Russian composer Tikhon Khrennikov was better known in the west for his opposition to composers like Shostakovitch and Prokofiev than for his own music. He certainly outlived these two. On 14 August he passed away in Moscow.

In 1948 Khrennikov was selected by Josef Stalin to be the secretary of the composers’ union, which he was to be until the collapse of the Soviet Union. In that position he composed in the officially permitted optimistic style of Soviet Russia, and also had to oppose to the "formalistic" styles used by e.g. Prokofiev, Gubaidulina, Denisov and Shostakovich.

[source: www.russia-ic.com]