Maya Plisetskaya is one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century whose contribution in the development of the world ballet, her performance was really great and even unique to the extent that she is frequently perceived as ‘the greatest ballerina of all times’. At the same time, her life and work is characterized by permanent struggle with numerous problems and even tragedies of her life. In fact, this ballet dancer had a life full of significant events which actually defined her future. Moreover, even the choice of her future profession is basically the result of a series of tragic events that, ironically, gave the world the great ballerina. This is why it is extremely interesting to find out what actually defined her future at large and her future profession in particular, what influenced problems and obstacles she faced as a ballet dancer of the Bolshoi Theatre and how they affected her life and what was the response of Maya Plisetskaya to all these problems. In fact, it is not a secret that she was constantly constraint as a professional and ballet dancer by the existing totalitarian system of the Soviet Union which she fully freed herself from only after the collapse of this oppressive state.
Speaking about the life and work of Maya Plisetskaya, it is necessary to underline that a great part of her life and practically all the time of her professional work as a ballet dancer, she had to struggle with the system that existed in the USSR. In this respect, it should be said that since the early childhood she had learned what it was to live in a totalitarian state where an individual had neither elementary human rights nor opportunities to realize them. At the same time, ironically and even hypocritically it sounds, but her career of a ballet dancer and her profound interest in ballet at large would probably be under a question, if the totalitarian Soviet system was different and did not cause so many troubles to this heroic woman.