Stalin's Scribe
Literature, Ambition, and Survival; The Life of Mikhail Sholokhov

I liked this book quite well - I felt like I learned some things about Soviet history and at the same time I was engaged by the story. As is sometimes the case, however, I am not sure how much other folks might like this. My basic college degree was in Russian & Soviet studies, so I had much of the c......more

"Literature cannot be judged by courts... ideas can only be combated with ideas, not camps and jails." --Lidiia Chukovskaia I read 'Scribe' in the hopes of learning more about Quiet Don, Sholokov, and its controversial position in world literature. 'Stalin's Scribe' covers the the controversial posit......more

I’ve never made much progress with Sholokhov’s novels but I appreciated this solid biography and expect it will give me the strength to try the Nobel prize winning author another go. The biography explains the author’s literary strengths and also his flaws and complicated relationship with power.......more

Stalin had a high regard for artists as "engineers of the soul" and kept an iron grip on artists to control the narrative of his rule. Many artists who displeased Stalin ended up dead or in a labor camp but Sholokhov escaped his ire because Stalin admired the novelist. I once read the novelist's Qui......more

One of the more interesting books on Russian history in recent years. "The Quiet Don" by Mikhail Sholokhov is a very important novel to me. It probably is the source of my interest in Russian history. "Stalin's Scribe" is an unusual biography of Sholokhov. It is perhaps more of a career study, but it......more