Editing Sergei Prokofiev (section)

=== Postwar ===
Prokofiev had time to write his postwar [[Symphony No. 6 (Prokofiev)|Sixth Symphony]] and his [[Piano Sonata No. 9 (Prokofiev)|Ninth Piano Sonata]] (for [[Sviatoslav Richter]]) before the so-called "[[Zhdanov Doctrine]]". On the day before the decree was published, 10 February 1948, Prokofiev was at a ceremony in the Kremlin to mark his elevation to the status of People's Artist of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|RSFSR]].{{sfn|Morrison|2009|p=296}}

The decree followed a three-day conference of more than 70 composers, musicians and music lecturers convened on 10 January, presided over by Zhdanov. Prokofiev was berated by a minor composer, [[Viktor Bely]], who accused him of "innovation for innovation's sake" and "artistic snobbishness", but unlike [[Dmitri Shostakovich]], [[Aram Khachaturian]] and others, Prokofiev gave no speech.<ref name="McSmith">{{cite book |last1=McSmith |title=Fear and the Muse |pages=273–74}}</ref> His silence set off rumors that he had been deliberately defiant and uncooperative. There is no official record, but according to a variety of witnesses, Prokofiev did not attend on the first day, and had to be fetched, arriving on day two wearing a brown suit and baggy-kneed trousers tucked into his felt boots.{{sfn|Morrison|2009|p=461}} [[Ilya Ehrenburg]], who was not in the hall, claimed in his memoirs that Prokofiev fell asleep, woke up suddenly and loudly asked who Zhdanov was.<ref name="McSmith" /> The cellist [[Mstislav Rostropovich]] heard that Prokofiev was chatting to the person next to him when a senior figure sitting nearby warned him to be quiet. Prokofiev asked: "Who are you?" The official said that his name did not matter, but that Prokofiev had better pay attention to him, to which Prokofiev retorted: "I never pay attention to comments from people who haven't been introduced to me." This possibly apocryphal story was corroborated by the head of the composers' union, [[Tikhon Khrennikov]], who said that the person Prokofiev snubbed was the Stalinist official [[Matvei Shkiryatov]].{{sfn|Morrison|2009|p=299}}

[[File:Prokofiev and Mendelson Zhdanov campaign 1948.jpg|thumb|Sergei Prokofiev and his wife (front center) at the inauguration for the First All-Union Congress of Composers at the [[House of the Unions]]; 1 April 1948]]
The decree, published on 11 February, denounced six artists—Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, [[Vissarion Shebalin|Shebalin]], [[Gavriil Popov (composer)|Popov]], and [[Nikolai Myaskovsky|Myaskovsky]], in that order—for the crime of "formalism", described as a "renunciation of the basic principles of classical music" in favor of "muddled, nerve-racking" sounds that "turned music into cacophony".<ref>{{harvnb|Tomoff|2006|p=123}}</ref> Eight of Prokofiev's works were banned from performance: ''The Year 1941'', ''Ode to the End of the War'', ''Festive Poem'', ''Cantata for the Thirtieth Anniversary of October'', ''Ballad of an Unknown Boy'', the 1934 piano cycle ''Thoughts'', and Piano Sonatas Nos. 6 and 8.<ref name=Morrison314>{{harvnb|Morrison|2009|p=314}}</ref> Such was the perceived threat behind the banning of the works that even works that had avoided censure were no longer programmed.<ref>{{harvnb|Morrison|2013|p=[https://archive.org/details/lovewarsoflinapr0000morr/page/244/mode/2up 244]}}</ref> By August 1948, Prokofiev was in severe financial straits, his personal debt amounting to 180,000 rubles.<ref name=Morrison314 />

On 22 November 1947, Prokofiev filed a petition in court to begin divorce proceedings against his estranged wife. Five days later the court ruled that the marriage had no legal basis since it had taken place in [[Weimar Republic|Germany]], and had not been registered with Soviet officials, thus making it null and void. After a second judge upheld the verdict, he and his partner Mira wed on 13 January 1948.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/musdico/Prokofiev/169700|title = Serge Prokofiev|work=Dictionnaire de la musique|publisher=[[Éditions Larousse]]}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morrison|2009|p=306}}</ref> On 20 February 1948, Prokofiev's first wife Lina was arrested and charged with espionage for trying to send money to her mother in Spain. After nine months of interrogation,<ref>{{harvnb|Morrison|2013|p=[https://archive.org/details/lovewarsoflinapr0000morr/page/6/mode/2up 7]}}</ref> she was sentenced by a three-member Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR to 20 years of hard labor.<ref>{{harvnb|Morrison|2013|p=[https://archive.org/details/lovewarsoflinapr0000morr/page/254/mode/2up 254]}}</ref> She was released eight years later on 30 June 1956<ref>{{harvnb|Morrison|2009|p=310}}</ref> and in 1974 left the Soviet Union.<ref>{{harvnb|Morrison|2013|p=[https://archive.org/details/lovewarsoflinapr0000morr/page/288/mode/2up 289]}}</ref>

Prokofiev's latest opera projects, among them his desperate attempt to appease the cultural authorities, ''[[The Story of a Real Man]]'', were quickly cancelled by the [[Kirov Theatre]].<ref>{{harvnb|Morrison|2009|p=293}}</ref> The snub, in combination with his declining health, caused Prokofiev to progressively withdraw from public life and from various activities, even chess, and increasingly devote himself to his own work.<ref>{{harvnb|Nestyev|1961|pp=408–09}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Jaffé|1998|pp=205–06}}</ref> After he had a [[stroke]] on 7 July 1949, his doctors ordered him to limit his composing to an hour a day.<ref>{{harvnb|Nestyev|1961|p=409}}</ref>{{sfn|Morrison|2009|p=357}}

In spring 1949, Prokofiev wrote his [[Cello Sonata (Prokofiev)|Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 119]], for the 22-year-old [[Mstislav Rostropovich]], who gave the first performance in 1950, with Sviatoslav Richter.<ref>{{harvnb|Nestyev|1961|pp=412–13}}</ref> For Rostropovich, Prokofiev also extensively recomposed his Cello Concerto, transforming it into a [[Symphony-Concerto (Prokofiev)|Symphony-Concerto]], a landmark in the cello and orchestra repertory today.<ref>{{harvnb|Nestyev|1961|pp=426–29}}</ref> The last public performance he attended, on 11 October 1952, was the première of the [[Symphony No. 7 (Prokofiev)|Seventh Symphony]], his last completed work.<ref>{{harvnb|Nestyev|1961|p=430}}</ref> The symphony was written for the Children's Radio Division.<ref>{{harvnb|Nestyev|1961|p=429}}</ref>