ABSTRACT
After six long years of squirming under the oppressive esthetic decrees formulated by the late Andrei Zhdanov, Soviet composers are beginning to show signs of real independence. Zhdanov’s notorious obiter dicta were embodied in a Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party, dated February 10, 1948, and for a long time they effectively influenced all musical composition in the USSR. Recently, however, Soviet musicians have dared to question the Zhdanov esthetics. Now comes the most forthright declaration of independence to date in the form of a direct attack on the Zhdanov policies by Aram Khachaturian, in his article “On Creative Boldness and Inspiration,” conspicuously featured in the November 1953 issue of Sovietskaya Musica.
