# Shostakovich - dissident?



## opium (Dec 15, 2011)

Hi,

I'm studying Dmitri Shostakovich's the symphony and in doing so have just finished reading _Testimony _(Volkov, S. 1979).

I am rather confused by the studies which Ho and Feofanov have carried out on this however, do they support or condemn Testimony?

Thanks


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

I haven´t studied the details about the legitimacy of the controversial and interesting "Testimony".

But the surprisingly rough, satirical "Rayok" ("Little paradise") chamber cantata is essential material in any discussion of Shostakovich´s attitude to the Soviet system, cf.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Formalist_Rayok
http://www.van.org/articles/NikolaiKachanovinterview20030113.htm
http://russian.psydeshow.org/music/

and shows a lot of critical views towards it.

It has been recorded at least by Rostropovich.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I haven't read those books, but I've come across their content in other sources. Bits and pieces.

But my general advice is to focus on facts with regards to Shostakovich's attitudes to the Communist Party.

Eg. he joined the party in about 1960. This was 7 years or so after Stalin's death. It makes me wonder why he joined that late, esp. under the apparently more relaxed Khruschev regime. He lived through Stalin's purges and persecutions without being in the party, then he joined way after the worst threats to his life, etc. were (or seemed to me) over. Does this mean Shostakovich agreed with Khruschev's "take" on Communism? I know he was also suicidal at the time, eg. around 1960 he composed the 8th string quartet, his most darkest and quite a harrowing work. I think that one of those guys said that he said it was his suicide note. He wasn't happy about joining the party, apparently, it was said he saw it as a moral death and cop-out.

So I would look into these kinds of things, the reasons for these facts, but you are probably doing this kind of thing already...


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## opium (Dec 15, 2011)

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, I'm reading a book by David Fanning who isn't a big fan of Testimony - he looks at this evidence.

There is a book however called the New Shostakovich which is very in favour of Testimony, but he makes a great point in it that so what if Shostakovich did believe in communism to an extent at some point? He was living in a communist country after all...

I think that to believe Shostakovich was 100% faithful to the communist party would be naive - look at everything that went on around him!


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