Timeline Russia to 1910
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History: http://www.history.ru/
REENIC: http://reenic.utexas.edu/reenic.html
Tourism: www.russia-travel.com
Travel: http://www.travel-petersburg.com
USLC: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/rutoc.html
WHA: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/63/index-d.html
Russia is about 2 times size of the US.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)
Russia in 2005 had 49 regions of ethnic Russians, 6 frontier
territories, 11 autonomous districts, the cities of Moscow and St.
Petersburg and 20 republics populated by ethnically distinct
minorities. The regional governors made up the upper house of
parliament, the Federation Council. It had veto power over the
Communist controlled State Duma. The regions included: Chechnya;
Dagestan; Ingushetia; Kabardino-Balkaria (north of Georgia); Kalmykia
(on the north shore of the Caspian Sea), Karachayevo-Cherkessia (north
of Abkhazia; North Ossetia; Primorye (a far east territory),
Yekaterinburg (in the Urals). Several mergers were pending.
(SFC, 9/24/97, p.A10)(SFC, 9/25/97, p.A11)(Econ,
9/3/05, p.45)
c250 Mil BP The worst mass
extinction in Earth’s history occurred about this time. 90% of life in
the oceans and 70% of land animals disappeared within a million years
due to a suspected asteroid impact. This was later called the
"Permian-Triassic Extinction" and "The Great Dying." Scientists later
suspected that an eruption of flood basalt in Russia, the Siberian
Traps, caused the massive extinction. [see 225 and 200 mil]
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/10/02, p.A6)
300000BC-250000BC In 1981 Russian
Archeologist Yuri Mochanov of the Yakutish Academy of Sciences
announced the discovery of human habitation in northern Siberia that
dated back to at least 30,000 years. More precise techniques later
measured the stone artifacts at the site to 250k-300k BC.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.A15)
2700-2200BCE In southern Russia a group of
Novotitarovskaya steppe nomads roamed the Caucasus.
(Arch, 9/00, p.12)
26000BC In Sungir, an open-air settlement northeast
of later-day Moscow, people were being buried with thousands of carved
ivory beads and little wheel-shaped bone ornaments.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.131)
c860CE Novgorod was founded about this time.
(AM, 11/00, p.32)
911CE Sep 2, Viking monarch Oleg
of Kiev, Russia, signed a treaty with the Byzantines.
(MC, 9/2/01)
late 930s Khazar baliqchi Pesakh defeated the Rus.
According to an anonymous letter written by a Khazarian Jew in the
940s, the Rus prince Oleg captured the Khazar-held city Tmutorokan one
night. Pesakh, a prominent Khazar baliqchi (governor), learned of
Oleg’s actions and conquered several Crimean cities belonging to the
Byzantines and also did away with many Rus. Oleg was badly
defeated, and was forced to surrender to Governor-General Pesakh.
This was a major Khazar victory over the Rus.
(TJOK, pages 191-192)
956-1015 Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev and the first
Christian grand prince of Russia (980-1015). He married the sister of
the Byzantine emperor and thus brought in Orthodox Christianity to
Russia.
(WUD, 1994, p.1598)(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A16)
965 Part of Khazaria was
conquered by the Kievan Rus prince Svyatoslav.
(TJOK, pp. 193-194)
988 Prince Vladimir of Kiev
accepted Byzantine Orthodoxy. This is the traditional date for the
beginning of Russian Christianity.
(DVD, Criterion, 1998)(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A14)
1005 Kazan, the capital of the
Russian province of Tatarstan, was founded on the Volga River. In 2005
the city celebrated a millennial anniversary.
(AP, 8/26/05)
1014 Oct 6, The Byzantine Emperor
Basil II (958-1025) earned the title "Slayer of Bulgars" after he
ordered the blinding of 15,000 Bulgarian troops. Basil II was godfather
to Russia’s Prince Vladimir.
(HN,
10/6/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_II)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.60)
1044-1050 The Cathedral of Saint Sophia was built in
Novgorod.
(AM, 11/00, p.34)
1136 The people of Novgorod
expelled their prince, assigned by Kiev, and transferred his power to
the local nobility and merchant class who formed a sort of city council
known as the vieche.
