The 'perestroika' of Soviet symphonism:: Shostakovich in 1935

Socialist realism is commonly regarded as sounding a death knell for Soviet artistic creation. Yet, as proceedings from the 1935 Discussions about Soviet Symphonism conference show, it was so imprecisely formulated that no one could agree on its implications for Soviet symphonism. Soviet composers and musicologists tried to turn this to their advantage in several ways. It is argued that, with crucial backing from prominent musicologists such as Ivan Sollertinsky, Shostakovich could have expected his Fourth Symphony to win official acceptance and thus set a valid precedent for a new kind of Soviet symphony.