Year Shostakovich: Life And Works Contemporary Soviet Music Contemporary Soviet Culture Contemporary Soviet Life
1936 29-30. January 28: Pravda Prokoviev: Romeo and Juliet; Criticism of Shostakovich The Terror continues. With
attacks Lady Macbeth. February Peter and the Wolf Myaskovsky: triggers a general wave of millions disappearing,
6: Pravda attacks The Limpid Symphony No. 16 A. Khachaturian: attacks on culture. Gide, demoralisation sets in and
Stream. February 10/13/15: Piano Concerto Shebalin: Overture visiting the USSR, condemns society begins to atomise. June
'stormy debates' in Composers' on Mari Themes Knipper: Symphony intellectual slavery under 27: anti-abortion law and new
Union around the Pravda No. 6 (Red Cavalry) Ivanovs: Stalin. January: Pravda damns family and marriage codes.
controversy. S. condemned as a Symphony No. 2 (lost) 'unscientific historians', so Summer: massive wave of arrests.
Formalist. May 20: finishes Lyatoshinsky: Symphony No. 2 endorsing the trend towards August 19-24: show-trial of the
Symphony No. 4 in C minor, falsification of the past. so-called 'United Centre'
Op.43. May 30: daughter Galya February: Bulgakov's Molière, (Zinoviev, Kamenev, and 14
born. October-November: first banned in 1930, taken off 'accomplices') for murder of
incidental music for after seven nights at the Kirov and planned murder of
Afinogenov's Salute to Spain, Moscow Arts Theatre. Pravda Stalin. Mass-hysteria surrounds
Op.44 (play banned soon after criticizes 'cacophany' in the proceedings; papers are full
opening in Moscow). December: architecture. March: Pravda of letters demanding
film of Tale Of A Priest castigates artistic 'daubers' death-penalty for 'these Gestapo
stopped in production. S. and theatrical 'glitter'. June: agents'. All shot. September:
ordered to withdraw Fourth Gorky dies (or is murdered). Yagoda arrested for being 'four
Symphony from rehearsal. August: Pravda declares years late' in uncovering the
Serebryakova and Pilnyak 'Trotskyite-Zinovievite bloc'. He
enemies of the people. is replaced by Yezhov.
Katayev: Lonely White Sail
(novel)
1937 30-31. Winter: film score Prokofiev: Cantata for the 20th Cultural purge continues. Apex of the Terror. Five million
Maxim's Return, Op.45. January: Anniversary of the Revolution Dovzhenko and Eisenstein deported, half a million shot.
4 Pushkin Romances, Op.46 and Myaskovsky: Symphonies Nos. 17 reprimanded. Meyerhold Stalin calls for 'intensified
film score Volochayevsk Days, and 18; Quartet No. 4 A. vilified. 100 films stopped in struggle' against the 'enemies of
Op.48. Spring: Leningrad Khachaturian: Song of Stalin production. Half the latest the People'. Pravda accuses
Conservatory invites S. to give (cantata) Dzerzhinsky: Virgin plays taken off and 20 theatres Yagoda of having run the
tutorials in composition and Soil Upturned (opera) Chishko: closed. January: at the end of labour-camps 'like
orchestration. April-July: Battleship Potemkin (opera) his tether, Mandelstam writes health-resorts'. January 23-30:
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Ivanovs: Symphony No. 3 Knipper: conformist Ode to Stalin. His second Moscow show-trial (of
Op.47. Autumn: drafts operetta Symphony No. 7 (War) Sviridov: gesture ignored. February: Pyatakov, Radek, and their
The Twelve Chairs (scrapped Symphony No. 1 Tubin: Symphony Eugenia Ginzburg arrested. 'accomplices'). 13 shot. April:
1938). November 21: Fifth No. 2 Romm: Lenin in October (film) end of Second Five-Year Plan.
Symphony premiered in Bulgakov: Black Snow (novel, June: arrest of Tukhachevsky and
Leningrad. Great success. unpublished till 1965) 80,000 senior military. Many
Mandelstam: Second and Third tortured and executed without
Voronezh Notebooks (unpublished) trial.
