Ok it's a bit off topic, but I think the story of his 9th Symphony is even better. The Shostakovich's time, there was a sort of mysticism around 9th symphonies. Starting with Beethoven, 9th symphonies had a tendency to be among a composer's greatest and most epic works, and/or being one of their last works. After Beethoven, other examples include Schubert, Bruckner, Dvorak, Mahler, and Vaughan Williams. So Shosty came to his 9th and the expectation was that he'd follow in that mold. But Shostakovich really did not get on well with Stalin, who had many times censured him, and didn't want to do what Stalin wanted of him. So the 9th symphony is basically a parody of those types of grand symphonies.

Relevant video.