Socialist dictators have never particularly been fans of jesters, though this is not to say they have totally disapproved of entertainment and a hearty laugh.

Joseph Stalin, for instance, was a big fan of American musical comedies, and Soviet critics glorified Charlie Chaplin’s film “The Great Dictator” for its “militant satire” of fascism.

Yet Stalin was far more cautious about standup comedians, likely because of the strong individualism of their narrative craft. The emergence of standup comedy in the Soviet Union marked one of the first signs of the post-Stalin “thaw.”

This genre, which acquired the name “conversational art,” bloomed