(AM, 11/00, p.32)
1147 Moscow was founded by Prince
Yuri Dolgoruky, a ruler of the northeastern Rus. He built the first
fortress, or kremlin, along the Moscow River.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A14)(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.27,28)
1162-1227 Genghis Khan was born in the Hentiyn Nuruu
mountains north of Ulan Bator. His given name was Temujin, "the
ironsmith." He seized control over 5 million square miles that covered
China, Iran, Iraq, Burma, Vietnam, and most of Korea and Russia. "In
Search of Genghis Khan" is a book by Tim Severin. He was succeeded by
his son Ogedai, who was succeeded by Guyuk. Ogedai ignored numerous
pleas from his brother Chaghatai to cut down on his drinking and died
of alcoholism as did Guyuk.
(SFC, 4/14/96, T-10)(WUD, 1994, p. 591)(WSJ,
1/11/99, p.R6)
1198 The Church of the
Transfiguration was built on Nereditsa Hill in Novgorod.
(AM, 11/00, p.34)
1220 May 30, Alexander
Nevski, Russian ruler (1252-63), was born.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1221 Nizhny Novgorod was founded.
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.12A)
1237-1238 Batu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan,
invaded Russia.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.28)
1237-1240 Mongols conquered Russian lands.
(DVD, Criterion, 1998)
1238 Feb 3, The Mongols took over
Vladimir, Russia.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1242 Apr 5, Russian troops
repelled an invasion attempt by Teutonic Knights. Alexander Nevsky of
Novgorod defeated Teutonic Knights
(HN, 4/5/99)(MC, 4/5/02)
1263 Nov 14, Alexander Nevski
(43), Russian ruler (1252-63), died.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1300-1400 In Russia the Danilov Monastery was built 3
miles south of the Kremlin by Prince Daniel, founder of Moscow’s 14th
century dynasty.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.36)
1300-1400 Vodka is believed to have originated in the
14th century in the grain-growing region that now embraces Poland,
Belarus, Ukraine, and western Russia. It also has a long tradition in
Scandinavia. The first written record of vodka in Poland dates from
1405 in the Sandomierz Court Registry.
(WSJ, 2/10/06,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka)
1328 Moscow became the seat of the
Russian Orthodox metropolitanate. Peter the Metropolitan moved from the
capital Vladimir to Moscow.
(DVD, Criterion, 1998)(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.37)
1370 Andrei Rublev, Russian icon
painter, was born about this time.
(DVD, Criterion, 1998)
1380 Sep 8, Prince Dmitrii of
Moscow defeated the Mongols at Kulikovo Field. This marked the
beginning of the decline of Mongol control over Russian lands.
(DVD, Criterion, 1998)
1395 The icon of Our Lady of
Vladimir was brought to Moscow and placed in the Kremlin’s Assumption
Cathedral for protection against the Mongol invaders under Tamerlane. A
monastery, know as Stretenskii, was built on the spot where the
Muscovites met the delegation from Vladimir.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.38)
1395 Tamerlane, a Turkic
conqueror, swept into Southern Russia and Georgia driving locals into
the hills.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A12)
1405 Andrei Rublev, Russian icon
painter, painted the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Gospel with
Theophan the Greek; this was the 1st work executed in the classical
Russian style, distinguished from the Byzantine by its great height and
width and organization of multiple, varied icons along axes.
(DVD, Criterion, 1998)
1407 Jan 21, Duke Vytautas led
Polish and German forces for a 2nd time against the Duchy of Moscow.
(LHC, 1/18/03)
1410 Andrei Rublev, Russian icon
painter, painted the icon “The Old Testament Trinity,” which showed
Abraham’s 3 angels. This is the only work known to be entirely his own.
(DVD, Criterion, 1998)
1425 Feb 27, Moscow's
Grand Duke Vasilii died and his brother-in-law, Vytautas, became
guardian of his son, Vasilii, and daughter, Sophia.
(LHC, 2/27/03)
1428-1430 Andrei Rublev, Russian icon painter, took
part in painting the frescoes of the Andronikov Monastery’s Church of
the Savior.
(DVD, Criterion, 1998)
1429 Two monks reportedly went
fishing in Russia’s northern Solovetsky Islands and soon established a
year-round settlement usually referred to as Solovki.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.83)
1430 Jan 29, Andrei Rublev,
Russian icon painter, died and was buried in the Andronikov Monastery.
In 1966 the Russian film “Andrei Rublev” was made by Andrei Tarkovsky.
