Tchaikovsky
www.tchaikovsky-research.net

Natal'ia Alekseeva

Niece of the composer (b. 1876; d. 1970), born Natal'ia Ippolitovna Tchaikovskaia (Наталья Ипполитовна Чайковская, Natal'ia Ippolitovna Čajkovskaja, Natal'ya Ippolitovna Tchaikovskaya); known after her marriage as Natal'ia Ippolitovna Alekseeva (Наталья Ипполитовна Алексеева, Natal'ya Ippolitovna Alekseyeva).

Natal'ia was the only child of the composer's brother Ippolit Tchaikovsky and his wife Sofiia, and she was known to the composer as "Tata". She married Nikolai Ivanovich Alekseev (1868–1919), a guards officer, and they had three daughters—Mariana, Irina, and Kseniia (who was also known as Oksana).

After serving in the First World War, during which he was promoted to major-general in 1916, Natal'ia's husband Nikolai was demobilised in 1918 and returned to live with his family in Moscow. He joined an underground anti-Soviet organization, but was arrested by the Cheka (the Soviet secret police) in Petrograd and executed on 23 September 1919. He is reputedly buried in a common grave at the Kalitnikovskoe Cemetery in Moscow.

During the 1950s Natal'ia Alekseeva translated from French into Russian Fanny Dürbach's letters to Tchaikovsky and his brothers, and her translations have been used in a number of publications to this day [1]. She also wrote down her reminiscences of her famous uncle which have not yet been published in full; the manuscript is held in the archives of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum at Klin [2].  

Notes:

1. For example, in the Soviet compilation of letters written to Tchaikovsky by various foreign correspondents: Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты (1970), p. 127–134, which includes slightly abridged translations of seven letters from Fanny Dürbach to the composer, dating from 1892 to 1893; and, more recently, in Неизвестный Чайковский (2009), which includes complete Russian translations of all twelve of Fanny Dürbach's letters to the composer; one letter to Nikolai Tchaikovsky; and twelve letters to Modest Tchaikovsky, dating from 1894 to 1900 [back]
2. Cf. Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском (1980), p. 417, where a brief extract is cited [back]