The Presidential Library marking the 185th anniversary of Modest Mussorgsky

March 21, 2024 marks the 185th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born in 1839 in the village of Karevo, Pskov province. He lived on his parents' estate until he was 10 years old.

His mother began studying music with the future composer. At the age of 9, the boy was already giving musical concerts in his parents' house. When Mussorgsky was 10 years old, the family moved to St. Petersburg. Here the young musician began studying with the then famous teacher Anton Gerke.

At the age of 13, Mussorgsky entered the School of Guards Ensigns and Cavalry Junkers, but piano lessons with Gehrke continued. Having no idea about musical literacy, the young man decided to try his hand and wrote a small piano piece, which he dedicated to his fellow students.

Mussorgsky studied well at the cadet school. In 1856, Mussorgsky graduated from the School of Guards Ensigns and Cavalry Junkers and entered the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment.

At the end of the 1850s, the composer met musician Alexander Borodin, with whom he later became friends for many years. Borodin invited Mussorgsky to Miliya Balakirev’s circle. They were soon joined by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Cesar Cui. Together with art critic Vladimir Stasov, they organized a musical community, which was called the “Mighty Handful”. Andrei Lebedev in his monograph “Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov” (1944) writes that many contemporaries underestimated the composers of the “Mighty Handful”, not understanding their enormous importance for Russian culture. Stasov, on the contrary, ardently spoke out in their defence, explaining to the public the national character of the work of the new composers.

His passion for music led Mussorgsky to the idea of retiring in order to devote himself entirely to creativity.

In the spring of 1859, Mussorgsky turned 20 years old and retired. The composer's musical work lasted from 1858 to 1880. The composer worked in various genres: his creative heritage includes operas, orchestral plays, cycles of vocal and piano music, romances and songs, and choirs. Russian national traits found original and vivid expression in Mussorgsky's music. In his romances “Kalistrat”, “Voevoda”, “Eryomushka’s Lullaby” and other works, the village and the Russian people occupy an important place.

In January 1874, the opera “Boris Godunov” was staged for the first time. The Presidential Library's collections contain a unique document dated January 29, 1874. This is a copy of the Copyright Case for the opera “Khovanshchina” of 1874, which also included a letter from M. P. Mussorgsky about accepting the opera “Boris Godunov” for production.

According to the critic Karatygin, “the opera represents the most perfect pearl of Russian national creativity”. He calls Mussorgsky “a truly people’s man and a truly people’s artist”. 

After the production of Boris Godunov, the composer’s health deteriorated significantly over the next seven years. He died in March 1881 at the age of 42. Mussorgsky was buried in St. Petersburg at the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Larva. A musical phrase from “Boris Godunov” “May the descendants of the Orthodox of their native land know the past fate” is carved on the monument.