Aleksandr Andreyevich Prokofiev (russian: Алекса́ндр Андре́евич Проко́фьев; , Kobona –18 September 1971,

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

poet. Prokofyev is best recognized for the motifs of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, r ...

found in his works.

Biography

The son of a

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

fisherman A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recre ...

, Prokofiev was born in the

Lake Ladoga Lake Ladoga (; rus, Ла́дожское о́зеро, r=Ladozhskoye ozero, p=ˈladəʂskəjə ˈozʲɪrə or rus, Ла́дога, r=Ladoga, p=ˈladəɡə, fi, Laatokka arlier in Finnish ''Nevajärvi'' ; vep, Ladog, Ladoganjärv) is a fresh ...

village of Kobona in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

(now in northwestern

Leningrad Oblast Leningrad Oblast ( rus, Ленинградская область, Leningradskaya oblast’, lʲɪnʲɪnˈgratskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, , ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It was established on 1 August 1927, although it was not until 1 ...

) in 1900.Moore, Harry Thonrton, and Albert Parry. ''Twentieth-Century Russian Literature''. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press, 1971. , . P 117. Having graduated from a local school in 1913, spending the next four years as a teenage student of a teachers' academy in the Imperial capital of

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. Prokofiev joined

Bolshevik Party The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),; abbreviated in Russian as or also known by #Name, various other names during its history, was the founding and ruling party of the Soviet Union. The CPSU was the One-party state, sole governing ...

in 1919, during

Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...

, and came into the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

the same year, remaining in the Soviet Union's military ranks until 1930. He debuted with his first published poetry in 1927, producing his first book of poems in 1931. Prokofiev rejoined the Soviet Army as a war correspondent during the

Soviet-Finnish War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, in which he witnessed the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad (russian: links=no, translit=Blokada Leningrada, Блокада Ленинграда; german: links=no, Leningrader Blockade; ) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet Union, So ...

, subsequently becoming an influential figure of the Leningrad branch of the

Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers (russian: Союз писателей СССР, translit=Soyuz Sovetstikh Pisatelei) was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded ...

in the post-war period, heading the Leningrad Writers' Union in 1945-1948 and 1955-1965. Prokofiev's 1944 patriotic poem "Rossiya" (''"Россия"'') was recognized with the Stalin Prize of 1946. He was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1961, the

honorary title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

Hero of Socialist Labor The Hero of Socialist Labour (russian: links=no, Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It repre ...

in 1970, and was a recipient of the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...

four times. Prokofiev died in Leningrad in 1971 and was buried at the city's

Bogoslovskoe Cemetery Bogoslovskoe Cemetery (russian: Богословское кладбище) is a cemetery in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is located in the Kalininsky District of the city between and . The name comes from the church of John the Apostle, (russi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prokofiev, Aleksandr 1900 births 1971 deaths Members of the Central Auditing Commission of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Auditing Commission of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Bolsheviks Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Lenin Prize Russian male poets Soviet military personnel Soviet poets Soviet male writers 20th-century Russian male writers Recipients of the Stalin Prize Burials at Bogoslovskoe Cemetery Residents of the Benois House