Concept

César Cui

Summary
César Antonovich Cui (; Cesarius Benjaminus Cui; 13 March 1918) was a Russian composer and music critic, member of the Belyayev circle and The Five – a group of composers combined by the idea of creating a specifically Russian type of music. As an officer of the Imperial Russian Army he rose to the rank of Engineer-General (equivalent to full General), taught fortifications in Russian military academies and wrote a number of monographs on the subject. Cesarius-Benjaminus Cui was born in Wilno, Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Vilnius, Lithuania) into a Roman Catholic family of French and Polish–Lithuanian descent, the youngest of five children. The original French spelling of his surname was "Queuille". His French father, Antoine (Anton Leonardovich) Cui, entered Russia with Napoleon's army; in 1812 he was injured during the battle near Smolensk and following the defeat he settled in Vilnius. He married a local noble woman Julia Gucewicz. Some sources indicate that her father was the Lithuanian architect Laurynas Gucevičius. The young César grew up learning French, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian. As a secondary school (gymnasium) student in Wilno, in 1850 he took music lessons with Stanisław Moniuszko. Later that year, before completing his gymnasium education, Cui was sent to Saint Petersburg to prepare to enter the Chief Engineering School, which he did the following year at age 16. In 1855 he graduated from the Academy, and following advanced studies at the Nikolaevsky Engineering Academy, now Military engineering-technical university, he began his military career in 1857 as an instructor in fortifications. His students over the decades included several members of the Imperial family, most notably Nicholas II. Cui eventually ended up teaching at three of the military academies in Saint Petersburg. Cui's study of fortifications gained from a frontline assignment during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 proved important to his career.
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