How Shostakovich Changed My Mind

Any book that combines psychology with Soviet history and the meaning of music was always going to catch my eye. My Russian grandmother came to England in 1918 when her family fled the revolution, so I have always had a fascination with this era of world history. But it is only recently, and thanks to my son's GCSE studies, that I have learned about the complex relationship between Stalin's 'reign of terror' and the compositions of 20th-century composer Dimitri Shostakovich. By all accounts he created works that had a powerful and lasting effect on those living under Stalin's regime, and many have conjectured that his music carried coded political messages.