1938 31-32. January 29: Fifth Prokofiev: Cello Concerto No. 1; Cultural purge continues. Wholesale massacre of officials
Symphony premiered in Moscow. Alexander Nevsky Myaskovsky: Olesha, Mandelstam, and in every walk of life (and
March: Toscanini gives US Violin Concerto Shaporin: The Zabolotsky imprisoned. Kirshon increasingly of security forces
premiere of Fifth Symphony in Field of Kolikovo (cantata) 'disappears'. Bulgakov finishes too). March: show-trial of
New York. April: begins choral Kabalevsky: Colas Breugnon The Master and Margarita so-called 'Right-Trotskyite
'Lenin' symphony (never (opera) Knipper: Symphony No. 7 (unpublished till 1966). Centre' (Rykov, Bukharin, Yagoda,
finished). May 10: son Maxim (Military); Marya (opera) January: Meyerhold Theatre and others). All shot. September:
born. May-July: Quartet No. 1 Zhelobinsky: Mother (opera) closed. March: second arrest of Stalin's History of the Communist
in C, Op.49. Autumn: Suite for Shebalin: Quartet No. 3 Akhmatova's son Lev Gumilov Party of the Soviet Union: Short
Danceband No. 2 and film score (see 1935). April 21: Boris Course. December: Yezhov replaced
s Friends, Op.51, The Great Pilnyak shot. December: by Beria. The Terror abates.
Citizen (Part 1), Op.52, The Mandelstam dies in transit camp
Man With A Gun, Op.53, and The near Vladivostock. Eisenstein:
Vyborg Side, Op.50. Alexander Nevsky (film)
Gerasimov: Komsomolsk (film)
Donskoi: Childhood of Gorky
(film)
1939 32-33. February: film score The Prokofiev: Semyon Kotko (opera); Cultural purge eases. Tretyakov Mass-arrests cease. Around seven
Great Citizen (Part 2), Op.55. Hail to Stalin (cantata) shot. Kornilov 'disappears'. million arrested since 1936. The
March: film score The Silly Myaskovsky: Symphony No. 19; Akhmatova begins Requiem. May Terror blamed on the Trotskyites.
Little Mouse, Op.56 (lost). Quartet No. 5; Salutation 16: Babel arrested. June: January: Yezhov arrested and
April: begins Sixth Symphony. Overture Khrennikov: Into the Meyerhold arrested, tortured. charged with trying to kill
May 23: confirmed as professor Storm (opera) A. Khachaturian: Tsvetayeva returns to Russia. Stalin. May: Molotov replaces
at Leningrad Conservatoire. Happiness (ballet) Mosolov: September: Tsvetayeva's husband Litvinov. August: Russia and Nazi
October: finishes Symphony No. Symphony No. 3 Zhelobinsky: and daughter arrested. Germany sign non-aggression pact.
6 in B minor, Op.54. November Symphony No. 3 Ivanovs: Rainbow Dovzhenko: Shchors (film) September: joint Nazi-Soviet
5: Sixth Symphony premiered in (poem for orchestra) Gerasimov: Uchitel (film) Romm: invasion of Poland. November:
Leningrad. Begins Lenin in 1918 (film) Donskoi: Russia invades Finland. December:
re-orchestration of Boris My Apprenticeships (film) Russia expelled from the League
Godunov. December: elected to of Nations.
Leningrad city soviet.
1940 33-34. Continues work on Boris Myaskovsky: Symphonies Nos. 20 Pasternak translates Hamlet and February: Nazi-Soviet trade
Godunov, Op.58 No.1, finishing and 21; Quartet No. 6 Prokofiev: Sonnet 66. January 27: Babel agreement. Russia supplies
score in June. May 20: Order of Piano Sonata No. 6 A. shot. February 2: Meyerhold Germany with food and raw
the Red Banner of Labour (for Khachaturian: Violin Concerto shot. March 10: Bulgakov dies. materials. February 4: Yezhov
film work). July-September: Kabalevsky: The Comedians (suite) March: Akhmatova completes shot. March 12: Finland's small
Piano Quintet in G minor, Shebalin: Violin Concerto; Requiem (published in Russia in reservist force surrenders,
Op.57. Autumn: incidental music Quartet No. 4 Dzerzhinsky: The 1987). Sholokhov: The Don having inflicted half a million
for King Lear, Op.58 No.2, 3 Storm (opera) Polovinkin: Flows Home To The Sea (novel) casualties on ill-led Red Army
Pieces for violin, and film Symphony No. 5 Sviridov: Symphony Zoshchenko: The Poker (story) three times its size. April: NKVD
score The Adventures of for Strings Kuleshov: Siberians (film) massacre 15,000 Polish POWs in
Korzinkina, Op.59. Opera Donskoi: My Universities (film) Katyn forest. August: Russia
Katyusha Maslova begun and Yutkevich: Yakov Sverdlov (film) annexes Lithuania, Latvia, and
abandoned. November 23: Piano Estonia. August 20: Trotsky
Quintet premiered in Moscow. assassinated by Soviet agent in
Great success. Mexico.
