Al Son de la Utopia

Composing in the Soviet Union under Stalin's regime was not an easy task. In 1932, music, like all other artistic disciplines, was reduced to a single doctrine: that of socialist realism. The purpose of art was to serve the state. Musicians had to submit to the party's ideological line. Some circumvented it as best they could; others, however, refused, and their works were banned, their concerts canceled, and they were relegated to oblivion. This happened in the best of cases; at worst, they were sent to labor camps in Siberia or simply executed. Musicians of the stature of Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, and internationally renowned performers such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, and Maria Yudina, were capable of creating sublime melodies in the most hostile and obscure circumstances. But this repressive policy was not limited to classical music. The Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (RAPM) also focused on light music. Stalin's fondness for this type of music was well known, so, consequently, the repression was less severe than with classical music and literature. Despite this, the performers couldn't let their guard down. Klavdia Schulzhenko became one of the most famous figures in the Soviet Union with her love songs. Despite this, she was constantly monitored by the regime, and many of her songs were banned. Vadim Kozim, with his tangos and gypsy songs, also became immensely popular, although due to his homosexuality, he was deported to Kolyma, where he was imprisoned for eight years. In To the Sound of Utopia, Michel Krielaars paints a splendid portrait of the difficulty and struggle that musicians living during the Stalinist period faced when working in a climate of arbitrariness, denunciation, and terror.

Michel Krielaars (1961) es historiador, periodista y experto en Rusia. Ha publicado novelas, una colección de cuentos y varios libros sobre la historia rusa, entre ellos el premiado Los espectáculos de Chéjov. Viajes por Rusia, en el que traza un periplo por tierras rusas tras las huellas del célebre autor. Más recientemente, en 2022, la editorial Uitgeverij Pluim publicó su ensayo En guerra con Rusia.