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Re: Question about Shostakovich and Stalin.

216.158.7.57

***I don't know much about Russian history and 20th century composers, but was reminded of these two when I saw "Wonderful, Horrible..." on PBS. Was Shostakovich playing along as a pawn, or was he a true believer and friend of ol' Uncle Joe?

As far as I know (I would need to consult those with better knowledge) he was neither. He had a luxury of having being involved in the art that is not as literate as literature, painings or poetry. He has done tremendous things like composing and conducting the 7th symphony in the unheated Philarmony during the Leningrad siege - something that boosted the morale almost as much as Stalin's speeches. He was, however, still accused of writing decadent Western music and was vey much forbidden until his rehabilitation in the 50ies. So his involvement with Commies was far less tight than Leni's with Nazi, in my view.

So while many, many writers and poets were simply killed (hard to believe this today - being shot in the Lubyanka's basement in the back of your head for writing a silly short poem... ) but I don't recall any musicians being treated quite that harshly. Usually such execution was done in one of the corridors, while the prisoner would be excorted from his cell. The corridors had drainage systems so blood would be washed away quickly.

Interesting, that some people don't see any difference between this and few Hollywood and government liberals losing their jobs (justifyably or not) in the fifties...

I will double check on this with one of my resident experts and let you know my findings.


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