“In this day and age!” exclaims the Devil in Bulgakov’s novel upon meeting the Master, who, in Soviet Russia in the 1920’s, has written a book about Pontius Pilate and the Crucifixion of Jesus. The same thought occurs to every reader, who is surprised to find such a book published in the Soviet Union today...

The jail sentences imposed in 1966 by a Soviet court on the novelist and critic Andrej Sinjavskij and his less well known friend and associate Julij Danièl’ probably brought to a close two of the most interesting careers in the history of Soviet literature...