Pskov (English) Псков (Russian)
-  City[1]  -
Krom (or Kremlin) in Pskov
Location of Pskov Oblast in Russia
Pskov Location of Pskov in Pskov Oblast
Coordinates: 57°49′N 28°20′E / 57.817°N 28.333°E / 57.817; 28.333Coordinates: 57°49′N 28°20′E / 57.817°N 28.333°E / 57.817; 28.333
Coat of arms	Flag
City Day	July 23[citation needed]
Administrative status (as of February 2009)
Country	Russia
Federal subject	Pskov Oblast[1]
Administratively subordinated to	City of Pskov[1]
Administrative center of	Pskov Oblast,[citation needed] Pskovsky District,[citation needed] City of Pskov[1]
Municipal status (as of February 2005)
Urban okrug	Pskov Urban Okrug[2]
Administrative center of	Pskov Urban Okrug[2]
City Head[citation needed]	Ivan Tsetsersky[citation needed]
Representative body	City Duma[citation needed]
Statistics
Area	95.5 km2 (36.9 sq mi)[citation needed]
Population (2010 Census, preliminary)	203,281 inhabitants[3]
- Rank in 2010	91st
Population (2002 Census)	202,780 inhabitants[4]
- Rank in 2002	90th
Density	2,129 /km2 (5,510 /sq mi)[5]
Time zone	MSK (UTC+04:00)[6]
First mentioned	903[citation needed]
Postal code(s)	180xxx[citation needed]
Dialing code(s)	+7 8112[citation needed]
Official website
Pskov on WikiCommons

Pskov (Russian: Псков; IPA: [pskof] ( listen), ancient Russian spelling "Плѣсковъ", Pleskov) is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about 20 kilometers (12 mi) east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: 203,281 (2010 Census preliminary results);^[3] 202,780 (2002 Census);^[4] 203,789 (1989 Census).^[7]

History[link]

Early history[link]

View of the Pskov kremlin from the Velikaya River

The name of the city, originally spelled "Pleskov", may be loosely translated as "[the town] of purling waters". Its earliest mention comes in 903, which records that Igor of Kiev married a local lady, St. Olga. Pskovians sometimes take this year as the city's foundation date, and in 2003 a great jubilee took place to celebrate Pskov's 1,100th anniversary.

The first prince of Pskov was Vladimir the Great's younger son Sudislav. Once imprisoned by his brother Yaroslav, he was not released until the latter's death several decades later. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the town adhered politically to the Novgorod Republic. In 1241, it was taken by the Teutonic Knights, but Alexander Nevsky recaptured it several months later during a legendary campaign dramatized in Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 movie.

In order to secure their independence from the knights, the Pskovians elected a Lithuanian prince, named Daumantas, a Roman Catholic converted to Orthodox faith and known in Russia as Dovmont, as their military leader and prince in 1266. Having fortified the town, Daumantas routed the Teutonic Knights at Rakvere and overran much of Estonia. His remains and sword are preserved in the local kremlin, and the core of the citadel, erected by him, still bears the name of "Dovmont's town".

Pskov Republic[link]

By the 14th century, the town functioned as the capital of a de-facto sovereign republic. Its most powerful force was the merchants who brought the town into the Hanseatic League. Pskov's independence was formally recognized by Novgorod in 1348. Several years later, the veche promulgated a law code (called the Pskov Charter), which was one of the principal sources of the all-Russian law code issued in 1497.

For Russia, the Pskov Republic was a bridge towards Europe. For Europe, it was a western outpost of Russia and a subject of numerous attacks throughout its history. The Pskov Krom (or Kremlin) withstood twenty-six sieges in the 15th century alone. At one point, five stone walls ringed it, making the city practically impregnable. A local school of icon-painting flourished, and local masons were considered the best in Russia. Many peculiar features of Russian architecture were first introduced in Pskov.

Siege of Pskov by Stefan Batory, by Karl Brullov

Finally, in 1510, the city fell to Muscovite forces.^[8] The deportation of noble families to Moscow is a subject of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Pskovityanka (1872). As the second largest city of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Pskov still attracted enemy armies. Most famously, it withstood a prolonged siege by a 50,000-strong Polish army during the final stage of the Livonian War (1581–1582). The king of Poland Stefan Batory undertook some thirty-one attacks to storm the city, which was defended mainly by civilians. Even after one of the city walls was broken, the Pskovians managed to fill the gap and repel the attack. "It's amazing how the city reminds me of Paris", wrote one of the Frenchmen present at Batory's siege.

Modern history[link]

Peter the Great's conquest of Estonia and Latvia during the Great Northern War in the early 18th century spelled the end of Pskov's traditional role as a vital border fortress and a key to Russia's interior. As a consequence, the city's importance and well-being declined dramatically, although it has served as a seat of separate governorate since 1777. It was here that the last Russian Tsar abdicated in March 1917.

During World War I, Pskov became the center of much activity behind the lines, and after the Russo-German Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference (December 22, 1917–March 3, 1918), the Imperial German Army invaded the area. Pskov was also occupied by the Estonian army between February 1919 and July 1919 during the Estonian War of Independence.

