“There were harsher and potentially more threatening judgments made of [Boris] Spassky.[Boris] Spassky. Baturinskii accused him of being under the sway of ‘objectivist views over the location of his match with Fischer. At a preliminary discussion with the USSR Chess Federation leadership, Spassky had declared: ‘I consider it inadvisable to hold the match in the USSR, since this would give a certain advantage to one of the participants, and the match should be held on equal terms …’
“Broadly, ‘objectivism’ meant expressing views not based on a Marxist-Leninist analysis. The official Soviet reference book, The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia, defined this sin as ‘A world-view [based on] socio-political “neutrality” and [refraining] from party-based conclusions … In reality it … masks a social and class-based subjectivism … objectivism is orientated towards serving, albeit not openly, the dominant conservative or reactionary force of the social “order of things”.’ In other words, Spassky was demonstrating an incorrect political consciousness.”
Séamus Sweeney 