Paper short abstract:

Making Friends and Waging War: The Dance and Diplomacy of Tamara Khanum

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the war-time activity of Tamara Khanum (1906-1981), the Uzbek entertainer of Armenian heritage who made a career by performing the songs and dances of various nationalities. During the war she gave over one thousand performances across the Soviet homefront, as well as for Soviet soldiers on every major front, including Iran and Mongolia, and in immediate post-war Europe. She was made a captain in the Soviet Army and she donated her Stalin Prize winnings for the construction of a tank which bore her name. The paper asks why her brand of entertainment was deemed so vital for Soviet state interests at home and abroad. It suggests that her performance genre, mixing song, dance, and national costume with an emotive femininity, was eminently modular and expandable to any multi-ethnic setting. Her rarified position as an intermediary for the socialist cause required immense devotion but allowed her to become a broker for deficit wartime goods, and gave her the latitude to interpret the doctrine of Friendship of the Peoples in novel, and often surprising ways. The paper relies on archival and print sources, including her semi-autobiographical writings published posthumously.