Alexander Andreevich Prokofiev(November, Kobona village, Novoladozhsky district, St. Petersburg province - September 18, 1971, Leningrad) - Russian Soviet poet. Hero of Socialist Labor (1970). Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1961) and the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1946).

Biography

Prokofiev Alexander Andreevich was born on November in the village of Kobona (now Leningrad region) in the family of a peasant - a fisherman and a tiller.

He graduated from a rural school and from 1913 to 1917 studied at the St. Petersburg Teachers' Seminary.

In 1919 he joined the RCP(b). Graduated from the Petrograd Teachers' Institute of the Red Army (1920). In 1922-1930, he was an employee of the plenipotentiary mission of the Cheka-OGPU in the Leningrad Military District. From 1923 he studied at the literary studio of the Leningrad Proletkult. He began publishing in 1927. In 1931 he published his first book of poems.

In 1922-30 he served as an investigator in the bodies of the Cheka-OGPU. All subsequent years he was in the active reserve of the state security agencies.

During the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940) and the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Prokofiev was a military journalist, a member of the writing group at the political department of the Leningrad Front. In 1945-1948 and 1955-1965 he was the executive secretary of the Leningrad branch of the RSFSR SP.

Member of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU in 1956-1966. Delegate to the XX and XXII Congresses of the CPSU.

Memory

• Songs were written based on Prokofiev’s poems, among which the most famous are “Comrade” (music by O. B. Ivanov, his first song), which became the unofficial anthem of youth, and “Golden Taiga” (music by V. V. Pushkov) from the film of the same name.
• Composer Georgy Sviridov wrote the choral poem "Ladoga" based on Prokofiev's poems.
• In 2003, in honor of the celebration of the 1250th anniversary of Staraya Ladoga, St. Petersburg composer Vladislava Malakhovskaya wrote 3 choruses to poems by A. A. Prokofiev.
• A street in the north-west of St. Petersburg is named after A. A. Prokofiev.

Awards and prizes

• By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated December 1, 1970, for outstanding services in the development of Soviet literature, fruitful social activities and in connection with his seventieth birthday, Alexander Andreevich Prokofiev was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
• four Orders of Lenin (1957, 1960, 1967, 1970).
• Order of the Patriotic War, II degree (1944).
• Order of the Red Star.
• Order of the Badge of Honor (1939).
• badge “Honorary employee of the Cheka-GPU (V)”.
• Stalin Prize of the second degree (1946) - for the poem “Russia” and the poems: “We will not give it up!”, “For you, Leningrad!”, “Drinking”, “Oath” and others.
• Lenin Prize (1961) - for the collection of poems “Invitation to Travel” (1960).

Essays

• Noon, 1931
• Victory, 1932
• Road over the bridge, 1933
• Russia, 1944 (poem)
• Poems, 1947
• Poems from the Road, 1963
• Grapes, 1967
• Immortality, 1970.

Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev is one of the most significant composers of the 20th century, and not only for domestic classical music lovers. His symphonic fairy tale for children “Peter and the Wolf”, the ballet “Romeo and Juliet” and the melancholic symphony No. 7 are included in all lists of world masterpieces.

Childhood and youth

Sergei was born in the Donetsk region, in the village of Sontsovka, which is now called the village of Krasnoye. Prokofiev's father was a scientist, engaged in agronomy, so the family belonged to the intelligentsia. The mother was involved in raising her son, and since the woman learned to play the piano well in childhood, she began to teach the child to music and the instrument.

Seryozha first sat down at the piano at the age of 5, and a few months later he wrote his first plays. His mother wrote down all his works in a special notebook, thanks to which these children's works were preserved for posterity. By the age of 10, Prokofiev already had a lot of works in his arsenal, including two operas.

It was clear to everyone around him that such musical talent needed to be developed, and one of the famous Russian teachers, Reinhold Gliere, was hired for the boy. At the age of 13, Sergei left for St. Petersburg and entered the capital's conservatory. Moreover, the gifted young man graduated from it in three directions at once: as a composer, pianist and organist.

When a revolution occurred in the country, Prokofiev decides that staying in Russia is pointless. He leaves for Japan, and from there seeks permission to move to the United States. While still in St. Petersburg, Sergei Sergeevich began performing as a pianist and performed only his own works at concerts.

He did the same in America, later toured Europe, and had great success. But in 1936, the man returned to the Soviet Union and lived permanently in Moscow, except for two short-term tours in the late 30s.

