The life and career of Dimitri Shostakovich, more than any other classical composer of the 20th century, has provided the most hotly debated meeting point between politics and art. This has mirrored the controversy surrounding the defining event in his life - the Russian Revolution of 1917. Simon Behrman argues that this debate has been distorted by the widespread failure to separate the politics of the Revolution from the Stalinist dictatorship that followed.