Symphony for the City of the Dead
Page 36
“I have known Tukhachevsky . . . on this subject”: Brooke, 408.
Once Marshal Tukhachevsky was dead . . . : Conquest, 205.
The purges hit the tank units . . . : Ibid., 208.
In just a few months, the purge liquidated . . . : Alexandrov, 177–178; cf. Conquest, 450.
Ninety percent of the generals . . . : Conquest, 450.
Shostakovich’s acquaintance and neighbor Lyubov Shaporina . . . : Entry for October 22, 1937, Garros and Korenevskaya, 353.
on the piano for a musicologist . . . : The musicologist was Nikolai Zhilyaev. See Wilson, 121–123. And note the interesting discrepancies in the story of Zhilyaev’s arrest: Fay, Life, 99; Volkov, Testimony, 121.
At the beginning of the fall . . . : There are conflicting reports about when Shostakovich completed the score. See Fay, Life, 99.
“You don’t want to take the mask off . . . carnival begins”: Garros and Korenevskaya, 37.
“The significance was apparent . . . at stake”: Fay, Life, 99.
“You know . . . I’m afraid of everything”: Garros and Korenevskaya, 356.
“I wake up in the morning . . . parts unknown”: Ibid., 357.
“Until this day . . . unhesitatingly”: Wilson, 139.
“Tiny little fishie . . . how you felt”: Volkov, Testimony, 266. Though Shostakovich could not have known it, the absurdist poet and children’s book author who wrote that verse, Nikolai Oleinikov, would be executed only three nights later. See Ostashevsky, xx.
a stunned, appalled hush: One example occurs at the end of the first movement.
“Even before the war . . . suffocated us”: Volkov, Testimony, 135.
“The music had a sort of electrical force”: As remembered by A. N. Glumov, quoted in Wilson, 126.
“The whole audience leapt . . . close to tears”: Garros and Korenevskaya, 356.
“A thunderous ovation . . . creator of this work”: Wilson, 126.
The applause would not stop . . . : Ibid., 134.
They whisked him away: Fay, Life, 100.
The next day, a conductor and friend . . . : Wilson, 134–139.
“Unhealthy instances . . . a bad turn”: Fay, Life, 104.
“made a constant stream . . . scandalously fabricated”: Wilson, 135.
“And in the meantime . . . from its audiences”: Ibid.
“It’s very difficult to speak . . . without it”: Viktor Shklovsky, A Hunt for Optimism [1931], trans. Shushan Avagyan (Champaign, IL: Dalkey Archive, 2012), 53.
“I saw man . . . optimistic note”: Sollertinskys, 83.
“one that particularly . . . just criticism’”: Fanning, Studies, 33n.
Soviet literature and cinema . . . : Fitzpatrick, 76.
Shostakovich had just spent years . . . : The Counterplan and the Maxim trilogy. For a discussion of this archetype in these films, see Emma Widdis, Visions of a New Land: Soviet Film from the Revolution to the Second World War (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), 144–146.
“He described his music . . . rest of his life”: Vishnevskaya, 212.
“A work of astonishing strength . . . tragic force”: Fanning, Studies, 34.
“breaks in upon the symphony . . . severe and threatening”: Ibid., 38. Several listeners felt that the ambivalence of the ending was not calculated, but a halfhearted attempt at jollity that failed. Composer Nikolai Miaskovsky, for example, wrote to Prokofiev: “The symphony fascinated me regardless of the somewhat hollow ending” (Tassie, 207).
“Just think . . . him for it”: Volkov, Stalin, 156.
“I think that it is clear . . . hear that”: Volkov, Testimony, 183.
Solomon Volkov was never able to produce . . . : See Brown, 282n. Brown’s book contains several essays weighing the authority and authenticity of Volkov’s Testimony.
On May 10, 1938, Nina Shostakovich . . . : Fay, Life, 109.
“I would call it ‘spring-like’”: Ibid., 112.
He started it the month Maxim was born . . . : Lesser, 31.
he found his plans for a new opera interrupted . . . : Anatoly Mariengof’s libretto based on Tolstoy’s Resurrection, banned on May 10, 1941 (Fay, Life, 118).
they granted him an award . . . : In 1940, for the Maxim trilogy (Fay, World, 48).
“not working out”: Ibid., 276.
