9. Sergei Prokofiev
This great Russian artist, composer of Peter and the Wolf and The Dance of Knights, has also contributed in the Russian cinema industry, and in a majestic way. In the 1920s and 1930s, Soviet productions were mostly epic and patriotic. The leading director of the genre was Sergei M. Eisenstein, with whom Prokofiev worked on the movie Alexander Nevsky. Both were persecuted and threatened by Stalin and the Communist Party, which drove them to work together and create the movie Ivan the Terrible, satire of the Russian dictator. Ironically, on March 5th, 1953, Sergei Prokofiev died at the exact same hour as Stalin.
Here is the piece “The Battle on the Ice”, from Alexander Nevsky.