The Museum Estate of P. I. Tchaikovsky displays a modern copy of P. I. Tchaikovsky’s birth certificate. The original document was issued to the composer’s parents only 6 years after his birth, in February 1846. The certificate was needed so that Pyotr could become a candidate to enter the Mining Institute in September of the same year.
The document reads: “By decree of His Imperial Majesty, this certificate from the Vyatka Spiritual Consistory is given stating that in the 1846 register of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Votkinsk Plant, Sarapul District under No. 187 is written: The son Pyotr of Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, a Mining chief, Lieutenant Colonel and Cavalier and his lawful wife Alexandra Andreyevna was born at the Kamsko-Votkinsk Plant on April 25 and baptized on May 5, 1840; the godparents were Kamsko-Votkinsk archpriest Vasily Blinov and the wife of police captain and collegiate secretary Alexey Valtsev, Nadezhda Timofeyevna. February 12, 1846. Archpriest Grigory Pinegin, chartophylax.”
There is a stamp with the state emblem — a double-headed eagle — and a price in the upper right corner of the document. Vasily Blinov and Nadezhda Valtseva were godparents. Blinov was a close friend of the composer’s family. The younger brother of Pyotr Ilyich, Modest, wrote: ’…our parents thought that Father Vasily Blinov was a great person, and I — a child — considered him a very handsome old man. He taught me … and Petya the Bible.’
Blinov was also fond of music, and the performances of the Annunciation Cathedral choir led by him were always highly appreciated by his contemporaries. Pyotr Tchaikovsky also enjoyed listening to him.
Researchers do not know much about Nadezhda Valtseva. There is evidence that she was a cousin of the composer’s father and descended “from the Posokhovs family”. In some family letters, it is written that Valtseva lived in Ilya Petrovich’s house, and the family treated her with great respect.
The document reads: “By decree of His Imperial Majesty, this certificate from the Vyatka Spiritual Consistory is given stating that in the 1846 register of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Votkinsk Plant, Sarapul District under No. 187 is written: The son Pyotr of Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, a Mining chief, Lieutenant Colonel and Cavalier and his lawful wife Alexandra Andreyevna was born at the Kamsko-Votkinsk Plant on April 25 and baptized on May 5, 1840; the godparents were Kamsko-Votkinsk archpriest Vasily Blinov and the wife of police captain and collegiate secretary Alexey Valtsev, Nadezhda Timofeyevna. February 12, 1846. Archpriest Grigory Pinegin, chartophylax.”
There is a stamp with the state emblem — a double-headed eagle — and a price in the upper right corner of the document. Vasily Blinov and Nadezhda Valtseva were godparents. Blinov was a close friend of the composer’s family. The younger brother of Pyotr Ilyich, Modest, wrote: ’…our parents thought that Father Vasily Blinov was a great person, and I — a child — considered him a very handsome old man. He taught me … and Petya the Bible.’
Blinov was also fond of music, and the performances of the Annunciation Cathedral choir led by him were always highly appreciated by his contemporaries. Pyotr Tchaikovsky also enjoyed listening to him.
Researchers do not know much about Nadezhda Valtseva. There is evidence that she was a cousin of the composer’s father and descended “from the Posokhovs family”. In some family letters, it is written that Valtseva lived in Ilya Petrovich’s house, and the family treated her with great respect.
