Aesthetic Republicanism in Shostakovich’s Fourteenth Symphony

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fourteenth symphony, marked by an experimental and politically charged libretto, is set to verses by four poets, including a piece by Wilhelm Küchelbecker that the composer discovered in Yuri Tynianov’s historical novel Kiukhlia: Story of a Decembrist. Considered in light of the manifold intellectual ties between Shostakovich and Tynianov, the use of Küchelbecker’s poem can be seen to have major implications for the idea of “earthly immortality” (Hannah Arendt) that the symphony articulates. Through his engagement with Küchelbecker and Tynianov, Shostakovich molds an aestheticist version of the distinctly late Soviet ideology of non‐violent opposition to state oppression.