National Academy of Music without Tchaikovsky: the name promotes Russia’s imperial policy

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Experts of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance determined that the name P. I. Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine contains symbols of Russian imperial policy. Further use of this name will be considered propaganda of this imperial policy.

This was reported at the Institute of National Remembrance.

The Institute conducted a study of the history and legal basis of the use of the Russian composer’s name in the name of the Music Academy.

The examination was carried out based on the Law of Ukraine “On Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Imperial Policy in Ukraine and Decolonization of Toponymy”. According to the results of the study, it was proved that Pyotr Tchaikovsky is a Russian composer by origin, creativity, language and national self-identification.

The members of the Expert Commission were: the doctor of historical sciences and the head of the archeography department of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Viktor Brehunenko, doctor of philological sciences and leading researcher of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Svyatoslav Verbych, Associate Professor of the Department of Ancient and Modern History of Ukraine Taras Shevchenko National University Oleksiy Sokyrko, doctor of historical sciences, head of the Department of History of Ukraine, Odesa University named after I. I. Mechnikov Olena Bachynska, literary critic and doctor of philological sciences Lesya Generalyukdoctor of historical sciences Andrii Grechylodoctor of historical sciences, professor of Kharkiv National University named after V. N. Karazin Serhii Naumovdoctor of historical sciences, academic secretary of the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Oleksandr Rublevdoctor of historical sciences Anatoly Skrypnyk.

How did the Academy get Tchaikovsky’s surname

As noted in the Institute of National Memory, the National Music Academy of Ukraine was named after P.I. Tchaikovsky as a result of Russia’s conquest of Ukraine, the destruction of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the creation of the Ukrainian SSR.

In the conclusions of the examination, it was noted that the Kyiv Conservatory (now the National Music Academy of Ukraine) appeared only 20 years after Tchaikovsky’s death, in 1913. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that the composer founded the academy.

“It is significant that in 1880 P.I. Tchaikovsky refused the invitation to lead the “musical affairs of the Kyiv branch”. In 1890, the composer attended a concert by students of the Kyiv Music School and received a commemorative silver wreath from the leadership of the Kyiv RMT; Tchaikovsky’s arrival was covered in a local newspaper, but the visit did not contribute to the promotion of the status of the music school“

Tchaikovsky’s name was assigned to the academy during the commemoration of the composer’s 100th anniversary on May 9, 1940. This decision was adopted by the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR.

A week before that, the name of P.I. Tchaikovsky was assigned to the Moscow Conservatory. As the experts emphasize in the expert opinion, in the case of the Moscow Conservatory, the decision had little historical basis, because Tchaikovsky taught in the first years of its activity. In the case of the Kyiv Conservatory, there was no such historical basis.

“It is obvious that the real motive of the leadership of the Ukrainian SSR had a political basis: the memorialization of a Russian composer in the name of a leading music educational institution was supposed to testify to both loyalty to Moscow and recognition of the primacy of Russian culture among the cultures of the Union republics“.

In 1995, the then President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, issued an order to reorganize the Kyiv State Conservatory into the National Music Academy of Ukraine. However, Tchaikovsky’s name remained.

Now leading cultural institutions and a number of musical events in Russia are named after the Russian composer:

• Moscow State Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky (since 1940);
• Tchaikovsky Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra (since 1993);
• Tchaikovsky Concert Hall of the Moscow Philharmonic;
• P. I. Tchaikovsky International Competition (held since 1958, every 4 years)

About Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Tchaikovsky was born in the Russian Empire and grew up in a predominantly Russian environment. By ethnic origin, he has Russian (both grandmothers are Russian), Ukrainian (paternal grandfather), French and German roots (maternal grandfather). In all his musical works, the composer relied on Russian sources. For example, for the music written on Shevchenko’s poem, he used Russian translations by L. May and I. Surikov. For the opera “Mazepa” he takes Pushkin’s poem “Poltava” as a basis.

“Thus, today P.I. Tchaikovsky is perhaps the most famous Russian composer in the world, and therefore a symbol of Russian culture and a cultural marker of the “Russian world”. In view of the historical retrospect and the reality of the armed aggression carried out by the aggressor state of the Russian Federation against Ukraine since 2014 with the aim of eliminating Ukrainian statehood and destroying the identity of the Ukrainian people, attempts to “Ukrainize” the Russian composer P. I. Tchaikovsky and his work suggest the perception of Ukrainian culture as secondary and dependent on Russian“, the researchers noted.

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