Background
Modest Ilyich was born on March 13, 1850 in Alapayevsk, Permanent Governorate, the younger brother of the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and twin brother of Anatoly Ilyich Tchaikovsky..
1916
Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Imperial School of Jurisprudence. The modern view of the school building
librettist playwright translator theatre critic
Modest Ilyich was born on March 13, 1850 in Alapayevsk, Permanent Governorate, the younger brother of the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and twin brother of Anatoly Ilyich Tchaikovsky..
Modest Ilyich graduated from the Imperial School of Jurisprudence with a degree in law. He chose to dedicate his entire life to literature and music
Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky began his literary career in 1874 as a music and theater critic. In 1876, he became the tutor to a deaf-mute boy Nikolai ("Kolya") Hermanovich Konradi (1868-1922) and, using a special teaching method, helped him to talk, write, and read.
Modest Ilyich chose to dedicate his entire life to literature and music. He wrote plays, translated sonnets by Shakespeare into Russian, and wrote librettos for operas by his brother Pyotr, as well as for other composers such as Eduard Nápravník, Arseny Koreshchenko, Anton Arensky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Being the nearest friend of his brother, he became his first biographer, and also the founder of the Tchaikovsky Museum in Klin.
In his still unpublished Autobiography, broadly quoted by Alexander Poznansky, Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky mentions his homosexuality, as well as his brother Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's homosexuality.