D-Es-C-H

Liz:  butting in on your conversation with Leigh, I wish to add one unfortunately complicating dude:  Dmitri Shostakovich.  Although intellectuals were mostly survivors if they were openly pro-Stalin, Shostakovich managed to survive the entire ordeal (he lived from 1906-1975) while being openly anti-Stalin (to a degree).  Though sometimes lauded by the Soviet government (he received the Order of Lenin three times; he assisted in propaganda campaigns; and he went through periods of great praise, notably during WWII), he was and continues to be a symbol of the oppressed composer for musicians throughout the west.

Things were not all rosy for him in Russia; he was denounced twice publicly, once in a damning article in Pravda famously titled, "Muddle Instead of Music."  Unlike the other notable Soviet composer Prokofiev, who emigrated to France in the middle of his life, Shostakovich spent his entire life in Russia, and, unlike many of his close friends and colleagues, Shostakovich was never imprisoned or disappeared.

I have no idea what this says about Russian intellectuals.