Within months of its release, Stalin entered into a pact with Hitler, and "Alexander Nevsky" was promptly pulled from distribution. Eisenstein returned to teaching, and was assigned to direct Richard Wagner's "Die Walküre" at the Bolshoi Theatre. After the outbreak of war with Germany in 1941, "Alexander Nevsky" was re-released with a wide distribution and earned international success. With the war approaching Moscow, Eisenstein was one of many filmmakers evacuated to Alma-Ata, where he first considered the idea of making a film about Tsar Ivan IV. Eisenstein corresponded with Prokofiev from Alma-Ata, and was joined by him there in 1942. Prokofiev composed the score for Eisenstein's film "Ivan the Terrible" and Eisenstein reciprocated by designing sets for an operatic rendition of "War and Peace" that Prokofiev was developing.