Relationship between Dmitri Shostakovich and Joseph Stalin
Encyclopedia
The relationship between Dmitri Shostakovich and Joseph Stalin was among the most controversial of the Soviet government's relationships with contemporary artists. The style of Shostakovich's
composition often did not comply with Stalin's
view of "correct Soviet form"; this led to great tensions between the two men. Shostakovich's music was censored multiple times, but also gained favor with the Party
at various intervals.
Despite frequent denunciations and criticisms, Shostakovich achieved great fame and acclaim during his lifetime, his music being popular both within and outside the Soviet Union. In addition, Shostakovich viewed himself often as a representative of the people and their thoughts, and sought to express this in his music (examples include the Fifth Symphony
and the Seventh Symphony
). During times of instability, such as the war with Germany
, the composer was favored by the Party; he was viewed as a motivational force in the country. Nevertheless Stalin and his associates shifted stances unpredictably.
Shostakovich began his musical career without substantial intervention of the government. The First Symphony
was a very successful composition, written in 1926 when the composer was only nineteen; the piece traveled as far as America, where it was well received at its Philadelphia premiere under Stokowski
. The next year, Shostakovich produced his Second Symphony
(subtitled "To October"), a patriotic piece with a great pro-Soviet choral finale. Due to its experimental nature
, as with the subsequent Third Symphony
, the pieces were not critically acclaimed with the enthusiasm as granted to the First. Shostakovich's satirical 1928 opera
The Nose
did little to improve his public standing; the composer did not promote the work due to criticism in musical circles.
, a tragedy depicting a nineteenth century romance. The piece received astounding acclaim upon its introduction; popular support was substantial. Moreover, the opera was greatly favored by Party officials, one of whom commented that it "could have been written only by a Soviet composer brought up in the best tradition of Soviet culture." This spectacular success was, however, ephemeral: in 1936 Shostakovich attended a performance of the opera in Bolshoi Theatre
, a performance also attended by Stalin and Party affiliates. Stalin became enraged at the spectacle and angrily stormed out of the opera house
after the conclusion of the first act. Two days later an article appeared in the central Soviet newspaper Pravda
entitled Muddle Instead of Music; the columns made nasty criticisms of Lady Macbeth as well as general denunciations of Shostakovich's musical style. The article was unsigned: this was a clear indication that the Party, probably encouraged or directly ordered by Stalin, had written the piece and held that position toward Shostakovich. The newspaper proved to have disastrous consequences on Shostakovich's reputation--commissions from influential entities fell substantially, and the composer's income suffered. The appearance of this article prompted opera houses throughout the Union
to cancel future performances of Lady Macbeth. The scandal was followed by another government article called Ballet Falsehood, this time denouncing the composer's ballet
The Limpid Stream, claiming that the ballet gave a poor depiction of life in collective farms, the subject of the work. Ballet Falsehood came as a surprise; Shostakovich did not expect the biting remarks about a work which he thought would not instigate Party anger.
. The work was a great shift in style for the composer: a large influence of Gustav Mahler
is noted, and the piece itself has multiple Western elements. The symphony gave Shostakovich compositional trouble, as he attempted to reform his style into a new idiom. The composer was well into the work when the fatal articles appeared. Despite this, Shostakovich continued to compose the symphony and planned a premiere at the end of 1936. However, after a number of rehearsals, Shostakovich, for reasons still debated today, decided to withdraw the symphony from the public. The work was not premiered until 1961, well after Stalin's death. It is possible that this decision spared the composer's life: during this time Shostakovich feared for himself and his family. In order to maintain as low a profile as possible Shostakovich decided to write film music, a genre favored by Stalin and lacking in dangerous personal expression.
