A 2025 edition of Anatoly Ivanov's novel The Eternal Call, published by AST, omits a substantial part of a monologue by the character Lakhnovsky that became one of the sources for the conspiracy narrative known as the "Dulles Plan."
Literary blogger Yana Karachina drew attention to the differences between editions. The independent outlet Agents Media reported her findings on October 18.
Karachina compared a two-volume paperback edition published by AST in 2025 with an earlier hardcover edition, believed to have been published in 2022.
She found that Lakhnovsky's monologue, addressed to Soviet officer Pyotr Polipov, was considerably shorter in the newer edition. In one version it occupies approximately nine lines, compared with about half a page in the other.
The missing passage contains the character's reflections on undermining society through culture, propaganda, and government administration.
In the early 1990s, elements of this and other texts were used to spread the so-called "Dulles Plan," a document falsely presented as a secret American strategy for destroying the Soviet Union.
There is no credible evidence that US intelligence agencies ever produced such a document.
However, differences between editions of The Eternal Call do not necessarily indicate a new act of censorship. Karachina noted that the missing passage had not appeared in the novel's original Soviet-era edition and was introduced in a later, more complete version.
AST may therefore have used the earlier version of the novel for its reissue. The publisher, however, did not indicate that the text had been abridged or explain the editorial version used.
Without clarification from the publisher, it is not possible to determine reliably why that version of the text was chosen for the 2025 edition.
Original sources: Yana Karachina's comparison; Agents Media.