Testimony (book)
Encyclopedia
Testimony is a book that was published in October 1979 by the Russia
n musicologist Solomon Volkov
. He claimed that it was the memoirs of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich
. From its publication, its portrayal of the composer and his views was controversial: the Shostakovich of the book was sometimes critical of fellow composers, and most notably was strongly anti-Soviet
in his views. The book also contained comments on his own music, indicating that it was intended as veiled criticism of the Soviet authorities and support for the dissident
movement. The authenticity of the book is still disputed.
Despite translation into 30 different languages, the Russian original has never been published. Dmitry Feofanov in 1997, at the local meeting of the AMS demonstrated how publishing contracts customarily vest copyright
and publication rights in a publisher, and not an author. Assuming Volkov signed a standard contract, he would have no say whatsoever in whether an edition in this or that language appears; such decisions would be made by his publisher.
Supporters of the book’s authenticity offer two explanations for the recycled material. First, they assert Shostakovich's profound musical memory allowed him to recite long passages verbatim. Secondly, they note that not all the pages which Shostakovich signed are of recycled material. In particular, he signed the first page of the book, which contains unrecycled and controversial material, as well the first page of the third chapter.
The second point was addressed by Fay in her 2002. According to her, Shostakovich did not sign the first page of the manuscript. His signature is only found on the third page, which again consists entirely of recycled material. — However, when Henry Orlov examined the original manuscript in August, 1979, he stated that all the signatures were in the first pages of the chapters:
This issue could be answered by examining the original typescript.
Important also is the way Volkov claims to have assembled the manuscript. As he writes in the preface to Testimony, Volkov's interviews with Shostakovich consisted of questions to which the composer provided "brief" and "reluctant" answers, and which Volkov compiled in a "mound of shorthand notes." These fragmented notes were then "divided up [and] combined as seemed appropriate." Thus, even if we accept that Shostakovich had a photographic memory, we are still left with the notion that Volkov transcribed the composer's memories in personal shorthand, shuffled and re-shuffled these "penciled scribbles" (Volkov's term), and managed to reproduce entire paragraphs of previously published material verbatim, right down to the original typography and layout.
Blacked out passages, passages pasted over, and passages covered by correction tape in the circulating photocopied typescripts could be reconstructed or investigated by examining the original typescript.
However, some other witnesses support Volkov’s version. In particular, the composer’s friend Flora Litvinova recalls Shostakovich saying, in reference to an un-named Leningrad musicologist (Volkov was from Leningrad): “We now meet constantly, and I tell him everything I remember about my works and myself. He writes it down, and at a subsequent meeting I look it over.”
Also Maxim Shostakovich has commented on Testimony and Volkov more favourably after 1991 when the Soviet regime fell. To Allan B. Ho and Dmitry Feofanov, he confirmed that his father had told him about "meeting a young man from Leningrad [Volkov] who knows his music extremely well" and that "Volkov did meet with Shostakovich to work on his reminiscences". Maxim emphasized repeatedly: "I am a supporter both of Testimony and of Volkov."
and Mieczysław Weinberg. Initially, the book was also criticised by the composer’s son, Maxim
, but later he and his sister Galina have become supporters of Volkov. The widow Irina continues to reject the book.
Supporters of the book discount the statements of those who were still in the USSR at the time as extorted or fabricated. They point to endorsements of the book by emigres and after the fall of the USSR, including Maxim
and Galina Shostakovich.
However, endorsing the factuality of the book does not necessarily mean endorsing it as what it claims to be, i.e., the authenticated memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich. For instance, Maxim Shostakovich has said that the book gives a true picture of the political situation in the USSR and correctly represents his father's political views, but continues to speak of the book as being "about my father, not by him".
Others who endorse the book are not necessarily even aware of the questions about Shostakovich's signatures raised by Laurel Fay (see above, Recycled material) and therefore their competence in judging the book's authenticity as Shostakovich's memoirs (as opposed to its factual authenticity) is in question. Also, they include musicians whose personal acquaintance with Shostakovich was extremely limited (e.g., Vladimir Ashkenazy
).
