DIARY
15 March 1949
In any case, I wanted to note down some facts concerning the publication of my books after the war. My poor book “Antiaircraft Gun” (Zenitka) lay in the drawer of that swindler Rudensky (at the time he was the actual boss of the publishing house “Radians’kyi pys’mennyk”) for two whole years. For two years Rudensky (and this means not only Rudensky, but also Stebun and co.) kept the book in his drawer. Among other things, I have this flaw in my character that I never go begging for my book or story to be published! Want to publish it – go ahead, if not – no problem! My part of the deal is only to write the thing! There are obviously people whose job it is to publish the thing, if it is worthy, to make it available to the reading public. For their efforts, these people