“No matter how many . . . never criticized anyone”: Bartlett, 168.
those who knew him well could tell . . . : Fay, World, 280.
he supported several of his students . . . : See Fanning, “Shostakovich and His Pupils,” in Fay, World, 275ff.
they played drunk soccer in his living room: Fay, World, 281.
Shostakovich still loved soccer . . . : Sollertinskys, 94.
“He said the stadium . . . all the time”: Quoted in The Red Baton [Notes Interdites]: Scenes from the Musical Life of Soviet Russia, dir. Bruno Monsaingeon (Idéale Audience/ARTE France, 2003).
Once, when Nina was away . . . : In the interest of historical accuracy, I should point out that Glikman (xxix) claims it was the Zenith team, while the Sollertinskys claim it was Dynamo (94). Though Dynamo makes more sense, as it was supposedly the composer’s favorite team, Glikman was actually there.
“When the last guest . . . top of the stands’”: Glikman, xxix.
“could cure elephants”: Glikman, 14; Wilson, 4.
The composer’s daily schedule . . . : Khentova, Mire, 81–84.
“If it isn’t singing . . . sits quietly”: Siegmeister, 622.
once even signed up to train as a referee: Sollertinskys, 94.
When Shostakovich finished a piece . . . : Khentova, Mire, 81.
“Sergei Sergeich, tra-tra-tra . . .”: Ardov, 26 and 28.
Once, little Maxim thought it would be funny . . . : Sollertinskys, 43–44.
“with a kind of abnormal . . . befall them”: Vishnevskaya, 223.
“The hatchet job . . . been put on him”: Ibid., 225.
“The Fifth Symphony was a turning point . . . compositions”: Ibid., 212.
“It seemed to you that he is . . . a catastrophe”: Fay, Life, 121.
Roughly eight million people . . . : Conquest, 485–486.
“Anybody who breathes . . . different form with them”: Nadezhda Mandelstam, 297.
To get away from it all . . . : Wilson, 144–145.
PART TWO
FRIENDSHIP
Recent DNA tests suggest . . . : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/7961211/Hitler-had-Jewish-and-African-roots-DNA-tests-show.html.
“We National Socialists . . . this earth”: A. Roberts, 144.
During the show trials of the Great Terror . . . : Simmons and Perlina, 95.
“Did you hear what happened . . . some skill”: Montefiore, 131.
“Everything within the state . . . against the state”: Applebaum, xxi.
Cautiously, Stalin suggested to the French . . . : Overy, 44; G. Roberts, 30.
“little Hitler striding across Europe . . . witness to it all”: Garros and Korenevskaya, 367.
In the summer of 1939, Stalin met . . . : Service, History, 255.
As if to underline the fact . . . : Montefiore, 307–309.
About a week later, the Germans sent . . . : Montefiore, 310; G.E.R. Gedye, “Arrives by Plane,” New York Times, August 24, 1939.
“Of course it’s all a game . . . who tricked him”: Montefiore, 312.
As historians have pointed out, there was some irony . . . : G. Roberts, 43.
“All the isms have become wasms”: A. Roberts, 10.
It had been filmed at great expense . . . : Jones, 263; Robinson, 352.
Stalin had loved the movie . . . : Robinson, 357.
“The war machine rolled down . . . swallowed up”: Hastings, 75.
“Stalin was in a great agitation . . . thrash them?’”: Ibid., 73.
“What has gone wrong . . . us from war”: G.E.R. Gedye, “Soviet ‘Neutrality’ Stressed in Move,” New York Times, September 18,
1939.
“The Führer estimates the operation . . . a pack of cards”: Jones, 14.
Hitler therefore decided that he would launch . . . : Overy, 94.
At dinners, he boasted about his future conquests . . . : Hastings, 146.
He called the coming assault on the Soviet Union . . . : Overy, 84.
“The purpose of the Russian campaign . . . millions”: A. Roberts, 165.
In the end, they would not fall far short . . . : Hastings, 152.
German newspapers began to run sections . . . : Salisbury, 63.
“On the basis of information . . . added to them”: Nelson, 89.
Secret reports from pro-Soviet spies . . . : This list is from Pleshakov, 86–87.
“There’s this bastard who’s set up . . . believe him too”: Montefiore, 353.
“folder of dubious and misleading reports”: Pleshakov, 86–87.
Stalin ignored the warnings . . . : Salisbury, 63.
Several loosely connected circles of spies . . . : Nelson, 186, 189.
Full plans had already been drawn up . . . : Overy, 132; Reid, 20.
