Prokofiev , Lina , 1897-1989 , soprano , wife of Serge Prokofiev

Lina Prokofiev began life as Carolina Codina, born in Madrid on 21 October 1897. Her maternal Polish grandfather had held an important government post in Russia and spoke both Russian and Polish fluently. Lina herself became an adept linguist and so was at ease in cosmopolitan circles. Both her parents were singers, and Lina was trained by her mother to pursue the same career. When Lina was still a girl, her father brought the family from Spain to Cuba, and then to New York. Lina first met Serge Prokofiev in December 1918 following his New York symphonic concert debut at Carnegie Hall. Married in Bavaria in October 1923, they soon moved to Paris which became their main residence until the spring of 1936, when Prokofiev moved his family to Moscow. Lina's existence became particularly precarious when Prokofiev left her during the war in 1941, when he was evacuated from Moscow along with numerous artists, including Mira Mendelson, a young writer who would become his second wife in 1948. The Soviet authorities regarded their separation with a suspicion which was all the more heightened by her regular contacts with Western diplomats following World War Two. Early in 1948 she was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in labour camps. She was released in 1956 following the general amnesty after Stalin's death, though she was unable to leave the Soviet Union until 1974, when she returned to Paris. During her last years she devoted her considerable energy to promoting her husband's work.