TWO EXISTENTIAL ROMANCES Ojars Kratins, p. 14
The Snows by Janis Klidzejs and Beyond the Seventh Bridge by Ilze Skipsna reveal their structure and meaning best if they are read as romances rather than novels. Neglect of the social milieu, of particularity in characterization, of geographical and temporal environment is typical of the romance genre. Both works also eschew plain narrative and cultivate stylistic idiosycracies. The Snows depicts idealized characters, abstracted from their background, coping with existencial problems of death, identity, isolation. Beyond the Seventh Bridge is a more experimental work. The action unfolds intermittently on literal, allegorical, and symbolic planes, but does not yield an equally coherent pattern on all. The protagonists are at the same time two separate people and two aspects of a single self, which, being split into diametric opposites,cannot individually survive.LITERATURE BY PERMIT Gyula Borbandi, p. 22
Since the 1956 revolution, Hungarian literature has developed in the area between what is decreed and what is possible. Writers have become acquainted with Western literature, especially through the magazine Nagyvilag.THOUGHTS ON THE FUTURE OF LATVIA Bruno Kalnins, p. 25
Of the three possible ways Latvia might regain freedom - war, revolution, evolution - the first must be rejected, and only the last seems likely. In the past decade Soviet totalitarianism has somewhat softened. Hastened by the growing independence of the satellites, a gradual democratization of the USSR could take place. For the present, Latvian national survival depends upon a successful resistance to the pressure of russification. The only acceptable goal for the distant future is an independent democratic state, based upon the constitution of 1922, in the framework of a federated Europe. An industrially oriented, mixed economy would best reflect the social changes that have occurred since 1940.THE EVOLUTION OF LATVIAN INDEPENDENCE (III) Uldis Germanis, p. 27
while Mensheviks and others insisted that only autonomy could guarantee national survival. While the simplicity of the Bolshevik ideas found unexpected response among the Latvian riflemen, and the Baltic German circles rejoiced at this setback of the nationalists, the Latvian SDP on July 22,1917, passed a strongly worded resolution asking for complete political autonomy for a democratic Latvia. Just weeks later a conference with a broader representation of political factions unanimously passed another resolution demanding political and territorial autonomy for Latvia within a Russian democratic republic. Meantime, the Latvian National Democrats, who operated from Moscow, ceaselessly demanded that Latvians settle for nothing less than political sovereignty and independence of Russia,
In the spring of 1917, Lenin and Stalin officially espoused the principles of self-determination and possible autonomy of non-Russian nationalities within the former tsarist empire. Immediately, the nationalist interests began to clash with the idea of international class solidarity and the class war. Bolshevik leaders in the Latvian Social Democratic Party first stood for union with Russia (and Europe),EPILOGUE TO A TRAGEDY Agnis Balodis, p. 36
The official policy of cooperating with the German occupation inWW II seems a tragic mistake in retrospect. Of the Latvians who fought under German arms, some 80, 000 were captured by the Soviets and treated as traitors, another 50,000 are known or presumed casualties, and the remaining 20,000 ended up in the West. These men fought scattered throughout the front, and their loss constituted an enourmous blow to the vital reproductive power of the nation. There could not have been greater losses sustained in an armed resistance to the Soviet occupation of 1940; the gains in international prestige would have been considerable (witness Finland).PRINCIPLES OF HOLOGRAM PHOTOGRAPHY Juris Upatnieks, p. 42
Starting from the research of Dennis-Gabor, Juris Upatnieks and Emmeth N.Leith developed at the University of Michigan the process of hologram, or three-dimensional, photography of larger than microscopic objects with a laser as the light source. The author explains the theory and operation of the process and the characteristics of the results.BOOK REVIEWS GRAMATAS, p. 54
This small country is an exciting microcosm of the problems and ills of the world today: chauvinism and politically hostile neighbours, race discrimination, conflicts between the „natives” and the immigrants. Ojars Kratins on Zenta Maurina, Die Aufgabe des Dichters in unserer Zeit (The Poet's Mission in Our Day). The book is a polemic against modern trends in literature, based on a misunderstanding of these trends and on the assumption that literature ought to teach ethically. Maurina leaves no room for discovery that grows out of experiment.
Gunars Irbe on Madleine Kats, Taggig frukt: att leva i Israel (The Prickly Fruit: Life in Israel.)