“This is not a ‘source’ but a disinformer”: G. Roberts, 67.
followed it up with a rude comment . . . : Nelson, 204.
The Soviet Ambassador immediately picked up . . . : Nelson, 210.
“Stalin and his people . . . snake”: Reid, 18.
Historians have struggled to understand how Stalin . . . : Historians disagree quite broadly on how deluded, how deceived, and how surprised Stalin actually was. Geoffrey Roberts (64–71) and Constantine Pleshakov (13–14 and passim), for example, are more generous in their assessment of his strategic thinking; others such as Robert Service (Stalin, 411–412) and Harrison Salisbury (e.g., 67–81) emphasize the profound depth of his miscalculation.
Stalin was entertaining the idea of his own attack on Germany . . . : His foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, remembered 1943 as the planned time for attack (Service, Stalin, 406). As mentioned above, this question of Stalin’s precise plan is hotly debated.
70 percent of the higher-ranking officers . . . : Pleshakov, 66.
“Not to trust anybody . . . was Adolf Hitler”: A. Roberts, 539.
Shostakovich and his family went on vacation . . . : Sollertinskys, 97.
German reconnaissance planes were flying daily . . . : Hastings, 141.
“Zhukov and I think . . . planes down”: Pleshakov, 89–90.
One of the Nazi planes . . . : Ibid., 180.
“Please do not worry . . . in the West”: Ibid., 90.
On June 11, the NKVD discovered . . . : Ibid., 87.
“I repeat: Nine armies . . . June 22”: Salisbury, 73.
At the same time, German ships began to disappear . . . : Ibid., 17.
On June 21, the secret police reported . . . : A. Roberts, 155.
The commander of the Soviet Third Army reported . . . : Pleshakov, 99.
A vast army of Germans, Croats, Finns, Romanians . . . : These numbers vary slightly, according to account. See Montefiore, 359; Overy, 72; Hastings, 137, 141; and A. Roberts, 155–156.
“deserter-informant”: Montefiore, 358; Alexandrov, 185. Somewhat confusingly, there are similar stories about different deserters; their fates are identical. Cf. Salisbury, 15.
“your wise prophecy . . . in 1941”: Service, History, 260.
Regardless, many did not even receive . . . : Pleshakov, 5, 162.
“Since I struggled . . . mental agonies”: Brinkley and Rubel, 212.
General Zhukov and Defense Minister Timoshenko were not so certain . . . : Pleshakov, 5.
“discuss important matters”: Hastings, 137.
BARBAROSSA
Dmitri Shostakovich had clear plans for the day of June 22 . . . : There is a minor discrepancy about the order of events and when exactly Shostakovich heard the news of the German invasion. I follow Fay (Life, 122) and Seroff (236) in placing him on the street with Glikman when they heard Molotov’s announcement. Volkov (Stalin, 170) claims he was at the Conservatory. The teams at the soccer doubleheader are faithfully recorded by the Sollertinskys (97).
eighteen Ju 88 bombers . . . : Forczyk, Leningrad, 41.
Out in the bay, on a Russian pleasure ship . . . : Salisbury, 82.
At the same time, up and down the whole Soviet border . . . : Pleshakov, 162.
“Yes, yes. We are being bombed . . . staff headquarters”: Salisbury, 37.
Within a few short minutes of Operation Barbarossa’s . . . : Pleshakov, 126.
Within a few hours, the Luftwaffe had blasted . . . : Overy, 76; A. Roberts, 156.
The Western Front’s air force commander . . . : Pleshakov, 126.
“You must be insane . . . signal in code?”: A. Roberts, 155.
At the Kremlin, General Zhukov and Comrade Timoshenko . . . : Montefiore, 364.
General Zhukov called Stalin’s country house . . . “summon the Politburo”: The dialogue is recounted in Montefiore, 363–365, and Pleshakov, 5–6.
Stalin still believed it might be possible to avert war . . . : The details given here are from Pleshakov, 6–7.
“Men and women, citizens of the Soviet Union . . . Victory will be ours”: Amery and Curran, 193.
The commissar spoke anxiously . . . : Hastings, 146; Skrjabina, 4.
Chaos broke out in the streets . . . : Skrjabina, 4.
Leningraders were so intent on responding . . . : Salisbury, 141.
