"For 10 to 15 years in the cultural life of 20th-century Russia, composers found themselves in the unique position of enjoying considerable artistic freedom while receiving state funds to compose music from a contemporary Russian viewpoint. From about 1980, for the first time in 60 years, composers did not have to adhere to any Soviet ideology, nor were they hampered by any restrictions on Western influences or sacred liturgical texts. This artistic golden age of the 1980s and early 1990s ended as severe economic hardships developed."