An edited extract from Solomon Volkov's Shostakovich and Stalin

Shostakovich's lucky ticket seems to have been writing music for the movie Counterplan, released in 1932 for the 15th anniversary of the October Revolution. One of its highlights is a charming and perky song, The Morning Greets Us with Coolness, written by Shostakovich. Its catchy melody made it the first Soviet hit song to come from the movies.

The whole country, from peasants to government leaders, sang The Morning Greets Us. Subsequently the melody won international acclaim: it was sung during the Second World War by members of the French Resistance; and in the United States, with new words, it was performed as the song The United Nations. In 1936 the song may have saved Shostakovich's life.

(Via Arts & Letters Daily.)