The medieval citadel provided little protection against modern artillery, and during World War II Pskov suffered substantial damage during the German occupation from July 9, 1941 until July 23, 1944. However, many ancient buildings, particularly churches, suffered destruction before the Wehrmacht could occupy the city. Though a huge portion of the population died during the war, Pskov has since struggled to regain its traditional position as a major industrial and cultural center of Western Russia.

Administrative and municipal status[link]

Administratively, it is incorporated as the City of Pskov—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.^[1] Municipally, the City of Pskov is incorporated as Pskov Urban Okrug.^[2]

Landmarks and sights[link]

The mid-12th century cathedral of St. John. Dozens of similar quaint little churches are scattered throughout Pskov.

Pskov still preserves much of its medieval walls, built from the 13th century on. Its medieval citadel is called either the Krom or the Kremlin. Within its walls rises the 256-foot (78 m)-tall Trinity Cathedral, founded in 1138 and rebuilt in the 1690s. The cathedral contains the tombs of saint princes Vsevolod (died in 1138) and Dovmont (died in 1299). Other ancient cathedrals adorn the Mirozhsky Monastery (completed by 1152), famous for its 12th-century frescoes, St. John's (completed by 1243), and the Snetogorsky monastery (built in 1310 and stucco-painted in 1313).

A Russian coin commemorating Pskov's 1,100th anniversary

Pskov is exceedingly rich in tiny, squat, picturesque churches, dating mainly from the 15th and the 16th centuries. There are many dozens of them, the most notable being St. Basil's on the Hill (1413), St. Kozma and Demian's near the Bridge (1463), St. George's from the Downhill (1494), Assumption from the Ferryside (1444, 1521), and St. Nicholas' from Usokha (1536). The 17th-century residential architecture is represented by merchant mansions, such as the Salt House, the Pogankin chambers, and the Trubinsky mansion.

Among the sights in the vicinity of Pskov are Izborsk, a seat of Rurik's brother in the 9th century and one of the most formidable fortresses of medieval Russia; the Pskov Monastery of the Caves, the oldest continually functioning monastery in Russia and a magnet for pilgrims from all over the country; the 16th-century Krypetsky Monastery; Elizarovo Monastery, which used to be a great cultural and literary center of medieval Russia; and Mikhaylovskoye, a family home of Alexander Pushkin where he wrote some of the best known lines in the Russian language. The national poet of Russia is buried in the ancient cloister at the Holy Mountains nearby. Unfortunately, the area presently has only a minimal tourist infrastructure, and the historic core of Pskov requires serious investments to realize its great tourist potential.

Climate[link]

The climate of Pskov is humid continental (Köppen climate classification Dfb) with maritime influences due to the city's relative proximity to the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland; with relative soft but long winter (usually 5 months per year) and warm summer. Summer and fall have more precipitation than winter and spring.

Economy[link]

• JSC "AVAR" (AvtoElectroArmatura). Electric equipment production for cars, lorries buses and tractors (relays, switches, fuses, electronic articles)
• Pskov is served by Pskov Airport which was also used for military aviation.

Notable people[link]

• Sergei Fedorov, hockey player
• Oxana Fedorova, Miss Universe 2002
• Mikhail Golitsyn, statesman
• Isaak Kikoin, physicist
• Veniamin Kaverin, writer
• Yury Tynyanov, writer

International relations[link]

Twin towns and sister cities[link]

Pskov is twinned with the following cities:^[10]

References[link]

Notes[link]

Sources[link]

• Псковское областное Собрание депутатов. Закон №833-оз от 5 февраля 2009 г. «Об административно-территориальном устройстве Псковской области». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Псковская правда", №20, 10 февраля 2009 г. (Pskov Oblast Council of Deputies. Law #833-oz of February 5, 2009 On the Administrative-Territorial Structure of Pskov Oblast. Effective as of the official publication date.).
• Псковское областное Собрание депутатов. Закон №419-оз от 28 февраля 2005 г. «О границах и статусе действующих на территории области муниципальных образований». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Псковская правда", №41–43, 4 марта 2005 г. (Pskov Oblast Council of Deputies. Law #419-ы. of February 28, 2005 On the Borders and Status of the Municipal Formations Existing on the Oblast Territory. Effective as of the official publication date.).

