This Russian requiem for choir and orchestra contains:
01. Requiem aeternam
02. Dies irae
03. Offertorium
04. Agnus Dei

Although Russian requiem is directly influenced by documented events following the Russian Revolution of 1917, its message of redemption from man's inhumanity to man through the Passion of Jesus Christ has world-wide significance. Dedicated to 'The stillborn child of Gorodietsky', the work is a plea for the peace of reconciliation through the unifying love of Christ. Pehkonen does not set the entire Missa pro defunctis here. Instead, he highlights selected passages with quotations from The Revelation of St. John the Divine, Canto 3 in Hell of Dante's Divine Comedy, Boris Pasternak's Zhivago Poems Gethsemane and Winter Night, as well as comments by Lenin from his Collected Works. The work is scored for soprano and contralto soloists, chorus, oboe, cor anglais, 2 trumpets, timpani, percussion, organ and strings.

BFCS gave the second performance in 1982 of his Buccinate tuba (Written for the Three Choirs Festival in 1980) and such was the response of audience and performers that he was given a commission by BFCS for a work to be premièred in 1986. The result was Russian requiem, subsequently performed by many Choral Societies throughout the UK and abroad, the first of five premières by BFCS (three commissioned by the Society).

About the mentioned dedicatee: "the stillborn child of Gorodetsky" is the Russion revolution, propagated by the Russion poet Sergej Mitrofanovic Gorodetsky (1884 - 1967).
About the texts: quotations by Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321), the Russian writer Boris Leodinovic Pasternak (1890 - 1960) and the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Iljic Lenin (real name: Oeljanov).