The Formation of the Composers’ Union, 1932–41

This chapter discusses the formation of the Composers' Union. The Composers' Union formed gradually, from the advent of creative unions in 1932 to the foundation of the all-USSR Organizational Committee of the Union of Soviet Composers in 1939 and to the expanded reach of the all-USSR Composers' Union beyond the cultural capitals just before the Second World War. Though it was always subject to outside ideological monitoring, the Composers' Union became a bureaucratic institution juridically distinct from both government oversight committees and the Communist Party. Thus, the bureaucracy that most closely touched the lives of composers and musicologists was formed primarily according to the demands of Composers' Union leaders, all of whom were, by the beginning of the war, professional composers and musicologists.