Prokofiev Died on the Same Day as Stalin
Prokofiev died at the age of 61 on 5 March 1953, the same day as Joseph Stalin. He had lived near Red Square, and for three days the throngs gathered to mourn Stalin, making it impossible to hold Prokofiev’s funeral service at the headquarters of the Soviet Composers’ Union. Because the hearse was not allowed near Prokofiev’s house, his coffin had to be moved by hand through back streets in the opposite direction of the masses of people going to visit Stalin’s body. About 30 people attended the funeral, Shostakovich among them. Although they had not seemed to get along when they met, in the later years their interactions had become far more amicable, with Shostakovich writing to Prokofiev that “I wish you at least another hundred years to live and create. Listening to such works as your Seventh Symphony makes it much easier and more joyful to live.” Prokofiev is buried in Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery.
The leading Soviet musical periodical reported Prokofiev’s death as a brief item on page 116. (The first 115 pages were devoted to the death of Stalin.)
from Wikipedia