Aleksey Sofronov

Aleksey Ivanovich Sofronov
Alexey Sofronov in a photograph of the second half of the 19th century
Born1859
Tiliktino, Klinsky Uyezd, Moscow Governorate, Russian Empire
Died1925
Klin, Moscow Governorate, Russia
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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