American Notes Soviet Union

Two towering figures from the Soviet Union's past re-emerged last week in an apparent attempt by Soviet leaders to come to terms with some of the unmentionables in the country's history. The first was Nobel-Prizewinning Writer Boris Pasternak, the second V.M. Molotov, a long-time aide of Stalin's.

At a five-day congress, members of the Soviet Writers' Union voted overwhelmingly to transform the former country house of Pasternak, who had once been a virtual non-person, into a museum. Writers also discussed the publication of Pasternak's most important novel, Doctor Zhivago, which is still banned in the Soviet Union. They apparently reached no definite ! conclusions about recommending publication.

Molotov, 96, served as Foreign Minister during and after Stalin's regime but was ousted from power by Nikita Khrushchev in 1957. Molotov was interviewed by Moscow News, a weekly paper. The article skirted political issues, merely presenting a personality profile on the friendly great grandfather. The paper, however, said Molotov approved of the loosening of limitations on editorial freedom that has accompanied Gorbachev's recent "openness" campaign.