Baseless stories of Stalin's derangement regarding various musicians are big in the classical music world, especially when it comes to Shostakovich. Every performance of his work has to be prefaced by an announcement that he was constantly worried about Stalin trying to kill him. In objective reality Shostakovich was a two time recipient of the Stalin award.

While I'm at it, there's also a persistent but baseless claim that Shostakovich was secretly using folk motifs in his music that defied some non-existent Soviet mandate to suppress all forms of ethnic expression. Nevermind the creation of ethnic republics across the USSR and state efforts to protect traditional cultures from certain destruction under capitalist hegemony. Also, nevermind the absurdity of the idea that Shostakovich's secret use of folk motifs would be missed by the censors but the masses would hear it and take heart, knowing that the destruction of the USSR and the pillaging of their country by the west is just around the corner.