Prokofiev’s correspondence is enormous; it is inhabited by innumerable personalities. The multifaceted nature of inner-self of composer was revealed in his letters, which display a great diversity in style, to different people wherein he strove to balance between diplomacy and tendency to tyranny. People famous and unknown are present on the pages of Prokofiev’s correspondence. A new material gives new accents of different nature, varied perspectives in his letters: unknown information emerge, unwonted human characteristics are discovered, even new artistical principles and some creative aspects become known in unaccustomed ways.

Everyday life of the musician, his concert trips and many troubles which accompany such trips, are the central topic of many among the Prokofiev’s letters. Pro­kofiev’s correspondents in this compilation are director of the Russian Musical Edition where his works had been published―Gavriil Grigorievich Paichadze; outstanding painter made one of the most unusual Pro­kofiev’s portraits Yakov Naumovich Milkin; great pianist and conductor Alexander Il’ich Ziloti; famous harpist Ksenia Aleksandrovna Erdeli; Sergey Yakov­le­vich Efron―white army officer, NKVD agent; Lev Niko­lae­vich Tolstoy’s ex’daughter-in-law Sofia Nikolaevna; famous Soviet painter Piotr Petrovich Konchalovsky.

The main goal of this work is to highlight some previously unknown passages of Prokofiev’s life. Additionally, unpublished letters offer new information about the cultural and artistic processes in Europe, the USA and the USSR in the 1920s and early 1930s.