LENINGRAD--- CITY, SIEGE AND SYMPHONY

There are not many people alive today who have heard of the siege of Leningrad. They may have heard of the London Blitz, the firebombing of Dresden and the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We are reminded that World War II included the Holocaust, in which six million European Jews were systematically exterminated, along with millions of gypsies, Slavs and those others who were considered to be impure and inferior.

Part of this mass destruction was the Siege of Leningrad. Leningrad was a particularly cosmopolitan city in which the arts flourished, despited Soviet rule. It had a long and glorious history which went back to the Czars, when it was called, St. Petersberg, but after the October Revolution it was renamed Leningrad, after one of the founders of the communist movement.

Charles Greenwell, our great local musicologist recounts the events resulting in the eventual attack by the Nazi forces of this great city. In his article in Performance, the magazine of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, he writes,

"When the forces of Nazi Germany attacked Soviet Russia on June 22, 1941, most of the country's citizens were taken completely by surprise, although many government officials had been anticipating an attack for some time. The next several months constituted a catastrophe of staggering proportions: the battlefield defeats were enormous and the casualties were without precedent. By the end of that year, Kiev had been captured and Nazi forces had surrounded Leningrad in preparation for an assault on Moscow.

The situation in Leningrad was particularly grim. The city (whose population then totaled nearly three million people) was completely cut off from the rest of the country, and it was Hitler's intention to literally starve the city into submission. The blockade lasted from August 1941 to February 1943 and, according to the official figures, over 630,000 people perished from starvation and other torments. Unofficial figures, however, put the death toll at close to one million people--- one third of the entire population."

Harrison Salisbury, in his book 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad, wrote, "This was the greatest and longest siege ever endured by a modern city, a time of trial, suffering and heroism that reached the peaks of tragedy and bravery almost beyond our power to comprehend..." During the winter of 1941-42, official food rations were reduced to 500 calories a day, and people were dying everywhere--- at home, at work in factories and offices, and on the street. Hitler's attempt to wipe Leningrad off the map resulted in an almost unequaled example of courage, strength and determination from the city's populace."

In the midst of this misery, Dmitri Shostakovich was composing the Leningrad Symphony, a work of music that bore the stamp of genius, from a man who himself had suffered Stalin's scorn. His answer to Stalin was his Fifth Symphony, which spoke volumes to the Russian people and restored his reputation. Shostakovich not only suffered with the people of Leningrad, but was known to feel deeply about the plight of his fellow countrymen, a feeling which inspired him to write a special symphony about what was happening in Leningrad.

When he finally finished the symphony, there were only 16 members still alive of the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra, which had previously numbered over 100. The symphony was scored for a large orchestra. Signs were put up all over Leningrad, asking any musicians who were still alive and could play an instrument, and could get to the symphony hall to assemble. Word got around and musicians came from all over the city and from combat units, and assembled to rehearse this Seventh Symphony. For an entire week this ragged group of tired, sick, emaciated but incredibly dedicated musicians rehearsed the symphony under the strong and knowing direction of Karl Eliasberg.

On the day of the performance, the commander-in-chief of the city's armed forces ordered his heavy artillery to knock out as many German guns as possible so that there would be no interruptions in the performance. As the bombardment subsided the first note of the symphony sounded. The performance was not only the most emotion-laden presentation of the work imaginable, but was surely one of the most electrifying concerts ever given. Whatever the technical shortcomings the performance might have had counted for nothing; the impact on the audience was truly extraordinary, and as one listener so beautifully put it, "The performers read the music as if they were reading a living chronicle about themselves..."

The symphony was broadcast on loudspeakers throughout the city, so that the audience spilled beyond the symphony hall to the starving city dwellers. One of the German military commanders could hear the music, and it was noted that he said, as a consequence of what he was hearing, "we will lose this war."

The Shostakovich Seventh, the Leningrad Symphony, will be performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in Detroit's Orchestra Hall, Friday, November 3rd at 10:45AM and again at 8PM, and on Saturday, November 4th at 8:30PM. I predict that each member of the orchestra and audience will have an opportunity to have an ennobling experience.

Dr Bloom is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is a member of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and on the editorial board of the Wayne County Medical Society. He welcomes comments at his email address--- vbloom@comcast.net.