Gladilin

By the way, I had the chance of appearing on the pages of The New World with “Eternal Business Trip” (Vechnaya Komandirovka). Two of Tvardovsky’s deputies, Dementyev and Kondratovich, really wanted to publish it, but they explained to me that Tvardovsky cannot stomach any sort of formalistic quests, that I need to wait, and when he goes on vacation, they will stick the story into the next issue. Tvardovsky went on vacation. But the internal censor, who watched over The New World to prevent any ideological mistakes, was delayed by one day. He saw that a Gladilin piece was going into layout, took the manuscript home overnight, read through it, and called Tvardovsky in the morning. He ratted me out! Tvardovsky’s order: “Don’t go to print before my return.” When he returned, he read it and I was shown the verdict he had penned on the first page: “Westy-west, questy-quest, but what did he find?” That was it. The story was axed.

– Anatoly Gladilin, First Attempt at Memoirs (2007)