STALINSVILLE ON THE STYX PRIVATE VASILY TERKIN WAS THE ETERNAL SAD SACHA, 
AND HIS FICTIONAL MILITARY EXPLOITS POKED SLY FUN AT SOVIET OFFICERDOM 
THROUGHOUT WORLD WAR II . RUSSIANS COMPLAINED MIGHTILY WHEN HIS CREATOR, 
POET ALEKSANDR TRIFONOVICH TVARDOVSKY, FAILED TO BRING HIM HOME FROM THE 
WARS . LAST WEEK, TO THEIR DELIGHT, VASILY WAS BACK WITH 
A DIFFERENCE . THE SOLDIER'S RETURN WAS CHRONICLED IN A SUBTLE, 
STYLISH NEW POEM BY TVARDOVSKY THAT WAS SPREAD ACROSS TWO PAGES 
OF IZVESTIA UNDER A WARMLY APPROVING INTRODUCTION BY EDITOR ALEKSEI ADZHUBEI, 
KHRUSHCHEV'S SON-IN-LAW . IN STALIN'S DAY, FOR ALL HIS BUFFOONERY, TERKIN 
ULTIMATELY HAD TO SYMBOLIZE " THE IDEAL SOVIET SOLDIER " ; 
IN HIS LATEST ADVENTURE, HE IS A COCKILY IRREVERENT FIGURE WHO 
GETS KILLED IN BATTLE AND GOES TO A " NETHER WORLD 
" THAT TURNS OUT TO BE A SORT OF STALINSVILLE ON 
THE STYX . HELL, TERKIN FINDS, IS LIKE THE MOSCOW SUBWAY, 
" ONLY LOWER . " IT IS RUN BY A PAMPERED 
ARMY OF BUREAUCRATS, WHO SPEND THEIR DAYS PLAYING DOMINOES AND YELLING 
AT THE INMATES TO KEEP OUT OF THEIR WAY . A 
MODEL OF COMMUNIST PLANNING, THE NETHER WORLD HAS MENUS BUT NO 
FOOD, STEAM BATHS WITHOUT STEAM, HOTELS WITHOUT BEDS . THERE IS 
EVEN A MAGAZINE EDITOR WHO " SWEATS ALL OVER " AS 
HE " PUTS IN QUOTES AND TAKES THEM OUT AGAIN AND 
READS EACH PAGE FROM TOP TO BOTTOM AND FROM BOTTOM TO 
TOP . " SAYS ONE BIG BROTHERLY GHOST : " YOU 
DON'T HAVE TO TALK, YOU DON'T HAVE TO THINK AT ALL 
. " TERKIN FINALLY MANAGES TO ESCAPE AND WAKES UP IN 
A HOSPITAL ON EARTH, WHERE DOCTORS CONFIDENTLY PREDICT THAT HE WILL 
LIVE TO BE 100 . THE MORAL OF TERKIN'S TRIP, TVARDOVSKY 
SUGGESTS, IS THAT ALL RUSSIANS SHARE THE BLAME FOR STALIN BECAUSE 
THEY RESIGNED THEMSELVES TO HIS EXCESSES INSTEAD OF RESISTING THEM . 
HOWEVER, THE POET ALSO URGES RUSSIANS TO STOP HARPING ON STALINISM, 
WHICH HAS BEEN KHRUSHCHEV'S LINE OF LATE . TERKIN'S RESURRECTION WAS 
A SIGN THAT KHRUSHCHEV HAD DECIDED TO SOFTEN A CAMPAIGN AGAINST 
CONTROVERSIAL WRITING THAT HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE DECEMBER . IN 
FACT, EDITOR ADZHUBEI NOTED REASSURINGLY, NIKITA LIKED THE POEM AND LAUGHED 
LOUDLY WHEN IT WAS READ TO HIM BEFORE PUBLICATION . 