Aleksey Nikolayevich Apukhtin (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Апу́хтин, IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ɐˈpuxtʲɪn] ⓘ; November 27 [O.S.

In 1852, aged only 11, he entered the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg, where he was a class mate of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who was his exact contemporary and became a lifelong friend.

It was only in the face of lack of funds that he made any attempt to publish his poems, giving many of them as gifts to his friends, from whom they were later retrieved for a posthumous collected edition.

[4][5] Like Tchaikovsky, Apukhtin was homosexual with a weakness for younger men, and often suffered the pain of unrequited love.

But unlike Tchaikovsky, who never publicly acknowledged his sexual interests in other men, Apukhtin lived openly with his male lovers.

[7] In 1892, Tchaikovsky issued a warning to his beloved nephew Vladimir "Bob" Davydov to be wary of Apukhtin's interest in him.

He was concerned that Apukhtin would seduce him, which was a source of jealousy as Davydov was also the subject of Tchaikovsky's unspoken sexual interest.

Grand Duke Konstantin suggested Tchaikovsky compose a requiem in honour of Apukhtin, set to Apukhtin's poem of the same name, but he declined, saying he had just completed his 6th Symphony, which was imbued with a mood similar to that in the poem, and he feared repeating himself so soon, but also because he had no desire to write any sort of Requiem.