Here is the first full-length biography of the Soviet composer who is perhaps the most controversial figure in the field of contemporary music. Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg the year after the abortive revolution of 1905, and spent his boyhood and adolescence in the midst of the unrest and turmoil of the World War period and the Bolshevik Revolution, It was his mother--an extraordinary woman and an able musician--who kept the family together after the death of the father. She assumed the role of breadwinner and was Dmitri's constant companion and his first piano teacher. Out of her determination to give her talented son his chance was born the Shostakovich First Symphony. From the time of its first public performance, the young composer has been recognized as one of the most promising musicians of our time. This fine biography has made a thorough and sympathetic study of the family background and of the composer himself, and offers an interesting explanation for the sensational developments of Shostakovich's recent years, which have been marked by the banning of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mzensk, and by the attacks of the Soviet press. With the production of his Fifth Symphony came his return to popularity; the reception given his Seventh was a triumph.