The The The The Oh, well, it's not. Welcome to Russian History Retold, episode 151, Piotr Tchaikovsky and the 1812 Overture. The piece of music that started off today's

podcast was by Tchaikovsky and it's from his Nutcracker Suite Act 1

number 4 the Russian Dance.

So last time, we debated the importance of the Mongol invasion.

Today we begin a series on the culture of Russia, with the life of Piotr Chikovsky and his monumental piece of work, the 1812 Overture.

Born on May 7, 1840 to Ilia Petrovich Tchaikovsky and Alexandra Andrea Andrievna de Aceh.

She was the second of his father's three wives. He had four brothers, Nikolai Eppolite, and twins

Anatoli and Modeste, did one sister, Alexandra, and a half-sister,adia, from his father's first marriage.

The family was considered to be of lesser nobility,

but for the early years of his life, Piedr lived quite comfortably.

His parents even hired a governess named Fanny

Durbach, a 22-year-old French woman who taught the young boy both French

and German, which he mastered by the age of six.

He also began taking piano lessons at the age of five

and could read music as well or better than his teachers by the age of eight.

When he was ten, his parents decided that despite his obvious gift of music, he needed a practical education and sent him to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in St. Petersburg.

Since he was only 10, and the school had a of jurisprudence in St. Petersburg.

Since he was only 10 and the school had a minimum age of entry of 12, he was put into the preparatory

school.

Now this must have been extremely hard on the young boy as he was being sent away from his family some 800 miles from home.

It was to have a profound effect on his psyche, especially with the death of his mother in 1854 when he was a mere 14 years of age.

His mother's passing from cholera was, according to Tchaikovsky, the most traumatic day of his life, one that would haunt him forever.

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