External links[link]

• Official website of Pskov (Russian)
• Nortfort.ru. Pskov fortress
• Some paintings from the Pskov State Museum's Picture Gallery (links #4 and #3 from above) (Russian)
• The Pskov Power. Archive of the Pskov area of regional studies
• Poets of Pskov: An Anthology of Poems

Photographs[link]

• Pskov in modern and old photos
• Pskov at night
• A tower of the kremlin
• Assumption church at the Ferryside (1521)
• 12th-century Mirozhsky abbey
• Alexander Nevsky monument

v t e Administrative divisions of Pskov Oblast Administrative center: Pskov Cities and towns Dno Gdov Nevel Novorzhev Novosokolniki Opochka Ostrov Pechory Porkhov Pskov Pustoshka Pytalovo Sebezh Velikiye Luki Districts Bezhanitsky Dedovichsky Dnovsky Gdovsky Krasnogorodsky Kunyinsky Loknyansky Nevelsky Novorzhevsky Novosokolnichesky Opochetsky Ostrovsky Palkinsky Pechorsky Plyussky Porkhovsky Pskovsky Pushkinogorsky Pustoshkinsky Pytalovsky Sebezhsky Strugo-Krasnensky Usvyatsky Velikoluksky

v t e Major fortresses of Western Russia Brest-Litovsk fortress Gdov Ivangorod Izborsk Kirillov Koporye Korela Kronstadt Ladoga New Dvina Fort Novgorod Oreshek Porkhov Pskov Smolensk Solovki St. Petersburg Trångsund Vyborg Yamburg 19th-century fortifications

v t e World Heritage Sites in Russia by federal district Central Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye Moscow Kremlin and Red Square Novodevichy Convent Trinity Sergius Lavra White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal Historic Centre of Yaroslavl Southern Western Caucasus Northwestern Curonian Spit1 Ferapontov Monastery Kizhi Pogost Virgin Komi Forests Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Surroundings Solovetsky Islands Struve Geodetic Arc2 Far Eastern Volcanoes of Kamchatka Central Sikhote-Alin Wrangel Island Siberian Golden Mountains of Altai Lake Baikal Putorana Plateau Uvs Nuur Basin3 Volga Kazan Kremlin North Caucasian Citadel, Ancient City and Fortress Buildings of Derbent 1 Shared with Lithuania 2 Shared with nine other countries 3 Shared with Mongolia

vep:Pskov

Saint Alexander Nevsky
An icon of Alexander Nevsky
Born	(1220-05-30)30 May 1220 Pereslavl-Zalessky, Vladimir-Suzdal (now Russia)
Died	14 November 1263(1263-11-14) (aged 43) Gorodets, Vladimir-Suzdal (now Russia)
Honored in	Eastern Orthodox Church
Canonized	1547 by Russian Orthodox Church
Major shrine	Vladimir; Pereslavl-Zalessky, Saint Petersburg
Feast	23 November (Repose) 23 May (Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl 30 August (Translation of relics)
Attributes	Robed as a Russian Great Prince, often wearing armor.
Patronage	Soldiers, Borders of Russia

Alexander Nevsky (Russian:  Алекса́ндр Яросла́вич Не́вский​ (help·info), Aleksandr Yaroslavich Nevskiy; pronounced [ɐlʲɪˈksandr jɪrɐˈslavʲɪtɕ ˈnʲefskʲɪj]; 30 May 1220 – 14 November 1263, proclaimed Saint of the Russian Orthodox Church by Metropolite Macarius in 1547^[1]) was the Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Vladimir during some of the most trying times in the city's history. Commonly regarded as the key figure of medieval Rus, Alexander was the grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to legendary status on account of his military victories over the German and Swedish invaders while employing collaborationist policies towards the powerful Golden Horde.

Great victories[link]

From Tales of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander found in the Second Pskovian Chronicle, circa 1260–1280, comes one of the first known references to the Great Prince:

"By the will of God, prince Alexander was born from the charitable, people-loving, and meek the Great Prince Yaroslav, and his mother was Theodosia. As it was told by the prophet Isaiah: 'Thus sayeth the Lord: I appoint the princes because they are sacred and I direct them.' "... He was taller than others and his voice reached the people as a trumpet, and his face was like the face of Joseph, whom the Egyptian Pharaoh placed as next to the king after him of Egypt. His power was a part of the power of Samson and God gave him the wisdom of Solomon ... this Prince Alexander: he used to defeat but was never defeated ..."^[2]

Monument in Ust-Izhora, traditional site of the Battle of the Neva.

Born in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Alexander was the fourth son of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and seemed to have no chance of claiming the throne of Vladimir. In 1236, however, he was summoned by the Novgorodians to become kniaz' (or prince) of Novgorod and, as their military leader, to defend their northwest lands from Swedish, German and Muslim invaders. After the Swedish army had landed at the confluence of the rivers Izhora and Neva, Alexander and his small army suddenly attacked the Swedes on 15 July 1240 and defeated them. The Neva battle of 1240 saved Rus' from a full-scale enemy invasion from the North. Because of this battle, 19-year-old Alexander was given the sobriquet "Nevsky" (which means of Neva). This victory, coming just three years after the disastrous Mongol invasion of Rus, strengthened Nevsky’s political influence, but at the same time it worsened his relations with the boyars. He would soon have to leave Novgorod because of this conflict.

After Pskov had been invaded by the crusading Livonian Knights, the Novgorod authorities sent for Alexander. In spring of 1241 he returned from his exile, gathered an army, and drove out the invaders. Alexander and his men faced the Livonian heavy cavalry led by the master of the Order, Hermann, brother of Albert of Buxhoeveden. Nevsky faced the enemy on the ice of the Lake Peipus and defeated the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Knights during the Battle of the Ice on 5 April 1242.

