Was the composer Mussorgsky really modest (one for classical music fans!)?
His Christian name was Modest, a name that is still sometimes given in Russia and Ukraine. The Ukrainian/Russian languages seem very old-fashioned to us in some ways. It is no longer common for English speakers to name their children things like Patience, Prudence, Charity and so forth, but I know numerous Slavic people whose names mean things like “moral glory” (Vyacheslav), Svyatoslav (glory of holiness) or Anastasia (Resurrection). The hope when giving such a name was that the possessor would live up to the meaning of the name, or at least be reminded of it.
