MAYA BALAKIRSKY KATZ is a professor and chair of the art history department at Touro College, in New York. She is the author of The Visual Culture of Chabad and the editor of Revising Dreyfus.

"A superbly researched treatise that will be of keen interest to readers of Soviet history, Jewish studies, and film history. Students of animation will take particular delight in the detailed explorations of Yuri Norstein’s famous film Tale of Tales and of Cheburashka, the phenomenally popular character also known as the Soviet Mickey Mouse." (Library Journal) "Drawing on their Jewish heritage" - an interview with Maya Balakirsky Katz (The Jewish Standard) "From Dishes to Spyware,Quirky Mementos of Soviet Dominion" - Eve M. Kahn on the recent surge of interest in East-Bloc mementos, including Drawing the Iron Curtain  (The New York Times) "Katz has written a very important book exploring an area of popular significance but little scholarly attention." - David Shneer (University of Colorado-Boulder) "Maya Balakirsky Katz’s new book is a welcome addition to Soviet animation studies""This book contains a significant amount of useful information, and I would ultimately recommend it... to all scholars of Soviet cinema and culture, and to all academic libraries with holdings in Russian and Soviet culture" - Bella Ginzbursky-Blum (The Russian Review) "Drawing the Iron Curtain is an important contribution to Jewish studies, animation studies, and Russian studies" - Lora Wheeler Mjolsness (Slavonic and East European Review) "A Beast of Unknown Origins: May Day: The surprising Jewish origins of the animated character who taught a generation of Soviet children to be good communists" by Maya Balakirsky Katz (The Tablet) "A noteworthy contribution to such disparate fields as animation history, Soviet cultural history, and Jewish studies, the author’s primary disciplinary affiliation". (H-Net)

• List of Illustrations         Acknowledgments         Note on Transliteration and Translation         Introduction: Puppeteering a Self in the Soviet Union1       Behind the Scenes: Jews and the Studio System, 1919–19892       Black and White: Race in Soviet Animation3       The Brumberg Sisters: The Fairy Grandmothers of Soviet Animation4       Big City Jews: Setting and Censoring the Modern Fairytale5       Tropical Russian Bears: Cheburashka’s Jewish Roots6       The Pioneer’s Violin: Animating the Soviet Holocaust7       Cartoon Cosmopolitans: Drawing Jews into Soviet Culture8       Tale of Tales: The Rise of the Jewish Auteur Director         Conclusion: Tell-Tale Signs and Soviet Jewish Animation         Notes         Glossary         Filmography         Index

MAYA BALAKIRSKY KATZ is a professor and chair of the art history department at Touro College, in New York. She is the author of The Visual Culture of Chabad and the editor of Revising Dreyfus.

"A superbly researched treatise that will be of keen interest to readers of Soviet history, Jewish studies, and film history. Students of animation will take particular delight in the detailed explorations of Yuri Norstein’s famous film Tale of Tales and of Cheburashka, the phenomenally popular character also known as the Soviet Mickey Mouse." (Library Journal) "Drawing on their Jewish heritage" - an interview with Maya Balakirsky Katz (The Jewish Standard) "From Dishes to Spyware,Quirky Mementos of Soviet Dominion" - Eve M. Kahn on the recent surge of interest in East-Bloc mementos, including Drawing the Iron Curtain  (The New York Times) "Katz has written a very important book exploring an area of popular significance but little scholarly attention." - David Shneer (University of Colorado-Boulder) "Maya Balakirsky Katz’s new book is a welcome addition to Soviet animation studies""This book contains a significant amount of useful information, and I would ultimately recommend it... to all scholars of Soviet cinema and culture, and to all academic libraries with holdings in Russian and Soviet culture" - Bella Ginzbursky-Blum (The Russian Review) "Drawing the Iron Curtain is an important contribution to Jewish studies, animation studies, and Russian studies" - Lora Wheeler Mjolsness (Slavonic and East European Review) "A Beast of Unknown Origins: May Day: The surprising Jewish origins of the animated character who taught a generation of Soviet children to be good communists" by Maya Balakirsky Katz (The Tablet) "A noteworthy contribution to such disparate fields as animation history, Soviet cultural history, and Jewish studies, the author’s primary disciplinary affiliation". (H-Net)

• List of Illustrations         Acknowledgments         Note on Transliteration and Translation         Introduction: Puppeteering a Self in the Soviet Union1       Behind the Scenes: Jews and the Studio System, 1919–19892       Black and White: Race in Soviet Animation3       The Brumberg Sisters: The Fairy Grandmothers of Soviet Animation4       Big City Jews: Setting and Censoring the Modern Fairytale5       Tropical Russian Bears: Cheburashka’s Jewish Roots6       The Pioneer’s Violin: Animating the Soviet Holocaust7       Cartoon Cosmopolitans: Drawing Jews into Soviet Culture8       Tale of Tales: The Rise of the Jewish Auteur Director         Conclusion: Tell-Tale Signs and Soviet Jewish Animation         Notes         Glossary         Filmography         Index

MAYA BALAKIRSKY KATZ is a professor and chair of the art history department at Touro College, in New York. She is the author of The Visual Culture of Chabad and the editor of Revising Dreyfus.

"A superbly researched treatise that will be of keen interest to readers of Soviet history, Jewish studies, and film history. Students of animation will take particular delight in the detailed explorations of Yuri Norstein’s famous film Tale of Tales and of Cheburashka, the phenomenally popular character also known as the Soviet Mickey Mouse." (Library Journal) "Drawing on their Jewish heritage" - an interview with Maya Balakirsky Katz (The Jewish Standard) "From Dishes to Spyware,Quirky Mementos of Soviet Dominion" - Eve M. Kahn on the recent surge of interest in East-Bloc mementos, including Drawing the Iron Curtain  (The New York Times) "Katz has written a very important book exploring an area of popular significance but little scholarly attention." - David Shneer (University of Colorado-Boulder) "Maya Balakirsky Katz’s new book is a welcome addition to Soviet animation studies""This book contains a significant amount of useful information, and I would ultimately recommend it... to all scholars of Soviet cinema and culture, and to all academic libraries with holdings in Russian and Soviet culture" - Bella Ginzbursky-Blum (The Russian Review) "Drawing the Iron Curtain is an important contribution to Jewish studies, animation studies, and Russian studies" - Lora Wheeler Mjolsness (Slavonic and East European Review) "A Beast of Unknown Origins: May Day: The surprising Jewish origins of the animated character who taught a generation of Soviet children to be good communists" by Maya Balakirsky Katz (The Tablet) "A noteworthy contribution to such disparate fields as animation history, Soviet cultural history, and Jewish studies, the author’s primary disciplinary affiliation". (H-Net)

• List of Illustrations         Acknowledgments         Note on Transliteration and Translation         Introduction: Puppeteering a Self in the Soviet Union1       Behind the Scenes: Jews and the Studio System, 1919–19892       Black and White: Race in Soviet Animation3       The Brumberg Sisters: The Fairy Grandmothers of Soviet Animation4       Big City Jews: Setting and Censoring the Modern Fairytale5       Tropical Russian Bears: Cheburashka’s Jewish Roots6       The Pioneer’s Violin: Animating the Soviet Holocaust7       Cartoon Cosmopolitans: Drawing Jews into Soviet Culture8       Tale of Tales: The Rise of the Jewish Auteur Director         Conclusion: Tell-Tale Signs and Soviet Jewish Animation         Notes         Glossary         Filmography         Index