The city government was bewildered . . . : To clarify the timeline of Shostakovich’s and Fleishman’s attempts to join the People’s Volunteers, which has (understandably) been a point of confusion: on June 22, the first day of the invasion, Shostakovich and Fleishman supposedly went to sign up for military service (as Shostakovich attested — e.g., Siegmeister, 242). They were among the horde who stated their willingness to serve in any capacity, but at that point were not signing up specifically for the People’s Volunteers, a quasi-military force that did not yet exist as an organization. Leningrad Party leader Andrei Zhdanov, seeing the hundreds of thousands of willing conscripts in the city, set up the first branch of the People’s Volunteers a few days later; the call for members went out on June 30 (Salisbury, 146–147, 174). Shostakovich may have tried to enlist in the Red Army on the 22nd, as he later suggested in a somewhat scrambled account (Martynov, 102–103). We know that he tried again to volunteer for service on July 2 (Fay, Life, 123), which would have been his attempt specifically to sign up for the People’s Volunteers. In between Shostakovich’s two attempts to present himself for military service, he was swept up in the general levy of civilians working on local defense efforts. The People’s Volunteers, having made spectacular sacrifices near the Luga Line in August, were absorbed into the Red Army in late September 1941, a few days after Fleishman’s death (Reid, 88).
“Until now I have known . . . destruction”: Vulliamy, 1, though this is taken from Shostakovich’s People’s Volunteers application at the beginning of July (Salisbury, 174–175).
He and one of his students . . . : The story of Shostakovich’s attempted conscription is from Sollertinskys, 98; Seroff, 236.
“The population . . . for Mother Russia”: Gleason, 398.
“Very few families . . . country was another”: Reid, 74.
As people all over Leningrad . . . : Writer Lidiya Ginzburg has talked about how this desire to put aside the egotism of self and join the masses was particularly seductive to intellectuals of the period (Ginzburg, 91).
“sitting on a tall trunk . . . smile irritates me”: Skrjabina, 5.
The branches of the State Savings Bank . . . : Salisbury, 127.
“People were writing . . . on the sills”: The conditions at the recruitment centers on the first couple of days of the invasion are recorded in Adamovich and Granin, 219.
When they got up to the front of the line . . . : The city government took several days to organize the Volunteers and called up their first three divisions between July 4 and 18 (Reid,
76).
“You will be called when required”: Seroff, 236.
It is likely, however, that his application . . . : Blokker and Dearling, 29.
“a mighty weapon which could strike the enemy”: Tomoff, 80.
On the first day of Operation Barbarossa . . . : Grigoryev and Platek, 86.
Thus began a national campaign . . . : Details of this effort can be found in Tomoff, 81.
“Everything for the front, everything for victory”: Hakobian, 183.
THE APPROACH
The Russian fighter planes and bombers . . . : Overy, 90; Pleshakov, 112–113.
The Red Army’s tanks were in no better situation . . . : Montefiore, 359; Jones, 86.
The whole of the Soviet Tenth Army simply disappeared . . . : Pleshakov, 130.
German Army Group North was making sickening progress . . . : Jones, 23–24.
“spontaneous self-cleansing action”: Ibid., 23.
Their Panzer divisions were already a hundred miles . . . : Ibid., 20–21.
“The war against these subhuman beings . . . German soldier”: Hastings, 145.
“The troops must be aware . . . conquered territories”: Nelson, 212.
“This war with Russia . . . Russian-Bolshevik system”: Jones, 24.
On June 27, Leningrad’s city council announced . . . : Ibid., 83.
“I thought of Tukhachevsky when I dug trenches . . . start from scratch”: Volkov, Testimony, 103. Note that Shostakovich’s assessment of the tank situation (if these are indeed Shostakovich’s words) is not precisely accurate. The Soviet Union did not lack for tanks. They in fact had more tanks, in terms of sheer numbers, than the rest of the world’s armies combined. The problem was, instead, the quality of the tanks, their deployment, and their supply of fuel and ammunition (A. Roberts, 139).
When Shostakovich was not knee-deep in mud . . . : Fay, Life, 124.
When the Nazis captured the town . . . : Overy, 123.
“The Nazi barbarians seek . . . destroying it”: D. D. Shostakovich, “Nazi Desecration of Russian Cultural Monuments,” VOKS Bulletin no. 3/4 (Spring 1942), 83. As with most of the composer’s public utterances, we have no particular proof that this article was actually written by him.
One of the purposes of the music troupes . . . : Tomoff, 78.
Leningrad’s musical corps staged . . . : Ibid., 76.