Rimsky-Korsakov's music fared well during the Soviet regime. Officials surely approved of his liberal use of Russian folk music and it didn't hurt that Rimsky-Korsakov had sympathized with a student uprising in 1905. In fact, he was temporarily dismissed from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and performances of his music were briefly banned. Later that year, on a visit to Moscow, Rimsky-Korsakov witnessed a demonstration along Tverskoi Boulevard and heard the marchers sing Dubinushka (The Little Oak Stick), an old folk tune. Inspired to make musical trouble, Rimsky-Korsakov went back to St. Petersburg and arranged the song for orchestra with optional chorus (usually omitted). Like Ravel's Boléro, Dubinushka is an exercise in orchestration rather than thematic development. The tune being simple, Rimsky-Korsakov repeats it—or, in the central section, important fragments of it—with various combinations of instruments. The first statement in full is brassy, with a string section response. Strings and woodwinds handle the quieter sections and of course, the full orchestra joins in the stirring finale. A similar effect with more varied thematic material may be heard in the "Procession of the Nobles" from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Mlada.

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