Tchaikovsky
www.tchaikovsky-research.net

Ivan Alopeus

Russian military officer and educator (b. 1824; d. 1919), born Ivan Samoilovich Alopeus (Иван Самойловнч Алопеус, Ivan Samoilovič Alopeus).

A former artillery captain, Alopeus was a teacher (from 1852), inspector of pupils (from 1855), and eventually (from 1877) director of the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg. He was Tchaikovsky's class tutor in 1855, and had a reputation for being among the kindest and gentlest of the masters.

It is known that Tchaikovsky continued to correspond with his old master for many years after he finished his studies, but his letters have not been preserved. In 1885 Alopeus commissioned the Jurisprudence March and Jurists' Song from Tchaikovsky, to be performed as part of the school's fiftieth anniversary celebrations.