Write 10 page essay on the topic Report and interpretation on The magical chorus: a history of Russian culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn by Solomon Volkov.Prone to erratic behavior, he had absolute

Write 10 page essay on the topic Report and interpretation on The magical chorus: a history of Russian culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn by Solomon Volkov.

Prone to erratic behavior, he had absolute power over his people. This proved to be tragic for artists such as Genrick Neilhaus, who was arrested in 1941 on charges of being anti-Soviet and a “defeatist.” He was held in solitary confinement for nine months. Other musicians, who were of German descent,

were executed for questionable charges.

As Stalin saw it, classical composers in the interpretation of these talented musicians were mobilized to serve Marxist ideology, and the performers were turned into ideal representatives of the socialist camp: they possessed

Stalin tried to create a society that was immune to the influence of western media and art forms. But he failed. Such American musicians as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong were very popular among the Soviet people. Volkov describes this:ii

Jazz, one of the most important manifestations of American culture, was used right away as a propaganda weapon. Charles Bohlen, the American ambassador to the Soviet Union, had noticed the popularity of voice of America jazz programs in Moscow and at his suggestion in1955 the station began a special project, Music USA, devoted to jazz.

Classical music as well was used by Americans trying to pierce the Iron Curtain. The Boston Symphony Orchestra performed in Russia in 1956 and the Philadelphia equivalent did so in 1958. These events had a major effect on Russian social and cultural life.

Stalins successor, Nikita Khrushchev, sought both to cleanse the USSR of Stalins memory and to forge a new alliance with its artists. Several of the writers that Stalin favored were removed from their positions, replaced by ones that the new leader saw as sympathetic to his crusade to reinvent the Soviet Union.iii In fact, overall people in the arts fared more poorly under Khrushchev than his predecessor. As Volkov notes:

But over the course of his years in power (1953-1964), Khrushchev never did learn how to