Tchaikovsky
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Antonina Miliukova (1848–1917), with Tchaikovsky in 1877

Antonina Tchaikovskaia

Wife of the composer (b. 23 June/5 July 1848; d. 16 February/1 March 1917 at Udel'naia near Saint Petersburg), born Antonina Ivanovna Miliukova (Антонина Ивановна Милюкова, Antonina Ivanovna Miljukova, Antonina Ivanovna Milyukova); known after her marriage as Antonina Ivanovna Tchaikovskaia (Антонина Ивановна Чайковская, Antonina Ivanovna Čajkovskaja, Antonina Ivanovna Tchaikovskaya).

Antonina was the second daughter of Ivan Miliukov and his wife Ol'ga. On 6/18 July 1877 she married the composer Petr Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) at the Church of Saint George, Malaia Nikitskaia Street, Moscow. They separated in September 1877 but never divorced.

Between 1881 and 1884 she had three illegitimate children by Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Shlykov (d.1888), a lawyer with whom Antonina lived from May 1880 after she resigned herself to the fact that Tchaikovsky did not want to see her again. Antonina placed all three of these children in a foundling hospital in Moscow, from which they seem to have been sent to live with peasant families in the environs of the city (as was the practice with such state orphanages until the children reached a certain age, when they would be taken back to the city in order to receive an education that would allow them to fend for themselves in life). Sadly, all three of Antonina's children died during early childhood:

1. Mariia Aleksandrovna (b. 13/25 February 1881; d. 2/14 January 1882)
2. Petr Petrovich (b. 24 August/5 September 1882; d. 9/21 June 1890)
3. Antonina Petrovna (b. 24 October/5 November 1884; d. 8/20 March 1887)

Although this decision to give away her children to an orphanage might at first glance seem very cruel on her part, Antonina was acting on the following considerations: firstly, Shlykov was incapable of maintaining a young family since he suffered from chronic ill-health (which meant that Antonina had to devote most of her energies to nursing him, even though he seems to have treated her roughly); and, secondly, if she had tried to keep her children at home this would have meant that she would have had to register them as legitimate, that is under the surname of Tchaikovsky, since her marriage to the composer was never annulled. At the foundling hospital no surnames were asked for, and in this way Antonina wanted to save Tchaikovsky from this potential disgrace and burden on his finances. For even after the great injury that the separation forced on her in the autumn of 1877 entailed for her feelings and dignity, she did not cease to love the composer and in one of the several letters which she sent him over the following years (mostly via Petr Jurgenson's office in Moscow) she entreatied Tchaikovsky to adopt one of her children, providing details of how he might locate the child through the orphanage.

In 1896 Antonina was admitted to a mental hospital in Saint Petersburg, where she spent four years and was then released; in 1901 she was re-admitted there and was soon transferred to a mental asylum at Udel'naia near Saint Petersburg, where she spent her remaining years. She died on 16 February/1 March 1917, and was buried in Severnoe Cemetery, Saint Petersburg (the grave site has not survived).

Correspondence with Antonina Tchaikovskaia:

• 4 letters from Tchaikovsky to his wife Antonina have survived, dating from 1878 to 1890.

References:

• Valerii Sokolov, Антонина Чайковская: История забытой жизни [Antonina Tchaikovskaia: The Story of a Forgotten Life] (Moscow, 1994)