Alexander’s victory was a significant event in the history of the Middle Ages. Foot soldiers of Novgorod had surrounded and defeated an army of knights, mounted on horseback and clad in thick armour, long before Western Europeans learned how foot soldiers could prevail over mounted knights. Nevsky's great victory against the Livonian Brothers apparently involved only a few knights killed rather than hundreds claimed by the Russian chroniclers; decisive medieval and early modern battles were won and lost by smaller margins than is seen in contemporary conflicts. Strategic considerations aside, Alexander's victory was an important milestone in the development of Muscovite Russia.

Politician[link]

After the Livonian invasion, Nevsky continued to strengthen Russia’s Northwest. He sent his envoys to Norway and, as a result, they signed a first peace treaty between Russia and Norway in 1251. Alexander led his army to Finland and successfully routed the Swedes, who had made another attempt to block the Baltic Sea from the Russians in 1256.^[3]

The envoys of the Roman Pope attend Alexander Nevsky

Nevsky proved to be a cautious and far-sighted politician. He dismissed the Roman Curia’s attempts to cause war between Russia and the Golden Horde, because he understood the uselessness of such war with the Tatars at a time when they were still a powerful force. Historians seem to be unsure about Alexander’s behavior when it came to his relations with Mongols. He may have thought that Catholicism presented a more tangible threat to Russian national identity than paying a tribute to the Khan, who had little interest in Russian religion and culture. It is also argued that he intentionally kept Russia as a vassal to the Mongols in order to preserve his own status and counted on the befriended Horde in case someone challenged his authority (he forced the citizens of Novgorod to pay tribute). Nevsky tried to strengthen his authority at the expense of the boyars and at the same time suppress any anti-Mongol and anti-Muscovite uprisings in the country (Novgorod uprising of 1259).

According to the most plausible version, Alexander’s intentions were to prevent scattered principalities of what would become Russia from repeated invasions by the Mongol army. He is known to have gone to the Horde himself and achieved success in exempting Russians from fighting beside the Tatar army in its wars with other peoples.

Some historians see Alexander's choice of subordination to the Golden Horde and refusal of co-operating with western countries and church as an important turn to the east for the Russians.^[4]

Grand Prince of Vladimir[link]

Thanks to his friendship with Sartaq Khan, Alexander was installed as the Grand Prince of Vladimir (i.e., the supreme Russian ruler) in 1252. A decade later, Alexander died in the town of Gorodets-on-the-Volga on his way back from Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde. Prior to his death, he took monastic vows and was given the religious name of Alexis.

From the Second Pskovian Chronicle:

"Returning from the Golden Horde, the Great Prince Alexander, reached the city of Nizhniy Novgorod, and remained there for several days in good health, but when he reached the city of Gorodets he fell ill ... Great Prince Alexander, who was always firm in his faith in God, gave up this worldly kingdom ... And then he gave up his soul to God and died in peace on 12 November, [1263] on the day when the Holy Apostle Philip is remembered ...

Burial of Alexander Nevsky

At this burial Metropolitan Archbishop Cyril said, 'My children, you should know that the sun of the Suzdalian land has set. There will never be another prince like him in the Suzdalian land.'

And the priests and deacons and monks, the poor and the wealthy, and all the people said: 'It is our end.' "^[2]

Though he died in Gorodets, Alexander was laid to rest in the city of Vladimir, in the Great Abbey at The Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God.

Marriage and children[link]

According to the Novgorod First Chronicle, Alexander married first a daughter of Bryacheslav Vasilkovich, Prince of Polatsk and Vitebsk, in 1239. Her name is not given in the chronicle. Genealogies name her as Paraskeviya or Alexandra (possibly birth and marital names respectively). They had at least five children:

• Vasily Aleksandrovich, Prince of Novgorod (c. 1239–1271). He was betrothed to Princess Kristina of Norway in 1251. The marriage contact was broken. Kristina went on to marry Felipe of Castile, a son of Ferdinand III of Castile and Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen.
• Eudoxia Aleksandrovna. Married Konstantin Rostislavich, Prince of Smolensk.
• Dmitry of Pereslavl (c. 1250–1294).
• Andrey of Gorodets (c. 1255 – 27 July 1304
• Daniel of Moscow (1261 – 4 March/5 March 1303).

He married a second wife named Vasilisa shortly before his death. They had no known children.

Alexander's legacy[link]

Decoration of the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky.

Some of Alexander's policies on the Western border were continued by his grandson-in-law, Daumantas of Pskov, who was also beatified in the 16th century.

In the late 13th century, a chronicle was compiled called the Life of Alexander Nevsky (Житие Александра Невского), in which he is depicted as an ideal prince-soldier and defender of Russia.

Veneration of Alexander Nevsky as a saint began soon after his death. The remains of the prince were uncovered in response to a vision, before the Battle of Kulikovo in the year 1380, and found to be incorrupt. He was glorified (canonized) by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547. His principal feast day is 23 November. By order of Peter the Great, Nevsky’s relics were transported to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg where they remain to this day. A second feast day was instituted on 30 August in commemoration of this event. He is also commemorated in common with other saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl on 23 May.

