TCHAIKOVSKY

1862

LIFE: Having graduated as a civil servant, he becomes one of the first students at the new St Petersburg Conservatory, where he studies with composer Anton Rubinstein. TIMES: Moscow Yaroslavsky railway station opens. Serving cities to the east, it eventually will become the western terminus of the Trans-siberian Railway.

1877

LIFE: At a ceremony in Moscow, he marries a former Moscow Conservatory student, Antonina Milyukova. Within two months, they separate for good.

TIMES: Russia’s desire to recover territorial losses incurred during the Crimean War and re-establish itself on the Black Sea brings about the Russo-turkish War.

1840

LIFE: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (far left) is born on 7 May in the Russian town of Votkinsk. His father Ilya, an army engineer, and his mother Alexandra are both musically trained.

TIMES: The Russian Imperial army defeats Chechen rebel fighters at the Battle of the Valerik River in the Caucasus, an event later related in Lermontov’s poem Valerik.

1870

LIFE: At the suggestion of Balakirev, and under the composer’s close supervision, he composes the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet. TIMES: The Russian artist Ilya Repin travels to the Volga River to sketch the landscape and scenes from river life, a visit that leads to his famous Barge Haulers on the Volga.

1884

LIFE: Tsar Alexander III confers upon him the Order of St Vladimir (fourth class), which gives him the rights of hereditary nobility.

TIMES: Fourteen members of the Narodnaya Volya revolutionary group are put on trial in St Petersburg, accused of terrorist activities. Two are sentenced to death.

1893

LIFE: Nine days after conducting the premiere of his Sixth Symphony in St Petersburg, he dies aged 53, possibly from cholera due to drinking unboiled water. TIMES: Tolstoy publishes The Coffee House of Surat, a short story featuring a discussion about the path to religious salvation. The tale is altered due to Russian censorship.