Socialist realism sucked. The Soviet Union's officially sanctioned style was everywhere from art to literature to music. It was the worst.

Very, very many talented artists, authors, and musicians were thwarted by socialist constraints. How can one express themselves when the government tells them the only proper way to create?

Very, very few rose above socialist realism. One was Veniamin Kaverin. He was a rarity: an author who succeeded in the Soviet Union without compromising.

Kaverin's "Two Captains", an epic novel that tells of a man's lifelong quest to find a lost arctic expedition, became a hit. On the surface, it ticks the socialist realist boxes: the Revolution, World War II, great Soviet triumph... Yet its humanity transcends any genre, any time. The era of socialist realism is long gone, but Kaverin's novel is still popular in Russia today.

And, yes, the man who defeated socialist realism was Jewish...