An Embarrassment of Tyrannies

"Index on Censorship", the international magazine for freedom of expression, was founded in 1972 in response to appeals to the West from writers, scientists and scholars in Eastern Europe against the injustice of show trials of dissident writers such as Yuri Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky. An appeal for support, published in "The Times", from Russian writer, Pavel Litvinov, led to a telegram from "a group of friends representing no organization, who support your statement, admire your courage, think of you and will help in any way possible". Among the signatories were Cecil Day-Lewis, Yehudi Menuhin, W.H. Auden, Henry Moore, Stephen Spender, A.J. Ayer, Bertrand Russell, Julian Huxley, Mary McCarthy, J.B. Priestley, Jacquetta Hawkes, Paul Scofield, Igor Stravinsky, Stuart Hampshire, Maurice Bowra and Sonia Orwell. This text provides an anthology of 25 years of the magazine.