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crowd, a scene that forms the climax of Eisen-
stein's film. It is estimated that more than 2,000
people were killed at the Odessa steps. The crew
left Odessa on June 17, but once it became clear
that other ships were not joining in the mutiny,
they sailed toward the Romanian Black Sea port
of Constança and surrendered to the Romanian
authorities in exchange for safe refuge.
Ivan the Terrible
(1942-45). Amazingly prolific,
by the time of his death he had written over 100
compositions that included operas, ballets, sym-
phonies, separate concertos for piano, violin,
and cello, songs, music for plays, and film scores.
News of his death on March 5, 1953, was lost
among the outpouring of emotion that accom-
panied Joseph
STALIN
's death that same day.
Prokofiev, Sergei Sergeevich
(1891-1953)
pianist and composer
A brilliant pianist and prolific composer,
Prokofiev was born in Sontzovka, Ukraine. At
the age of 14 he entered the St. Petersburg Con-
servatory, where he remained until 1915, study-
ing under various gifted instructors, including
RIMSKY
-
KORSAKOV
and Glazunov. In his early
work, Prokofiev mastered a great variety of
styles as shown in the romanticism of the First
Piano Concerto (1912), the classicism of his First
Symphony (1918), and the barbaric dynamism
of his Scythian Suite (1916) and the colorful
opera
The Love for Three Oranges
(1921). Never-
theless his work wasn't always well received in
prerevolutionary Russia. While his First Piano
Concerto won him the Rubinstein Prize, the Sec-
ond (1913) was met with derision, and his for-
mer teacher Glazunov walked out of a 1915
performance. In 1918 he left Russia to under-
take a world tour, during which he appeared as
conductor and performer of his own works. The
tour resulted in a 15-year absence from Russia,
during which time he settled in Paris, working
under the general direction of Igor
STRAVINSKY
.
Works from this period include the Second,
Third, and Fourth Symphonies (1925, 1929,
1930). Back in the USSR in 1933, he gravitated
toward more melodic works, although Soviet
critics would occasionally criticize his work for
excessive modernism. Among his more impor-
tant works from this period are the ballets
Romeo
and Juliet
(1938) and
Cinderella
(1945), the opera
War and Peace
(1942), based on
TOLSTOY
's work,
music for plays such as
Boris Godunov
(1936) and
Hamlet
(1938), and the film score for
EISENSTEIN
's
Przhevalsky, Nikolai Mikhailovich
(1839-1888)
explorer and geographer
Known for the discovery of the wild horse
named after him, Przhevalskii was born near
Smolensk to a poor gentry family of Polish back-
ground. After graduation from the Smolensk
gymnasium, he joined the Ryazan infantry regi-
ment and later graduated with honors from the
Academy of the General Staff in St. Petersburg
in 1861. He remained an officer of the Russian
army throughout his later career as an explorer
and scholar, reaching the rank of major general.
Przhevalsky's reputation is based on five great
expeditions, inspired and organized by his men-
tor Petr
SEMENOV TIAN
-
SHANSKY
: one to the
recently annexed Ussuri area in the Russian Far
East (1867-69) and four to Mongolia, Sinkiang
(Xinjiang), and Tibet (1870-85). In one expedi-
tion alone (1871-73)—the basis of his book
Mongolia and the Land of the Tunguts
(1875-76)—
Przhevalsky covered 11,000 kilometers. Przhe-
valsky was elected an honorary member of the
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
in 1878. In addition to his
book on Mongolia, he published
The Third Jour-
ney in Central Asia
(1883),
The Fourth Journey in
Central Asia
(1888), and
Passages and Metereologi-
cal Diaries.
In 1888, as he was preparing for his
fifth journey to Central Asia, he moved across
SAMARKAND
and into Sinkiang, and caught cold
while hunting and died on October 26, in the
town of Karakol, later named Przhevalskii after
his death. Przhevalsky's contributions to schol-
arship in the fields of orography, climatology,
botany, and zoology are substantial. In over nine
years in Central Asia, he covered more than
30,000 kilometers and charted a vast area from
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