Stalin era The Union of Soviet Composers was originally founded in 1932 at the behest of the
Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the final year of the
Cultural Revolution, known as the Josef Stalin's first
Five-Year Plan. The official memorandum entitled "
On the Restructuring of Literary and Artistic Organizations," published on April 23 of 1932 notes that while there has been significant progress towards in the fields of literature and art to develop and further Socialist ideals, there was still more work that had to be done in order to fully render these two disciplines Socialist oriented. The reasoning for dissolving the disparate Associations and organizations that had existed prior to 1932 such as the Association for Contemporary Music, the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians, the All-Union Org. of Associations of Proletarian Writers], and the
Russian Association of Proletarian Writers] was that these groups, with their distinct goals and aspirations, were stifling collective progress. This was dangerous, as the development of a socialist nation could only be facilitated if the arts and literature were focused on furthering party messaging. Such splinter groups were charged with "group insulation" and "isolation from political tasks," meaning that their focus was not enough of political education of the Proletariat. Thus, in effort to reign in their influence and centralize control over the arts and literature, they were disbanded and replaced with swift measure. In 1939, the Union created its first leadership council called the Organizing Committee of the Union of Soviet Composers. This newly instated administrative body, originally created by two composers, the Soviet Ukrainian
Reinhold Glière and Armenian
Aram Khachaturian, was created as a way to consolidate management of all the separate branches of the Union of Soviet Composers. The original Board included musical luminaries from various musical distinctions, both literarily and performance-based, like M. Arkadiev, composer
A. Goldenweiser, V. Gorodinsky, Boyarsky, compose
Nikolai Myaskovsky,
Sergei Vasilenko,
Anatoly Alexandrov, A. Kerin, composer
Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, composer
Vissarion Shebalin, B. Shekhter,
Viktor Bely, B. Pshibyshevsky, composer
Alexander Goedicke, and pianist
Konstantin Igumnov. From April 19 to 25, 1948, the first Constituent Congress was held where, during the proceedings, the governing bodies such as Secretariats and Chairmen were decided and the
Charter was officially christened. Elected during the proceedings was the Inaugural Chairman of the Union, that being the Soviet Musicologist
Boris Asafiev (1948–1949), along with the first General Secretary, a title belonging to the composer
T.N. Khrennikov. During the year, the Board would hold 1–2 plenary sessions, where a Secretariat would be elected who would collectively guide the Union in between sessions and act as the leading force of the Union's affairs. in honor of S. Prokofiev, the A. Petrov "All-Russia Prize for Young Composers" otherwise known as "Crystal Tuning Fork" Competition, the "International Competition for Young Composers" in honor of ”, and "The Governor's International Youth Competition" or "The Youth Gavrilin Contest" in honor of V. Gavrilin. In 2015, the Eleventh Constituent Congress was held where contemporary composer
Rashid Kalimullin was elected as Chairman of the Union. IN 2017, the Twelfth Constituent Congress was held and it was attended by some of Russia's contemporary composers. Attendees included A. Kroll,
Vladimir Matetsky, , ,
Alexey Rybnikov, , film composer
Yuri Poteenko, and sculptor
Alexander Sokolov. == Festivals ==