Stalin’s Scheherazade: An opportunistic literary caper became a lifelong con

After this directive Cossack traditions were talked about openly and positively in the Soviet press for the first time. The novel follows the local Cossacks to the front lines of the First World War, where Grigorii witnesses the ugly sides of battle and others succumb to revolutionary agitation in the trenches. As Sholokhov contemplated publishing the novel, he likely discovered that a new Soviet law on intellectual property worked to his advantage.

Source: longreads.com