The unspoken contract between ruler and subject is that in return for safety, prosperity, and prestige, the Russians entrust power and cede democratic freedoms to their leaders.
Simon Sebag-MontefioreRead
Under Stalin, artists weren't dissidents; all they hoped was to survive and write.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Under Stalin's regime, artists focused on mere survival rather than expressing dissent.
This quote reflects the harsh reality faced by artists during Stalin's rule, where the oppressive political environment stifled creativity and free expression. Instead of challenging the system or expressing their artistic vision, artists were primarily concerned with surviving the regime's scrutiny and censorship, which forced them into a position where compliance took precedence over innovation and dissidence.
Themes
StalinArtistsDissentSurvivalExpressionOppression
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of artistic freedom in oppressive regimes.
More from Simon Sebag-Montefiore
All quotes βThe vanishing of David Tang is like the unthinkable diappearance of a magnificent palace on a mythical mountaintop. He was a dreammaker, pianist, adventurer, writer, entrepreneur, scholar, connoisseur, and a great friend.
Simon Sebag-MontefioreRead
The political lives of tyrants play out human affairs with a special intensity: the death of a democratic leader long after his retirement is a private matter, but the death of a tyrant is always a political act that reflects the character of his power.
Simon Sebag-MontefioreRead
It's the mix of the trivial and the great events that make up history. It's the low things about high people that make it fascinating, and that's why it would be a shame to exclude the trivial things. That mixing up is not just at the heart of history. It's at the heart of how to live a great life.
Simon Sebag-MontefioreRead
The disorder, uncertainty, and strife of a revolution make citizens yearn for stable authority, or they turn to radicalism.
Simon Sebag-MontefioreRead
A revolution resembles the death of a fading star, an exhilarating Technicolor explosion that gives way not to an ordered new galaxy but to a nebula, a formless cloud of shifting energy.
Simon Sebag-MontefioreRead
Similar quotes
It needs great art, learning to play with one's own life, to play on one's own life. Meditation is the art to create music from your heart. Meditation is simply the method to transform noise into harmony, the method to shift your consciousness from the head to the heart. The head is noisy, it is all noise - a tale told by an idiot, full of fury and noise, signifying nothing.
RajneeshRead
The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.
Oscar WildeRead
When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature.
Robert HenriRead
The great film editor is not a cutter, he's a storyteller, right?
Ridley ScottRead
A successful novel should interrupt the readerβs life, make him or her miss appointments, skip meals, forget to walk the dog.
Stephen KingRead
Arabic is very twisting, very beautiful. The call to prayer is quite haunting; it almost makes you a believer on the spot.
John UpdikeRead