Has anyone revealed the religious convictions if any of Dimitri Shostakovich?

Answer 1

Many people have attempted to describe Shostakovich's religious convictions, although the information they offer is somewhat contradictory. He was baptized into the Russian Orthodox faith as an infant.1 Biographer Elizabeth Wilson recounts that, when asked this question, Shostakovich's son Maskim replied that the composer owned a crucifix as well as a religious postcard.2 However, in Shostakovich's much-debated memiors, Testimony, the composer describes himself as an atheist.3 On the other hand, in the account by Shostakovich's close friend Isaak Glikman of how the composer tried to excuse himself from joining the Communist Party, Shostakovich claimed to invoke his religious convictions.4 Another friend, Edison Denisov, described how late in Shostakovich's life, the composer would often mention the Ten Commandments.5 Still, Mark Lubotsky recorded that Shostakovich prefaced the premiere of the Symphony no. 14 by describing how did not believe in an afterlife.6 (It should be noted, however, that Shostakovich rarely revealed his true thoughts in public.)

1 Elizabeth Wilson, Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, Second ed., Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006, 2-3.

2 Wilson 349.

3 Solomon Volkov, Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich, 25th Anniversard Edition, New York: Limelight Editions, 2004, 194.

4 Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich Shostakovich and Isaak Glikman, Story of a Friendship, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001, 91.

5 Wilson 490.

6 Wilson 471.