Composer

Apart from his early works, that is, his children's works, from the very beginning of his composition Sergei Prokofiev proved himself to be an innovator of musical language. His harmonies were so dense with sounds that it did not always resonate well with the audience. For example, in 1916, when the Scythian Suite was performed for the first time in St. Petersburg, many listeners left the concert hall, as the music fell upon them like a natural force and aroused fear and horror in their souls.

Prokofiev achieved this effect through a combination of complex, often dissonant, polyphony. This effect is especially clearly heard in the operas “The Love for Three Oranges” and “The Fiery Angel”, as well as in the Second and Third Symphonies.

But gradually Sergei Sergeevich’s style became calmer, more moderate. He added romanticism to overt modernism and, as a result, composed the most famous works that are included in the world chronicle of classical music. Lighter and more melodic harmonies made it possible to recognize the ballet “Romeo and Juliet” and the opera “Betrothal in a Monastery” as masterpieces.

And the symphonic fairy tale “Peter and the Wolf,” written specifically for the Central Children’s Theater, and the waltz from the ballet “Cinderella” became the composer’s calling cards and are still, along with the Seventh Symphony, considered the pinnacle of his work.

It is impossible not to mention the music for the films “Alexander Nevsky” and “Ivan the Terrible”, with the help of which Prokofiev proved that he could write in other genres. It is interesting that for Western listeners and musicians it is Sergei Prokofiev’s compositions that are the embodiment of the Russian soul. His melodies were used from this perspective, for example, by a British rock musician and an American film director.

Personal life

When the composer was on tour in Europe, he met Carolina Codina, the daughter of Russian emigrants, in Spain. They got married, and soon two sons appeared in the family - Svyatoslav and Oleg. When Prokofiev returned to Moscow in 1936, his wife and children went with him.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Sergei Sergeevich sent his relatives to evacuate, and he lived separately from them. He never moved in with his wife again. The fact is that the composer met Maria Cecilia Mendelssohn, whom everyone called Mira. The girl studied at the Literary Institute and was 24 years younger than her lover.

Prokofiev filed for divorce, but Lina Kodina refused, realizing that for her, as someone born abroad, only marriage with a famous person was the saving grace during a period of mass arrests and repressions.

However, in 1947, the Soviet government considered Prokofiev’s first marriage unofficial and invalid, so the composer was able to marry again without any obstacles. And Lina, indeed, was arrested and exiled to Mordovian camps. After mass rehabilitation in 1956, the woman went to London, where she outlived her ex-husband by 30 years.

Sergei Prokofiev was a big fan of chess, and he did not play at the amateur level. The composer was a serious rival even for recognized grandmasters and even beat the future world champion, Cuban Jose Raul Capablanca.

Death

By the end of the 40s, the composer's health had weakened greatly. He almost never left his dacha near Moscow, where he observed a strict medical regime, but still continued to work - simultaneously writing a sonata, a ballet and a symphony. Sergei Prokofiev spent the winter in a Moscow communal apartment. It was there that he died on March 5, 1953 as a result of another hypertensive crisis.

Since the composer died on the same day as , all the country’s attention was focused on the death of the “leader,” and the composer’s death turned out to be virtually unnoticed and unreported by the press. Relatives even had to face difficulties in organizing a funeral, but as a result, Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev was laid to rest at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Works

• Opera "War and Peace"
• Opera "The Love for Three Oranges"
• Ballet "Romeo and Juliet"
• Ballet "Cinderella"
• Classical (First) Symphony
• Seventh Symphony
• Symphonic fairy tale for children “Peter and the Wolf”
• Plays "Fleetingness"
• Concerto No. 3 for piano and orchestra

Prokofiev Alexander Andreevich was born on November 19 (December 2), 1900 in the village of Kobona (now Leningrad region) in the family of a peasant fisherman and tiller.

He graduated from a rural school and from 1913 to 1917 studied at the St. Petersburg Teachers' Seminary.

In 1919 he joined the Red Army and the RCP (b). Graduated from the Petrograd Teachers' Institute of the Red Army (1920). In 1922-1930, he was an employee of the plenipotentiary mission of the Cheka-OGPU in the Leningrad Military District. From 1923 he studied at the literary studio of the Leningrad Proletkult. He began publishing in 1927. In 1931 he published his first book of poems.

During the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940) and the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Prokofiev was a military journalist, a member of the writing group at the political department of the Leningrad Front. In 1945-1948 and 1955-1965 he was the executive secretary of the Leningrad branch of the RSFSR SP.

Member of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU in 1956-1966. Delegate to the XX and XXII Congresses of the CPSU.