The claim that the condemnation of the book by the six Soviet composers was extorted or fabricated is also questionable. None of the five composers who were still living in the 1990s has disassociated himself from the condemnation after the fall of the USSR. Kara Karayev died in 1982, but his son Faradzh Karayev has testified in 1999 that his father had read the German translation of Testimony and told his family that "Mitya [Dmitri Shostakovich] couldn't have written this, let alone allowed its publication. It is clearly a fabrication". (This claim is also supported by Kara Karayev's diary entries from the same period.) In an article written in the same year, "The Regime and Vulgarity", Elena Basner has told that her father Veniamin Basner, Mieczysław Weinberg (both of whom died in 1996), and Boris Tishchenko
were also acquainted with (and indignant about) the book before signing the condemnation.
As a translator of Testimony, the Finnish musicologist Seppo Heikinheimo (1938–1997) had a copy of the Russian-language manuscript of Testimony in his possession, and he claims that he showed the text to dozens of Russian musicians, many of whom knew Shostakovich. According to Heikinheimo, Mstislav Rostropovich
(in 1979) considered that Testimony is authentic, as did Rudolf Barshai
, Kirill Kondrashin, Yuri Lyubimov
, Gidon Kremer
, Emil Gilels
, and Sviatoslav Richter
.
The success of Testimony influenced skeptical reception to the forged Hitler Diaries
by journalist and communist spy Gerd Heidemann
in 1983, one of the greatest scandals in modern journalism. Like Testimony, the Hitler Diaries were authenticated by an "expert" hired by a reputable publishing firm. After Testimony, the public demanded examination of the original materials by a credible party.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n musicologist Solomon Volkov
Solomon Volkov
Solomon 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...
. He claimed that it was the memoirs of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
. From its publication, its portrayal of the composer and his views was controversial: the Shostakovich of the book was sometimes critical of fellow composers, and most notably was strongly anti-Soviet
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....
in his views. The book also contained comments on his own music, indicating that it was intended as veiled criticism of the Soviet authorities and support for the dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
movement. The authenticity of the book is still disputed.
Volkov’s claim
Volkov said that Shostakovich dictated the material in the book at a series of meetings with him between 1971 and 1974. Volkov took notes at each meeting, transcribed and edited the material, and presented it to the composer at their next meeting. Without being asked to do so, Shostakovich then signed the first page of each chapter. Unfortunately it is difficult without access to Volkov's original notes (claimed to be lost) to ascertain where Shostakovich possibly ends and Volkov possibly begins.The Original Manuscript
The original typescript of Testimony has never been made available for scholarly investigation. After it was photocopied by Harper and Row, it was returned to Volkov who kept it in a Swiss bank until it was "sold to an anonymous private collector" in the late 1990's. Harper and Row made several changes to the published version, and illicitly circulating typescripts reflect various intermediate stages of the editorial process.Despite translation into 30 different languages, the Russian original has never been published. Dmitry Feofanov in 1997, at the local meeting of the AMS demonstrated how publishing contracts customarily vest copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
and publication rights in a publisher, and not an author. Assuming Volkov signed a standard contract, he would have no say whatsoever in whether an edition in this or that language appears; such decisions would be made by his publisher.
Recycled material
Questions regarding the book were raised by Laurel Fay first in 1980 and reiterated in 2002. She found that passages at the beginning of eight of the chapters duplicate almost verbatim material from articles published as Shostakovich’s between 1932 and 1974. From the typescripts available to her, the only pages signed by Shostakovich consist entirely of this material verbatim and down to the punctuation. No other pages are signed and no other pages contain similarly recycled material. Quotations break off one word past each page break and then significantly change in tone and character (more readily apparent in the unpublished Russian). Critics of the book suggest Volkov persuaded Shostakovich to sign each page containing the composer’s own material, before attaching fabricated material of Volkov’s own. This could be investigated and by studying the paper leaves of the original typescript, something Volkov has strictly prohibited.Supporters of the book’s authenticity offer two explanations for the recycled material. First, they assert Shostakovich's profound musical memory allowed him to recite long passages verbatim. Secondly, they note that not all the pages which Shostakovich signed are of recycled material. In particular, he signed the first page of the book, which contains unrecycled and controversial material, as well the first page of the third chapter.
The second point was addressed by Fay in her 2002. According to her, Shostakovich did not sign the first page of the manuscript. His signature is only found on the third page, which again consists entirely of recycled material. — However, when Henry Orlov examined the original manuscript in August, 1979, he stated that all the signatures were in the first pages of the chapters:
"Significantly enough that, except for the inscription by his hand at the head of the eight chapters, the manuscript bears no traces of his handwriting, no alterations or even slight corrections."
