For a half century and more Dmitri Shostakovich and many other Soviet musicians drew inspiration from the brief period of high modernism in which they began their careers. Controversial in its own day, the modernist movement in Leningrad has been debated ever since, first within and now outside of Russia, to the point of obscuring the nature of the achievement and leaving essential questions unanswered.

This book returns to the period itself to explore the issues, the creative personalities, the thought, and the music. From these studies the reader will gain a new perspective on music in the early Soviet period and insight into its lasting consequences for twentieth-century music.