Christina Ezrahi

Dancing for Stalin by Christina Ezrahi is the story of dancer/choreographer Nina Anisimova with an emphasis on the time and impact of her time in a Soviet gulag.

For those who primarily enjoy biographies this is one you will not soon forget. Anisimova's story is filled with incredible highs and devastating lows, and Ezrahi does a wonderful job of telling the story, often in Anisimova's own words.

What sets this book apart from many biographies is what it has to say about both Stalinist Russia and, more broadly, the role of artists in an authoritarian regime. There is a great deal of valuable historical information here that will appeal to the reader with an interest in history.

The aspect about artists and authoritarian regimes speaks both to that specific time and place as well as all such situations. With the trend toward anti-intellectualism, or more accurately toward anti-truth, artists are once again considered a threat to those wanting authoritarian rule. We would do well to take this lesson to heart before the minority on the right complete their destruction of democracy.

Highly recommended for those into biographies, Soviet, particularly Stalinist, history, and those wanting to learn from history to make the future a better rather than a more barbaric place where boys feel justified in going to another state and murdering people in "self-defense."

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (meer)