{"product_id":"9781350238886","title":"Ransomed Dissident A Life in Art Under the Soviets","description":"\u003ch1\u003eRansomed Dissident\u003c\/h1\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Life in Art Under the Soviets\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003ch3\u003eIgor Golomstock | Robert Chandler | Sara Jolly | Boris Dralyuk\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003eArt \/ History \/ Contemporary\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1939, a ten-year-old Igor Golomstock accompanied his mother, a medical doctor, to the vast network of labour camps in the Russian Far East. While she tended patients, he was minded by assorted 'trusty' prisoners – hardened criminals – and returned to Moscow an almost feral adolescent, fluent in obscene prison jargon but intellectually ignorant. Despite this dubious start he became a leading art historian and co-author (with his close friend Andrey Sinyavsky) of the first, deeply controversial, monograph on Picasso published in the Soviet Union.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis writings on his 43 years in the Soviet Union offer a rare insight into life as a quietly subversive art historian and the post-Stalin dissident community. In vivid prose Golomstock shows the difficulties of publishing, curating and talking about Western art in Soviet Russia and, with self-deprecating humour, the absurd tragicomedy of life for the Moscow intelligentsia during Khruschev's thaw and Brezhnev's stagnation. He also offers a unique personal perspective on the 1966 trial of Sinyavsky and Yuri Daniel, widely considered the end of Khruschev's liberalism and the spark that ignited the Soviet dissident movement.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1972 he was given 'permission' to leave the Soviet Union, but only after paying a 'ransom' of more than 25 years' salary, nominally intended to reimburse the state for his education. A remarkable collection of artists, scholars and intellectuals in Russia and the West, including Roland Penrose, came together to help him pay this astronomical sum. His memoirs of life once in the UK offer an insider's view of the BBC Russian Service and a penetrating analysis of the notorious feud between Sinyavsky and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNominated for the Russian Booker Prize on its publication in Russian in 2014, \u003ci\u003eThe Ransomed Dissident\u003c\/i\u003e opens a window onto the life of a remarkable man: a dissident of uncompromising moral integrity and with an outstanding gift for friendship.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIgor Golomstock\u003c\/b\u003e (1929 – 2017) was a distinguished Russian art historian. He spent 12 years working as researcher and curator at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and published books on Cézanne, Picasso, Hieronymus Bosch and the art of ancient Mexico, as well as the seminal study of 'totalitarian art'. His translations of \u003ci\u003eDarkness at Noon\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAnimal Farm\u003c\/i\u003e circulated widely in \u003ci\u003esamizdat\u003c\/i\u003e among the Moscow intelligentsia in the late 1950s. After emigrating to the UK, Golomstock taught at the universities of St Andrews, Essex and Oxford, and worked for the BBC Russian Service and Radio Liberty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSara Jolly\u003c\/b\u003e is a literary translator. She has also worked as a freelance documentary filmmaker and edited two episodes of the BBC's prize-winning series about \u003ci\u003eperestroika\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Second Russian Revolution\u003c\/i\u003e and Sally Potter's documentary about women in Soviet cinema,\u003ci\u003e I'm a Horse, I'm an Ox\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBoris Dralyuk\u003c\/b\u003e is a literary translator and the Executive Editor of the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e. He is the translator, most recently, of Isaac Babel's \u003ci\u003eRed Cavalry \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eOdessa Stories\u003c\/i\u003e and Mikhail Zoshchenko's \u003ci\u003eSentimental Tales\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublication Date: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e25 February 2021\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBloomsbury Academic\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eImprint: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBloomsbury Academic\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eISBN-13: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e9781350238886\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFormat: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePaperback softback\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePage Count: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e288\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWeight (oz): \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e14.56\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Academic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51333044994188,"sku":"9781350238886","price":40.46,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0710\/9545\/1788\/files\/getimage_0e7b22c6-fdd3-4aba-aa5a-9f8e34306b49.jpg?v=1783608443","url":"https:\/\/fh90cf-fv.myshopify.com\/products\/9781350238886","provider":"Late Knight Books and Services, LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}