1941 34-35. March: King Lear Prokofiev: The Year 1941 (suite); August: Tsvetayeva hangs Stalin ignores warnings that
premiered in Leningrad. Betrothal in a Monastery (opera); herself. September: Akhmatova's Hitler about to attack USSR. June
Success. April: tours, playing Quartet No. 2 Myaskovsky: radio speech to the women of 22: Germany invades Russia. June
Piano Quintet and First Piano Symphonies Nos. 22 and 23; Leningrad. October: Akhmatova 28: fall of Minsk. July 3: Stalin
Concerto. May: Piano Quintet Quartet No. 7 Kabalevsky: Parade and Lydia Chukovskaya evacuated appeals to Russian people to
wins Stalin Prize, First Grade. of Youth (cantata) Dzerzhinsky: to Tashkent, there joining defend the Motherland. July 19:
Sixth Symphony attacked at Blood of the People (opera) Nadezhda Mandelstam. November: fall of Smolensk. August:
meeting of Composers' Union in Ivanovs: Symphony No. 4 Vera Inber notes in her diary development of the 'Kiev pocket'.
Leningrad. July 12-14: Vow of that people of Leningrad September 19: fall of Kiev.
the People's Commissar; 27 reduced to eating their pets. September-October: German drive
arrangements for frontline Fadeyev: Last of the Udege on Moscow. Battle of Vyazma -
ensembles (Beethoven, Bizet, (novel) Borodin: Dmitri Donskoi Soviet armies defeated. Leningrad
Dargomyzhsky, etc). July 15th: (novel) A.Tolstoi: Ivan the besieged. German advance slows
The Fearless Regiments Are On Terrible Part I (play) down. December: German patrols in
The Move (song). September 17: Pudovkin: General Suvarov sight of Moscow. Russians defend
S. broadcasts to citizens of (film) Gerasimov/Kalatozov: The as the city is evacuated. German
Leningrad. October 2: S. and Invincible (film) advance halts in -40deg.F
family flown out to Moscow. temperatures. December 5-6:
October 15-22: in transit by Russians attack in front of
train to Kuibyshev. December Moscow, driving Germans back. Red
27: finishes Symphony No. 7 in Army losses for 1941: three
C, Op.60 ('To the City of million (half of them prisoners).
Leningrad'). December 28:
begins The Gamblers (opera).
1942 35-36. March 5: Seventh Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 7 A. August: an agitprop memorandum January-February: NKVD renamed
Symphony premiered in Khachaturian: Gayane (ballet) to the Central Committee claims NKGB under Beria. Russian
Kuibyshev. March 29: Seventh Myaskovsky: Quartet No. 8 that Soviet culture is counter-offensive pushes German
Symphony premiered in Moscow. Shebalin: Quartet No. 5 'unacceptably clogged' by Jews line back everywhere except
May: begins English Poets. (Slavonic) Kabalevsky: The Mighty - an encoded directive to the around Leningrad. March-May:
Summer: visits Sollertinsky in Homeland; The People's Avengers apparat to begin an Russians halt. Stalemate. April:
Novosibirsk. August 9: (cantatas) Karayev: Quartet No. 1 anti-Semitic campaign in the end of Third Five-Year Plan.
Leningrad premiere of Seventh Koval: Emelyan Pugachov (opera); arts. Inber: The Pulkovo May-June: Germans begin new
Symphony. August: Native National Holy War (oratorio) Meridian (poem) Ehrenburg: The attack. Russians defeated at
Leningrad, Op.63, and Solemn Vainberg: Symphony No. 1 Fall of Paris (novel) Leonov: Kharkov. Fall of Sevastopol.
March for military band. Khrennikov: Symphony No. 2 Invasion (play) S./G.Vasiliev: June-July: German summer
October: Honoured Artist of the Mosolov: Symphony No. 4 Defence of Tsaritsin (film) offensive. Fall of Voronezh.
RSFSR October 25: finishes 6 Polovinkin: Symphony No. 6 Donskoi: How the Steel Was July-August: Germans break
Romances on Verses by English Zhelobinsky: Symphony No. 4 Tempered (film) through and advance on
Poets, Op.62. December: Tubin: Symphony No. 3 Stalingrad. August-December:
abandons The Gamblers. Falls Battle of Stalingrad. German army
ill with gastric typhoid. enclosed.