Memory

• Songs were written based on Prokofiev’s poems, among which the most famous are “Comrade” (music by O. B. Ivanov, his first song), which became the unofficial anthem of youth, and “Golden Taiga” (music by V. V. Pushkov) from the film of the same name.
• Composer Georgy Sviridov wrote the choral poem "Ladoga" based on Prokofiev's poems.
• In 2003, in honor of the celebration of the 1250th anniversary of Staraya Ladoga, St. Petersburg composer Vladislava Malakhovskaya wrote 3 choruses to poems by A. A. Prokofiev.
• A street in the north-west of St. Petersburg is named after A. A. Prokofiev.

Awards and prizes

• By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated December 1, 1970, for outstanding services in the development of Soviet literature, fruitful social activities and in connection with his seventieth birthday, Alexander Andreevich Prokofiev was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
• four Orders of Lenin.
• Order of the Patriotic War, II degree (1944).
• Order of the Red Star.
• Order of the Badge of Honor.
• badge “Honorary employee of the Cheka-GPU (V)”.
• Stalin Prize of the second degree (1946) - for the poem “Russia” and the poems: “We will not give it up!”, “For you, Leningrad!”, “Drinking”, “Oath” and others.
• Lenin Prize (1961) - for the collection of poems “Invitation to Travel” (1960).

Essays

• Noon, 1931
• Victory, 1932
• Road over the bridge, 1933
• Russia, 1944 (poem)
• Poems, 1947
• Poems from the Road, 1963
• Grapes, 1967
• Immortality, 1970.

Alexander Andreevich Prokofiev was born November 19 (December 2), 1900 in the village Kobon of the St. Petersburg province in the family of a Ladoga peasant fisherman. My father, having returned from active military service with the rank of non-commissioned officer, worked at a sawmill and fished.

Prokofiev entered the rural school in 1907, there he became addicted to reading; Prokofiev’s first poetic experiments date back to his school years. In 1913“Due to a big competition,” Prokofiev entered the Petrograd Teachers’ Seminary, which he failed to graduate from (he left the 4th grade) due to family circumstances: his father was drafted into the army, and Prokofiev, as the eldest in the family, became the rightful owner.

In 1918 Prokofiev and his father join the volost committee of Bolshevik sympathizers. A year later, Prokofiev, following party mobilization, went to the front to fight against the army of General Yudenich, which was stationed near Petrograd, and was captured, from where he managed to escape.

In 1920 Prokofiev graduated from the Red Army Teachers' Institute and became a political worker. From 1921 to 1922 works as a military censor. From 1922 to 1930- employee of the authorized representative of the Cheka-OGPU in the Leningrad Military District; January-April 1930- secretary of the editorial office of the newspaper “Peasant Truth on the Radio” at the Leningrad Radio Center; April-October 1930- Secretary of the Administration of the State People's House; December 1939 - March 1940- Correspondent of the newspaper “Heroic March” of the 9th Army. During the Great Patriotic War ( July 1941 - Aug. 1945) - military correspondent for the Political Directorate of the Leningrad, Volkhov and Polar Fronts. In 1945-48 and 1955-65- First Secretary of the Board of the Leningrad Writers' Organization.

In Prokofiev's youthful poems ( 1916 ) (not published during the poet’s lifetime) there is a motif of contrasting the city (“gloomy and boring”) with the village, which, according to the author, is ready to merge with the peasant land. Prokofiev's first publication took place July 13, 1919 in the local newspaper “Novoladozhskaya Kommuna” - the poems “On the Hero’s Grave”, in which one can already feel the poetic style of the future Prokofiev: the interaction of different lexical layers - high and colloquial; the brightness of colors, smells, unexpectedness of metaphors. From this time on, Prokofiev was a permanent author of the “Novoladoga Commune”, where D. Bedny, I. Sadofyev, V. Knyazev, Y. Berdnikov, N. Klyuev and others would subsequently publish.

Since 1922 Prokofiev lives in Petrograd. In 1923 year Prokofiev “found Proletkult”, where in the literary studio led by A.P. Kreisky, began to master poetic technique. From 1923 to 1927 Prokofiev almost never publishes his poems; he himself said this about this period: “I had no poetic culture at all. I believed that you could write poetry in one gulp, and maybe something would come out. I had no sense for words, rhythm, theme, or image. The words died in my poems, as they say, on the fly” (“About Myself”). Meanwhile, this was the time of Prokofiev’s active creative development. In the poems of those years, the influence of such dissimilar poets as A. Blok and S. Yesenin, D. Bedny and V. Mayakovsky is clearly noticeable. Generalizing their experience in his own way, Prokofiev comes to a unique synthesis of themes and motives that are associated in the reader’s consciousness with these names. Early Prokofiev seeks poetic means primarily to embody the image of his hero - yesterday's Red Army soldier, sailor, peasant boy leaving his homeland. At the same time, the poet depicts the difficulty of transition from village life to city life.

