In the works published by Valentin Kataev after 1966, his own past is reflected consistently. This tempts the reader and critic to interpret them as memoirs. However, such a label is too narrow and thus inaccurate. For Kataev, the past stimulates his imagination, and memory is the relentless, uncontrollable retriever of previous times. Rather than a factual resurrection of Kataev's past, his prose of this period is an adorned recreation. The critical "thaw", that followed Stalin's death, permitted the expression of sincere emotion in Soviet literature; sincere, in the sense that suffering that resulted from the implementation of the new plan could be revealed in prose and poetry. Kataev accepted this opportunity. In the stories that this study examines, Uzhe napisan Verter, Spiashchii, and Sukhoi liman, Kataev expresses how life from the past can remain and change for survivors in the present.

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