It is shameful to short-change them! It is sinful to short-weight them! As I shove dumplings into my pocket, I steely and quietly observe their pious hands Weary from carrying their shopping bags. This final stanza brings Yevtushenko's critique into focus. It is not bread rations that weigh down their shopping bags, but their oppression. It is Russian society that has short-changed and short-weighed them. Yevtushenko’s speaker observes them “steely” and “quietly.” He does not turn away from their suffering, but faces them respectfully. Tellingly, Shostakovich closes the movement with a cadence typical of a religious hymn that ends with a sung “Amen.” This is not typical of a symphonic movement, but is used to invoke a quiet, reverential, prayerful tone. IV. Strakhi (Fears) The lyrics of the fourth movement are from the only poem Yevtushenko had not yet published prior to the first performance of the symphony (Fay 278). Shostakovich commissioned the work, asking for a depiction of the Great Terror of the Stalin Regime. Also known as the Great Purge, it was a campaign of targeted assassination and murder led by Stalin in 1937 in order to wipe out resistance to his assumption of political power in the tumultuous wake of Vladimir Lenin’s death (Brittanica). Yevtushenko describes The Purge as characterized by “[t]he secret fear of an anonymous denunciation / the secret fear of a knock at the door” (lines 15-16). So pervasive was the terror of the totalitarian regime that it instilled deep, destabilizing anxiety: The fear of being untrue to one’s country, The fear of dishonestly debasing ideas, … the fear of parroting someone else’s words, The fear of humiliating others with distrust, And of trusting oneself overmuch. (lines 31- 37) Shostakovich’s instrumentation underscores Yevtushenko’s description of Soviet citizens in a state of irreconcilability, unable to trust each other or themselves. The movement begins with a deep and foreboding tuba solo that is an example of the chromaticism which became a staple of his composition. Chromaticism refers to notes that are foreign to the established harmonic settings. In this instance, the harmonic settings of the movement are built on a dissonant foundation, just as the unity of the USSR is built on the terror of its citizens. 79
80 Publizr Home