Regardless, Shostakovich considered this work his most "Mussorgskian" symphony. Modest Mussorgsky for him symbolised two things—the people and recurrence. Since it was about the people who suffered as a result of the Bloody Sunday, he wrote it in a simple, direct manner and stated "The people would basically be destined to suffer at the hands of indifferent autocrats; they would periodically protest in the name of humanity, only to be betrayed or punished." The composer reportedly told Solomon Volkov, "I wanted to show this recurrence in the Eleventh Symphony... It's about the people, who have stopped believing because the cup of evil has run over." While this passage may have seemed far-fetched to some critics when "Testimony" first appeared, especially in the context of linking the symphony to the Hungarian Revolution, the concept of recurrence is reportedly one that has been central to Russian artists in the wake of that event and held tremendous significance among the intelligentsia in Russia.