Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

Stalin's Scribe

Literature, Ambition, and Survival; The Life of Mikhail Sholokhov

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks

A masterful and definitive biography of one of the most misunderstood and controversial writers in Russian literature

Mikhail Sholokhov is arguably one of the most contentious recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature. As a young man, Sholokhov's epic novel, Quiet Don, became an unprecedented overnight success.

Stalin's Scribe is the first biography of a man who was once one of the Soviet Union's most prominent political figures. Thanks to the opening of Russia's archives, Brian Boeck discovers that Sholokhov's official Soviet biography is actually a tangled web of legends, half-truths, and contradictions. Boeck examines the complex connection between an author and a dictator, revealing how a Stalinist courtier became an ideological acrobat and consummate politician in order to stay in favor and remain relevant after the dictator's death.

Stalin's Scribe is remarkable biography that both reinforces and clashes with our understanding of the Soviet system. It reveals a Sholokhov who is bold, uncompromising, and sympathetic―and reconciles him with the vindictive and mean-spirited man described in so many accounts of late Soviet history.

Shockingly, at the height of the terror, which claimed over a million lives, Sholokhov became a member of the most minuscule subset of the Soviet Union's population―the handful of individuals whom Stalin personally intervened to save.


Publisher: Blackstone Publishing Edition: Unabridged

OverDrive Listen audiobook

  • ISBN: 9781982684976
  • File size: 387286 KB
  • Release date: May 28, 2019
  • Duration: 13:26:50

0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks

Formats

OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

English

A masterful and definitive biography of one of the most misunderstood and controversial writers in Russian literature

Mikhail Sholokhov is arguably one of the most contentious recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature. As a young man, Sholokhov's epic novel, Quiet Don, became an unprecedented overnight success.

Stalin's Scribe is the first biography of a man who was once one of the Soviet Union's most prominent political figures. Thanks to the opening of Russia's archives, Brian Boeck discovers that Sholokhov's official Soviet biography is actually a tangled web of legends, half-truths, and contradictions. Boeck examines the complex connection between an author and a dictator, revealing how a Stalinist courtier became an ideological acrobat and consummate politician in order to stay in favor and remain relevant after the dictator's death.

Stalin's Scribe is remarkable biography that both reinforces and clashes with our understanding of the Soviet system. It reveals a Sholokhov who is bold, uncompromising, and sympathetic―and reconciles him with the vindictive and mean-spirited man described in so many accounts of late Soviet history.

Shockingly, at the height of the terror, which claimed over a million lives, Sholokhov became a member of the most minuscule subset of the Soviet Union's population―the handful of individuals whom Stalin personally intervened to save.



Loading