Key ideas from Tchaikovsky

• Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 in Russia's Ural region, where his father managed ironworks and the family employed servants including a French governess
• Despite training as a civil servant at age 12, Tchaikovsky's father encouraged him at 21 to pursue music, leading him to become one of Russia's first conservatory students in 1862
• Tchaikovsky's homosexuality was relatively open in 19th-century Russia - he visited gay brothels and cruised parks, with only one newspaper article in 1878 hinting at scandal
• His disastrous 1877 marriage to superfan Antonina Milyakova ended after the wedding night when he took sedatives and fled, later writing 'I find my wife absolutely repulsive'
• Tsar Alexander III gave Tchaikovsky the Order of St. Vladimir in 1884 plus a lifetime pension, valuing him as an authentically Russian composer despite similar nationalist movements across Europe
• Tchaikovsky died at age 52 on October 25, 1893, officially from cholera after drinking unboiled water, though conspiracy theories suggest suicide under pressure from schoolmates