Aleksey Sofronov

Aleksey Ivanovich Sofronov
Alexey Sofronov in a photograph of the second half of the 19th century
Born1859
Died1925
Years activeServant, memorial museum curator
Spouse(s)Fyokla Sofronova, Ekaterina Sofronova

Alexey Ivanovich Sofronov (Russian: Алексей Иванович Софронов, 1859, Tiliktino,[1] Klin Uyezd, Moscow Governorate, Russian Empire – 1925, Klin, Moscow Governorate, USSR) was a servant and close friend of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky since 1871.

American researcher Roland John Wiley calls him the composer's “chief servant” and “household manager”.[2] According to some researchers, Sofronov was Tchaikovsky's constant lover.[Notes 1][3] After the death of his employer, a significant part of his estate went to Alexey Sofronov by will.[4] After the composer's death, he took part in the creation of the Tchaikovsky Memorial Museum in Klin.[5][2][6][7][8]

117 letters from the composer to Alexey Sofronov, written from 1875 to 1893, have been preserved.[5] 130 letters from Alexey Sofronov to Tchaikovsky, dated 1877–1893, are kept in the archive of the composer's Klin house-museum.[9][5] He is repeatedly mentioned in diary entries, letters, and memoirs of Tchaikovsky's friends and relatives as Alyosha and Lyonya.[5] Sofronov is a character in movies about the composer and fictional literary works about his life.[10] Alexey Sofronov became the main character in the book The House in Klin by Soviet local historian and biographer Vladimir Kholodkovsky, dedicated to the creation of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum.[11]

  1. ^ Kholodkovsky (1962, p. 13)
  2. ^ a b Wiley (2009, p. 498)
  3. ^ Sokolov (1994, pp. 24–25)
  4. ^ Vaidman (2018, p. 254)
  5. ^ a b c d Aleksey Sofronov. Tchaikovsky Research (27 April 2019). Дата обращения: 20 August 2019. Archive: 20 August 2019.
  6. ^ Белявский М. Т. Работа в музеях и с историческими памятниками при изучении истории СССР: (с древнейших времен до 1917 г.): учебное пособие для студентов вузов, обучающихся по специальности «История». — М.: Высшая школа, 1978. p. 180.
  7. ^ Davydov (1980, p. 15)
  8. ^ Государственный дом-музей П. И. Чайковского в Клину. Путеводитель. Составители К. Ю. Давыдова, С. С. Кутомина, И. Ю. Соколинская, М. В. Суторихина [The State House Museum of P. Tchaikovsky in Klin. Guidebook] (in Russian). М.: Музыка. 1974. p. 15.
  9. ^ Kholodkovsky (1962, p. 15)
  10. ^ Mitchell (2010, pp. 252–263)
  11. ^ Kholodkovsky (1962, pp. 1–341)


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