Peter and the Cathedral

Peter and the Cathedral

In 1839, a monument to Russia’s victory over Napoleon slowly began rising along the banks of the Moscow river. Funded by donations small and large, the massive Cathedral of Christ the Savior, over the five decades of its construction, evolved into a tangible symbol of Russian greatness.

One year later, in 1840, a boy named Peter (Pyotr) was born in the Russian town of Votkinsk. The son of a civil servant, he was sent off to be educated as a lawyer, to follow in his father’s footsteps. But, thankfully, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky gave up the secure life of a civil servant for his love of music.