The Mighty Five
The Romantic Period
Alphonse Mucha, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Emperor Alexander I, who had led Russia through the Napoleonic Wars, died in 1825 without any children. The throne passed to his younger brother, Nicholas I, who reigned for twenty years. Nicholas expanded the Russian Empire to its greatest extent and held a conservative outlook, seeking to avoid any sort of social reform, which he believed could be a catalyst for revolution. The end of his reign saw Russia's defeat in the Crimean War at the hands of the United Kingdom, France, Ottoman Empire, and the north Italian country Piedmont-Sardinia.
Nicholas died in 1855 and was succeeded by his son, Alexander II. The new emperor recognized the need for modernization and social reform. One of his main goals was the emancipation of the serfs. Although this met resistance from Russian nobility, Alexander prophetically warned them, "It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait until it begins to abolish by itself from below." In 1861, he passed a decree granting serfs full citizenship, including the right to own and manage their own property, for which Alexander became known as "the Tsar Liberator." He also signed reforms with the goal of industrializing the country, modernizing the military, and reforming the legal system.
During the reign of Alexander II, Russia had its first group of prominent composers, collectively known as "The Mighty Five," gain worldwide recognition. This group included César Cui (1835 - 1918), Alexander Borodin (1833 - 1887), Mily Balakirev (1837 - 1910), Modest Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881), and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908). Of this group, the latter two are the most well known.
Valentin Serov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
César Cui was born to a French father who had settled in Lithuania after invading Russia with Napoléon Bonaparte's Grande Armée. His primary career was as a Russian army general and military academy professor, where his students included the future Tsar Nicholas II. Music was mainly a hobby, and his writings as a music critic negatively affected the reception of his own music. His music was promoted in Europe by Franz Liszt, however, and received significant recognition.
From Georgia in the Caucasus, Aleksandr Borodin was like Cui not a musician by profession, but a chemist. In his spare time, he wrote a handful of symphonies, string quartets, and the opera Prince Igor. His music was popularized in Europe by (who else?) Franz Liszt.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was born into a noble family, began a military career, and was inspired to pursue music after meeting Mily Balakirev. Rimsky-Korsakov joined the faculty of Saint Petersburg Conservatory as a professor of composition in 1871, and two years later resigned his military commission to become Inspector of Naval Bands (a civilian position.) Rimsky-Korsakov's students at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory included Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev.
Ilya Repin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Similarly, Modest Mussorgsky was born into a noble family with boyar roots. He studied piano with his mother and moved to Saint Petersburg. Like Cui, he originally planned to join the military. However, his interest in music continued to grow, and after studying composition with Mily Balakirev, he became a prominent composer in his own right. He sought to develop an authentically Russian style of music, drawing on Russian history in operas like "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina." His famous suite "Pictures at an Exhibition," originally written for piano, was based on a series of paintings by Russian painter Viktor Hartmann, on display at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. However, the Mussorgsky family lost over half its estate with the emancipation of the serfs, and Modest was never able to make much money from composing, relying on low-paying or purely honorary, wageless government positions. He became an alcoholic (not uncommon among Russian men at the time), developed delerium, and died at the age of 42.
After several assassination attempts by revolutionaries, Emperor Alexander II grew more reactionary, and resisted further reforms. The revolutionaries would succeed in 1881 when Alexander II was killed by a bomb thrown by an assassin from a left-wing socialist group called "People's Will." Alexander II was succeeded by his son, Nicholas II.