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Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag
Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag
Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag
Audiobook8 hours

Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag

Written by Monika Zgustova

Narrated by Jennifer Jill Araya

4.5/5

()

About this audiobook

An unexpectedly uplifting account of women’s suffering and resilience in Stalin’s forced labor camps, diligently transcribed in the kitchens and living rooms of nine survivors.

The pain inflicted by the gulags has cast a long shadow over Soviet-era history. Zgustova’s collection of interviews with former female prisoners not only chronicles the hardships of the camps, but also serves as testament to the power of beauty in the face of adversity.

Where one would expect to find only hopelessness and despair, Zgustova has unearthed tales of love, art, and friendship that endured and even flourished in times of tragedy. These stories, collected in the vein of Svetlana Alexievich’s Nobel Prize–winning oral histories, turn one of the darkest periods of the Soviet era into a song of human perseverance, in a way that reads as an intimate family history.

Editor's Note

Radiates creative spirit…

During Stalin’s reign in Soviet Russia, at least 18 million people — from petty criminals to political prisoners — were sent to gulags in Siberia. Monika Zgustova collects the stories of nine women who spare no details of the horror and deprivation they endured in the infamous forced labor camps. Their testimonies radiate the power of the creative spirit as they speak of the strength they gained from sharing stories, poems, songs, and anything else that could bring a modicum of beauty into their unimaginably ugly situation.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherScribd Audio
Release dateOct 13, 2020
ISBN9781094411729
Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag
Author

Monika Zgustova

Monika Zgustova is an award-winning author whose works have been published in ten languages. She was born in Prague and studied comparative literature in the United States (University of Illinois and University of Chicago). She then moved to Barcelona, where she writes for El País, The Nation, and CounterPunch, among others. As a translator of Czech and Russian literature into Spanish and Catalan—including the writing of Havel, Kundera, Hrabal, Hašek, Dostoyevsky, Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, and Babel—Zgustova is credited with bringing major twentieth-century writers to Spain.

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4.5/5

107 ratings7 reviews

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  • 5/5
    Maybe not the most uplifting choice but a really important message about totalitarian governments.
  • 5/5
    This is an inspiring story of women who rose above unbelievable circumstances and endured the unendurable. They came through it all with an amazing spirit. An inspiration to us all

    1 person found this helpful

  • 4/5
    Dressed for a Dance in the snow : voices of Women from the Gulag by Monika Zgustora

    (Scribd autobook)

    An interesting Series of interviews centered on Women who had served time in the Soviet Gulag. Their stories are fascinating and at times heartrending. The thing that Got me was a few Women looked back at the time they were imprisoned as ultimately something positive though hard. They felt it tested Them and changed Them for the better. Others of course did not. It was interesting to hear their experiences and how it even affected Them at the time of the interview rather by physical issues or mental habits. Very resilient Women to be sure.

    1 person found this helpful

  • 5/5
    Such powerful stories. How anyone survived is by the grace of God alike. We can’t hear these enough.

    2 people found this helpful

  • 5/5
    I’ve been reading World War II historical novels, stumbled on this one and my eyes are opened into the Gulag Of Russia. It’s hard to say I loved this book but I couldn’t stop listening.

    4 people found this helpful

  • 5/5
    I find it interesting that people who survived this do not want to go to Russia because of Trumps good buddy Putin. This book is a good example of how childish a strong man totalitarian government can be. Where everyone in governments wants to be a bully and go after what they see as enemies of the state. How close we came Jan 6, 2021 when a few people in the United States tried to convince their ignorant followers that they were cheated out of a election ignoring the results of the election committee and judges they help install.
    One man rule as in Hitler, Putin Mussolini or Stalin is very dangerous yet at the same time it makes me think of sick little children who want to bully others and keep all the toys for themselves.
    I hope the world grows up in the age of nuclear weapons I would hate to see fundamentalist Christian’s wondering when their savior is going to come and save them as their skin is pealing off their bodies from radiation.
  • 4/5
    Desgarradores testimonios de mujeres que sobrevivieron a los gulags. Las sobrevivientes de la maquinaria del totalitarismo dan su experiencia, una experiencia que las cambió