He was once more thought of as the leading Soviet composer.

He worked with living Soviet composers, enriching both works and performance.

He was a top Soviet composer of chess studies.

He was one of the first Soviet composers to adopt minimalism.

Rostropovich had working relationships with Soviet composers of the era.

His main repertoire was the songs of Soviet composers.

The problem for Soviet composers was not that the authorities cared nothing for music.

He also wrote on Soviet composers of the 1920s, especially Shostakovich.

The whole world now saw Shostakovich as the greatest Soviet composer.

The ideological bosses would insist on Soviet composers instead.