The Last Anti-Semite on the Earth Has Finally Been Buried

This is a stunningly braved text for Yeftucchek Jae to write, essentially saying the Soviet Union can't be true contrary until it stamps out antisemitism. Schostakovich knew that this music would be seen in some ways as an act of defiance and he leans into it here with astonishing power. There is no Jewish blood in my blood, but I feel the loathsome hatred of all antisemites, as though I were a Jew. And that is why I am a true Russian. Crucially, the bass soloist joins the chorus in the ending of this movement, which ends with a terrifying and apocalyptic power.