Author Laura E. Kennedy examines the three ballets composed by Dmitri Shostakovich during the early Stalinist period, showing how he aimed to create Soviet ballet until his third ballet was condemned in 1936, when he subsequently abandoned the genre. Throughout the book, she draws on extensive archival materials from St. Petersburg and Moscow--many not previously published--and argues that the three ballets illuminate his interest in the genre, the creative resources available to him, and the artistic and political pressures under which he worked.