I have googled and yahooed till I am fed up - can anyone help with the following question. Name the three nationalities that Prokofiev possessed during his lifetime. Help really, really appreciated please.
Sorry this is a bit of a guess ...
He was born in Ukraine and Ukraine was briefly independent during his lifetime, so it might have been Ukrainian ... Russian ... Soviet.
Thanks to both. I am going for Ukraine, Russia but not sure about the Soviet bit - he wasn't a success in the USA but did have some success in France, so I might go for Soviet after all!!!
According to Chamber's Biographical Dictionary he was a Russian composer, born in the Ukraine in 1891. He went to America in 1918 and stayed there for 18 years, he returned to Russia in 1936 but it does not mention any changes of nationality. I would say that two of the three are Russian and American.
Ukraine was independent between 1917-1920. So I think that without going out of his way to change nationality he could have been Russian (Ukraine being part of the Russian Empire when he was born), Ukrainian, possibly Russian again and then Soviet from 1922 when the Soviet Union was formed.
I have just checked in the Oxford Dictionary of Music and this confirms that he was born Russian and left Russia for the USA in 1918. From 1920 he made his home in Paris and returned to Russia in 1933. it does not mention any changes of nationality. Sorry!
I reckon that he didn't change nationality by any act of his own, but that the changing circumstances of his birthplace meant that his nationality changed.