Peter and the Wolf is a composition by Sergei Prokofiev. It was written in 1936 after his return to Russia, then part of the Soviet Union. It is a children's story. Prokofiev got the idea from Natalya Sats, who led the Moscow State Musical Theater for Children. The idea was to introduce children to the different musical instruments in the orchestra. For this reason, each character in the story has a particular instrument and a musical theme: