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The question of can music be political has been greatly debated over the past century, however, the works that have been debated the most are those from nazi Germany and Soviet Russia for there links with the social ‘cleansing’ at the time in both societies. “We are paupers. There is no paper. The workers are hungry and cold and have no clothing or shoes. The machines are worn out. The buildings are collapsing.” Lenin wrote these lines in February 1921 following the end of the Russian revolution. Later that year Lenin introduced the ‘New Economic Policy’ and the country seemingly began to regain control of the economy, despite the dismay of the communists. Soviet composers of the 1920’s were confronted by many new problems. Firstly, the audiences at the time were the most diverse they had ever been, with both sophisticated intelligent listeners and the uneducated, although there was still a void where the middle class should be. Because of this diversity, composers found themselves writing for either end of the spectrum, but never both. This obtained a satisfactory effect for that particular audience, but was never completely successful as the music was composed against a set of conditions, and few works pro