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Antiformalist Rayok

Antiformalist Rayok (Russian: Антиформалистический раёк), also known as Learner's Manual, without opus number, is a rayok or satirical cantata for four voices, chorus, and piano by Dmitri Shostakovich. It is subtitled As an aid to students: the struggle of the realistic and formalistic directions in music. It satirizes the conferences that resulted from the Zhdanov decree of 1948 and the anti-formalism campaign in Soviet arts which followed it. The work includes quotations from Andrei Zhdanov's speech at the Conference of the Musicians at the Central Committee of the all-Union Party in Moscow in January 1948.

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