What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 5 September 2022.

Čajkovského was built in 1885.

Known as Tomkova until 1952, after Václav Vladivoj Tomek (1818-1905), a historian, conservative politician and archivist, best known for his twelve-volume Dějepis města Prahy (History of the City of Prague).

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93), meanwhile, as composer of Swan Lake, the Nutcracker and the 1812 Overture, probably needs little introduction. So let’s focus on his links to this part of the world.

In early 1888, the Umělecká beseda invited Tchaikovsky to Prague, where he conducted his own compositions at the Rudolfinum and the National Theatre. During the trip, he struck up a friendship with Antonín Dvořák.

Tchaikovsky made a second visit to Prague in the same year, with Dvořák performing a tour of Russia in 1890.

Tchaikovsky’s final visit to Prague was in October 1892, for a performance of his opera, The Queen of Spades. Dvořák, by this time, was living in New York; Tchaikovsky would die, officially of cholera, a year later, aged only 53.

It is generally agreed that Tchaikovsky was homosexual. The Soviet and Russian governments have persisted in censoring those parts of his correspondence which refer to this.

In 2013, Vladimir Medinsky, then Russian Minister of Culture, denied that this was the case, while P***n played the ‘yeah, that’s gross, but he was really talented, so it’s kinda OK to exploit him for culture purposes’ card (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/18/tchaikovsky-not-gay-russian-minister).

Imagine thinking your compatriots wouldn’t accept your sexuality even 120 years after your death (but would still gladly use you as a national treasure).

I have mixed feelings about having just written three tweets about the private life of someone who wasn’t ‘out’, but my point is this: fuck homophobia and anyone who’s cool with it, seriously.