Before the 1830's Russia didn't have a defined music style. The main things performed in their opera houses and symphony halls were imported from Italy, Germany, and France. With the Russian Nationalist movement underway one man put russian music on the map. Mikhail Glinka is considered the father of Russian Classical Music. He is most famous for his first opera "A life for the Tzar". In his lifetime he formed the Russian Nationalist School along with four other composers, Cesar Cui, Aleksander Borodin, Mily Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky,and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. They were The Mighty Fistful, also know as The Russian Five. Their main objective was to use russian folk tunes and church chants to represent and portray the russian people as a nation. Glinka, although not a composer of vast works, brought russian music up to the level of european music so that it was just as enjoyable to listen to, if not more, for the russian people. It gave them a sense of national pride that other parts of the Nationalist Movement couldn't do.
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