1943 36-37. January 11: still ill, Prokofiev: War and Peace (Pt.1); May: Yakov Grinberg of the January 12-18: partial lifting of
begins Second Piano Sonata. Ballad of an Unknown Boy Moscow Arts Department writes siege of Leningrad. 630,000 of
March 18: finishes Piano Sonata (cantata) Myaskovsky: Symphony to Stalin, deploring 'the murky the city's occupants have starved
No. 2 in B minor, Op.61, in a No. 24; Quartet No. 9 Shebalin: wave of repulsive to death since the end of 1941.
sanatorium near Moscow. April: Quartet No. 6 Zhivotov: Happiness anti-semitism' sweeping Russia: February 2: Germans surrender at
moves to Moscow with Nina. (song-cycle) Knipper: Symphony 'It is becoming unbearable! It Stalingrad. Start of Russian
Children remain in Kuibyshev. No. 8; Violin Concerto Karayev: is no longer random, it is winter offensive. February-March:
May: 8 British and American Symphony No. 1 Glier: Coloratura planned. Once again the attack and counter-attack.
Folksongs. July 1: begins Concerto A. Khachaturian: terrible Jewish question has Manstein checks the Russian
Eighth Symphony. August: Song Symphony No. 2 Polovinkin: arisen.' Zoshchenko: Before advance. March-June: lull during
of the Red Army (with Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8 Popov: Sunrise (autobiography) A. the thaw. July-August: world's
Khachaturian for National Symphony No. 2 (Motherland) Tolstoy: The Way Through Hell largest tank battle at Kursk.
Anthem competition). September Tubin: Symphony No. 4 (novel); Ivan the Terrible Part Germans defeated. July-November:
9: finishes Symphony No. 8 in C II (play) Yutkevich: The Good Russian offensive recaptures Kiev
minor, Op.65. November 4: Soldier Schweik (film) and Smolensk. November: Teheran
Moscow premiere of Eighth conference.
Symphony.
1944 37-38. February 15: hearing of Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5; Violin May: Akhmatova gives recital in January 27: final liberation of
death of Sollertinsky, begins Sonata No. 2; Piano Sonata No. 8; Moscow. Standing ovation greets Leningrad. February-June:
Second Piano Trio. April: the Cinderella (ballet) Shaporin: her appearance. Stalin demands continuous fighting. June-July:
children join S. and Nina in Battle for the Russian Land to know who 'organised' the Russian summer offensive breaks
Moscow. June: film score Zoya, (cantata) Myaskovsky: Piano applause. Simonov: The Last through at Smolensk. July 3:
Op.64. August 13: finishes Sonatas Nos. 5 and 6 Zhivotov: Summer (novel) Eisenstein: Ivan recapture of Minsk. July-August:
Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Songs Of Leningrad A. the Terrible Pt.1 (film) Red Army drives into Poland.
Op.67. September: Quartet No. 2 Khachaturian: Masquerade (suite) Donskoi: Rainbow (film) August-September: Warsaw
in A, Op. 68. November 14: Balanchivadze: Symphony No. 1 uprising. Under Stalin's orders,
Moscow premiere of Second Piano Knipper: Symphony No. 9 Russians hold off, allowing
Trio and Second Quartet. Polovinkin: Symphony No. 9 Germans to crush the insurgents.
December 6: Children's Notebook Zhelobinsky: Symphony No. 5 September-December: Russians
for pf, Op.69, and Russian drive into Eastern Europe. Armed
River (spectacle), Op.66. national resistance against them
begins.
1945 38-39. July-August: Symphony Myaskovsky: Quartets Nos. 10 and The apparat spreads January-February: Russians enter
No. 9 in E , Op.70. November 3: 11; Cello Concerto; Sinfonietta anti-semitic stories in the Germany. February: Yalta
Ninth Symphony premiered in No. 2 Prokofiev: Ode to the End armed forces. Jews now referred conference. April-May: final
Leningrad. December: film score of the War Dzerzhinsky: Piano to as 'cosmopolitans'. attack on Berlin. May 2: fall of
Simple Folk, Op.71 and Concerto No. 3 Kabalevsky: Tvardovsky: Vasily Tyorkin Berlin. May 8: Germans surrender.
incidental music for Victorious Quartet No. 2 Sviridov: Piano (poem) Fadeyev: The Young Guard July-August: Potsdam conference.
Spring, Op.72. Trio Mosolov: Cello Concerto (novel, first version) September 3: end of World War Two.
Ivanovs: Symphony No. 5 Krein: Zoshchenko: Adventures of a
Symphony No. 2 Peiko: Symphony Monkey (story) Fedin: Early
No. 1 Joys (novel)