In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. By September, they had completely surrounded Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), beginning a catastrophic 900-day siege.
Cut off from the world, nearly a million civilians died from starvation, freezing temperatures, and bombardment.
Shostakovich wrote the first three movements inside the besieged city while volunteering as a rooftop firefighter at the Conservatoire, before the Soviet government ordered his evacuation to complete the piece.
The Soviet authorities immediately used it as propaganda for the war effort against fascism. Shostakovich later revealed that the symphony was a requiem for the people of Leningrad—grieving not just Nazi brutality, but also the terror and lives destroyed under Stalin’s regime.
The most legendary moment in classical music history occurred on August 9, 1942, when the symphony was performed live in the besieged city.
The Leningrad Radio Orchestra only had 14 musicians left alive or strong enough to play; the rest had starved to death. Soviet military commanders had to recall musicians from the frontlines to fill the seats. On the night of the concert, Soviet forces launched a massive artillery strike on German positions beforehand to ensure total silence during the performance.
The concert was broadcasted through loudspeakers across the city and directly toward the German lines: Leningrad is starving, but it will never surrender.