doctor Elizarov.
On July 12, another X-ray.
Doctors to confer.
On July 13,
Shostakovich called home.
He gave his phone number
in the hospital: 140-94-06.
July 21: Situation unclear.
Waiting for doctors to confer.
A great human tragedy
gave birth
to great music
by Shostakovich.
Years later, the 7th Symphony
by Shostakovich
still reminds us
of the war.
The composer
of the Leningrad Symphony
was 35.
Evacuation train
We are Russian,
and we are proud of it.
Throughout today's
severe ordeals
we shall stand up
for our great Motherland,
we shall defend our immortal
culture and art!
Our people
will overcome!
Dear girls!
Our time has come.
You know well
that all,
young or old,
rise up to defend
our great Motherland.
I played a nurse
in "Friends at the Front".
Now it's time to be
one for real.
I've already joined
a medical unit.
Everything I did
in the film,
I will be doing
on the front,
I will be fighting
with all my strength,
regardless of my life,
and if needed,
I will give my life...
...to my Motherland,
as Zina Maslova did
in our film.
Girls,
the Motherland needs you!
Join medical units!
I'm sure all of you
will follow my example.
Dear friends!
There will be a lot of work.
The work
will be hard.
But we'll win.
The Red Army will crush
the loathsome fascist gang,
and we, girls,
will help it.
Down with fascism!
Long live our beloved
Red Army!
Long live
our Communist Party!
No to fascism!
Long live comrade Stalin!
Hurrah!
History trusted
us contemporaries
of this great battle
to express
the ideals
of humanity's struggle
against fascism.
To fire up the hatred
towards fascism,
to show, by means of art,
its true image,
to inspire
our men, -
this is what our work
should be aimed at.
There isn't any task
worthier than this.
So let our hearts turn
to the war
against the enslavers,
like the hearts of millions
throughout this world.
Let "Everything for the front!"
Be the goal of all
our creativity.
Our day will come
very soon.
So let us be worthy
of such a day.
May everyone,
when the war's over,
and happiness
returns,
say proudly
that his war-time work
against
bloody fascism, was
for our radiant future.
Ivan Sollertinsky,
then
in Novosibirsk,
got the 7th Symphony
performed there,
after Kuibyshev
and Moscow.
It was conducted by
Evgeny Mravinsky.
Despite serious
heart disease,
Sollertinsky spoke
before each performance.
In 1941, they were about
to celebrate
20 years
of friendship.
War separated them.
The war
was changing.
People felt
the approach of victory.
Shebalin called
Shostakovich in Kuibyshev.
He invited him to teach
at the Moscow Conservatory.
Shostakovich came
to Moscow.
He taught
at the Conservatory.
The Leningrad
Conservatory also
asked him to
teach composition.
In 1947,
Shostakovich began teaching
at the Conservatory
in Leningrad.
"Dear Vissarion!
It's been 20 years
since
we first met.
I thought about
that stretch of time,
and feel that
I ought to do
more for my country.
I began a quartet
for you.
I hope
you like it.
Once more, my congratulations,"
wrote Shostakovich to Shebalin.
While finishing
his 8th Symphony,
bad news came
on February
Ivan Sollertinsky had died.
"Dear Olga Panteleimonovna,
words cannot express
the grief
which overwhelmed me
at the news of Ivan's death.
He was my dearest,
my nearest friend.
I owe my progress
to him.
Life will be unbearably hard
without him.
We rarely met
in recent years.
But I was always happy
to think
that Ivan Ivanovich
was there.
We talked
of many things,
and of the inevitable
end that lay ahead,
of death.
We both feared
and loathed it.
We were fond of life,
but knew that...
...we would have
to leave it.
Ivan has left us
very prematurely.
He died,
I stayed alive.
We always kept
in mind
our near ones.
We thought about
our children,
and gave each other
the solemn promise
that if one of us