Today in History
What went down and why you should care.
jun 16 Learn More Rudolf Nereyev Defects
Russian ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West on this day in 1961 during his company's stopover in Paris. The Soviet Union really, really, really didn't want him to go. First, the KGB told him he had to come home for a special performance at the Kremlin—you know, the old "There's a dance emergency!" excuse. Then they told him his mother was sick. Nureyev knew these were both lies, and that going home meant going to jail, so he stayed in France, delivering a tremendous, high-profile blow to the Russian propaganda machine. Who knew being a ballet dancer was so stressful?
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