A classic story of a young woman defying her parents to follow her heart, but with a fascinating Russian twist! Sahib Gizzatullina lived for the stage, introducing Russian audiences to theater for the first time in their lives. She and her penniless traveling theater troupe experienced all the passion, heartbreak, and drama that you’d expect from a roving band of actors. But they did it during Russia’s most turbulent time: through the reign–and murder–of Tzar Nicholas II, through both world wars, the Bolshevik revolution and the rise of the USSR.

Katie interviews guest Danielle Ross, Assistant Professor of Asian History at Utah State University where she teaches pre-modern and modern Islamic and world history. A native of California, Ross has published articles on Muslim participation in the First World War and Islamic law and education in the Russian empire. She is currently researching Muslim merchant-industrialist networks in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century Russia.

All music for this episode from field recordings provided by Dr. Ross.

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