A special milestone in the poet’s creative biography was 1927 , when “Songs about Ladoga” (4 out of 6 written) were published in Komsomolskaya Pravda. “Songs about Ladoga,” as Prokofiev later noted, became for him the beginning of “joyful creative work.” The poet finally found what he was looking for - the theme of his native Ladoga village.

The Prokofievs’ acceptance of the revolution, confidence in the rightness of the cause defended with arms on the fronts of the Civil War and post-revolutionary reality were unconditional, furious and extremely merciless (“October”, 1930 ; “Two conversations with S.P. Bykov", 1930 and etc.). In Prokofiev's poems early 1930s there is no reflection, halftone.

Since the early 1930s Prokofiev's poetry develops mainly in two genre directions - lyrics and ballads (the boundaries of which in the poetry of those years, however, are very conditional). Prokofiev's lyrics, as a rule, developed the themes of his native Ladoga region; the poet boldly mastered folklore traditions. Prokofiev pays special attention to the beginning of the poem: a landscape-psychological sketch is most often broken by direct speech. Prokofiev’s vocabulary is filled with the most diverse layers of living language (“Petrels walked over the sea”, 1930 ; “Oh, what a ringing weather...” 1930 ; "Loneliness", 1932 ; “It’s quiet here. Take her and touch her..." 1933 and etc.). In his lyrics, Prokofiev strives for immediacy, a kind of cinematography. The plot, even in a ballad, plays a secondary role: all the author’s attention is directed to changing the psychological ranks - “personnel” (“The Death of Machine Gunner Evlampy Bachurin”, 1931 ; "Battle near Beloretsk" 1931 ; "Treason of Enborisov and Kayukov" 1931 ).

Collection of poems “The Road Across the Bridge” ( 1933 ), "Straight Poems" ( 1936 ) and others, including the general book “Poems” ( 1938 ), show the epic side of Prokofiev’s artistic talent (as is often observed with poets who emerged “from the earth,” starting from N. Klyuev and Yesenin to P. Vasiliev and Tvardovsky). However, Prokofiev’s epic, unlike his older contemporaries and peers, is more intuitive.

In the 1930s Prokofiev comes to songwriting. And although elements of lyrical songs and ditties accompanied all of his poetry, since the mid-1930s the poet has been intensively turning to this genre in its “pure form” (“Plyasovaya”, 1934 ; "Tony's Song" 1934 ; "Marching Song of Geologists" 1934 ; “If you live and love, all sorrows will melt away,” 1937 , and etc.). B 193 7 Prokofiev’s collection “Songs” is published. Composers V. Solovyov-Sedoy, D. Pritsker, Y. Levitan, E. Denisov, G. Sviridov, S. Prokofiev turned to Prokofiev’s work. One of Prokofiev’s “program” poems of the 1930s, “Comrade” ( 1930 ), set to music by O. Ivanov, became a popular song.

Release of the collection “In Defense of Lovers” ( 1939 ) marked a kind of culmination of what Prokofiev achieved in the pre-war decade. By this time, Prokofiev's poems had become stricter and more classical.

1939-1945 marked a new stage in the poet’s work. During the Soviet-Finnish War, Prokofiev created several dozen songs, ditties, lyric poems, poetic feuilletons, and captions for satirical drawings. During the Great Patriotic War, Prokofiev’s collection “For the Motherland” was published ( 1941 ), "Fire" ( 1942) , "Bram" ( 1942 ), "Attack" ( 1943 ), "Accordion" ( 1943 ), "Front-line poems" ( 1943 ) and others, imbued with faith in victory and hatred of the enemy; in them, Prokofiev refers to national continuity, the continuity of national history: “the thunder of Borodino”, “the light of the unfading Poltava”, “Izmail’s thunder” - “Song” ( 1942 ).

