The Führer has decided to wipe the city of Petersburg from the face of the earth.… After the defeat of Soviet Russia there is no interest in the further existence of this large inhabited area.… We propose blockading the city tightly and to level it through artillery shelling of all calibers and constant bombing from the air.127
Secret Nazi Party instructions, detailing the need for great caution in conversations with Russians, pointed out that most dangerous were discussions with residents of the former Petersburg: “The latter are good dialecticians by nature and have the ability to persuade one of the most incredible things.”128 The Nazi leadership considered Moscow a semiAsiatic village whose residents could be worked over and possibly still forced to serve the interests of the German Reich. But the Nazis were of a different mind when it came to residents of the former capital. The logical conclusion was that Leningrad, the heir of Petersburg, had to be destroyed by German military might.
Stalin’s own prewar policies were clearly aimed at bleeding Leningrad dry. But the German invasion instantly changed the situation. Now Leningrad became a prominent part of Stalin’s defense against Germany.
On August 21, 1941, Andrei Zhdanov, Leningrad’s party leader, appealed to the people of the city with a declaration:
The enemy is trying to break into Leningrad. He wants to destroy our homes, capture the factories and plants, steal the people’s wealth, flood the streets and squares with the blood of innocent victims, rape the peaceful populace, and enslave the free sons of our Homeland.129
Zhdanov’s appeal was posted on the walls of many Leningrad buildings. And on September 14, Leningraders heard the writer Vsevolod Vishnevsky on the radio: “The Fascists want to turn our people into numbered cattle, deprive them of honor, rights, and dignity. ‘Hey, you, from Leningrad, Sankt-Peterburg! This is the city that first made revolution. So go to the wall, or go to hard labor.’”
Among the evils listed by Zhdanov and Vishnevsky were none that had not already been perpetrated in Leningrad by Stalin and his henchmen. But Stalin’s rape of Leningrad took place in secret. After the German invasion, Leningrad’s salvation suddenly became a legitimate theme. It became possible to speak and write openly about the city’s struggle for survival.
In these dramatically changed circumstances Shostakovich started writing down his new work dedicated to the fate of Leningrad, a work that became famous as the Seventh (“Leningrad”) Symphony. I emphasize the term write down, not compose: Shostakovich typically worked fast, because in many cases he was writing down a work that had been completed in his mind, with just a few preliminary sketches. Therefore Shostakovich wrote the orchestration of his symphonies in ink. “But, even in light of Shostakovich’s typically accurate preliminary conception of sound, this was a special case, a notation of unusual clarity, fullness, and speed,” his Soviet biographer averred.130
Shostakovich could not stand talking about his “creative plans,” preferring to announce his completed works. Nevertheless, his Seventh Symphony was included in the program for the Leningrad Philharmonic’s 1941-1942 season, that is, before the German invasion. That could have been done only with the composer’s consent and indicates that Shostakovich had a clear idea of his Seventh Symphony and was sure he would complete it by the fall season.
Undoubtedly, the shock of the war created a new psychological background for the composer’s work and influenced the final result. We know that at that time Shostakovich was seriously considering using words from the Psalms of David, for a soloist to sing. Sollertinsky, who was knowledgeable about the Bible, helped him select the texts. Excerpts from the Ninth Psalm were chosen:
When He maketh inquisition for blood, He remembereth them: He forgetteth not the cry of the humble.
Have mercy upon them O Lord; consider my trouble which I suffer on account of them that hate me; thou hast lifted me up from the gate of death.
For Shostakovich the words about “inquisition for blood” were of particular importance, corresponding with the composer’s outrage over Stalin’s oppression. Though before war broke out he could not even think about a public performance of a work to that text, after the invasion, the opportunity arose, at least in theory. The reference to “blood” could now be applied to Hitler. Moreover, Stalin, stunned by the country’s setbacks, was trying to appeal to the patriotic and religious feelings of the Russian people. Orthodox themes and images were no longer suppressed by the authorities. Ehrenburg recalled the cultural situation in that period: “Usually war brings with it the censor’s scissors; but in Russia during the first eighteen months of the war writers felt much freer than before.”131
