Until the publication of Testimony, the memoirs he dictated to journalist Solomon Volkov, few doubted that Dmitri Shostakovich was a son of the Russian Revolution, whose music celebrated its triumphs, and who devoted his life to the ideals of socialist humanism and internationalism. This biography of Shostakovich repudiates reservations about the precise nature of Volkov's book, to reveal a new Shostakovich - a man who had no sympathy with Communism and was forced to build subtle or coded communication into his music to defy the artistic conventions of the Stalinist state. In addition to presenting this new view of the composer, the book also encourages a reappraisal of his music in the light of its new-found meaning and the manner of its creation.