Symphony for the City of the Dead
Popular History Accessible Secondary Sources
☭ Soviet
Shostakovich writes his Seventh Symphony inside besieged Leningrad, and a starving orchestra performs it to the world.
The Verdict
Inside a city starving to death, a composer kept writing a symphony — and M.T. Anderson builds a whole history around that almost unbelievable fact. As Leningrad froze and starved under siege, Dmitri Shostakovich worked on his Seventh Symphony; the score was microfilmed and flown out past the German lines, and a skeletal orchestra of the barely living performed it inside the city and broadcast it at the enemy. Anderson braids Shostakovich's tangled life under Stalin with the siege itself, writing for younger readers without softening either the terror or the strangeness. History as something close to myth, and all of it true.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The Leningrad siege through one act of defiance
- Art, terror, and history entwined
- Younger and adult readers alike
- Shostakovich's life under Stalin and siege
Look elsewhere if you want
- A military history of the siege
- Only the battlefield
- A dry, academic treatment
Why We Rated It 4.4
Historical Context
Symphony for the City of the Dead (2015) tells the story of Dmitri Shostakovich and his Seventh ('Leningrad') Symphony, composed partly during the German siege of Leningrad and performed in the starving city in 1942. It interweaves the siege with Shostakovich's fraught life under Stalin and is written for a young-adult readership.
Events Covered
Read It Alongside
The 900 Days Harrison Salisbury · 1969 · ★ 4.6
Popular History 
The Siege Helen Dunmore · 2001 · ★ 4.4
Historical Fiction 
City of Thieves David Benioff · 2008 · ★ 4.5
Historical Fiction Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0763691004
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is the story of the Leningrad Symphony true?
- Yes — Shostakovich's Seventh was performed in the besieged city in 1942 by an emaciated orchestra and broadcast, an emblem of resistance.
- What age is the book for?
- It is written for young adults but is widely read by adults, handling the siege and Stalin's terror seriously.