. The piece conformed much more cohesively to the standard set by Stalin; it received a grand premiere. At the same time Russia was experiencing Stalin's Great Purge
: many in Leningrad lost family or friends to the mass executions. The Fifth drove many to tears and welling emotions. Later Shostakovich wrote in his memoirs: "I'll never believe that a man who understood nothing could feel the Fifth Symphony. Of course they understood, they understood what was happening around them and they understood what the Fifth was about." The Fifth catapulted Shostakovich back into public favor. Music critics and the bureaucracy
alike stated either that Shostakovich had "learned from his mistakes" or fixed his "erroneous ways." The rehabilitation of Shostakovich's image allowed him to gain a position at the Leningrad Conservatory.
, and Party Secretary Zhdanov
commissioned a work from Shostakovich to commemorate the expected victory. The Red Army
faced a surprising defeat; Shostakovich never claimed to have written the work and the bureaucracy did not mention the piece again.
in 1941 caused panic in Leningrad
. For some time before the war, Shostakovich had been working on his Seventh Symphony
, his most famous and perhaps his most cryptic work. The first movement had already been completed; it was intended as a subtle representation of Stalin (this was later achieved affirmatively in the Tenth Symphony
). When the war began it became obvious to Shostakovich that the movement he had written would be a perfect resistance piece: it sponsored the chilling "invasion theme," a march depicting the Nazi encroachment on Russia (later speculation proposes the theory that the invasion theme was at first intended for Stalin and was then adapted to pertain to the war; the symphony has a nickname, "Leningrad", which suits the purpose). After completing the symphony (while evacuated from the city), Shostakovich sent the score to be performed throughout the Union. Like the Fifth, the symphony stirred tears in the eyes of the war-weary Russians. Positive acclaim was almost universal. Stalin hailed Shostakovich as a hero of the Soviets. At its premiere in Leningrad, Marshal Georgy Zhukov
, commander of the Leningrad Front
, ensured what was called the "eighty minutes of silence", where no bombs were heard to interrupt the symphony. Shostakovich had ensured himself a position of great favor with Stalin and the bureaucracy.
As the war drew on, the composer sent the score to be performed througout the Allied countries
. In America the symphony was performed by Arturo Toscanini
to great success. Perhaps the most important result of the symphony's outstanding performance was its power of motivation, both inside and outside the Union. Stalin used this to his advantage: in order to cast a favorable impression of the Union and its artists on the West, he promoted the symphony as much as he could. In addition, the work received favorable reviews in Pravda, signaling the official comeback of Shostakovich's standing with the Party. Stalin was particularly pleased with the grand, victorious finale.
. While the Seventh stood clearly as a powerful resistance and as an easily comprehendable battle with the enemy, the Eighth is comparatively a sullen, strange piece with little motivational force, a power desperately needed at the height of the war in 1943, when the symphony premiered. The unsatisfactory circumstances of the symphony caused Stalin to ban it from playing in the Union as part of the 1948 Zhdanov decree. The ban was not lifted until 1956. In order to preserve the image of Shostakovich (a vital bridge to the people of the Union and to the West), the government assigned the name "Stalingrad" to the symphony, giving it the appearance of a mourning of the dead in the bloody Battle of Stalingrad
. However, the symphony did not escape criticism. Shostakovich writes: "When the Eighth was performed, it was openly declared counter-revolutionary and anti-Soviet. They said, 'Why did Shostakovich write an optimistic symphony at the beginning of the war and a tragic one now? At the beginning we were retreating and now we're attacking, destroying the Fascists. And Shostakovich is acting tragic, that means he's on the side of the fascists.'" Unlike the Seventh, the symphony does not purportedly demonstrate a feeling of "hope," an emotion very much desired by the government at the time (in literal context, the only supply line to Leningrad was the Road of Life
, a temporary structure at best). Stalin did not however criticize Shostakovich as harshly now as he did in 1936; Stalin held that such an act would proved a clumsy public relations move both in and out of the Union. He nevertheless did not refrain from offering his disdain.
