jmc's classics
.This week marks the beginning of the break of what was then called the Soviet Union. There were a lot of good classical musicians that came out of the Soviet Union ( aka USSR) such as violinist David Oistrakh (1908-1974), celloist Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007),Pianist Vladimir Horowitz (1905-1989) and composers Demetri Shostakovich (1906-1976) and Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) to name a few. These were the most famous. The USSR was not Russia. Stalin not Russian. He was from Georgia (the country not the state) Stalin was one of the most brutal dictators in history. He starved 8-10 million Ukrainians in the early 1930's. He was also an Anti-Semite. If he had lived longer or his health held out, he would have probably tried to exterminate the Soviet Jews. He even persecuted his own people the Georgians. Georgian people are an interesting group of people. They along with the Armenians were the first nations to make Christianity their official religion. Khachaturian was Armenian.
The Soviet Union like all other Communist countries and Nazi Germany repressed artisans and forced them to comply with the government. If not they would be in trouble. It is known what happened in Germany with Furtwangler etc. in the 1930's in Nazi Germany and what happened to Jews and composers etc. of Jewish heritage- many of their works were banned. Such as Mendelssohon who was of Jewish heritage and Mahler who was Jewish. On the Westwood One overnight program Our American Dreams recently they were talking about Rostropovich and Horowitz and their returns to their home countries. Rostropovich was striped of his Soviet Citizenship for befriending Alexander Solzhenitzyn one of the leading dissidents in the USSR. He fled to the West. Horowitz left in 1925 on a student visa and never returned. He is the son-in-law of conductor Arturo Toscanini(1867-1957) who I have written about. I don't think that we is related to either David Horowitz or Wynona Ryder whos real name is Wynona Horowitz. Solzhenitsyn(1918-2018) was a Nobel Prize winning writer in the USSR who criticized Soviet society. His son Stepan is a famous conductor. Rostropovich also defended Nobel Prize physicist Andrey Sakharov (1921-1989). In 1968 when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslavakia Rostropovich was playing in London and in solidarity with the people of Czechosavakia he played Dvorak's Cello Concerto! Horowitz returned to the USSR in 1986 to play. By that time the situation in the soviet Union had improved and restrictions began to ease. Many of the people born in the west since then do not know or understand about how hard it was under Communism or under the Nazis. I have heard news reports that a lot of young people do not know about the Holocaust. This is shocking to me! Some people complain about Vladimir Putin but anything is better than the old Soviet system. In America you can say what ever you want without government restrictions. There are many documentaries etc. on life in the old Soviet Union. I would recommend watching at least one of them. Also, Check out this program on Westwood One. I would suggest that you go to their web page ouramericannetwork.org or check out their podcasts. I sometimes listen to this program when I am up that late. As a habit I sometimes sleep with the radio on. Since the fall of what was the Soviet union there have been a lot of recorded material released in the west that previously had not been heard. The Soviet union did place emphasis on the arts. Stalin was a fan of Tchiakovsky. Stalin had a large collection of Russian, Ukrainian and Georgian folk music. There were also a strong opera scene in the Soviet Union. There have been some famous Russian operatic bassos. The most famous was Feodore Challiapin (1873-1938) Who was active before the Revolution and lived out his life in Paris. Many Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Rimsky-Korsikov wrot operas. The Soviet and Communist govenrmnts have fallen. this has demonstrated that Communism and other totalitarian governments do not work. I hope that the people in the west will learn form what happened.
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