a work designed to placate the Soviet authorities after attacks on earlier works for their alleged anti communist spirit. In giving the Symphony the subtitle A Soviet Artist's Practical Creative Reply To Just Criticism, Shostakovich would appear to support this view. More likely however, is that the still dissident artist felt that, in paying lip service to the wishes of the authorities, his work and indeed he, would stand a better chance of survival. On this reading the pervasive tragedy of the work is the tragedy of the Soviet people living in the shadow of the purges and deportations. The works final modulation into a D major is not the exaltation that critics took it for. As the composer himself declared much later, ‘the rejoicing is forced, created under threat.'.