), would exemplify all the beauty and triumph manifested in victory. Shostakovich gave hints of such a work under way, but eventually produced a "Haydnesque", short, "lighthearted little symphony" that intentionally did not meet Stalin's standards. The composer writes,
"Everyone praised Stalin, and now I was supposed to join this unholy affair. There was an appropriate excuse. We had ended the war victoriously; no matter what the cost, the important thing was that we won, the empire had expanded. And they demanded that Shostakovich use quadruple winds, choir and soloists to hail the leader. Stalin always listened to his experts and specialists carefully. The experts told him that I knew my work and therefore Stalin assumed that the symphony in his honor would be a quality piece of music. He would be able to say, 'There it is, our national Ninth.' I confess that I gave hope to the leader and teacher's dreams. I announced that I was writing an apotheosis. I was trying to get them off my back but it turned against me. When my Ninth was performed, Stalin was incensed. He was deeply offended, because there was no chorus, no soloists. And no apotheosis. There wasn't even a paltry dedication. It was just music, which Stalin didn't understand very well and which was of dubious content....I couldn't write an apotheosis to Stalin, I simply couldn't."
Shostakovich expected major criticism on the government's part and received it.
In 1948 Andrei Zhdanov
, now Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet, issued a denunciation of a number of artists
, Shostakovich among them. The work of the accused composers, among whom were Prokofiev
and Khachaturian
, was described as overly formalist and simply anti-Soviet. This was part of an ongoing anti-formalism campaign intended to root out all Western compositional sentiment as well as any perceived "non-Russian" output. Shostakovich suffered from this doctrine.
; he chose Shostakovich. The composer was unwilling to attend. He had built himself (probably unintentionally) a reputation in the West as a heroic fighter, and especially as one free from the direction of the Communist
government. An appearance in America as Stalin's mouth would portray him simply as another puppet of the bureaucracy--Shostakovich wanted to preserve, at least in some sense, a respectable image of Russia's artists in the west. Despite his opposition, Stalin forced him to attend. He did so by calling Shostakovich on the telephone, a very rare occurrence. Stalin contradicts his own order by claiming that he was not aware of the ban on the composer's music. The following is an excerpt from the "memoir" Testimony
, the authenticity of which has been more than once called into question by many leading musicologists, such as Laurel Fay:
"No, I said. I won't go. I'm ill, I can't fly, I get airsick. Then Stalin called. And in his nagging way, the leader and teacher asked me why I didn't want to go to America. I answered that 'I couldn't. My comrades' music wasn't played, and neither was mine. They would ask about it in America. What could I say?'
Stalin pretended to be surprised. 'What do you mean, it isn't played? Why aren't they playing it?'
Now came the interesting part. Stalin announced, 'No, we didn't give that order.'"
Shostakovich did lose his credibility in the West, in some way, in New York. When asked whether he supported the then-recent denunciation of Stravinsky's
music in the Soviet Union (Shostakovich was a great admirer of Stravinsky and took influence from him), Shostakovich was, under pressure from Stalin, to answer in the affirmative; this gave a signal to the West that the composer was simply another "Communist puppet." Shostakovich remained ashamed of the episode thereafter.
. The scherzo was intended to be a representation of Stalin himself, according to Testimony
. After the "menace" of Stalin was gone from Shostakovich's way, the composer had a slightly easier time working. He still had a difficult relationship with the government, and the ban that Zhdanov had placed in 1948 was not lifted until 1956, three years after Stalin's death and well into the rule of Khruschev.
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
composition often did not comply with Stalin's
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
view of "correct Soviet form"; this led to great tensions between the two men. Shostakovich's music was censored multiple times, but also gained favor with the Party
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
at various intervals.
Despite frequent denunciations and criticisms, Shostakovich achieved great fame and acclaim during his lifetime, his music being popular both within and outside the Soviet Union. In addition, Shostakovich viewed himself often as a representative of the people and their thoughts, and sought to express this in his music (examples include the Fifth Symphony
Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)
The Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, by Dmitri Shostakovich is a work for orchestra composed between April and July 1937. Its first performance was on November 21, 1937, in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky...
and the Seventh Symphony
Symphony No. 7 (Shostakovich)
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 dedicated to the city of Leningrad was completed on 27 December 1941. In its time, the symphony was extremely popular in both Russia and the West as a symbol of resistance and defiance to Nazi totalitarianism and militarism...