(DVD, Criterion, 1998)
1440 Jan 22, Ivan III (the Great),
grand prince of Russia, czar from 1462-1505, was born. He conquered
Lithuania.
(HN, 1/22/99)(MC, 1/22/02)
1444 Cossacks were first mentioned
in Russian history.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A8)
1475 The Olavinlinna castle was
founded by the governor of Viipuri on the border between Sweden-Finland
and Russia.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.T4)
1475-1509 Italian architects invited by Ivan III
built the Kremlin Cathedrals of the Assumption and the Archangel.
(DVD, Criterion, 1998)
1479 Mar 26, Vasili III, great
prince of Moscow (1505-33), son of Ivan III, was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1493 Jan 4, Ivan III, Grand Duke
of Moscow, announced the 1st war with Lithuania. In fact the war had
begun in 1487.
(LHC, 1/4/03)
1493 After a major fire in Moscow,
Ivan III forbad the construction of wooden buildings in the old city.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.33)
1495 Feb 5, The 1st Lithuanian
Russian war ended with the signing of a peace treaty in Moscow.
(LHC, 2/5/03)
1495 Feb 15, Lithuanian Grand Duke
Alexander wed Duchess Elena of Moscow.
(LHC, 2/15/03)
1500-1600 The first Russian book printed was the 15th
century "Apostle."
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.C16)
1500-1600 The Kalmyk people, descendants from the
Golden Horde of Genghis Khan, settled in the lowlands between the Volga
and Don rivers with their livestock.
(SFC, 9/24/97, p.A12)
1501 Mar 1, Lithuania and
Livonia established a 10-year union for protection against Russia.
(LHC, 3/1/03)
1503 Mar 28, The 2nd Lithuanian
war with Russia (1500-1503) ended with a treaty. Lithuania lost a
fourth of its territory.
(LHC, 3/28/03)
1505 Oct 27, The Grand Duke of
Moscow, Ivan III (also known as "Ivan the Great"), died; he was
succeeded by his son, Vasily III (Basil III). Vasily's son, Ivan IV,
later became the first czar of Russia, "Ivan the Terrible."
(TL-MB, 1988, p.9)(AP, 10/27/05)
1511 Vasily III became the new
patriarch of Moscow.
(TL-MB, p.10)
1514 Vasily III, ruler of Moscow,
captured Smolensk from Poland.
(TL-MB, p.10)
1519 The Italian influenced
medieval church at the Moscow Monastery of Peter the Metropolitan was
constructed.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.38)
1530 Aug 25, Ivan IV (Ivan the
Terrible), 1st tsar of Russia (1533-84), was born.
(MC, 8/25/02)(http://www.ilstu.edu/~jmalli1/)
1533 Ivan IV (The Terrible),
succeeded to the Russian throne at the age of three. He ruled until
1544 under the regency of his mother and later of powerful nobles. His
hatchet man and head of the dreaded "Oprichniki" was Maliuta Skuratov.
Ivan IV created the Streltsy, Russia’s first permanent army. Ivan IV
later killed his 27-year-old son, Ivan, in a fit of rage over suspected
alliance with his enemies, the boyars, or nobles.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.14)(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.30,31)
1537 Mar 25, The 5th Lithuanian
war with Russia (1534-1537) ended with a peace treaty. It lasted until
the start of war with the Livonian Order (1562-1582).
(LHC, 3/25/03)
1542 Ivan the Terrible at age 12
entertained himself by dropping dogs from the higher battlements of the
Kremlin.
(SFC, 4/18/98, p.C3)
1547 Jan 16, Ivan IV, popularly
known as "Ivan the Terrible," crowned himself the new Czar of Russia in
Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. He was the first Russian ruler to
assume that title.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.17)(HN, 1/16/99)(AP, 1/16/08)
1547 Feb 3, Russian czar Ivan IV
(17) married Anastasia Romanova.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1547 Jun 21, There was a great
fire in Moscow.
(MC, 6/21/02)
1550s In Moscow Ivan the IV built
a stone church to commemorate the triumph of Orthodoxy over Roman
Catholicism, Islam and the Uniates, who sought to unite the Catholic
and Orthodox churches.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.36)
1552 Aug, Ivan IV of Russia began
his conquest of Kazan, Tatarstan, and Astrakhan in the Volga delta.
Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, fell to Ivan in September.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.56)(www.1000kzn.ru/razdel/en/227/)
1553 In London The Mysterie and
Compagnie of the Merchant Adventurers for the Discoverie of Regions,
Dominions, Islands and Places Unknown offered stock to finance a quest
for a passage to the riches of the East. The Muscovy Company venture
led to the death of explorer Sir Hugh Willoughby who died with the
crews of 2 ships in the Arctic ice. A 3rd ship reached the court of
Ivan the Terrible in Moscow and returned with a treaty giving England
freedom to trade there.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1553 Hugh Willoughby and Richard
Chancellor voyaged to Russia via Archangel seeking a north-east passage
to China. Willoughby discovered Novaya Zemlya and died on the Kola
Peninsula.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)
1557 Feb 27, 1st Russian Embassy
opened in London.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1560 Anika Stroganoff began
construction of the Annunciation Cathedral in Solvychegodsk. His
grandchildren completed it in 1584.
(WSJ, 9/7/00, p.A24)
1561 The Basilica of St. Basil in
Moscow, begun in 1555, was completed under the reign of Ivan the
Terrible to celebrate the conquest of the Khanate of Kazan.
(WSJ, 9/16/06,
p.P18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Basil's_Cathedral)
1563 Feb 15, Ivan IV led Russian
forces in the takeover of Polocka, defended under the leadership of
Stanislav Davaina.
(LHC, 2/15/03)
1564 Jan 26, A Lithuanian Army
under Radvila the Brown defeated a Russian force 5 times larger and
stopped its entry into Lithuania.
(LHC, 1/26/03)
1569 Dec 23, St. Philip,
metropolitan of Moscow, was martyred by Ivan the Terrible.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1570 Jan 2, Tsar Ivan the Terrible
began a march to Novgorod.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1570 Jan 9, Ivan the Terrible
killed 1000-2000 residents of Novgorod. Ivan the Terrible, Tsar of
Muscovy, sacked the city of Great Novgorod, massacring most of its
inhabitants during a five-week reign of terror.
(TL-MB, p.22)(MC, 1/9/02)
1577 Tsar Ivan the Terrible sent
an army to the Volga region with orders to kill as many Cossacks as
possible. Robbing bands of Cossacks, including a group under Yermak,
had seriously disrupted Russian commerce in the area.
(ON, 2/04, p.1)
1577 Cossacks under Yermak
migrated northeast and negotiated a deal with the Stroganoff brothers
to serve as "frontier guards" in the Ural Mountains.
(ON, 2/04, p.1)
1579 A 13th century Icon of the
Virgin Mary miraculously resurfaced in Kazan.
(http://www.soufanieh.com/eekazan)
1580 Jul, Some 540 Cossacks under
Yermak invaded the territory of the Vogels, subjects to Kutchum, the
Khan of Siberia. They were accompanied by 300 Lithuanian and German
slave laborers, whom the Stroganoffs had purchased from the Tsar.
(ON, 2/04, p.2)
1581 Oct 19, Dimitri Ivanovitch,
Russian son of Ivan IV "the Terrible," was born.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1581 Russia’s Tsar Ivan IV killed
his son in a dispute over his son’s bride.
(HC, 9/5/04)
1581 Stephen Bathory, King of
Poland, invaded Russia.
(TL-MB, p.23)
1581 Russia began the conquest of
Siberia. Cossacks under Yermak subdued Vogul towns and captured a tax
collector of Khan Kutchum.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(ON, 2/04, p.2)
1582 Jan 15, Russia ceded Livonia
and Estonia to Poland, and lost access to Baltic.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1582 May, Cossacks under Yermak
advanced on the capital of Sibir. A coalition of 6 Tatar princes
attacked them but lacked guns and were routed after several days of
battle.
(ON, 2/04, p.2)
1582 Jun 29, Tatar forces attacked
invading Cossacks on the Tobol River but Cossack gunfire again repelled
them.
(ON, 2/04, p.2)
1582 Aug 10, Russia ended its
25-year war with Poland. Russia and Poland concluded the Peace of
Jam-Zapolski under which Russia lost access to the Baltic and
surrendered Livonia and Estonia to Poland.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(HN, 8/10/98)
1582 Sep, Tatar forces that
included Voguls and Ostiaks gathered at Mount Chyuvash to defend
against invading Cossacks.
