Dmitri Shostakovich

**Dmitri Shostakovich** (born 25th September 1906) is the current leader of the Humanists, one of Tomsk's four political salons.

## Biography

### Early-life

Dmitri Shostakovich was born on September 25, 1906 in Petrograd (now called Brauchitschstadt). Shostakovich was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina. Shostakovich's paternal grandfather, originally surnamed Szostakowicz, was of Polish Roman Catholic descent (his family roots trace to the region of the town of Vileyka in today's Belarus), but his immediate forebears came from Siberia. Their middle child displayed significant musical talent after he began piano lessons with his mother at the age of nine.

In 1918, he wrote a funeral march in memory of two leaders of the Kadet party murdered by Bolshevik sailors, and a year after, Shostakovich was admitted to Petrograd Konservatory.

### Early career and World War 2

After graduation, Shostakovich initially embarked on a dual career as concert pianist and composer, but his dry playing style was often unappreciated (his American biographer, Laurel Fay, comments on his "emotional restraint" and "riveting rhythmic drive"). He won an "honorable mention" at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1927 and attributed the disappointing result to suffering from appendicitis and the jury being all Polish. He had his appendix removed in April 1927. After the competition, Shostakovich met the conductor Bruno Walter, who was so impressed by the composer's First Symphony that he conducted it at its Berlin premiere later that year. Leopold Stokowski was equally impressed and gave the work its American premiere the following year in Philadelphia. Stokowski also made the work's first recording.

During his time spent in the Soviet Union, he lived relatively in peace until the Soviet Union was attacked by the German Reich, which subsequently lead to its demise. From that point, he would escape and not be seen again until the 1950s in a new ascending democratic republic located in Central Siberia.

### Siberian War and political career

During his time of supposed absence, he continued his career as a musician and eventually found himself in now defunct Central Siberian Republic. By that time, he started to involve himself in politics, until he eventually became the leader of the Humanists in Tomsk. All was that not meant to last as Genrikh Yagoda who headed the remnants of the Soviet government launched an invasion on the new founded republic, sparking the Siberian War in the process. It was at this time that the Central Siberian Republic suffered greatly, particularly when Alexander Pokryshkin and Vasily Shukshin seceded Novosibirsk with the help of the corporations operating there. While winning the war, this event sparked a chain reaction of secession within the CSR, with the anarchist Siberian Black Army revolting against Central Siberian government, then Krasnoyarsk breaking away against the commands of General Nikolay Krylov, which drove him into supposed madness, thus declaring his own enigmatic realm of Kemerovo. All things considered, not all is too well now for Shostakovich.

### Present-day

It's 1962 and the republic faces challenges; a potential worker's rebellion, dealing with seceding warlords, and of course, the failing health of Boris Pasternak. This provides an opportunity for Shostakovich to realize his vision of Humanist Russia, one free from poverty, hunger, war and disunity. It is only a matter of time and luck if his utopian vision of socialism can be implemented.

## In-game

At the start of the game, Shostakovich will be the head of the Humanists in Tomsk, and after the death of Pasternak, can ascend to the position of leader of Tomsk. When elected, the player will have to, like the other potential leaders, to keep his popularity high in order to not get replaced by anyone else in Tomsk. His initial reforms are centered around expanding civil rights of the common man, as well as decreasing poverty. Shostakovich will reform the Duma into a unicameral system, in order to appeal to the masses. He will also implement direct democracy for the working class. After those reforms are completed, all he needs to do next is to reunify the region and advance to the regional stage, becoming the Siberian Commonwealth.

This is the stage where he will inevitably retire after the elections, due to his old age and health, and the only thing left to do after completing the economic reforms (which give large boosts to economy) is to reform the military, which Shostakovich won't be able to finish himself. However, it will be available to his successor, Mieczysław Weinberg, to do. The reverse can also happen, for Shostakovich to finish his military reforms, but not the economic reforms, depending on what the player does first.

## Trivia

In real life, Shostakovich was a famous composer who had little interest in politics, only joining the Communist Party after being the target of a few political accusations from high-ranking Soviet politicians during Stalin's regime. The 4th movement of his "Symphony No. 11 in G Minor, Op. 103" provides the music for the super-event his successor, Weinberg, gets upon uniting Russia.