Discover how music can be a powerful symbol of resistance and defiance, and how a composer can survive artistically in a climate of repression and censorship under Stalin. Dmitri Shostakovich's profoundly moving Symphony No. 7 was composed in 1941 and dedicated to the city of Leningrad while it was under siege by German forces. A searing condemnation of Nazi totalitarianism, it captures the savage arena of battle, the tragedy of so many lives lost, and the taste of potential victory.