Alice Bialsky was born in Moscow the year the Soviet tanks crushed Prague. The only child of two Jewish dissidents, she was brought up to hate the communist regime. In the years of her youth she found refuge in the emerging Russian punk/rock and roll scene, which was very critical of the Soviet Union and its ideology.

When she turned 22, Bialsky made Aliyah with her mother and settled down in Tel Aviv, where she was able to break free of her past and start a new life; she pursued a career as a documentary filmmaker.

But her Russian roots did not stay buried: A few years ago Bialsky began writing her debut novel, which tells the story of a rebellious adolescent growing up in Moscow’s punk rock scene during the last days of the communist regime. Her semi-autobiographical work, The Crown is Not Heavy (in Russian) or We Saw the Night (in Hebrew), was published by a prestigious Russian publishing house, and has recently been translated into Hebrew and published in Israel.

Playlist:

Franz Schubert – Trio Opus 100
Aukzion – Debris
Bob Dylan – Sara
Nina Simone – Love Me Or Leave Me
The Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog
The Rolling Stones – You Can’t Always Get What You Want