A lesson for Putin, from Russian’s own history?
In 1941 Hitler’s army commenced a siege of Leningrad. In spite of starvation, destruction of life-support systems and extreme winters, the city held out for three years, while bearing terrible losses. Dmitri Shostakovich composed his defiant Symphony Number 7, the Leningrad Symphony, first performed in 1942 by the Leningrad Radio Orchestra under the most difficult conditions imaginable. It was relayed on speakers throughout the city and directed to German and Finnish soldiers besieging the city. Shostakovich is never easy listening: it must have been tough for the attacking soldiers already putting up with mud, the sound of gunfire, cold, and bully NCOs.
You can hear and watch a 2019 performance of the Leningrad Symphony by the Hessisicher Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, under the direction of Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä.