The Destalinization of Dmitrii Shostakovich's 'Song of the Forests', Op. 81 (1949)

The Destalinization of Dmitrii Shostakovich's 'Song of the Forests', Op. 81 (1949) Jack Weiner Northern Illinois University Forests are beneficial in many ways to all nations. They beautify the land, favorably modify the climate, provide many useful and necessary staples, and help to protect the soil. Russia's agriculture has frequently and severely suffered because of numerous droughts; for years the Russians have tried to reduce their intensity and frequency through the planting of trees. For example, in 1890 the soil scientist Dokuchaev experimented with shelter belts (Volin 316). During the Soviet period scientists continued to plant trees — millions of them — in order to increase agricultural productivity, particularly on the collective farms and in the wooded steppes of European Russia (Mosolov 1: 178). The greatest impetus and plan for afforestation and reforestation were apparently Stalin's; in 1948 he supposedly laid the groundwork for a fifteen-year project to plant trees on more than ten million acres (Semenova-Tian-Shanskaia 3-4). But because of miscalculations and poor maintenance this program achieved meager results, and meaningful statistics seem not to be available after 1958 (Volin 317). This project was part of Stalin's Plan for the Transformation of Nature (Soviet Agriculture). Although obviously the Plan benefited the Soviet Union, many view it more as a vehicle through which Stalin glorified himself. To understand the creative process for all the arts in the Soviet Union one must be familiar with the circumstances under which such works appear. Essentially, the pressures applied to one form of artistic creativity are applied to the other forms as well.1 Since coming to power the Soviet government has attempted to control the arts, using them to carry out state policy (Vickery, Cult of Optimism 4). From the official point of view, artists in the USSR should serve, according to Stalin, as "engineers of human souls" (Problems of Soviet Literature 21). Conformists often prosper. Nonconformists usually do not. The Communist Party always knows best (Simmons 2-4). In August 1934, Andrey Zhdanov, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party ofthe Soviet Union gave a speech at the first Ail-Union Congress of Soviet Writers in which he, guided by Stalin, laid out in an ironclad manner the tenets of Socialist Realism. This doctrine has determined what and how Soviet artists are to create; it demands that the arts create works which present in a 214 Rocky Mountain Review215 positive manner the development of Soviet society. It is unimportant whether this depiction reflects real life in the Soviet Union. Accuracy and veracity are less important than the creation of a positive and optimistic atmosphere (Simmons 277-79). Works of art are to be totally intelligible to the Soviet masses and should not fall into the category of art for art's sake. Heroes in these works should not only be positive but without blemish. Works which portray Stalin should be an apotheosis of him, thus perpetuating the cult of personality. The artist should always depict Stalin as a great hero in both war and peace. And he should always be the object of reverence and adoration because of his innumerable talents and unlimited wisdom (Simmons 287). The composer should be particularly careful not to produce music that one might consider "highbrow." Often the safest thing to do is to write compositions based on folk music. Walter N. Vickery has eloquently stated that "the years 1946-53 must be ranked among the bleakest and most sterile in Soviet literature" (Literature and Revolution 99). On August 14, 1946, the Central Committee of the Ail-Union Communist Party, again led by Zhdanov (Simmons 281), charged the editors of the prestigious literary magazines Zvezda and Leningrad with not adhering to the basic concepts of Socialist Realism (Alexandrova 244). In late 1948 and in early 1949 there were other attacks which marked the beginning of the anti-cosmopolitan campaign. In it the Party criticized many artists for revering Western tastes and culture (Hayward 107). Those who continued to oppose the tenets of Socialist Realism in any of the arts did so at their own risk. Dmitrii Shostakovich and Stalin came into conflict in 1936 after Stalin heard the composer...