Volkov was born in Uroteppa (Russian: Ura-Tyube, now Istaravshan), near Leninabad, Tajik SSR (today Khujand, Tajikistan.
He lives in New York City with his wife, Marianna (née Tiisnekka), a pianist and photographer.
He published numerous articles in scholarly and popular journals and wrote the book Young Composers of Leningrad in 1971.
"[3] American scholar Laurel E. Fay stated that whilst Maxim said that the general context of the times and what it would have been to live as a composer under Soviet rule are generally correct, that Shostakovich's individual portrait was "grossly misconstrued" [4] To Dmitry Feofanov,[who?]
"[5] Maxim also was the guest of honor at the launching of the Czech edition of the memoirs in 2005 and, with his sister Galina, contributed an introduction to the second Russian edition of Volkov's Shostakovich and Stalin in 2006, which includes the following: "We, Shostakovich’s children, who watched his life pass before our eyes, express our profound gratitude to Solomon Volkov for his marvelous work, the naked truth of which will undoubtedly help our contemporaries and future generations better to see the difficult fate of our unforgettable father, and through it, better to understand his music."
8, and Shostakovich wrote a preface for Volkov's book Molodyye Kompozitory Leningrada ("Young Composers of Leningrad") in 1971.
[9] In 1984, during an interview in Brussels for the Flemish Classical Radio (KlaRa), Yuri Ahronovich recalled that - while in Rome - he was the first who had seen Volkov's manuscript.
[citation needed] Although Volkov remains reluctant to respond to criticisms of himself and of Testimony, on February 15, 1999, he appeared with Vladimir Ashkenazy, Allan B. Ho, and Dmitry Feofanov at an open forum at the Mannes College of Music to answer questions about the memoirs.
[13] Moreover, Maxim and Galina Shostakovich and many others have read copies of the original Russian typescript and believe the book to be genuine.
"[14]His other books include St. Petersburg: A Cultural History (1995), Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator (2004), The Magical Chorus: A History of Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn (2008), and Romanov Riches: Russian Writers and Artists Under the Tsars (2011).
In 2013, Volkov was the interviewer in a three-hour film "Dialogues with Yevtushenko," which was shown during prime time on Russian TV.