Word: kozlov
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...seemed. Winners of four world titles and two Olympic medals in the 1960s, the Protopopovs were hailed for pioneering the ballet style in pair skating. They also appeared to exemplify political orthodoxy. Unlike Bolshoi Ballet Defectors Alexander Godunov and Leonid and Valentina Kozlov, the Protopopovs were Communist Party members. They were showered with official Soviet honors, including the Lenin Prize and the prestigious title Honored Master of Sport of the Soviet Union. Though touring Soviet athletes and performing artists are always scrutinized for any sign of a desire to defect, the widely traveled Protopopovs aroused no suspicions when they left...
Obviously, political reliability was as important as artistic talent. As the Bolshoi doggedly continued its tour to Chicago and Los Angeles, Artistic Director Yuri Grigorovich settled on a little-known principal to substitute for Godunov Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake. For Grigorovich, the choice proved a disastrous mistake. Leonid Kozlov was intent on playing Godunov's role to the hilt. Following the troupe's last American curtain call in Los Angeles last week, Kozlov repeated Godunov's final grand jete to freedom...
Back in Moscow, the latest defections threw the volatile Bolshoi troupe into an uproar. "Nobody liked Kozlov anyway," said one of his former colleagues. Others privately conceded that the defections had shattered the Bolshoi's carefully nurtured image as the showcase of Soviet artistic superiority. Perhaps most galling was the expected curtailment of travel privileges; the Bolshoi was unlikely to tour the U.S., or perhaps even Western Europe, for a long time to come. A purge was expected of secret police officials in charge of keeping the Bolshoi dancers in line, just as happened in 1961, after Nureyev...