Stalin's Music Prize

Abstract

This book takes a new look at musical life in Iosif Stalin's Soviet Union. It focuses on the musicians and composers who received Stalin Prizes, awarded annually to artists whose work was thought to represent the best in Soviet culture. The book sheds new light on the Communist leader's personal tastes, the lives and careers of those honored, including multiple-recipients Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitry Shostakovich, and the elusive artistic concept of ‘Socialist Realism’, offering the most comprehensive examination to date of the relationship between music and the Soviet state from 1940 through 1954. In discussing the various aspects of Soviet music during the period 1940–1954, the book looks at popular song composers, the Red Army choir, balalaika ensembles, and Kirghiz music dramas as well as musical genres that lie outside highbrow art music. The book describes the new environment in which the Stalin Prize Committee worked from the beginning of 1948 onwards and especially after Stalin's death.

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