Antonina Milyukova

Antonina Milyukova (1849-1917) was the wife of Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Milyukova briefly attended the Moscow Conservatory before being forced to abandon her studies, probably as the result of financial troubles. In 1877, she appears to have fallen in love with Tchaikovsky, not realising that he was homosexual. Tchaikovsky seems to have agreed to a marriage, that same year, in order to please his father and described Milyukova as ... a woman with whom I am not the least in love.

The marriage was disastrous with separation following after only nine weeks, the couple never to meet again. Tchaikovsky insisted that no blame attached to Milyukova though he came to detest her and to describe her as the reptile. She spent the last 20 years of her life in an insane asylum where she died.

She was portrayed by actress Glenda Jackson in the film The Music Lovers.