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Volkov
Replies Irina Shostakovich Solomon
Volkov Volkov wrote a short reply to criticisms made by Mme Shostakovich in NYT. His more elaborate response to Moscow News appears in DSCH Journal Nr 14 Jan 2001 Pg 7. Another letter by Dmitry Feofanov was not published by NYT, the author posted this transcript and his own reply to DSCH List. To the Editor: The New York Times has offered to print a "brief response" to the article by Shostakovich's widow, Irina Shostakovich ["An Answer to Those Who Still Abuse Shostakovich, August 20], in which she challenges the veracity of the book I edited, "Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich." So I will be brief. Ms. Shostakovich's allegations about my supposedly short relationship with the composer, the limited number of meetings while working on his memoirs, the matter of his signatures and the like are all old hat. They were first aired in 1979 by the K.G.B. general in charge of disinformation, Vasily Sitnikov, in an attempt to discredit the Shostakovich memoirs, then just published. Two photographs of me with the composer visually refute Ms. Shostakovich's claim that Shostakovich "knew little about" me, since they cover a nine-year span. In fact, none of the published pictures of me with the composer were made by my wife, as Ms. Shostakovich claims. The purpose of her current attack, which first appeared in the English-language edition of The Moscow News, apparently remains the same. This, sadly, tells a lot about the situation in contemporary Russia. Solomon Volkov." To the Editor: As one of the co-editors of "Shostakovich Reconsidered," implicitly criticized, but not mentioned in Mrs. Shostakovich's article, I would like to make just a couple of points (I could make a dozen): First, at least one of the signed pages from the manuscript of "Testimony" has been in the public domain since 1979. Additionally, numerous people examined copies of the manuscript over the years. Because of the controversy, Shostakovich's signatures were reproduced in the Finnish and German Editions of "Testimony." Yet, Mrs. Shostakovich states that Shostakovich signed "every page at the bottom." This is demonstratively untrue. In fact, Shostakovich signed only the first pages of each chapter, and not at the bottom, but at the top. Second, Mrs. Shostakovich states that it was "Mr. Tishchenko and me" who took the famous frontispiece picture of Shostakovich, Volkov, Irina Shostakovich, and Mr. Tishchenko. However, if the pictures were taken by "Mr. Tishchenko and me" (meaning Mrs. Shostakovich), one should not be able to see both of them in the frontispiece picture. The readers are invited to make their own conclusions regarding the reliability of the other information presented by Mrs. Shostakovich in her article. Dmitry N. Feofanov.
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