Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (September 25, 1806 – August 9, 1975) was born in Moscow, Russia, which, during much of his life, was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the “USSR.” Over the course of his life, he composed fifteen symphonies; multiple concerti and chamber works; and operas and musical dramas. His state honors include two Orders of Lenin, the highest awards for civilians in the Soviet Union.
From 1919 to 1923, he studied piano at the Petrograd Conservatory (in what is now St. Petersburg). Save for participating in the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw in 1927, he didn’t pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist, opting instead to perform his original work.

This would be a wise choice. From 1923 to 1925 he studied composition, culminating in worldwide recognition for his Symphony No. 1, launching him into newfound fame. This work was influenced by Tchaikovsky, Paul Hindemith, and his contemporary Sergei Prokofiev.

Over the course of his life, he composed many types of work, often navigating intense and frightening censorship and threats from the USSR government. A point of contention for music historians is this: was his commitment to the Communist Party sincere, or was he a secret dissident who joined the party to survive? One could argue that he committed out of duress. 

Ten days prior to his death, he was admitted to the heart disease section of a hospital in Kuntsevo, outside of Moscow, which cared for top government officials and celebrities. He died at 68 years old of heart failure and was survived by his wife Irina, his daughter Galina, a biologist, and his son Maxim, a concert pianist and conductor. In his obituary, Paul Griffiths write:

“He strove diligently to accommodate himself to what he was told were the requirements of a society he believed in, but at the same time he found he had to give form to personal, not mass, feelings. And his whole output charts the turmoil of a profoundly conscientious musician.”