Khrennikov's Seven (Russian: Хренниковская семёрка or Семёрка Хренникова) was a group of seven Russian Soviet composers denounced in 1979 at the Sixth Congress of the Composers' Union by its leader Tikhon Khrennikov for the unapproved participation in some festivals of Soviet music in the West.
The seven were listed in the following order: Elena Firsova, Dmitri Smirnov, Alexander Knaifel, Viktor Suslin, Vyacheslav Artyomov, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Edison Denisov.
[1] The tone of the denunciation harked back to the First Congress of 1948, at which Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Myaskovsky, Klebanov, and others were victimized.
An administrative punishment was made, preventing them from being performed on the radio and television, and prohibiting the publication of their scores.
The leaders of the Composer's Union also proclaimed the policy of 'divide and rule', and Schnittke, who previously had been harshly criticised, was suddenly given official recognition."