The museum estate of Mussorgsky, a great Russian composer, is on the shore of Lake Zhizhetskoye at Naumovo. The estate is not far from Moscow-Pskov highway.
The Mussorgskys belonged to an ancient ducal family tracing its genealogy to the princes of Smolensk, the descendants of Rurik. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a descendant of Rurik in the 33rd generation.
The family name derives from Roman a Monastyryov. This Monastyryov bore the nickname "Musorga", and was the grandfather of the first Mussorgsky. The Chirikovs (on mother`s side) were famed for their ancestors-navigators and were related to field marshal М. I. Kutuzov.
The future composer first showed interest in music at age four. And two years later his mother who was a trained pianist began to give him piano lessons. The 12-year-old Mussorgsky wrote a piano piece titled «Porte-enseigne Polka».
Having graduated from the Cadet School Modest received a commission with the Preobrazhensky Re-giment. About that period he met Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Balakirev and Stasov. A group of com-posers called «The Mighty Handful» or «The Five» was formed. Mussorgsky had to work as a civil servants from the age of 24. М. P. Mussorgsky died in March 1881 and was buried at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.
Mussorgsky wrote an opera on the story of Boris Godunov by А. S. Pushkin, as well as the opera «Khovanshchina». These operas gained general acceptance. Mussorgsky was also the author of two op-eras based on the stories of Nikolai Gogol: «The Marriage» and «The Fair At Sorochyntsi». He also wrote such musical compositions as «Night on Bald Mountain», «Pictures at an Exhibition», «Songs and Dances of Death», «Sunless» and many other works.
At Naumovo, at the former estate of 19 century, which belonged to the grandfather of the composer I. I. Chirikov, there remained: a house with a mezzanine, an outhouse, a hothouse and a servants` hall. The mother of the composer, Y. I. Chirikova, was born and spent her childhood and youth at the estate. A mo-nument to the composer was installed on the site of the former estate of the Mussorgskys at Karevo.
