To see him, just to see him, filled everybody with happiness... Every gesture of his was met with gratitude. I have never imagined that I would be capable of feeling such things... Pasternak and I walked home together, both filled with happiness... The day before we listened to Stalin's radio speech about the Constitution of the USSR. That was a speech for the ages.

—Korney Chukovsky, poet, publicist, literary critic, interpreter and literary scientist, childrens' author, journalist