(ON, 2/04, p.2)
1582 Oct 1, Cossacks attempted to
storm the Tatar fort at Mount Chyuvash, but were held off.
(ON, 2/04, p.4
1582 Oct 23, Cossacks attempted to
storm the Tatar fort at Mount Chyuvash for a 4th time when the Tatars
counterattacked. Over a 100 Cossacks were killed but their gunfire
forced a Tatar retreat allowed the capture of 2 Tatar cannons.
(ON, 2/04, p.4)
1582 Nov, Tsar Ivan IV sent an
official letter to the Stroganoff brothers accusing them of provoking
the Voguls and Ostiaks by sending Yermak and his Cossacks into Siberia.
(ON, 2/04, p.5)
1583 Envoys of Yermak reached Tsar
Ivan IV and presented him with valuable bundles of furs from Siberia.
Ivan wrote a full pardon for Yermak and his men and promised to send
reinforcements and supplies to Siberia.
(ON, 2/04, p.5)
1584 Mar 18, Ivan IV (53), the
terrible, Russian tsar (1547-84), died. He was succeeded by his
weak-minded son, Fyodor I. Boris Godunov, Fyodor’s brother-in-law,
assumed general control. During his rule Ivan replaced the sale of beer
and mead with vodka at state-run taverns.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(MC, 3/18/02)(SFC, 9/5/03, p.A8)
1585 Aug 7, Tatar forces of Khan
Kutchum attacked a sleeping Cossack expedition under Yermak near the
mouth of the Vagay River in Siberia. The Cossacks were decimated and
Yermak drowned wearing a suit of armor given him by Tsar Ivan.
(ON, 2/04, p.5)
1589 Boris Godunov asserted
Moscow’s Independence from Constantinople.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.24)
1589 The first Russian patriarch,
Lov, was consecrated by Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremias of Constantinople
under pressure from Boris Godunov, the brother-in-law of Feodor, the
Russian Tsar.
(WSJ, 7/16/97, p.A23)
1591 May 15, Dimitri Ivanovitch
(9), Russian son of czar Ivan IV, was murdered.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1596 Jun 21, Mikhail Feodorovich
Romanov (d.1645), 1st Romanov Tsar of Russia (1613-45), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.1242)(MC, 6/21/02)
1598 Jan 7, Theodorus I (40),
[Feodor Ivanovitch], czar of Russia (1584-98), died. Boris Godunov
seized the Russian throne on death of Feodor I.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1598 Feb 17, Boris Godunov, the
boyar of Tatar origin, was elected czar in succession to his
brother-in-law Fyodor.
(HN, 2/17/99)
1603 Nov 5, Irini Fedorovna,
Russian daughter of Czar Boris Godunov, died.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1605 Apr 12, Boris Godunov, Tsar
of Russia (1598-1605), died.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1605 Jun 10, False Dimitri was
crowned Russian tsar for 1st time.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1610 Feb 14, Polish king Sigismund
III forced Dimitri #2 and the Romanov family to sign covenant against
Czar Vasili Shuishki (sequel to story of "Boris Godunov").
(MC, 2/14/02)
1610 Jul 4, Battle at Klushino:
King Sigismund III of Poland beat Russia & Sweden.
(Maggio)
1610 Aug 27, Polish King Wladyslaw
was crowned king of Russia.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1612 Sep 12, Russia’s Tsar Vasili
IV (b.1552) died.
(www.etoile.co.uk/Romanov/Timeline.html)
1612 Oct 22, Russian forces,
inspired by a vision of the captive Greek Archbishop Arsenios, won a
sweeping victory and took the Chinese quarter, and two days later, the
Kremlin itself.
(www.oca.org)
1612 Oct 27, A Polish army which
invaded Russia capitulated to Prince Dimitri Pojarski and his Cossacks.
(HN, 10/27/98)
1612 Nov 4, Russia drove Catholic
Poles and Lithuanians out of Moscow. This marked the end of the "Time
of Troubles," a period of popular uprisings and fighting between
noblemen and pretenders to the throne. Russian Orthodox Church
celebrated this day as the victory of the forces of Eastern Orthodoxy
over the forces of Western Catholicism. In 2005 Russia chose this day
for the new “People’s Unity Day” holiday.
(http://bildt.blogspot.com/2005/11/meaning-of-1612.html)(Econ,
11/12/05, p.56)(Econ, 3/17/07, p.65)
1613 Feb 21, Mikhail Romanov (17),
son of Patriarch of Moscow, was elected czar of Russia. He was crowned
Jun 22. The Romanovs began to rule over Russia and lasted until 1917.
