Issue:

№7 2019

УДК / UDK: 82(091)
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-7894-2019-7-440-451

Author: Thomas Urban
About the author:

Thomas Urban (M.A. in Philology, researcher, writer, correspondent of the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, Germany)

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Abstract:

The article dwells on the Russian/Soviet trace in Canto LXXVII by Ezra Pound where he mentioned Katyn (written as “Katin”, line 42). After the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest in 1943, the Nazi government decided to organize propaganda campaigns in order to blame the Soviets and to break the Grand Alliance. German embassies in Italy, Finland, Czechoslovak Republic, Belgium and some other countries were inviting writers to Katyn and encouraging them to publish essays and feuilletons on their impressions. Ezra Pound, who lived in Italy at that time, was invited by Gotthardt Maucksch, an employee of the cultural department of the German Embassy in Rome. The poet was interested in traveling there but was refused a visa. The paper comments reports written by the international delegation representatives who visited Katyn, most of which were anti-Soviet. During his stay at St Elizabeths Hospital, Pound followed the news on the Madden Committee investigation of the Katyn massacre (1951–1952) and referred to Katyn in his letters to Olivia Rossetti Agresti. Back to Italy, Pound reestablished contact with Gotthardt Maucksch (his name, written as Maukch, also appeared in the Katyn context in Canto LXXVII). However, Maucksch did not leave any memories that could shed light on his post-war literary contacts with Pound. Documents on the Foreign Ministry plan to invite Pound to join the intended trip to Katyn in 1943 were destroyed during the bombings of Berlin in World War II.

Keywords: Ezra Pound, The Cantos, Katyn, World War II.
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