A well-educated child of privilege, Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857) became a fervent Russian nationalist. He was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition inside his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music. Glinka's compositions were an important influence on future Russian composers, notably the members of The Five, a circle of composers that included such greats as Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Borodin. These composers took Glinka's lead and produced a distinctively Russian kind of classical music. Glinka is well known for his operas Ruslan and Lyudmila and A Life for the Tsar.