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Censorship by Stalin

This essay by Gerard McBurney explores the censorship of music in the Soviet Union under Stalin. In the early 1930's, arts unions were organized in order to lead artists to carry out propaganda for the state. The fact that the three most famous Russian composers--Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky--were living abroad was a source of embarrassment to the Soviet Union. Then Dmitri Shostakovich became an international sensation, and his career developed as an iconoclast of musical tradition. Then Stalin applied personal pressure on Shostakovich, whose style began to change to a more conservative, melancholy and even tragic vein. This essay is fascinating, because it reveals a complex story, one that is open to interpretation even to this day.

Sun, 11 Jun 2000 13:42:32 -0700

Submitted by: David Rubenstein