Galina vishnevskaya autobiography

This autobiography is a horrifyingly bitter experience which leaves one feeling humble, ashamed and excoriated. Through her implacable fury we can gain a cruel insight into soviet life these past 40 years: the collectivization of the peasants who were stripped of their possessions and rights; forced labour; a population subjugated and given to unbridled drunkeness; endless queues for shoddy goods and rotten food; KGB tyranny turning each into an informer; the lack of freedom for artists to perform, record or choose their place of work; Agitprop interference in reshaping history; the loss of an audience for provincial.

theatres and opera houses due to the impoverishment of the intelligensia - doctors, teachers and engineers earning less than the average manual wage. Corrupt officials and bureaucrats ruled every aspect of life: Rostropovich used all his Stalin Prize money to buy an apartment and then was not given a permit for he and Galina to live in it because it was