Stalin’s Scribe

Literature, Ambition, and Survival; The Life of Mikhail Sholokhov

By: Brian J. Boeck

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

A masterful and definitive biography of one of the most misunderstood and controversial writers in Russian literature

Mikhail Sholokhov is arguably one of the most contentious recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature. As a young man, Sholokhov’s epic novel, Quiet Don, became an unprecedented overnight success.

Stalin’s Scribe is the first biography of a man who was once one of the Soviet Union’s most prominent political figures. Thanks to the opening of Russia’s archives, Brian Boeck discovers that Sholokhov’s official Soviet biography is actually a tangled web of legends, half-truths, and contradictions. Boeck examines the complex connection between an author and a dictator, revealing how a Stalinist courtier became an ideological acrobat and consummate politician in order to stay in favor and remain relevant after the dictator’s death.

Stalin’s Scribe is remarkable biography that both reinforces and clashes with our understanding of the Soviet system. It reveals a Sholokhov who is bold, uncompromising, and sympathetic - and reconciles him with the vindictive and mean-spirited man described in so many accounts of late Soviet history.

Shockingly, at the height of the terror, which claimed over a million lives, Sholokhov became a member of the most minuscule subset of the Soviet Union’s population - the handful of individuals whom Stalin personally intervened to save.

©2019 Brian J. Boeck (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

'Quiet Don' was His Talisman

"Literature cannot be judged by courts... ideas can only be combated with ideas, not camps and jails." --Lidiia Chukovskaia

I read 'Scribe' in the hopes of learning more about Quiet Don, Sholokov, and its controversial position in world literature. 'Stalin's Scribe' covers the the controversial position very well, Sholokov pretty well, and Quiet Don (somewhat surprisingly) very little.

I really liked the primer/abridged history on the Soviet Union (I can't imagine a book like this not covering this topic). I really liked learning how Sholokov worked the system, battling conflicts of his love of the Don and his supposed writing career with necessary loyalties to Moscow. Without question his ability to walk this decades-long tightrope would have been hampered (if not impossible) without his Quiet Don talisman.

This book is very political, and needs more details about Sholokov's early life/family life and the history/inspriation of the characters and plots of Quiet Don itself (both plagarism and unique aurthorship is recognized by Boeck) to really present a full picture. 'Scribe' did not grip me as tightly as 'The Zhivago Affair' for these reasons, combined with the fact that protagonists on the run (e.g. Pasternak: tracked by the government, extramarital affair, etc.) simply hold your attention more than the alternative (e.g. Sholokov: protected by the government, struggling alchoholic).

'Scribe' is a challenging, but well-researched read. If you're looking for a entry point into Russian literature, start with Doctor Zhivago/The Zhivago Affair. For those with an already-developed love for Russian lit, 'Scribe' (and for that matter: 'Quiet Don', aka 'And Quiet Flows the Don' + 'The Don Flows Home to the Sea') is certainly worth your time.

Very interesting biography

I enjoyed the entirety of this book. wow! The writing, the history and narration was superb. I decided to buy the Audible version of "Quiet Flows the Don" after reading this biography. I also rented the 1953? movie version.
The author is a scholar on Russian history, but also I must say a very good writer. I listened every moment available until finished. Really enjoyable. I recommend highly.

Very good ….. not ‘great’.

Well done, just not the most interesting subject. Narration quite good. Lots of interesting incidental factoids

Great Biography

My favorite novel is Quiet Flows the Don. I've read it in both English and Russian. Admittedly, I was probably predisposed to like this book since it is one of the few books written in English about Sholokhov. I think that Boeck did an excellent job placing Sholokhov within the time in which he lived, with various intrigues, etc, which were common in the Soviet period. He also gives a full and balanced look at the plagiarism controversy that surrounded Sholokhov's best work.

The narrator likewise does a good job. I've found that in listening to non-fiction, the narrator makes all the difference. Rudnicki was definitely up to the challenge. As an added bonus, he's also narrated a version of Quiet Flows the Don which came out in August 2019. So if you like this book, check that one out.

A quick read with a good reader.

Reader has a very deep voice at high speed. Not many affectations. As with all audiobooks on Russia or Russian topics, I wished Audible would give a PDF of the characters. (It took me a while to find out how to spell Alexander Fadeyev and look him up.)

Story is VERY brisk. The Stalin years are obviously the focus, but the 1960s flew by. The author goes through three Soviet leaders in about a page. I wish there had been more background on the machinations with how Sholokhov win the Nobel Prize. He was hopeful to win in 1956 but then a few short chapters later he won it in 1965. The narrative arc was missing.

Very well written and researched biography

I liked this book a lot. I knew very little about Sholokhov, having read Quiet Don only recently. Being a fan of Soviet history, especially the Stalin era, I was pleased to find details that not even Stalin's biographers like Kotkin and Montefiore mention in their works.
It's totally fascinating to me how Stalin amidst the famine, purges and even the WWII found the time to micromanage.

Stefan Rudnicki is a superb narrator

Death of Stalin

Boeck documents the intricacies of survival in an autocracy — where extremist political narratives shift like sand dunes in the Sahara. Solokov is a powerful survivor who risks it all to fight for saving the innocent and getting the truth out. So, it’s a bit of a primer for anyone attempting to survive America in 2020.

I’ve seen Death of Stalin, the absurd movie — and am thrilled by this book’s detailed historical accounts of many of the same characters.

Great book about Soviet’s most well known writers

Scholokhov used to be a household name in the eastern block. This book shows his troubled story, which is inevitably following the fate of the Soviet Union