of other works by Ukrainian composers. Lyatoshynsky worked on the symphony for six months during 1934. The work was criticised in the press, even though it had yet to be performed, with one critic writing: "The second symphony, with its external complexity and imposing sound, leaves the impression of an extremely empty, far-fetched work”. Due to the national mourning at the time for the Soviet politician Sergo Ordzhonikidze, the premiere was cancelled. Evacuation to Saratov When the threat to Kyiv became real during the German invasion of the USSR, the government in Moscow worked to protect the city's main artistic organisations and artists. Theatre groups, orchestras, and composers were evacuated to the interior of the USSR. Whilst helping to develop the culture and art of the republics they were sent to, Ukrainian artists continued to develop their national music. Many faculties of the Moscow Conservatoire, including the music department, were relocated to Saratov, a town near the Volga, and Lyatoshynsky was evacuated there along with his colleagues, In Saratov, the Ukrainian Taras Shevchenko Radio Station broadcast political speeches and daily concerts of Lyatoshynsky's arrangements of Ukrainian music. He created solo pieces, and works for chamber groups, notably his "Ukrainian Quintet" for piano and strings (1942, 2nd ed. 1945), which was awarded the State Prize in 1943. Other works included the String Quartet No 4 (1943), a suite on Ukrainian folk tunes for string quartet (1944), and a suite for a quartet of wooden wind instruments (1944). He established contacts and worked collaboratively with the administrators of the local Concert Hall and Radio Committee. Under his leadership, Ukrainian musical manuscripts were transported away to safety. The composer's niece, Iya Sergeevna Tsarevich, was brought up in the composer's house from the age of five. She recalled when German troops used Lyatoshynsky's Kyiv house on Lenin Street as a headquarters. There was a danger that everything that was in the house could be lost, so Lyatoshynsky's father-in-law used a cart to take all the composer's papers to the family dacha at Vorzel, outside Kyiv, where they were kept for the rest of the war. Post-war career In September 1943, Lyatoshynsky was invited by the Moscow Conservatory to work there for a year, but on 10 November 1943, after the liberation of Kyiv, he returned on the first flight back to the city, as part of a delegation that included the poets Maksym Rylsky