-LOVING BOURGEOIS INTELLECTUALS . HE 
EVEN HELD A SERIES OF FREEWHEELING PRESS CONFERENCES . HEAPING SCORN 
ON THE PARTY FOSSILS WHOSE HACKWORK WINS THE STALIN PRIZE EACH 
YEAR, EVTUSHENKO ACTUALLY BLAMED STALIN'S REIGN OF TERROR ON THE DICTATOR'S 
" CLOSE ASSOCIATES " OF WHOM, THOUGH HE DID NOT SAY 
SO, NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV IS THE DEAN EMERITUS . THE POET'S MOST 
AUDACIOUS GESTURE OF INDEPENDENCE WAS TO GIVE THE EDITORS OF FRANCE'S 
L'EXPRESS HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY FOR PUBLICATION, KNOWING WELL THAT NO SOVIET WRITER 
IS PERMITTED TO PUBLISH ABROAD WITHOUT FIRST GETTING CLEARANCE FROM THE 
CENSORS . CUED BY KHRUSHCHEV HIMSELF, WHO RECENTLY RAPPED EVTUSHENKO FOR 
" CHEAP SENSATIONALISM, " A THREE-DAY MEETING OF THE UNION OF 
SOVIET WRITERS LAST MONTH ADDRESSED ITSELF ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY TO DESTROYING THE 
CULT OF EVTUSHENKO . IN ALL, CLOSE TO 40 TAME AUTHORS 
TROOPED MONOTONOUSLY FORWARD TO DENOUNCE EVTUSHENKO AND OTHER LIBERAL YOUNG WRITERS 
FOR OFFENSES RANGING FROM BAD RHYMES TO " SACRILGEIOUS STATEMENTS " 
ABOUT THE REVOLUTION . THOUGH EVTUSHENKO MADE ABJECT APOLOGIES FOR HIS 
" IRREVOCABLE MISTAKE, " THE DRUMFIRE OF CRITICISM ONLY GREW LOUDER 
AND MORE INSISTENT . MUTTER IN MINSK . LAST WEEK THE 
SOVIET PRESS FUMED THAT EVTUSHENKO AND OTHER YOUNG WRITERS SHOULD NOT 
BE ALLOWED TO TRAVEL ABROAD UNTIL THEY " MATURE POLITICALLY . 
" WHEN A WEST GERMAN GIRL WAS DETAINED AT THE SOVIET 
BORDER ON CHARGES OF SMUGGLING CAVIAR, IZVESTIA BROUGHT EVTUSHENKO INTO IT 
BY CHARGING THAT SHE HAD MET EVTUSHENKO IN GERMANY AND FROM 
HIM HAD LEARNED ALL ABOUT " FASHIONABLE MOSCOW YOUTH . " 
IN MINSK, WHERE DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH'S NEW 13TH SYMPHONY WAS PERFORMED FOR 
THE FIRST TIME OUTSIDE MOSCOW, A CRITIC CASTIGATED THE COMPOSER FOR 
BASING PART OF HIS SCORE ON EVTUSHENKO'S FAMED POEM, BABI YAR, 
A SAVAGE INDICTMENT OF SOVIET ANTI-SEMITISM THAT THE LITERARY COMMISSARS HAVE 
ALREADY MADE EVTUSHENKO REVISE . THOUGH KHRUSHCHEV WAS PLAINLY OUT TO 
MAKE EVTUSHENKO THE SCAPEGOAT, THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE POET WAS ONLY 
PART OF A NEW, SYSTEMATIC ATTEMPT TO CLAMP STRICT PARTY CONTROLS 
ON THE THEATER, MUSIC, ART, BOOK PUBLISHING, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN, AND EVERY 
OTHER FIELD IN WHICH YOUNG COMMUNISTS MIGHT BE TEMPTED TO VOICE 
INDEPENDENT THOUGHTS . IT WAS ONCE MORE THAT " STRANGE TIME, 
" AS EVTUSHENKO WROTE IN 1960, " WHEN COMMON INTEGRITY COULD 
BE CALLED COURAGE . / 