4 January 1996

Writers Support Writers

The Dutch writer Karel van het Reve established the Alexander Herzen Foundation in 1969 to publish manuscripts from dissident Russian writers in the West. This led to the publication of work by Andrey Amalrik (1938-1980), including Will the Soviet Union survive until 1984? The Herzen Foundation included Russian and Dutch novelists who formed a circle of close friends. On 4 January 1996 the Dutch writer Maarten Biesheuvel sent a present to Van het Reve that Amalrik had purchased some 25 years earlier: 'please find included a box of roasted pine nuts that Andrey Amalrik sent from Siberia to Pavel Litvinov, who gave this box in Moscow to Eva and Maarten, and now we give it to you both.'
The Alexander Herzen Foundation archive is at the IISH.

See also:

•  About the Alexander Herzen Foundation
•  Archive Alexander Herzen Foundation (Amsterdam)
•  Elisabeth Fisher-Spanjer papers

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