This issue could be answered by examining the original typescript.
Important also is the way Volkov claims to have assembled the manuscript. As he writes in the preface to Testimony, Volkov's interviews with Shostakovich consisted of questions to which the composer provided "brief" and "reluctant" answers, and which Volkov compiled in a "mound of shorthand notes." These fragmented notes were then "divided up [and] combined as seemed appropriate." Thus, even if we accept that Shostakovich had a photographic memory, we are still left with the notion that Volkov transcribed the composer's memories in personal shorthand, shuffled and re-shuffled these "penciled scribbles" (Volkov's term), and managed to reproduce entire paragraphs of previously published material verbatim, right down to the original typography and layout.
Blacked out passages, passages pasted over, and passages covered by correction tape in the circulating photocopied typescripts could be reconstructed or investigated by examining the original typescript.
Shostakovich and Volkov
A second argument against the book is that Volkov did not meet Shostakovich often enough to have received the material. Shostakovich’s widow, Irina, has stated that Volkov met him only three or four times. His ill-health at the time meant that she rarely left him, so that she would have known about any other meetings.However, some other witnesses support Volkov’s version. In particular, the composer’s friend Flora Litvinova recalls Shostakovich saying, in reference to an un-named Leningrad musicologist (Volkov was from Leningrad): “We now meet constantly, and I tell him everything I remember about my works and myself. He writes it down, and at a subsequent meeting I look it over.”
Also Maxim Shostakovich has commented on Testimony and Volkov more favourably after 1991 when the Soviet regime fell. To Allan B. Ho and Dmitry Feofanov, he confirmed that his father had told him about "meeting a young man from Leningrad [Volkov] who knows his music extremely well" and that "Volkov did meet with Shostakovich to work on his reminiscences". Maxim emphasized repeatedly: "I am a supporter both of Testimony and of Volkov."
Friends’ attitudes
Each side of the debate has amassed statements opposing or supporting the book’s authenticity. In 1979, a letter condemning the book was signed by six of the composer’s acquaintances: Veniamin Basner, Kara Karayev, Yury Levitin, Karen Khachaturian, Boris TishchenkoBoris Tishchenko
Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist.-Life:...
and Mieczysław Weinberg. Initially, the book was also criticised by the composer’s son, Maxim
Maxim Shostakovich
Maxim Dmitrievich Shostakovich is a Russian conductor and pianist. He was the second child of Dmitri Shostakovich and Nina Varzar.Since 1975, he has conducted and popularised many of his father's lesser-known works....
, but later he and his sister Galina have become supporters of Volkov. The widow Irina continues to reject the book.
Supporters of the book discount the statements of those who were still in the USSR at the time as extorted or fabricated. They point to endorsements of the book by emigres and after the fall of the USSR, including Maxim
Maxim Shostakovich
Maxim Dmitrievich Shostakovich is a Russian conductor and pianist. He was the second child of Dmitri Shostakovich and Nina Varzar.Since 1975, he has conducted and popularised many of his father's lesser-known works....
and Galina Shostakovich.
However, endorsing the factuality of the book does not necessarily mean endorsing it as what it claims to be, i.e., the authenticated memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich. For instance, Maxim Shostakovich has said that the book gives a true picture of the political situation in the USSR and correctly represents his father's political views, but continues to speak of the book as being "about my father, not by him".
Others who endorse the book are not necessarily even aware of the questions about Shostakovich's signatures raised by Laurel Fay (see above, Recycled material) and therefore their competence in judging the book's authenticity as Shostakovich's memoirs (as opposed to its factual authenticity) is in question. Also, they include musicians whose personal acquaintance with Shostakovich was extremely limited (e.g., Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is a Russian-Icelandic conductor and pianist. Since 1972 he has been a citizen of Iceland, his wife Þórunn's country of birth. Since 1978, because of his many obligations in Europe, he and his family have resided in Meggen, near Lucerne in Switzerland...
).
