<span><span><span>Soviet epic compositions of the 1930s and 1940s, the so-called </span><span style="font-style:italic;">noviny</span><span> (“new songs”), have often been the subject of folkloristic controversy. This study tells the story of the rise and fall of the noviny in all its cultural richness and pathos, an instructive tale of the interaction of aesthetics and ideology.</span></span><br /><span><span> </span></span></span>