The Third Symphony bears many similarities to the 1927 Second: each is in one movement and uses a chorus whose text celebrates Marxist or socialist ideas. Both works arose at a time when Soviet artists were generally free to create art as they saw fit. Thus, Shostakovich was not coerced or persuaded to write these "revolutionary" works, as he would later be with several other patriotic and ideological works. What has been puzzling to many observers is that the promise offered by Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1 seems largely to have been squandered in these two works on only intermittently successful experimentalism. Apparently the composer viewed the Revolution as a signal to introduce new musical ideas, especially in the area of form. The Third Symphony features a most unusual form: it is cast in one movement, marked Allegretto, and has virtually no thematic development. Certain rhythmic patterns appear throughout to offer some unity, but traditional thematic transformations and relationships are absent.

The Symphony opens quietly with a theme on clarinet, establishing a pleasant, jovial mood. The music quickly turns energetic, even manic, when new thematic material appears. This work is not as densely scored, here and throughout, as are the opening passages of the Second Symphony, but there is a sort of density of coloration noticeable, as the direction of the music and the character of the orchestration seem ever-changing; moods shift from mischief and humor to mystery and martial sounds, from ponderousness and lyricism to bombast and drama. Taken in individual passages the music mostly works, but as a symphony, its construction becomes fragile owing to its lack of coherence. Ironically, the work's expressive language is not particularly difficult, being tonal and not particularly dissonant. In the end, the music of this symphony is quite attractive, if confusing in its structure. The choral music, which comes near the end, is a setting of a poem by S. Kirsanov ("The First of May!") that celebrates the international labor holiday.

The Symphony No. 3 was first performed on January 21, 1930. Subsequent performances in the West, few though they were (Stokowski in 1932 and Frederick Stock in 1933), typically eliminated the pro-Soviet chorus at the end.

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