Shostakovich: The Musical Voice of the Russian Revolution

This recording is from the World School of Communism 2026, an international event translated into many languages in real time.

To make it easier to watch, we have edited out translation pauses and preserved the content of the presentation.

Subtitle translations are available in Arabic, Bengali, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Mandarin (Simplified), Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Urdu. Please note that these are automated translations and there may be slight errors.

Classical music may seem a world apart from revolutionary politics — but it isn’t.

The legacy of Dmitri Shostakovich has been the subject of a veritable war of interpretations in the half-century since his death. As an opponent of Stalin’s regime, he is often portrayed as an anti-communist, opposed to everything the USSR stood for. Others, noting his decision to remain in the Soviet Union and compose works that resonated with the needs of society, paint him as a Stalinist stooge — a puppet of the CPSU. Neither of these portrayals is even remotely accurate.

In this talk, Peter Kwasiborski, leading member of the RCP, will explore the life and music of Shostakovich — and his true legacy: that of the musical conscience of the genuine ideals of the October Revolution. A legacy that should be upheld and cherished by the Bolsheviks of today.

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