Military Order[link]

On 21 May 1725, the empress Catherine I introduced the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky as one of the highest decorations in the land. During the Great Patriotic War, on 29 July 1942, the Soviet authorities introduced an Order of Alexander Nevsky to revive the memory of Alexander's struggle with the Germans. There was also a Bulgarian Order dedicated to Saint Alexander which was founded on 25 December 1881 and then ceased to exist when a People's Republic was declared on 16 September 1946.

Sergei Eisenstein's envisioning of Alexander Nevsky forms the background of this Soviet poster from World War II.

In 1938, Sergei Eisenstein made one of his most acclaimed films, Alexander Nevsky, on Alexander's victory over the Teutonic Knights. The soundtrack for the film was written by Sergei Prokofiev, who also reworked the score into a concert cantata. At Joseph Stalin's insistence,^{[citation needed]} the film was rushed into theaters and the resulting sound recording was notably disappointing, while the visual images were quite impressive, especially the spectacular battle on the ice. In the film, Nevsky used a number of Russian proverbs, tying Nevsky firmly to Russian tradition ^[5]

Alexander's proverbial phrase (actually, paraphrased Math.26:52) "Whoever will come to us with a sword, from a sword will perish," has become a slogan of Russian patriots. There is a long tradition of Russian naval vessels bearing Nevsky's name, such as the nineteenth century screw frigate Alexander Neuski and a nuclear submarine currently being built for the Russian Navy.

Alexander Nevsky's fame has spread beyond the borders of Russia, and numerous churches are dedicated to him, including the Patriarchal Cathedral at Sofia, Bulgaria; the Cathedral church in Tallinn, Estonia; a church in Belgrade, Serbia; and a church in Tbilisi, Georgia.

On 24 September 2008, Alexander Nevsky was declared the main hero of Russia’s history by popular vote, as reported by the Kommersant Newspaper.

In December 2008, Alexander was voted the greatest Russian in the Name of Russia television poll.^[6]

See also[link]

• Alexander Nevsky Cathedral—an incomplete listing of Eastern Orthodox cathedrals which bear his name.
• Nevsky Avenue
• Famous military commanders
• Rulers of Russia family tree

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Isoaho, Mari. The Image of Aleksandr Nevskiy in Medieval Russia: Warrior and Saint (The Northern World; 21). Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 90-04-15101-X).
• "Tale of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander [Nevsky]" in Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales, ed. Serge Zenkovsky, 224-235 (New York: Meridian, 1974)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alexander Nevsky

• Repose of St Alexander Nevsky Orthodox icon and synaxarion (23 November)
• Alexander Nevsky: politics under Mongol domination.
• Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl (23 May)
• Translation of the relics of St Alexander Nevsky (30 August)
• St Alexander on Nevsky Prospekt.
• Alexander Nevsky's listing in Medieval Lands by Charles Cawley.
• The Kommersant Newspaper: Russia’s Hero is Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky (24 September 2008)
• Interfax news agency: Orthodox believers found heaven guardians for Russian secret service (22 September 2008)

Sergei Prokofiev in New York, 1918

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Russian: Сергей Сергеевич Прокофьев;^[1] 23 April 1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His best-known works include the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé, the ballet Romeo and Juliet – from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken – and Peter and the Wolf. Besides many other works, Prokofiev also composed five piano concertos, nine completed piano sonatas and seven symphonies.

A graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatory, Prokofiev initially made his name as an iconoclastic composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of ferociously dissonant and virtuosic works for his instrument and his first two piano concertos. Prokofiev's first major success breaking out of the composer-pianist mould was with his purely orchestral Scythian Suite, compiled from music originally composed for a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes; Diaghilev commissioned three further ballets from Prokofiev – Chout, Le pas d'acier and The Prodigal Son – which at the time of their original production were all highly successful. Prokofiev's greatest interest, however, was opera, and he composed several works in that genre, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel. Prokofiev's one relative success in that genre during his lifetime was The Love for Three Oranges, composed for Chicago and subsequently performed over the following decade in Europe and Russia.

After the Revolution, Prokofiev left Russia with the official blessing of the Soviet minister Anatoly Lunacharsky, and he lived in the United States, then Germany, then Paris, during which time he married a Spanish singer, Carolina ('Lina') Codina, who bore him two sons. Because of the increasing economic deprivation of Europe, Prokofiev returned to Russia in 1936. He enjoyed some success there – notably with Lieutenant Kijé, Peter and the Wolf, Romeo and Juliet, and perhaps above all with Alexander Nevsky. The Nazi invasion of the USSR spurred him to compose his most ambitious work, an operatic version of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. In 1948 Prokofiev was officially attacked for allegedly indulging in "anti-democratic formalism", and was forced to compose such officially sanctioned works as On Guard for Peace. However, he also enjoyed personal and artistic support from a new generation of Russian performers, notably Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich and for the latter he composed his Symphony-Concerto, perhaps his most personal work to be completed in the last five years of his life.

