Mussorgsky and the Mighty Handful

In the center: Cui. Clockwise from top left: Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Balakirev. César Cui was an army officer and a military engineer; Modest Mussorgsky served as a civil servant in the Russian Ministry of Communications and Forestry Department; Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov was a naval officer; Alexander Borodin was a chemist and physician. He made significant contributions to organic chemistry and held a professorship in chemistry at the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. Only Mily Balakirev was primarily a musician (and the leader of the group) and did not have a substantial career outside of music.