When it comes to the Stalin Prize many have taken its name literally, assuming it was granted directly by Stalin to his favorites in the arts and sciences. In an engaging and meticulously researched new book, Stalin's Music Prize, Marina Frolova-Walker thoroughly debunks that notion. In detailing the work of the Stalin Prize Committee (KSP), the group of creative artists that awarded the prizes, she demonstrates that it consistently engaged in genuine debate over nominees, foregrounded aesthetics over politics, and exercised substantial autonomy in its decisions. And while the KSP's recommendations were sometimes altered by higher governing bodies, this was most often done by the rival state and Party censorship agencies—the Committee for Arts Affairs and Agitprop—rather than by Stalin himself. In other words, while Stalin's opinion certainly mattered, his hand was barely in evidence in the awards process.
Frolova-Walker lays out her goals clearly. First, she seeks to...
University of California Press