yeah that sounds pretty wild in this case. i think we have to remember that musicology as an object of study actually had its roots in nazi germany of all places, and gained state funding by pandering to nazi ideology in various ways: all the great composers in the “classical” era were german, mozart and haydn were technically germans, handel only moved to england to spread the greatness of germany, etc. ofc that’s not to say that musicology is inherently anticommunist, but i guess it’s not surprising that a russian musicologist made some shit up to beef up an anticommunist reading of shostakovich.

as to your last paragraph, i see this everywhere in academic musicology and music theory journals and articles. i’ll never forget when my teacher told me to play a piece more “soviet-like,” i.e. barren and stark, even though the soviet composer was a modernist lol. and ofc liberalism and postmodernism is incredibly strong in music journals, leading to completely subjective analyses like the one you cite. it has been interesting to learn about marxist philosophy and historical materialism, and then to have the meaningless, obfuscating liberal/postmodern jargon smack me in the face practically anytime i do academic study.