Shostakovich Timeline

	Iosef Serebriany, Demitry Shostakovich, 1964, from Art in the Soviet Union (Leningrad: Aurora Art Publishers, 1978).

1906
Shostakovich born St. Petersburg

1913
Stravinsky's Rite of Spring

1914
Beginning of World War I

1917
February Revolution overthrows the Tsar
October Revolution puts Bolsheviks in power
Russian Civil War begins

1918
End of World War I
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn born

1919
Shostakovich begins study at Petrograd Conservatory

1920
End of Russian Civil War

1922
Stalin becomes Secretary General

1923
Lenin dies

1925
Shostakovich finishes Symphony No. 1

1926
Symphony No. 1 premiered to great acclaim; Shostakovich achieves international renown

1928
Stalin assumes control

1929
Forced collectivization and rapid industrialization begins

1930
First opera, The Nose, premiers; begins work on Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

1934
Lady Macbeth premieres in Moscow and Leningrad to great acclaim
Stalin's "Great Terror" begins-mass shootings and deportations

1936
Pravda launches attack on Lady Macbeth; Shostakovich condemned as "formalist"

1937
Shostakovich begins teaching at Leningrad Conservatory
Fifth Symphony ("A soviet artist's reply to just criticism") brings about his political rehabilitation
Stalin's terror continues-five million deportations and several million shot as "enemies of the state"

1938
String Quartet No. 1 completed

1939
Shostakovich becomes professor at Leningrad Conservatory
Russia and Nazi Germany sign mutual non-aggression pact; both invade Poland

1941
Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony ("Leningrad") on behalf of war effort helps his political standing
Germany invades Russia; siege of Leningrad begins

1943
Shostakovich begins teaching at Moscow Conservatory
Rachmaninoff dies

1944
String Quartet No. 2 completed
Russians drive into Eastern Europe

1948
Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Khachaturian condemned as "formalists" by the Composers' Union as part of increasing government control of arts; Shostakovich sacked from his teaching posts
Stalin's arrests of "spies" and other enemies of the Soviet state continue

1949
Shostakovich performs in New York
anti-Semitism becomes official policy in USSR

1950
Shostakovich begins recital tours to earn money

1953
Stalin dies
Death of Prokofiev

1955
Warsaw Pact established

1957
Symphony 11 completed ("The Year 1905")
First Sputnik satellite launched
Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago

1958
Krushchev assumes power

1960
String Quartet No. 8 completed, dedicated "to the memory of the victims of fascism and war"

1961
Shostakovich becomes full member of Communist Party
Symphony No. 12 ("The Year 1917", dedicated to Lenin)
Berlin Wall built; Yurii Gagarin becomes first man in space

1962
Premiere of Symphony No. 13 ("Babiy Yar") based on Jewish poetry; authorities demand revision of the text
Revival of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Katerina Izmaylova) to great acclaim

1963
Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich published

1964
Brezhnev assumes power

1971
Shostakovich finishes last symphony (No. 15)
Nixon visits Moscow; SALT I treaty limits strategic nuclear weapons
Solzhenitsyn deported from USSR
Stravinsky dies

1972
Shostakovich finishes last string quartet (No. 15)

1975
Shostakovich dies in Moscow