It’s funny to talk about it now, but there was a time, until I heard Krennikov’s opera Into the Storm, when my picture stood on Khrennikov’s desk. A bad opera. I considered Khrennikov a talented man and here was a weak imitation of Dzerzhinsky’s terrible opera 'The Quiet Don'. Krennikov was obviously speculating. Everything in that opera fitted the political situation. The libretto was based on a novel which Stalin liked very much and the music was based on an opera that Stalin had approved.