Tchaikovsky
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Modest Tchaikovsky

Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (Модест Ильич Чайковский) was the younger brother of the composer, with whom he was very close. Modest was born on 1/13 May 1850 at Alapaevsk (Viatka region), Russia,.the sixth son of Il'ia Tchaikosky and his wife Aleksandra (b. Assier), and twin brother to Anatolii Tchaikovsky.

Jurist, writer, dramatist, and translator. A graduate of the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg, he initially worked for the civil service, before bcoming first tutor (1876-82) and then guardian (1882-1892) to Nikolai Konradi. Modest also wrote several plays, and prepared the libretti for his brother's operas The Queen of Spades (1890) and Iolanta (1891), and for operas by Eduard Napravnik, Arsenii Koreshchenko, Anton Arenskii and Sergei Rakhmaninov. In 1878 Tchaikovsky dedicated his Twelve Pieces (moderate difficulty) for piano Op. 40 to his brother Modest.

After the composer's death, Modest Tchaikovsky helped to found the Tchaikovsky House-Museum at Klin (1895), where he became the director. His lasting legacy is the three-volume biography of his brother - The life of Petr Il'ich Tchaikovsky [Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского] (1900-02), which has subsequently been translated into many languages.

Modest Tchaikovsky died on 2/15 January 1916 in Moscow, Russia, and he is buried in the Dem'ianovo Cemetery, near Klin.