Strange Case of Mikhailo/Mihal/Mikhail Chaikovsky: A Great Adventurer, or an Emblem of Misguided Political Aspirations.
Great Russian composer, Pyotr Chaikovsky, had a famous namesake. The guy was born in 1804, on the territory of the Russian Empire, which by the end of the XVIII century spread into what used to be, and would become again, Poland. He came from an aristocratic family with ancestors belonging both to Polish and Cossack nobility. His uncle -- similar to many Poles -- joined Napoleon when the latter invaded Russia. The dream of Polish-Cossack Unity against Russia had nourished Mikhailo and his family for quite some time, so after studying at Warsaw University, he joined the Polish rebellion of 1830.
Well, even though Poles had a rather strong army, nothing came out of it -- due to the internal divisions according to Chaikovsky -- so the rebellion was crushed and Mikhailo found himself in Paris. Where he socialized with famous Polish emigres who continue to dream of overthrowing Russian rule.
Chaikovsky began to write and produced a fair amount of very early historical novels all glorifying the freedom loving Cossacks. But he was more than a dreamer or writer. He was a warrior, so even though he married some French woman who bore him four children, he left her behind and went to Istanbul, where he began to organize military regiments of Cossacks and Poles to fight against Russians. He also falls in love with some beautiful Polish emigre who was living in Istanbul, and to simplify his marriage to her, he converts to Islam -- which automatically annuls his marriage to a French wife.
He became an important person at Ottoman court, friendly with the top leadership, and organizing everything from Cossack regiments which contained everyone from Poles to Hungarians, Russians, Bulgarians and all others not happy with Russian rule, to political uprisings in Serbia and Montenegro. He fights against Russians during the Crimean war, and goes on and on, climbing the ladder of the Ottoman Empire and participating in a plot against the pasha whom he didn't like. It was at Chaikovsky's house in Istanbul (then still called Constantinople) that Adam Mickiewicz died). Obviously, XIX century Constantinople was an equivalent of Ottoman Chicago or something.
He also manages to get his French children into Istanbul, one gets converted into Islam, and eventually becomes a governor of Lebanon. But slowly, he is getting more and more unhappy with the Ottoman Empire. He witnessed the crushing of Bulgarian rebellion, with rebels hanging on the trees along the roads. That reminds him of the Jews, whom Polish rebels hung on the trees during their 1830 rebellion, accusing the Jews for spying for Russia. So when his beautiful Polish wife dies, he falls in love with a nineteen year old Greek woman, converts to Orthodoxy in order to marry here, and asks forgiveness of the Russian tsar, Alexander II. Forgiveness is granted and Alexander II even serves as a godfather for the child that the nineteen year old Greek bore to the 65 year old Chaikovsky.
The couple are given some little estate in what is now Ukraine, but then, of course, trouble starts. A former adventurer is bored running his estate and writing memoirs, the Greek woman starts an affair with the estate supervisor, and the whole hell breaks loose. Eventually, the eighty two year old Chaikovsky runs into her bedroom and shoots himself dead. Before he died, he declared that he was sick and tired of everything.
What to make of it? A four seasons Netlix series for starters. Had Russian TV and mass media been run by people who actually care about culture, rather than corrupt bastards who think that putting their cute girlfriends on TV is equivalent to promoting Russia's cultural interests, they would have done this series a long time ago. But don't bet on it. It would be either Brits or Turks.
But who cares about TV series after all? Here is something more emblematic. All these dreamers of independence will go to some crazy lengths to resist Russia, only to join Poles, who hang Jews on the trees, or Turks, who hang Bulgarians, or French, who sell you down the river when the interests of their empire require it. Eventually it occurs to these glorious renegades, that it is actually Russians who forgive and embrace them and reward them with estates. But it happens too late.
So the cycle of resistance to the Russian Empire, of joining what seems like the least of two evils, but proves by far the largest one, and ultimate disappointment and despair, continues.
