Editing Mstislav Rostropovich (section)

==Exile==
[[File:Mstislav Rostropovich 1978.jpg|210px|thumb|Rostropovich playing the ''[[Duport Stradivarius]]'' at the White House in 1978]]
Rostropovich fought for art without borders, [[freedom of speech]], and democratic values, resulting in harassment from the Soviet regime. An early example was in 1948, when he was a student at the [[Moscow Conservatory]]. In response to the 10 February 1948 decree on "formalist" composers, his teacher [[Dmitri Shostakovich]] was dismissed from his professorships in Leningrad and Moscow; the 21-year-old Rostropovich quit the conservatory in protest.<ref>Wilson: p. 45</ref> Rostropovich also smuggled to the West the manuscript of Shostakovich's [[Symphony No. 13 (Shostakovich)|Symphony No. 13]], which set verses by [[Yevgeny Yevtushenko]]; the subject of its first movement was the [[Babi Yar massacre]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-apr-28-me-rostropovich28-story.html |title=Mstislav Rostropovich, 80; Russian cello virtuoso, iconic political figure - Los Angeles Times |website=www.latimes.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805032346/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-apr-28-me-rostropovich28-story.html |archive-date=2020-08-05}}</ref>

In 1970, Rostropovich sheltered [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], who otherwise would have had nowhere to go, in his own home. His friendship with Solzhenitsyn and support for dissidents led to official disgrace in the early 1970s. As a result, Rostropovich was restricted from foreign touring,<ref>Wilson: p. 320</ref> as was his wife, Galina Vishnevskaya, and his appearances performing in Moscow were curtailed, as increasingly were his appearances in such major cities as Leningrad and Kiev.<ref>Wilson: p. 329</ref>

Rostropovich left the Soviet Union in 1974 with his wife and children and settled in the United States. He was banned from touring his homeland with foreign orchestras and, in 1977, the Soviet leadership instructed musicians from the Soviet bloc not to take part in an international competition he had organised.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/12-may-1977-958-a/|title=12 May 1977*, 958-A|date=5 July 2016|website=wordpress.com|access-date=16 March 2018|archive-date=16 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316214830/https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/12-may-1977-958-a/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1978, Rostropovich was deprived of his Soviet citizenship because of his public opposition to the Soviet Union's restriction of cultural freedom. He did not return to the Soviet Union until 1990.<ref name=Lrytas/>