). During times of instability, such as the war with Germany
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
, the composer was favored by the Party; he was viewed as a motivational force in the country. Nevertheless Stalin and his associates shifted stances unpredictably.
Entry into the Soviet musical scene
Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich)
The Symphony No. 1 in F minor by Dmitri Shostakovich was written between 1924 and 1925, and first performed in Saint Petersburg by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Nikolai Malko on 12 May 1926...
was a very successful composition, written in 1926 when the composer was only nineteen; the piece traveled as far as America, where it was well received at its Philadelphia premiere under Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
. The next year, Shostakovich produced his Second Symphony
Symphony No. 2 (Shostakovich)
Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 2 in B major, Opus 14 and subtitled To October, for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella Choir under Nikolai Malko, on 5 November 1927...
(subtitled "To October"), a patriotic piece with a great pro-Soviet choral finale. Due to its experimental nature
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
, as with the subsequent Third Symphony
Symphony No. 3 (Shostakovich)
The Symphony No. 3 in E flat major by Dmitri Shostakovich was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and Academy Capella Choir under Aleksandr Gauk on 21 January 1930....
, the pieces were not critically acclaimed with the enthusiasm as granted to the First. Shostakovich's satirical 1928 opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
The Nose
The Nose (opera)
The Nose is a satirical opera composed by Dmitri Shostakovich. The libretto by Shostakovich, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Georgy Ionin, and Alexander Preis is based on the story The Nose by Nikolai Gogol. The plot concerns a St. Petersburg official whose nose leaves his face and develops a life of its own...
did little to improve his public standing; the composer did not promote the work due to criticism in musical circles.
Lady Macbeth and the Pravda articles
Despite the setbacks of early work, Shostakovich's fame and reputation became well established with the 1934 premiere of his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk DistrictLady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
* For the story by Nikolai Leskov, please see Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District * For the opera by Dmitri Shostakovich, please see Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District...
, a tragedy depicting a nineteenth century romance. The piece received astounding acclaim upon its introduction; popular support was substantial. Moreover, the opera was greatly favored by Party officials, one of whom commented that it "could have been written only by a Soviet composer brought up in the best tradition of Soviet culture." This spectacular success was, however, ephemeral: in 1936 Shostakovich attended a performance of the opera in Bolshoi Theatre
Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
, a performance also attended by Stalin and Party affiliates. Stalin became enraged at the spectacle and angrily stormed out of the opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
after the conclusion of the first act. Two days later an article appeared in the central Soviet newspaper Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
entitled Muddle Instead of Music; the columns made nasty criticisms of Lady Macbeth as well as general denunciations of Shostakovich's musical style. The article was unsigned: this was a clear indication that the Party, probably encouraged or directly ordered by Stalin, had written the piece and held that position toward Shostakovich. The newspaper proved to have disastrous consequences on Shostakovich's reputation--commissions from influential entities fell substantially, and the composer's income suffered. The appearance of this article prompted opera houses throughout the Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
to cancel future performances of Lady Macbeth. The scandal was followed by another government article called Ballet Falsehood, this time denouncing the composer's ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
The Limpid Stream, claiming that the ballet gave a poor depiction of life in collective farms, the subject of the work. Ballet Falsehood came as a surprise; Shostakovich did not expect the biting remarks about a work which he thought would not instigate Party anger.
Withdrawal of the Fourth Symphony
The publication of Party criticism coincided with the composition of Shostakovich's Fourth SymphonySymphony No. 4 (Shostakovich)
Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Opus 43, between September 1935 and May 1936, after abandoning some preliminary sketch material...
. The work was a great shift in style for the composer: a large influence of Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
is noted, and the piece itself has multiple Western elements. The symphony gave Shostakovich compositional trouble, as he attempted to reform his style into a new idiom. The composer was well into the work when the fatal articles appeared. Despite this, Shostakovich continued to compose the symphony and planned a premiere at the end of 1936. However, after a number of rehearsals, Shostakovich, for reasons still debated today, decided to withdraw the symphony from the public. The work was not premiered until 1961, well after Stalin's death. It is possible that this decision spared the composer's life: during this time Shostakovich feared for himself and his family. In order to maintain as low a profile as possible Shostakovich decided to write film music, a genre favored by Stalin and lacking in dangerous personal expression.
