It would be good to translate it. This was interesting clip.
I think the most valuable aspect of this clip is that there is no superimposed value-judgment by an external narrator telling you "how terrible it all was" (as the BBC etc love to do). Instead it represents a series of important musical figures from the era, telling the story of the times in their own unedited words. As such its a valuable historical primary source document (although of course, the choice of clips inevitably offers the editor the chance to skew things to their own liking). Even so, it would great if this were to be subtitled properly - it would be a great resource for music students, who often come to this topic with, err, rather different preconceptions ;)
Indeed, I remember being told on another forum by a practicing musician that Shostakovich was a well-known Stalinist stooge, and that the proper thing for all right-thinking people to have done during the period of Stalinist rule would have been to leave the country. All 132 million of them. ;D
