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Standing Firm for Freedom of the Press (A letter to Ann Telnaes)
I admire...
..you for standing firm for freedom of the press, despite being perched on the slippery slope of American descent into fascism and autocracy. Satire has always been and must remain a precious element of democracy and free speech. I saw this in the Soviet Union during the years when there was a short-lived flourishing of freedom. Please see the photo below from my collection of matryoshkas.
While it was once seen as sacrilege to depict Soviet leaders other than with the utmost respect, that changed under Gorbachev when artists started showing leaders as nesting dolls. But note, in the beginning the satire embraced Gorbachev, Brezhnev, Khrushchev – and eventually Stalin. But even after Stalin became an acceptable target of satire, Lenin remained off limits for a while.
It was only later that you could pop open Stalin and find a little Lenin inside.
If either the story or the photo are useful to you in any way, please feel free to share/use.
Again, thank you for taking a stand. It matters.
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