{"product_id":"stalins-scribe-literature-ambition-and-survival-the-life-of-mikhail-sholokhov-9781681778747","title":"Stalin's Scribe: Literature  Ambition  and Survival: The Life of Mikhail Sholokhov","description":"\u003cp\u003eA 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 in history. As a young man  Sholokhovs epic novel  Quiet Don  became an unprecedented overnight success.  Stalins Scribe is the first biography of a man who was once one of the Soviet Unions most prominent political figures. Thanks to the opening of Russias archives  Brian Boeck discovers that Sholokhovs 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 dictators death.  Stalins 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 sympatheticand 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 Unions populationthe handful of individuals whom Stalin personally intervened to save.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648254697525,"sku":"ByrdShop_1681778742","price":21.06,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781681778747.jpg?v=1781713994","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/stalins-scribe-literature-ambition-and-survival-the-life-of-mikhail-sholokhov-9781681778747","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}