[A] valuable source for both students and specialists of Soviet history and music.
INT'L JOURNAL OF RUSSIAN STUDIES
Frolova-Walker and Walker have done an admirable job of selecting documents that shed new light on the time period. This is an invaluable source for students of Soviet history and music, and even specialists will find much new material in ... Read morethe range of articles presented here.
REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA
Highly recommended to those with a specialist or general interest in music [...] or, more broadly, in cultural politics or just politics.
JCES
[A] fascinating and invaluable book [...] It navigates an absorbing way through this difficult and complex period, and presents fresh material that should be made available beyond the confines of academic libraries and their scholars.
MUSICAL TIMES
Few will penetrate the archives as comprehensively as the authors, and the riches they have brought back will help to change and deepen our understanding of early Soviet music.
SCRSS NEWSLETTER
Frolova [sic] and Walker describe these years of relative but tightly circumscribed freedom through the great number of documents they have translated, with excellent introductions and annotations. Some of the authors of these texts are already known, but their work appears here for the first time in a Western language and shows how fiercely the battle was waged on both sides
NRC HANDELSBLAD
[T]o immerse oneself in this collection of manifestos and other cultural polemics is revealing. [...] The apparatus [...] supplies invaluable guideposts. [...] Highly recommended.
CHOICE
Enrich[es] the developing sense of how Soviet artists worked with and against the official dictates of their time, and how they responded to the incidental squabbles and long-term preoccupations with which they had to contend.
TLS
[A] subtly nuanced and painstakingly annotated account of this period unearthing a wealth of documentary information [...] The resulting narrative is extraordinarily vivid, bringing to light much significant material that alters long-established historical preconceptions.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
This is an important book and one that makes compelling reading. With their careful selection and commentary, the authors have brought a level gaze to bear upon dark and difficult times in which optimism and torment seemed to alternate unpredictably.
GRAMOPHONE
Show Less