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Seeds, Symphonies, and Survival: Leningrad’s Resistance in Science and Music

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Episode Summary

Two riveting accounts from the Siege of Leningrad during WWII: In the first half, Simon Parkin discusses The Forbidden Garden, the incredible true story of Soviet botanists who protected the world’s first seed bank during the Nazi blockade—sacrificing their own lives to preserve biodiversity.

“They have this decision—do we eat the seeds, do we distribute them to the starving people, or do we deny our hunger and preserve the collection?” — Simon Parkin

Then, we revisit my 2015 conversation with M.T. Anderson about his award-winning biography Symphony for the City of the Dead, a dramatic account of Dmitri Shostakovich and how his Seventh Symphony became a beacon of resistance and hope for the starving city.

The Seventh Symphony gave Leningraders the story of a victory that might be possible.” — M.T. Anderson

Together, these stories explore moral courage under the most agonizing duress, where dedication to science and to art rallied the deepest reserves of human resilience.

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Key Words: Siege of Leningrad, Dmitri Shostakovich Seventh Symphony, Simon Parkin The Forbidden Garden, M.T. Anderson Symphony for the City of the Dead, Leningrad seed bank WWII, Leningrad Symphony broadcast,

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Segment One: Simon Parkin

Journalist Simon Parkin shares the extraordinary true story behind his book The Forbidden Garden, about the heroic botanists who starved rather than eat the seeds they were safeguarding for future generations.

Key Topics:

  • Who was Nikolai Vavilov and why he created the first seed bank
  • Scientific rivalry: Vavilov vs. Lysenko and Stalin’s ideological war on genetics
  • The Siege of Leningrad and the desperate conditions under German blockade
  • Why botanists chose to starve rather than consume their edible seed collection
  • The legacy of the seed bank and what it means for global food security today

Listen to a sample from The Forbidden Garden

Segment Two: M.T. Anderson

In a previously recorded conversation, we speak with acclaimed author M.T. Anderson about his book Symphony for the City of the Dead, the story of composer Dmitri Shostakovich and the Seventh Symphony that inspired a besieged city.

Key Topics:

  • Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony as a sonic act of resistance
  • The clandestine journey of the Leningrad Symphony from Soviet Russia to the U.S.
  • How music uplifted morale during the darkest hours of the Leningrad siege
  • Stalin’s censorship, Shostakovich’s brush with death, and the politics of art
  • The revolutionary fervor of 1920s Soviet avant-garde culture and its tragic suppression