Fifth Symphony
Shostakovich was determined to safely regain public approval. It was clear that in order to do so he had to simplify his compositional style, edit out experimentation and adopt a more traditional stance, reminiscent of the Romantic era. In 1937 Shostakovich began writing his Fifth SymphonySymphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)
The Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, by Dmitri Shostakovich is a work for orchestra composed between April and July 1937. Its first performance was on November 21, 1937, in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky...
. The piece conformed much more cohesively to the standard set by Stalin; it received a grand premiere. At the same time Russia was experiencing Stalin's Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
: many in Leningrad lost family or friends to the mass executions. The Fifth drove many to tears and welling emotions. Later Shostakovich wrote in his memoirs: "I'll never believe that a man who understood nothing could feel the Fifth Symphony. Of course they understood, they understood what was happening around them and they understood what the Fifth was about." The Fifth catapulted Shostakovich back into public favor. Music critics and the bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
alike stated either that Shostakovich had "learned from his mistakes" or fixed his "erroneous ways." The rehabilitation of Shostakovich's image allowed him to gain a position at the Leningrad Conservatory.
War
In 1939, before the Soviets entered the Second World War, the Union had undertaken a campaign in Finland called the Winter WarWinter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
, and Party Secretary Zhdanov
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
commissioned a work from Shostakovich to commemorate the expected victory. The Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
faced a surprising defeat; Shostakovich never claimed to have written the work and the bureaucracy did not mention the piece again.
Seventh Symphony
The German invasion of the Soviet UnionOperation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
in 1941 caused panic in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
. For some time before the war, Shostakovich had been working on his Seventh Symphony
Symphony No. 7 (Shostakovich)
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 dedicated to the city of Leningrad was completed on 27 December 1941. In its time, the symphony was extremely popular in both Russia and the West as a symbol of resistance and defiance to Nazi totalitarianism and militarism...
, his most famous and perhaps his most cryptic work. The first movement had already been completed; it was intended as a subtle representation of Stalin (this was later achieved affirmatively in the Tenth Symphony
Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich)
The Symphony No. 10 in E minor by Dmitri Shostakovich was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 17 December 1953, following the death of Joseph Stalin in March that year...
). When the war began it became obvious to Shostakovich that the movement he had written would be a perfect resistance piece: it sponsored the chilling "invasion theme," a march depicting the Nazi encroachment on Russia (later speculation proposes the theory that the invasion theme was at first intended for Stalin and was then adapted to pertain to the war; the symphony has a nickname, "Leningrad", which suits the purpose). After completing the symphony (while evacuated from the city), Shostakovich sent the score to be performed throughout the Union. Like the Fifth, the symphony stirred tears in the eyes of the war-weary Russians. Positive acclaim was almost universal. Stalin hailed Shostakovich as a hero of the Soviets. At its premiere in Leningrad, Marshal Georgy Zhukov
Georgy Zhukov
Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...
, commander of the Leningrad Front
Siege of Leningrad
The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...
, ensured what was called the "eighty minutes of silence", where no bombs were heard to interrupt the symphony. Shostakovich had ensured himself a position of great favor with Stalin and the bureaucracy.
As the war drew on, the composer sent the score to be performed througout the Allied countries
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
. In America the symphony was performed by Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
to great success. Perhaps the most important result of the symphony's outstanding performance was its power of motivation, both inside and outside the Union. Stalin used this to his advantage: in order to cast a favorable impression of the Union and its artists on the West, he promoted the symphony as much as he could. In addition, the work received favorable reviews in Pravda, signaling the official comeback of Shostakovich's standing with the Party. Stalin was particularly pleased with the grand, victorious finale.
