From the very beginning of his career up until its near end, Georgy Vasilevich Svidirov was recognized as possessing rare and unique musical talents; for example, at the age of 19 he was invited into the Composers Union and at 54 he was made a People's Artist of the U.S.S.R. A student of exceptional composers, he was trained under M.A. Yudin at the Central Music Tekhnikum in Leningrad (early '30s) and with Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory, where he graduated in 1941. His other teachers included Isay Braudo and Ryazanov. After finishing his formal studies, he began performing as a pianist in 1945, but this occupation played less of a role in his musical life as his composing increasingly demanded his focus. His extensive output of dramatic, orchestral, chamber, and vocal works, many of which possess a characteristically Russian style, have brought him recognition as leader of mid- to late twentieth-century Russian music, as well as a leader of his nation's new nationalist movement. As early as 1935, Sviridov used national themes in his compositions when he set the verses of Russia's poets. Later, while concentrating on the social status of peasant women, he wrote small-scale chamber cantatas based on lyrical folk songs from the Kursk Province. Of his many works, which include The Decembrists (1955), Poem About Lenin (1960), and 5 Songs About Our Fatherland (1967), Oratorio pathétique is probably one of his most famous.