In 1962, a visit by the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko to the Babi Yar ravine near Kiev marked the beginning of a powerful musical response. Babi Yar, the site of a mass execution of over 70,000 Jews by Nazi troops in 1941, lacked a proper memorial. Yevtushenko returned to his hotel room and immediately penned a poem in remembrance, the first line of which:
"There are no monuments over Babi Yar, the steep precipice, like a rough-hewn tomb"
reflected his "refusal to accept the injustice of history, the absence of a monument to so many innocent people slaughtered", a poem that challenged the erasure of the victims' memory.
The poem found its way to Dmitri Shostakovich, a Soviet composer known for his politically charged works. Recognising the poem's significance, Shostakovich set it as the first movement of a five-movement symphony. Each movement would use a different Yevtushenko poem, exploring different themes within Soviet history and society.
