Modest Chaikovskii

Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1850–1916) was a Russian dramatist, librettist and translator, the younger brother of the composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. Trained in law, he left government service for literature and wrote several plays for the Russian stage. He wrote the librettos for his brother's operas The Queen of Spades and Iolanta, as well as for works by Rachmaninoff and other composers, and translated Shakespeare's sonnets into Russian. After the composer's death he wrote a three-volume biography built around his brother's letters and diaries, and founded the Tchaikovsky house museum at Klin.