Now after all! Dmitrij was not arrested! But, the fear of getting deported haunted him for four decades until his death!
One important reason for not being deported, says Volkov may have been that Shostakovich and Stalin had a kind of Tsar and Joker relation, which is an
old religious phenomena in Russia started by Mussorgskij, the first of the known
"Jurowdiwyi composers."
This is a
very important national Russian tradition which goes back all the way to the middle ages. God's joker would say things that noone else dared to say. Both the peasant and the nobleman would listen to what the "Holy Joker" had on his mind, including the Tsar.
One of the gifts that the "God's Joker" has is that he can see and hear what others cannot! He therefore expresses to the world what he sees in paradoxes. Secluded in himself, he plays the fool...!
But in reality, he is the one who constantly exposes evil and injustice. The God's Joker is an individualist and Anarchist that in public breaks normal moral laws, defying any convention. But, regarding himself, has very defined tabus of life and strict rules of conduct.
It's the roll of the
"God's Joker - Jurowdiwyi." (in Russian.) There's no other language than Russian that can fully express it's full cultural and historical meaning. Volkov suggests "Gottesnarr" in German. I have translated it to "God's Joker".
Mussorgskij was the first known Jurowdiwyi composer, Shostakovich became the
Second Jurowdiwyi composer. Whether he knew it or not!
So! Going back to the opera performance of "Lady McBeth" again, Shosta was convinced that this was the end.
One more reason for being extra cautious was that he had a young family with two small kids to support.
Shosta with wife 1932.