In a sweeping cultural history of Russia from the rise of the house of Romanov in 1613 to its downfall at the hands of the Bolsheviks in 1917; Solomon Volkov effortlessly unwinds the twisted relationship between art and the royal family. Throughout the Romanov dynasty; Russiarsquo;s greatest artists and thinkers; painters and poets; composers and dancers; served two masters. Devotion to craftmdash;or principlemdash;could never wholly eclipse dependence on the tsars. Similarly; consumers of Russian culture could never respond without political consideration: Volkov recounts how; at the 1836 premiere of Glinkarsquo;s opera A Life for the Tsar; fashionable audiences watched Nicholas I in his private box to see how they ought to react. He wept; and they wept accordingly. In this spellbinding story; we watch the great figures of Russian history clash. Alexei; father of Peter the Great; befriended the writer Avvakum only to banish him; the next tsar; Fedor; had Avvakum burned alive. Using her notorious charms; Catherine the Great masterfully wielded political control over her culture industry. For his part; Pushkin became the first favored artist to resist the tsarrsquo;s influence. His poem ldquo;To Libertyrdquo; is cherished as a revolutionary work of dissent. But even Pushkinrsquo;s genius went unspared: Alexander tired of the poetrsquo;s literary and amorous freethinking and banished him from St. Petersburg. Romanov Riches is a work of epic scale that never sacrifices individual characters for broader themes. Gogol; Dostoevsky; and Tolstoy are presented in a devilishly intricate dance with their royal patrons. A truly essential work for anyone who wants to understand Russiarsquo;s passionate devotion to its most important artists; it is the prequel to Volkovrsquo;s acclaimed work The Magical Chorus: A History of Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn.From the Hardcover edition.
#437536 in eBooks 2010-11-09 2010-11-09File Name: B004AE34R8
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Great for Educational hip-hopBy crzto_1082I bought this when a friend showed me his. I use it to teach youth about the overall history of "the game". It is a great book to show your friends also. I did not always agree with some of the songs they chose and some really great ones got away due to copyrighting but I have not seen anything else like it. I highly recommend it if you really appreciate lyrical hip hop.8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Teacher and Poet ReviewsBy T. BlackI purchased this book to prep for a Rap as Poetry course at Wayne State. Its invaluable. and lets folks trace various hooks and lines throughout raps short and lively history. Indispensable.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. great resourceBy Theresa M. SolomonI teach English I and use a lot of rap in our poetry unit. This will be a great resource for my class.