(PCh, 1992, p.220)(SFC, 4/19/97,
p.A3)(http://eefy.editme.com/L18b)
1614 The Don Cossacks made a pact
with the Russian Czar and gained self-government in exchange for
military service.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A8)
1617 Mar 9, The Treaty of Stolbovo
ended the occupation of Northern Russia by Swedish troops.
(HN, 3/9/99)
1623 The 1st case of smallpox in
Russia was reported.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
1625-1636 Tsar Mikhail Romanov built the Basilica of
the Our lady of Kazan on Red Square to commemorate the liberation of
Moscow from Polish and Lithuanian nobles. It was destroyed by Stalin in
1936. A replica was dedicated in 1993. A Vatican copy of the icon of
Our Lady of Kazan was brought to Moscow in 2004.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.27)(Econ, 8/28/04, p.45)
1629 Mar 19, Aleksei M. Romanov,
Romanov tsar of Russia, was born.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1631 Jul 23, Sweden's King
Gustavus II repulsed an imperialist force at Werben, Russia.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1634 Feb 19, At the Battle at
Smolensk Polish king Wladyslaw IV beat the Russians. [see Mar 1]
(MC, 2/19/02)
1634 Mar 1, Battle at Smolensk;
Polish King Wladyslaw IV beat the Russians. [see Feb 19]
(SC, 3/1/02)
1640 Russia completed its conquest
of Siberia and reached the Pacific Ocean.
(ON, 2/04, p.5)
1649 In Russia serfs were made
part of the land that they inhabited. A later edict allowed them to be
sold with the land.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1653 Oct 1, Russian parliament
accepted annexation of Ukraine.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1654 Jan 10, Russia’s Czar
Alexander announced a war against Lithuania and Poland. It lasted to
1667.
(LHC, 1/9/03)
1654 Jan 18, The union of Ukraine
and Russia was announced.
(LHC, 1/18/03)
1656 Oct 24, Treaty of Vilnius
(Lithuania): Russia and Poland signed an anti-Swedish covenant.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1667 Jan 30, Lithuania, Poland and
Russia signed a 13.5 year treaty at Andrusov, near Smolensk. Russia
received Smolensk and Kiev.
(LHC, 1/30/03)
1667 The Cossack Stenka Razin led
a peasant uprising.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A8)
1671 Jun 6 (OS), Stenka, Stepan
Razin, Russian Cossack, was killed. [see Jun 16]
(MC, 6/6/02)
1671 Jun 16 (NS), Stenka Razin,
Cossack rebel leader, was tortured & executed in Moscow. [see Jun 6]
(MC, 6/16/02)
1672 May 30, Peter I (the
Great) Romanov, great czar (tsar) of Russia (1682-1725), was born [OS].
[see Jun 9]
(HN, 5/30/98)(MC, 5/30/02)
1672 Jun 9, Peter I (d.1725),
"Peter the Great," was born [NS]. [see May 30] He grew to be almost 7
feet tall and was the Russian Czar from 1682 to 1725 and modernized
Russia with sweeping reforms. He moved the Russian capital to the new
city he built, St. Petersburg. Peter later commissioned 50 fishermen to
keep the royal court swimming in sturgeon for a supply of caviar.
(CFA, '96, p.48)(WUD, 1994, p.1077)(HN, 6/9/99)(SFC,
12/25/99, p.C3)(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A16)
1675 Aug 6, Russian Czar Aleksei
banned foreign haircuts.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1675 In northern Russia Solovki
monks resisted church reforms. Tsarist forces broke through, but only
following a 7-year siege.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.83)
1681 Jan 8, The treaty of Radzin
ended a five year war between the Turks and the allied countries of
Russia and Poland.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1682 A rebellion by government
Streltsy regiments killed the grandfather, aunts and other relatives of
Peter the Great. The Monastery of Peter the Metropolitan was
reconstructed and as served as the family necropolis.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.38)
1682-1725 The rule of Peter the Great. The original
stone cathedral of the Monastery of the Epiphany in Moscow was built
during this time. It was built over the remnants of an earlier wooden
church. Robert K. Massie later wrote "Peter the Great: His Life and
World." Peter detested beards and had them taxed. Landlords suspected
of cheating on their taxes were stretched out and broken on a wheel.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.37)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R47)
1683 Apr 15, Catherine I (d.1727),
empress of Russia (1725-1727), was born as Martha Skravonskaya in
Jacobstadt, Latvia. Catherine was the daughter of Samuil Skavronski, a
Lithuanian peasant.
