Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Testimony (Volkov book)" in English language version.
Maxim gave a comparable assessment to the British musicologist David Fanning, who asked him in 1991 if his attitude toward Testimony had changed in any way: "No, I would still say it's a book about my father, not by him. The conversations about Glazunov, Meyerhold, Zoshchenko are one thing. But it also contains rumours, and sometimes false rumours. It's a collection of different things —real documentary fact and rumour. But what's more important is that when we take this book in our hands we can imagine what this composer's life was like in this particular political situation —how difficult, how awful it was under the Stalin regime."
Asked about the authenticity of a book published in the West after his father's death, and described as his memoirs, Mr. Shostakovich replied: These are not my father's memoirs. This is a book by Solomon Volkov. Mr. Volkov should reveal how the book was written. Mr. Shostakovich said language in the book attributed to his father, as well as several contradictions and inaccuracies, led him to doubt the book's authenticity.
