Why are claims that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died by suicide not supported by documentary evidence?

Claims that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died by suicide are not supported by documentary evidence. While rumors regarding his death circulated among his contemporaries and were later revived by some 20th-century biographers, these allegations remain speculative.12

Following his death on November 6, 1893, his family officially attributed the cause to cholera, which was then epidemic in St. Petersburg. Although some friends and observers were skeptical—citing the disease's rarity among the upper classes and the fact that an open-casket ceremony was permitted—these doubts do not constitute proof of suicide.13

Furthermore, attempts to link his death to his final composition, the Pathétique symphony, as a form of "aural suicide note" are contradicted by historical facts. Tchaikovsky began working on the symphony nearly a year before his death, and his correspondence confirms that he had planned its somber, fading conclusion long before the personal crises that allegedly prompted the suicide rumors. Ultimately, the medical diagnosis of cholera remains the documented cause of his passing.312