Music to a Dictator's Ear ; Stalin Insisted That Russian Music Express the 'Human Face' of Soviet Socialism to the World

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Solomon Volkov, who helped Shostakovich with his controversial memoir, "Testimony" (1979), claims he never planned to write a biography of the famous composer. But he felt compelled to do so after watching the composer's image being distorted "long after Stalin's abuse of him was relegated to the proverbial 'dustbin of history.' "

Now, with access to much previously classified material, as well as to both the composer and his son, Volkov has written a powerful and gripping account of the treacherous times in which Shostakovich and his colleagues in music, film, theater, and literature created works that more often than not enraged Stalin with …