Biography[link]

Childhood compositions[link]

Prokofiev was born in 1891^[2] in Sontsovka (now Krasne in the Donetsk Oblast province of eastern Ukraine, an isolated rural estate in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate) of the Russian Empire. He was inspired by hearing his mother practising the piano in the evenings – mostly works by Chopin and Beethoven – and composed his first piano composition at the age of five, an 'Indian Gallop', which was written down by his mother: this was in the Lydian mode (a major scale with a raised 4th scale degree) as the young Prokofiev felt 'reluctance to tackle the black notes'.^[3] By seven, he had also learned to play chess.^[4] Much like music, chess would remain a passion, and he became acquainted with world chess champions José Raúl Capablanca, whom he beat in a simultaneous exhibition match in 1914, and Mikhail Botvinnik.^[5] At the age of nine he was composing his first opera, The Giant,^[6] as well as an overture and various other pieces.

Formal education and controversial early works[link]

In 1902, Prokofiev's mother met Sergei Taneyev, director of the Moscow Conservatory, who initially suggested that Prokofiev should start lessons in piano and composition with Alexander Goldenweiser.^[7] When Taneyev was unable to arrange this,^[8] he instead arranged for composer and pianist Reinhold Glière to spend the summer of 1902 in Sontsovka teaching Prokofiev.^[8] This first series of lessons culminated, at the 11-year-old Prokofiev's insistence, with the budding composer making his first attempt to write a symphony.^[9] Glière subsequently revisited Sontsovka the following summer to give further tuition.^[10] When decades later Prokofiev wrote about his lessons with Glière, he gave due credit to Glière's sympathetic qualities as a teacher but complained that Glière had introduced him to "square" phrase structure and conventional modulations which he subsequently had to unlearn.^[11] Nonetheless, equipped with the necessary theoretical tools, Prokofiev started experimenting with dissonant harmonies and unusual time signatures in a series of short piano pieces which he called "ditties" (after the so-called "song form" – more accurately ternary form – they were based on), laying the basis for his own musical style.^[12]

After a while, Prokofiev's mother felt that the isolation in Sontsovka was restricting his further musical development,^[13] yet his parents hesitated over starting their son on a musical career at such an early age.^[14] Then in 1904, while Prokofiev and his mother were in Saint Petersburg to explore the possibility of their moving there for his education,^[15] they were introduced to composer Alexander Glazunov, a professor at the Conservatory. Glazunov agreed to see Prokofiev and his music, and was so impressed that he urged Prokofiev's mother that her son apply to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.^[16] By this point Prokofiev had composed two more operas, Desert Islands and The Feast during the Plague, and was working on his fourth, Undine.^[17] He passed the introductory tests and entered the Conservatory that same year.

Several years younger than most of his classmates, he was viewed as eccentric and arrogant, and he often expressed dissatisfaction with much of the education, which he found boring.^[18] During this period he studied under, among others, Anatoly Lyadov, Nikolai Tcherepnin and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (though when Rimsky-Korsakov died in 1908, Prokofiev noted that he had only studied orchestration with him 'after a fashion' – that is, he was just one of many students in a heavily attended class—and regretted that he otherwise 'never had the opportunity to study with him').^[19] He also shared classes with the composers Boris Asafyev and Nikolai Myaskovsky, the latter becoming a relatively close and life-long friend.

As a member of the Saint Petersburg music scene, Prokofiev developed a reputation as a musical rebel, while getting praise for his original compositions, which he would perform himself on the piano.^[20][21] In 1909, he graduated from his class in composition with unimpressive marks. He continued at the Conservatory, studying piano under Anna Yesipova and conducting under Nikolai Tcherepnin.^[22]

In 1910, Prokofiev's father died and Sergei's financial support ceased. Fortunately he had started making a name for himself as a composer, although he frequently caused scandals with his forward-looking works.^[23] The Sarcasms for piano, Op. 17 (1912), for example, make extensive use of polytonality,^[24] and Etudes, Op. 2 (1909) and Four Pieces, Op. 4 (1908) are highly chromatic and dissonant works. He composed his first two piano concertos around this time, the latter of which caused a scandal at its premiere (23 August 1913, Pavlovsk). According to one account, the audience left the hall with exclamations of "'To hell with this futuristic music! The cats on the roof make better music!'", but the modernists were in rapture.^[25]

In 1911, help arrived from renowned Russian musicologist and critic Alexander Ossovsky, who wrote a supportive letter to music publisher Boris P. Jurgenson,^[26] thus a contract was offered to the composer.^[27] Prokofiev made his first foreign trip in 1913, travelling to Paris and London where he first encountered Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

The first ballets[link]