Eighth Symphony
The success of the Seventh was not replicated with the EighthSymphony No. 8 (Shostakovich)
The Symphony No. 8 in C minor by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in the summer of 1943, and first performed on November 4 of that year by the USSR Symphony Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky, to whom the work is dedicated....
. While the Seventh stood clearly as a powerful resistance and as an easily comprehendable battle with the enemy, the Eighth is comparatively a sullen, strange piece with little motivational force, a power desperately needed at the height of the war in 1943, when the symphony premiered. The unsatisfactory circumstances of the symphony caused Stalin to ban it from playing in the Union as part of the 1948 Zhdanov decree. The ban was not lifted until 1956. In order to preserve the image of Shostakovich (a vital bridge to the people of the Union and to the West), the government assigned the name "Stalingrad" to the symphony, giving it the appearance of a mourning of the dead in the bloody Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
. However, the symphony did not escape criticism. Shostakovich writes: "When the Eighth was performed, it was openly declared counter-revolutionary and anti-Soviet. They said, 'Why did Shostakovich write an optimistic symphony at the beginning of the war and a tragic one now? At the beginning we were retreating and now we're attacking, destroying the Fascists. And Shostakovich is acting tragic, that means he's on the side of the fascists.'" Unlike the Seventh, the symphony does not purportedly demonstrate a feeling of "hope," an emotion very much desired by the government at the time (in literal context, the only supply line to Leningrad was the Road of Life
Road of Life
The Road of Life was the ice road transport route across the frozen Lake Ladoga, which provided the only access to the besieged city of Leningrad in the winter months during 1941–1944 while the perimeter in the siege was maintained by the German Army Group North and the Finnish Defence Forces. ...
, a temporary structure at best). Stalin did not however criticize Shostakovich as harshly now as he did in 1936; Stalin held that such an act would proved a clumsy public relations move both in and out of the Union. He nevertheless did not refrain from offering his disdain.
Ninth Symphony
After the war was won Stalin was understandably pleased. It was his tacit expectation that Shostakovich would produce a glorious work dedicated, if only indirectly, to him; Stalin expected a choral finale, huge orchestration and spectacular emotional output. In particular the Premier thought that the composer's "Ninth" Symphony, a special number by many musical accounts (see Curse of the NinthCurse of the ninth
The curse of the ninth is a superstition connected with the history of classical music. In essence, it is the belief that a "ninth symphony" is destined to be a composer's last; i.e. that he or she will be "fated" to die after writing it, or before completing a "tenth"...
), would exemplify all the beauty and triumph manifested in victory. Shostakovich gave hints of such a work under way, but eventually produced a "Haydnesque", short, "lighthearted little symphony" that intentionally did not meet Stalin's standards. The composer writes,
"Everyone praised Stalin, and now I was supposed to join this unholy affair. There was an appropriate excuse. We had ended the war victoriously; no matter what the cost, the important thing was that we won, the empire had expanded. And they demanded that Shostakovich use quadruple winds, choir and soloists to hail the leader. Stalin always listened to his experts and specialists carefully. The experts told him that I knew my work and therefore Stalin assumed that the symphony in his honor would be a quality piece of music. He would be able to say, 'There it is, our national Ninth.' I confess that I gave hope to the leader and teacher's dreams. I announced that I was writing an apotheosis. I was trying to get them off my back but it turned against me. When my Ninth was performed, Stalin was incensed. He was deeply offended, because there was no chorus, no soloists. And no apotheosis. There wasn't even a paltry dedication. It was just music, which Stalin didn't understand very well and which was of dubious content....I couldn't write an apotheosis to Stalin, I simply couldn't."
Shostakovich expected major criticism on the government's part and received it.
Zhdanov decree
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
, now Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet, issued a denunciation of a number of artists
Zhdanov Doctrine
The Zhdanov Doctrine was a Soviet cultural doctrine developed by the Central Committee secretary Andrei Zhdanov in 1946. It proposed that the world was divided into two camps: the imperialistic, headed by the United States; and democratic, headed by the Soviet Union...
