In 1890, Tchaikovsky received an order from the Directorate of the Imperial Theatres for a one-act opera and a two-act ballet for staging during one night. For the opera, the composer chose the plot of the drama by the Danish writer Henrik Hertz, which he liked, “The Daughter of the King René” (Iolanthe), and for the ballet – the renowned fairy tale by Ernst Theodor Hoffmann (1776-1822) “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” from the collection “The Serapion Brothers (1819-1821). The fairy tale was staged not in the original; hence the French retelling made by A. Dumas-father under the title “The Story of the Nutcracker”.

Tchaikovsky, according to the testimony of his brother Modest, first set out the plot of “The Nutcracker” according to the narration of Ivan Vsevolozhsky and only then began working together with the choreographer Marius Petipa (1818–1910), who made a detailed order plan and choreographic exposition. The illustrious master, who had been already serving in Russia for more than forty years and staged many performances, gave Tchaikovsky the most detailed advice on the nature of music.
The composer's work was interrupted in the spring of 1891, when Tchaikovsky went to the United States for the grand opening of Carnegie Hall. The composer even write music onboard the ship, but realizing that he would not have time before the deadline set by the Directorate, he sent a letter to Ivan Vsevolozhsky from Paris pleading the latter to postpone the premieres of “Iolanta” and “The Nutcracker” for the next season. Only after returning from the trip the work went more actively. During January and February, 1892, Tchaikovsky completed and orchestrated the music to the ballet. In March, in one of the symphony concerts of the Russian Musical Society, a suite from the ballet was performed under the baton of the composer. The success was raving: out of six numbers, five were repeated at the request of the public.
According to the script and detailed instructions from the gravely ill Petipa, the second choreographer of the Mariinsky Theater Lеv Ivanov (1834-1901) accomplished the production of “The Nutcracker”. Lev Ivanov, who graduated from the St. Petersburg Theater School in 1852, at that time was accomplish his career as a dancer and for seven years had been working as choreographer. In addition to several ballets, he staged the Polovtsian dances in “Prince Igor” by Borodin and dances in the Rimsky-Korsakov opera-ballet “Mlada”. Vera Krasovskaya wrote, “Ivanov’s dance attitude did not rely on the music by Tchaikovsky, but lived according to this music laws. <...> Ivanov, in some elements of his production, as if completely dissolving into music, from its innermost depths drew the calm, clean, even modest dance plastic”. “There is not a single rhythm in the music of “The Nutcracker”, not a single beat that would not be transformed into a dance,” Akim Volynsky noted. It was in music that the choreographer found the source of dance decisions. This was especially pronounced in the innovative, arranged for symphony orchestra, dance of Snowflakes.
Rehearsals of the ballet began in the late September, 1892. The premiere took place on December 18. The criticism was controversial – both positive and sharply negative. However, the ballet lasted in the repertoire of the Mariinsky Theater for more than thirty years. In 1923, the choreographer F. Lopukhov (1886-1973) restored the performance. In 1929, he created a new choreographic version of the ballet. In the original script, the ballet main female character was called Clara, but in the Soviet time, she was called Masha (Alexandre Dumas called her Marie).

Later, various choreographers staged ballet performances at various Soviet theatres.

Source: Belcanto.ru