Post-war reality, however, without a hint of tragic contradictions, was reflected in Prokofiev’s collection “Zarechye” ( 1955, 1957 ), "Lyrics" ( 1956 ), "Confessions" ( 1957 ). Italian impressions (after a trip of a group of Soviet writers to this country) formed the basis of the cycle “Apple Tree over the Sea” ( 1958 ). In the second half of the 1950s, Prokofiev’s books for children were published: “On a Spring Day” ( 1956 ), “There was a cat walking” ( 1956 ), "Small titmouses" ( 1958 ), "Galya-Galinka" ( 1966 ). Prokofiev's children's poems are distinguished by simplicity of composition, soft intonations, humor and masterly use of folklore motifs: “Makar the Cat” ( 1938 ), "The Tale of How a Kitten Became a Cat" ( 1938 ), "A fairy tale for little ones about a mosquito" ( 1939 ), "Riddles-jokes" ( 1962 ), “More about the beetle” ( 1965 ).

A new takeoff of Prokofiev’s talent was the book “Invitation to Travel” ( 1960 ) (Lenin Prize - 1961 ).

In the poems of the last decade, included in the collections “Rainbow” ( 1966 ), "Predilections" ( 1967 ), "Grapes" ( 1967 ), “The Great Song of Russia” ( 1971 ) and "Links" ( 1972 ), published after the poet’s death, images of youth appear again. In a cycle of verse. "Years" ( 1966 ) A. Prokofiev again returns to his rhythm of the late 1920s - early 1930s. Prokofiev did not forget those who were once close to him. Thus, in the poem “Song” ( 1969 ) Prokofiev addresses P. Vasiliev, who died in 1937: “Then you went to the White Sea, / On a spring day you went, / After Yegorye. / White Sea - a roaring wind! / Not the only one there lost his head.” Shortly before his death, Prokofiev wrote a poem that became one of the most perfect in its tragic essence in his work: “But it was - / My hair curled into rings” ( 1970 ).

Alexander Andreevich Prokofiev (1900-1971) - Russian Soviet poet, Hero of Socialist Labor (1970).
Prokofiev Alexander Andreevich was born in 1900 into the family of a peasant - a fisherman and a tiller. He graduated from a rural school and from 1913 to 1917. studied for years at the St. Petersburg Teachers' Seminary. In 1919 he became a member of the RCP (b) and joined the Red Army and remained in it until 1930. He began publishing in 1927.
In 1931, Alexander Prokofiev published his first books of poems, “Noon” and “Street of Red Dawns,” in which the inhabitants of the Ladoga village and heroes of the civil war occupied the main place.
In the 30s, Prokofiev published collections of lyrical poems and songs: “Victory” (1932), “The Road Across the Bridge” (1933), “Vremennik” (1934), “Straight Poems” (1936), “In Defense of Lovers” (1939 ). Prokofiev's work has won general recognition.
During the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940) and the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Alexander Prokofiev was a military journalist, a member of the writing group at the political department of the Leningrad Front. Prokofiev actively worked in the army press, spoke to soldiers of the Leningrad, Volkhov and Northern fronts. He wrote propaganda poems, poetic feuilletons, songs, ditties. A notable phenomenon of Soviet poetry during the war years was the poem “Russia” (1944; Stalin Prize, 1946) - a story about the Shumov brothers, who voluntarily came from Siberia to defend Leningrad and formed the crew of a heavy mortar.
In 1945-1948 and 1955-1965. Alexander Prokofiev was the executive secretary of the Leningrad branch of the RSFSR SP. In the first post-war years, Prokofiev published a series of poems about the world, about the joy of the reviving earth (“Today there are flowers everywhere…”, “You are after my heart, Russian nature”, “Half and half with you, dear…”, etc.). A new stage in Prokofiev’s work begins with the book “Zarechye” (1955); In 1960, the collection “Invitation to Travel” was published, notable for its breadth of concept and content, clarity and depth of form. Impressions from numerous trips around the country and abroad are reflected in the books “The Apple Tree over the Sea” (1958), “Poems from the Road” (1963), “Under the Sun and Under the Showers” ​​(1964), etc.
The distinctive features of Prokofiev's poetry are closeness to the popular word, folklore, vivid imagery and emotionality, a penchant for jokes and irony, and loyalty to the “ordinary” hero. Prokofiev's multicolored, ringing and thundering poetry becomes more restrained over the years. From the “cheerful tongue-tiedness” of the first poems (“Tyrli-botyrli, blow you like a mountain”), the poet came to a more strict and laconic style of writing.
Songs were written based on Prokofiev’s poems, among which the most famous are “Comrade” (music by O. Ivanov, his first song), which became the unofficial anthem of youth, and “Golden Taiga” (music by V. Pushkov) from the film of the same name.
Alexander Prokofiev died in 1971. He was buried at the Bogoslovskoye Cemetery in Leningrad.