TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)

Peter Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake, Nutcracker

Suite), was the first Russian composer to attain lasting popularity on the world stage.

His first love was a university classmate. His brother, Modest recorded this had been his “strongest, longest and purest love”.

As interest in his personal life grew with his career, Tchaikovsky sought to marry. He proposed to a Belgian soprano in 1868 but she refused to settle in Russia. In 1877 he married a former student, Antonina Miliukova, but fled the marriage within three months.

A photo from 1877 depicts him arm in arm with Iosif Kotek, another former student, and one of only two witnesses to the marriage. A year earlier, Peter had told Modest, “When [Iosif] caresses me with his hand, when he lies with his head inclined on my breast, and I run my hand through his hair and secretly kiss it... passion rages within me with such unimaginable strength.”

Yet he also wrote, “It would be unpleasant for me if this marvellous youth debased himself to copulation with an ageing and fat-bellied man.”

A year later Peter confided to brother Anatoly, “Only now... have I finally begun to understand that there is nothing more fruitless than not wanting to be that which I am by nature.”

Tchaikovsky’s sexuality was airbrushed out of history by the Soviets, and under Putin. Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky denies Tchaikovsky was gay.