(HN,
4/15/98)(www.arthistoryclub.com/art_history/Catherine_I_of_Russia)
1689 Sep 1, Russia began taxing
men's beards.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1689 Oct 11, Peter the Great
became tsar of Russia.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1692 Peter the Great granted the
Stroganoff family their lands in perpetuity.
(WSJ, 9/7/00, p.A24)
1693 Jan 28, Anna "Ivanovna",
Tsarina of Russia, was born. [see Feb 7]
(HN, 1/28/99)
1693 Feb 7, Anna Ivanova Romanova,
empress of Russia (1730-40) [NS], was born. [see Jan 28]
(MC, 2/7/02)
1697 Mar 9, Czar Peter the Great
began tour of West Europe. [see Mar 21]
(MC, 3/9/02)
1697 Mar 21, Czar Peter the Great
began a tour through West Europe. [see Mar 9]
(MC, 3/21/02)
1697 There was a failed revolt
against Peter the Great led by the Streltsy soldiers. Following the
revolt Peter had them ruthlessly suppressed.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.30)
1698 Aug 25, Czar Peter the Great
returned to Moscow after his trip through West-Europe.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1698 Sep 5, Russia's Peter the
Great imposed a tax on beards.
(AP, 9/5/97)
1698 Peter the Great spent several
months at the Shipwright’s Palace in England learning how to build the
Russian navy.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)
1698 Abraham or Ibrahim (Abram
Petrovich Gannibal) was born about this time in the Eritrean highland,
north of the Mareb River in a town called Logon. Abraham's father was a
local chief or a "prince". Within a few years Turks invaded the area
and abducted Abraham following a battle lost by his father. Abraham
spent a year in Constantinople and was sold with a bribe for service to
Russia’s Peter the Great.
(www.shaebia.org/wwwboard/contributedarticles/messages/58.html)
1699 Feb 4, Czar Peter the Great
executed 350 rebellious Streltsi in Moscow.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1699 Dec 20, Peter the Great
ordered Russian New Year changed from Sept 1 to Jan 1.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1700 Jan 1, Russia replaced the
Byzantine with the Julian calendar.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1700 Jun 23, Russia gave up its
Black Sea fleet as part of a truce with the Ottoman Empire.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1700 Nov 20, Sweden's 17-year-old
King Charles XII defeated the Russians at Narva.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1701 Mar 9, In Birzai
Augustus II and Russia’s Czar Peter I signed a treaty.
(LHC,3/9/03)
1701 German artisans created an
amber room for King Frederick I of Prussia. He presented it as a gift
to Peter the Great in 1712 [see 1712, 1716].
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.E6)(WSJ,
1/20/00, p.A20)
1703 May 27, Peter the Great
founded St. Petersburg (Leningrad) as the capital of Russia. It was
built on a swampy settlement ceded by Sweden and occupied by about 150
people.
(WSJ, 1/28/97,
p.A16)(www.worldpress.org/Europe/1938.cfm)(MT, Winter/03, p.12)
1707 Kondraty Bulavin led a
Cossack uprising.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A8)
1708 Jul 4, Swedish King Karel XII
beat Russians.
(Maggio)
1708 Sep 28, At the Battle at
Lesnaya the Russian army captured a Swedish convoy.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1709 Jun 28, Russians defeated the
Swedes and Cossacks at the Battle of Poltava. [see July 8]
(HN, 6/28/98)
1709 Jul 8, Peter the Great
defeated Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, effectively ending the
Swedish empire. [see June 28]
(HN, 7/8/98)
1709 Dec 29, Elisabeth Petrovna,
daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine, was born. She became tsarina
of Russia (1741-1762).
(www.arthistoryclub.com/art_history/Elizabeth_of_Russia)
1710 Feb 4, August II with the
support of the Russian army was recognized by the parliament in Warsaw
as King of Lithuania and Poland.