The claim that the condemnation of the book by the six Soviet composers was extorted or fabricated is also questionable. None of the five composers who were still living in the 1990s has disassociated himself from the condemnation after the fall of the USSR. Kara Karayev died in 1982, but his son Faradzh Karayev has testified in 1999 that his father had read the German translation of Testimony and told his family that "Mitya [Dmitri Shostakovich] couldn't have written this, let alone allowed its publication. It is clearly a fabrication". (This claim is also supported by Kara Karayev's diary entries from the same period.) In an article written in the same year, "The Regime and Vulgarity", Elena Basner has told that her father Veniamin Basner, Mieczysław Weinberg (both of whom died in 1996), and Boris Tishchenko
Boris Tishchenko
Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist.-Life:...
were also acquainted with (and indignant about) the book before signing the condemnation.
As a translator of Testimony, the Finnish musicologist Seppo Heikinheimo (1938–1997) had a copy of the Russian-language manuscript of Testimony in his possession, and he claims that he showed the text to dozens of Russian musicians, many of whom knew Shostakovich. According to Heikinheimo, Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
(in 1979) considered that Testimony is authentic, as did Rudolf Barshai
Rudolf Barshai
Rudolf Borisovich Barshai was a Soviet/Russian conductor and violist.Barshai was born in Stanitsa Lobinskaya, Krasnodar Krai, and studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Tseitlin and Vadim Borisovsky. He performed as a soloist as well as together with Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, and...
, Kirill Kondrashin, Yuri Lyubimov
Yuri Lyubimov
Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov is a Soviet and Russian stage actor and director associated with the internationally-renowned Taganka Theatre which he founded ,...
, Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany.-Biography:Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish and Latvian-Swedish origins. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather,...
, Emil Gilels
Emil Gilels
Emil Grigoryevich Gilels was a Soviet pianist, widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.His last name is sometimes transliterated Hilels.-Biography:...
, and Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was a Soviet pianist well known for the depth of his interpretations, virtuoso technique, and vast repertoire. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Childhood:...
.
Significance of the debate
There is no necessary connection between accepting Testimony's provenance and accepting that Shostakovich was a dissident, or vice versa. The spectrum of opinion on these issues includes some who believe that Volkov may have faked Testimony, but that it accurately reflects Shostakovich's views (e.g. Elizabeth Wilson). They point to the fact that Volkov is known to have met with Shostakovich, and that he could have obtained further accurate information from other of the composer's acquaintances. Others (e.g. Richard Taruskin) have suggested that the book does reflect what Shostakovich told Volkov, but that it was Shostakovich's attempt to reinvent himself as a dissident to protect his image after his death.The success of Testimony influenced skeptical reception to the forged Hitler Diaries
Hitler Diaries
In April 1983, the West German news magazine Stern published excerpts from what purported to be the diaries of Adolf Hitler, known as the Hitler Diaries , which were subsequently revealed to be forgeries...
by journalist and communist spy Gerd Heidemann
Gerd Heidemann
Gerd Heidemann is a German journalist best known for his role in the publication of purported Hitler Diaries that were subsequently proved to be forgeries....
in 1983, one of the greatest scandals in modern journalism. Like Testimony, the Hitler Diaries were authenticated by an "expert" hired by a reputable publishing firm. After Testimony, the public demanded examination of the original materials by a credible party.
Further reading
- Brown, Malcolm Hamrick (ed.): A Shostakovich Casebook. Indiana University Press 2004. ISBN 0-253-34364-X
- Fay, Laurel: Shostakovich versus Volkov: Whose Testimony? – The Russian ReviewThe Russian ReviewThe Russian Review is a major independent peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary academic journal devoted to the history, literature, culture, fine arts, cinema, society, and politics of the Russian Federation, former Soviet Union and former Russian Empire. The journal was established in 1941 and is...
, Vol. 39 No. 4 (October 1980), pp. 484–493. - Ho, Allan B. and Feofanov, Dmitry (ed.): Shostakovich Reconsidered. Toccata Press 1998. ISBN 0-907689-56-6
- Litvinova, Flora: "Vspominaya Shostakovicha" [Remembering Shostakovich]. In Znamya (The Banner), December 1996, pp. 156–177. (In Russian.)
- Volkov, Solomon: Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator. Knopf 2004. ISBN 0-375-41082-1
- Ian MacDonald: The New Shostakovich. Pimlico (2006). ISBN 978-1845950644
- Ho, Allan B. and Feofanov, Dmitry (ed.): The Shostakovich Wars. 2011. PDF