, Shostakovich among them. The work of the accused composers, among whom were Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
and Khachaturian
Aram Khachaturian
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was a prominent Soviet composer. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical Russian music and Armenian folk music...
, was described as overly formalist and simply anti-Soviet. This was part of an ongoing anti-formalism campaign intended to root out all Western compositional sentiment as well as any perceived "non-Russian" output. Shostakovich suffered from this doctrine.
Visit to America
In order to maintain good relations with the West, Stalin decided that the Soviets needed to send an artistic representative to the Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
; he chose Shostakovich. The composer was unwilling to attend. He had built himself (probably unintentionally) a reputation in the West as a heroic fighter, and especially as one free from the direction of the Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
government. An appearance in America as Stalin's mouth would portray him simply as another puppet of the bureaucracy--Shostakovich wanted to preserve, at least in some sense, a respectable image of Russia's artists in the west. Despite his opposition, Stalin forced him to attend. He did so by calling Shostakovich on the telephone, a very rare occurrence. Stalin contradicts his own order by claiming that he was not aware of the ban on the composer's music. The following is an excerpt from the "memoir" Testimony
Testimony (book)
Testimony is a book that was published in October 1979 by the Russian musicologist Solomon Volkov. He claimed that it was the memoirs of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich...
, the authenticity of which has been more than once called into question by many leading musicologists, such as Laurel Fay:
"No, I said. I won't go. I'm ill, I can't fly, I get airsick. Then Stalin called. And in his nagging way, the leader and teacher asked me why I didn't want to go to America. I answered that 'I couldn't. My comrades' music wasn't played, and neither was mine. They would ask about it in America. What could I say?'
Stalin pretended to be surprised. 'What do you mean, it isn't played? Why aren't they playing it?'
Now came the interesting part. Stalin announced, 'No, we didn't give that order.'"
Shostakovich did lose his credibility in the West, in some way, in New York. When asked whether he supported the then-recent denunciation of Stravinsky's
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
music in the Soviet Union (Shostakovich was a great admirer of Stravinsky and took influence from him), Shostakovich was, under pressure from Stalin, to answer in the affirmative; this gave a signal to the West that the composer was simply another "Communist puppet." Shostakovich remained ashamed of the episode thereafter.
Death of Stalin
Shostakovich may have responded to the death of Stalin with the Tenth SymphonySymphony No. 10 (Shostakovich)
The Symphony No. 10 in E minor by Dmitri Shostakovich was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 17 December 1953, following the death of Joseph Stalin in March that year...
. The scherzo was intended to be a representation of Stalin himself, according to Testimony
Testimony (book)
Testimony is a book that was published in October 1979 by the Russian musicologist Solomon Volkov. He claimed that it was the memoirs of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich...
. After the "menace" of Stalin was gone from Shostakovich's way, the composer had a slightly easier time working. He still had a difficult relationship with the government, and the ban that Zhdanov had placed in 1948 was not lifted until 1956, three years after Stalin's death and well into the rule of Khruschev.
See also
- Sergei ProkofievSergei ProkofievSergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
- ModernismModernismModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
- Igor StravinskyIgor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
- Great PurgeGreat PurgeThe Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
- List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich
- Seventh SymphonySymphony No. 7 (Shostakovich)Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 dedicated to the city of Leningrad was completed on 27 December 1941. In its time, the symphony was extremely popular in both Russia and the West as a symbol of resistance and defiance to Nazi totalitarianism and militarism...
- TestimonyTestimony (book)Testimony is a book that was published in October 1979 by the Russian musicologist Solomon Volkov. He claimed that it was the memoirs of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich...
- Siege of LeningradSiege of LeningradThe Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...
- Solomon VolkovSolomon VolkovSolomon Moiseyevich Volkov is a Russian journalist and musicologist. He is best known for Testimony, which was published in 1979 following his emigration from the Soviet Union in 1976...
- Anna AkhmatovaAnna AkhmatovaAnna Andreyevna Gorenko , better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova , was a Russian and Soviet modernist poet, one of the most acclaimed writers in the Russian canon.Harrington p11...