How Solomon Volkov distorted Shostakovich’s Legacy

Dmitri Shostakovich, Soviet Composer (right) and Solomon Volkov, author of ‘Testimony’ (left)

In October 1979, Solomon Volkov, a young musicologist from Russia, published ‘Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich: As related to and edited by Solomon Volkov’. He claimed that the book is the memoirs of the Soviet Composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who dictated it to him.

However, huge discrepancies in logic and procedure were noticed almost immediately after its publishing. By 1980, many musicologists had discredited the book.

Yet, on the internet, the book continues to poison Shostakovich’s legacy in popular context- people new to Shostakovich believe the book, conceiving the notion that Soviet Artists were all silent critics of the system.

Sadly, due to the anti-Soviet bias of the West, the book was readily accepted by most musicologists, especially in America and Europe.

Rejection by Friends, Family and Colleagues

The book is a little longer than 267 pages. Solomon Volkov claimed to have spent hours with the composer, taking down notes, and after the book was complete, reading it out to Shostakovich twice over to ensure its accuracy. Shostakovich’s widow, Irina, after hearing of the publication of these ‘memoirs’, told The New York Times.

Volkov saw Dmitrich three or maybe four times… He was never an intimate friend of the family ‐ he never had dinner with us here, for instance… I don’t see how he could have gathered enough material from Dmitrich for such a thick book.

She asserted that the composer met Volkov twice as a favour to his friend, Boris Tishchenko, where both meetings took place in Boris’ presence. She said that the composer may have met Volkov at rehearsals, concerts, etc. but only briefly.

Irina Shostakovich said that the family first found out about the book from Volkov, who had told them that he was publishing a ‘biographical essay’ for the publication for which he worked. However, he did not publish any such essay, and did not respond to requests of the family to see the manuscript.

Maxim Shostakovich, the composer’s son, told the New York Times after being told of the publication of the book.

…like learning about your own death from the newspaper… The reports are highly exaggerated.

A panel of six prominent Soviet Composers- Basner, Karnev, Karen Khachaturian (Aram Khachaturian’s nephew), Levitin, Tishchenko (a friend of Shostakovich who facilitated the meeting of Volkov and Shostakovich), and Vainberg, all friends and colleagues of Shostakovich, also denounced the book as ‘having none in common with the true reminisces of DD Shostakovich’.

It was also found that the book had large segments of previously-published Soviet Articles copied into it, with minor changes to make it a first-person account. The only pages which are actually Shostakovich’s words are 32, 77, 106, 154, 178, 226, and 245.

The book was published soon after Shostakovich’s death, with no concern for his wife and child living in the USSR, despite the fear that the family was living under, as the book claims.

Lack of Authenticating Evidence:

1. Volkov’s claim to the authenticity of ‘Testimony’ was that Shostakovich himself had signed the pages of the book. However, the signature only appears on the first page of each chapter, pages which contain fairly uncontroversial material.
2. Volkov also never produced the authenticating evidence he claimed to have in his possession- including audio and video recordings, letters, and diary-like notes.
3. Fay notes that if Volkov was determined to publish the book, he would have published it immediately, for the revelations of the book were too shocking to not receive contracts from publishers. To explain this, Fay says that the 3 years was the time during which Volkov wrote the book.
4. He never produced the original manuscript- which can help deduce when and where it was typed. This would help in dispelling doubts of it being written in New York. Volkov’s reluctance to do so only shows that Fay’s theories may be right.