Nina Anisimova was born in 1909 in imperial St Petersburg. One of the most renowned character dancers and choreographers of the twentieth century, she won her way into the hearts of her audience over many decades. Yet few knew that her exemplary career concealed a dark secret.
In 1938, at the height of Stalin’s Great Terror, Nina vanished. Only a handful of people knew that she had been arrested by the secret police, accused of being a Nazi spy and sentenced to forced labour in a camp in Kazakhstan.
Trapped thousands of miles from home and surrounded by the horrors of the Karlag camp – without winter clothes in temperatures of minus 40 degrees – her art was her salvation, giving her a reason to fight for her life.
Dancing for Stalin is a remarkable true story of suffering and injustice, of courage, resilience and – ultimately – triumph.