In 1914, Prokofiev finished his career at the Conservatory by entering the so-called 'battle of the pianos', a competition open to the five best piano students for which the prize was a Schreder grand piano: Prokofiev won by performing his own Piano Concerto No. 1.^[28] Soon afterwards, he journeyed to London where he made contact with the impresario Sergei Diaghilev. Diaghilev commissioned Prokofiev's first ballet, Ala and Lolli, but rejected the work in progress when Prokofiev brought it to him in Italy in 1915. Diaghilev then commissioned Prokofiev to compose the ballet Chout (The Fool, the original Russian-language full title was Сказка про шута, семерых шутов перешутившего (Skazka pro shuta, semerykh shutov pereshutivshavo), meaning "The Tale of the Buffoon who Outwits Seven Other Buffoons"). Under Diaghilev's guidance, Prokofiev chose his subject from a collection of folktales by the ethnographer Alexander Afanasyev;^[29] the story, concerning a buffoon and a series of confidence tricks, had been previously suggested to Diaghilev by Igor Stravinsky as a possible subject for a ballet, and Diaghilev and his choreographer Léonide Massine helped Prokofiev to shape this into a ballet scenario.^[30] Prokofiev's inexperience in ballet led him to revise the work extensively in the 1920s, following Diaghilev's detailed critique,^[31] prior to its first production.^[32] The ballet's premiere in Paris on 17 May 1921 was a huge success and was greeted with great admiration by an audience that included Jean Cocteau, Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel. Stravinsky called the ballet "the single piece of modern music he could listen to with pleasure," while Ravel called it "a work of genius."^[33]

First World War and Revolution[link]

During World War I, Prokofiev returned to the Conservatory. He studied organ in order to avoid conscription. He composed The Gambler based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel of the same name, but rehearsals were plagued by problems and the scheduled 1917 première had to be canceled because of the February Revolution. In the summer of that year, Prokofiev composed his first symphony, the Classical. This was his own name for the symphony, which was written in the style that, according to Prokofiev, Joseph Haydn would have used if he had been alive at the time.^[34] It is more or less classical in style but incorporates more modern musical elements (see Neoclassicism). This symphony was also an exact contemporary of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19, which was scheduled to premiere in November 1917. The first performances of both works had to wait until 21 April 1918 and 18 October 1923, respectively. He stayed briefly with his mother in Kislovodsk in the Caucasus. Worried about the enemy capturing Saint Petersburg, he returned in 1918. By then he was determined to leave Russia, at least temporarily.^[35] He saw no room for his experimental music and, in May, he headed for the USA. Before leaving, he developed acquaintances with senior Bolsheviks including Anatoly Lunacharsky, the People's Commissar for Education, who told him: "You are a revolutionary in music, we are revolutionaries in life. We ought to work together. But if you want to go to America I shall not stand in your way."^[36]

Life abroad[link]

Sergei Prokofiev (circa 1918)

Arriving in San Francisco after having been released from questioning by immigration officials on Angel Island on 11 August 1918,^[37] Prokofiev was soon compared to other famous Russian exiles (such as Sergei Rachmaninoff), and he started out successfully with a solo concert in New York, leading to several further engagements. He also received a contract for the production of his new opera The Love for Three Oranges but, due to illness and the death of the director, the premiere was postponed and took place in Chicago on 30 September 1921. This delay was another example of Prokofiev's bad luck in operatic matters. The failure also cost him his American solo career, since the opera took too much time and effort. He soon found himself in financial difficulties, and, in April 1920, he left for Paris, not wanting to return to Russia as a failure.^[38]

Paris was better prepared for Prokofiev's musical style. He reaffirmed his contacts with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He also returned to some of his older, unfinished works, such as the Third Piano Concerto. The Love for Three Oranges finally premièred in Chicago in December 1921, under the composer's baton.

In March 1922, Prokofiev moved with his mother to the town of Ettal in the Bavarian Alps for over a year so he could concentrate on composing. Most of his time was spent on an opera project, The Fiery Angel, based on the novel The Fiery Angel by Valery Bryusov. By this time his later music had acquired a following in Russia, and he received invitations to return there, but he decided to stay in Europe. In 1923 he married the Spanish singer Carolina Codina (1897–1989, whose stage name was Lina Llubera)^[39] before moving back to Paris.

There, several of his works (for example the Second Symphony) were performed, but critical reception was lukewarm.^[40] However the Symphony appeared to prompt Diaghilev to commission Le pas d'acier (The Steel Step), a 'modernist' ballet score intended to portray the industrialisation of the Soviet Union. It was enthusiastically received by Parisian audiences and critics.

Prokofiev and Stravinsky restored their friendship, though Prokofiev did not particularly like Stravinsky's later works;^[41] it has been suggested that his use of text from Stravinsky's A Symphony of Psalms to characterise the invading Teutonic knights in the film score for Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky (1938) was intended as an attack on Stravinsky's musical idiom.^[42] However, Stravinsky himself described Prokofiev as the greatest Russian composer of his day, after himself.^[43]

Around 1927, the virtuoso's situation brightened; he had exciting commissions from Diaghilev and made concert tours in Russia; in addition, he enjoyed a very successful staging of The Love for Three Oranges in Leningrad (as Saint Petersburg was then known). Two older operas (one of them The Gambler) played in Europe and in 1928 Prokofiev produced his Third Symphony, which was broadly based on his unperformed opera The Fiery Angel. The conductor Serge Koussevitzky characterized the Third as "the greatest symphony since Tchaikovsky's Sixth."

During 1928–29 Prokofiev composed what was to be the last ballet for Diaghilev, The Prodigal Son, which was staged on 21 May 1929 in Paris with Serge Lifar in the title role.^[44] Diaghilev died only months later.

In 1929, Prokofiev wrote the Divertimento, Op. 43 and revised his Sinfonietta, Op. 5/48, a work started in his days at the Conservatory. Prokofiev wrote in his autobiography that he could never understand why the Sinfonietta was so rarely performed, whereas the "Classical" Symphony was played everywhere. Later in this year, however, he slightly injured his hands in a car crash, which prevented him from performing in Moscow, but in turn permitted him to enjoy contemporary Russian music. After his hands healed, he toured the United States successfully, propped up by his recent European success. This, in turn, propelled him on another tour through Europe.

In 1930 Prokofiev began his first non-Diaghilev ballet On the Dnieper, Op. 51, a work commissioned by Serge Lifar, who had been appointed maitre de ballet at the Paris Opéra.^[45] In 1931 and 1932 he completed his fourth and fifth piano concertos. The following year saw the completion of the Symphonic Song, Op. 57, a darkly scored piece in one movement.

In the early 1930s, Prokofiev was starting to long for Russia again;^[46] he moved more and more of his premieres and commissions to his home country from Paris. One such was Lieutenant Kijé, which was commissioned as the score to a Soviet film. Another commission, from the Kirov Theater in Leningrad, was the ballet Romeo and Juliet. Today, this is one of Prokofiev's best-known works, and it contains some of the most inspired and poignant passages in his body of work.^[47] However, the ballet's original happy ending (contrary to Shakespeare), caused the premiere to be postponed for several years.

In this period he began to practice the religion and teachings of Christian Science, to which, according to biographer Simon Morrison, he remained faithful for the rest of his life.^[48]

Return to the Soviet Union[link]

Prokofiev and his partner, Mira

In 1936, Prokofiev returned permanently to the Soviet Union; his family followed a year later. At this time, the official Soviet policy towards music changed; a special bureau, the "Composers' Union", was established in order to keep track of the artists and their doings. By limiting outside influences, these policies would gradually cause almost complete isolation of Soviet composers from the rest of the world. Both Prokofiev and Shostakovich came under particular scrutiny for "formalist tendencies." Forced to adapt to the new circumstances (whatever misgivings he had about them in private), Prokofiev wrote a series of "mass songs" (Opp. 66, 79, 89), using the lyrics of officially approved Soviet poets. At the same time Prokofiev also composed music for children (Three Songs for Children and Peter and the Wolf, among others) as well as the gigantic Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, which was banned from performance and had to wait until May 1966 for a partial premiere.

In 1938, Prokofiev collaborated with Eisenstein on the historical epic Alexander Nevsky. For this he composed some of his most inventive and dramatic music. Although the film had a very poor sound recording, Prokofiev adapted much of his score into a large-scale cantata for mezzo-soprano, orchestra and chorus, which was extensively performed and recorded. In the wake of Alexander Nevsky's success, Prokofiev composed his first Soviet opera Semyon Kotko, which was intended to be produced by the director Vsevolod Meyerhold. However the première of the opera was postponed because Meyerhold was arrested on 20 June 1939 by the NKVD (Joseph Stalin's Secret Police), and shot on 2 February 1940.^[49] Only months after Meyerhold's arrest, Prokofiev was 'invited' to compose Zdravitsa (literally translated 'Cheers!', but more often given the English title Hail to Stalin) (Op. 85) to celebrate Joseph Stalin's 60th birthday.^[50]

Later in 1939, Prokofiev composed his Piano Sonatas Nos. 6, 7, and 8, Opp. 82–84, widely known today as the "War Sonatas." Premiered respectively by Prokofiev (No. 6: 8 April 1940),^[51] Sviatoslav Richter (No. 7: Moscow, 18 January 1943) and Emil Gilels (No. 8: Moscow, 30 December 1944),^[52] they were subsequently championed in particular by Richter. Biographer Daniel Jaffé argued that Prokofiev, "having forced himself to compose a cheerful evocation of the nirvana Stalin wanted everyone to believe he had created" (i.e. in Zdravitsa) then subsequently, in these three sonatas, "expressed his true feelings".^[53] As evidence of this, Jaffé has pointed out that the central movement of Sonata No. 7 opens with a theme based on a Robert Schumann lied, 'Wehmut' ('Sadness', which appears in Schumann's Liederkreis, Op. 39): the words to this translate "I can sometimes sing as if I were glad, yet secretly tears well and so free my heart. Nightingales... sing their song of longing from their dungeon's depth... everyone delights, yet no one feels the pain, the deep sorrow in the song."^[54] Ironically (because, it appears, no one had noticed his allusion) Sonata No. 7 received a Stalin Prize (Second Class), and No. 8 a Stalin Prize First Class,^[52] even though the works have been subsequently interpreted as representing Prokofiev "venting his anger and frustration with the Soviet regime.^[55]