(LHC, 2/4/03)
1711 Mar 19, War was declared
between Russia and Turkey.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1711 Jul 21, Russia and Turkey
signed the Treaty of Pruth, ending the year-long Russo-Turkish War.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1711 Aug 1, Czar Peter the Great
fled Azov after being surrounded.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1712 King Frederick I of Prussia
presented his amber room, made as a gift by German artisans in 1701, to
Peter the Great [1716]. Catherine the Great later added four marble
panels from Florence, that were inlaid with precious stones. It was
moved to Konigsberg in 1945 and then lost during WW II. One of the
marble panels turned up in Bremen in 1997.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.E6)(WSJ,
1/20/00, p.A20)
1712 Feb, Peter the Great married
Catherine. She bore him 11 children, all of whom died in childhood,
except for Anna and Yelizaveta.
(WSJ, 6/28/99,
p.A27)(www.arthistoryclub.com/art_history/Catherine_I_of_Russia)
1714 In Northern Russia the Church
of the Transfiguration was built by the Kizhi community on an island on
Lake Onega. The wooden church with 22 onion domes was built without
nails.
(WSJ, 9/16/06, p.P18)
1714 Peter the Great instituted
the Order of St. Catherine in honor of his wife, Catherine. It was the
highest Russian honor awarded exclusively to women. Only 12 women
outside the royal family could be members of the Order at a time.
(WSJ, 6/11/99, p.W14)(WSJ, 6/28/99, p.A27)
1714 Peter the Great of Russia
founded a pharmaceutical firm later named Oktyabar. In 1995 US ICN
Pharmaceuticals increased its investment in the firm to 75% from 41%.
(ICN, 1995 An. Rep., p.11)(WSJ, 7/14/98, p.B4)
1715 Oct 2, Peter II, czar of
Russia (1727-30), was born.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1715 Peter the Great held a
funeral for his favorite court dwarf. Lines of ecclesiastics were
followed by 24 pair of male and female dwarves.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R4)
1716 Nov
3, In the Pacification Treaty of Warsaw Czar Peter the Great
(1672-1725) guaranteed Saxon monarch August I's (1682-1718) Polish
kingdom.
(DoW, 1999, p.373)
1716 Prussian King Friedrich
Wilhelm I gave the Czar of Russia an elaborately carved amber chamber.
In exchange, he received his wish: 55 very tall Russian soldiers.
German troops dismantled it in 1941 and took it to Koenigsburg where it
disappeared. In 1979 the Soviet government initiated a reconstruction,
which was unveiled in 2003. [see 1701, 1712]
(AP, 5/13/03)
1717 Jan 30, Surrounded by the
Russian army the Lithuanian-Polish parliament reduced its army by half
and acknowledged Russian protection.
(LHC, 1/30/03)
1717 Aug 4, A friendship treaty
was signed between France and Russia.
(HN, 8/4/98)
1718 Jun 26, Alexius Petrovich
(28), the son of Peter the Great, died in St. Petersburg from wounds
inflicted for an imagined rebellion.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.281)
1718 Czar Peter the Great imposed
a tax on the entire male peasant population while exempting the
wealthiest, the nobles and the merchants. Lords, villages and town
officials were responsible for collecting the tax.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12)
1718-1736 Russian Czar Peter the Great, having
conquered Estonia in the Great Northern War, constructed the baroque,
peach and white Kadriorg Palace on the outskirts of Tallinn.
(Hem, 4/96, p.23)(CNT, 3/04, p.145)
1721 Jan 25, Czar Peter the Great
ended the Russian orthodox patriarchy.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1721 Aug 30, The Peace of Nystad
ended the Second Northern War between Sweden and Russia, giving Russia
considerably more power in the Baltic region.
(HN, 8/30/98)
1721 Oct 22, Czar Peter the Great
became "All-Russian Imperator."
(MC, 10/22/01)
1722 Jan 24, Czar Peter the Great
capped his reforms in Russia with the "Table of Rank" which decreed a
commoner could climb on merit to the highest positions.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1722 Apr 6, In Russia Peter the
Great ended tax on men with beards.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1722 Sep 12, The Treaty of St.
Petersburg put an end to the Russo-Persian War.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1722 Peter the Great granted
nobility status to the Stroganoff family.
(WSJ, 9/7/00, p.A24)
1722 Russian troops fought against
Chechen tribes for the 1st time.
(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.A11)
1723 Border treaties or notes
between Iran and Russia were signed in this year and followed again in
1725, 1732, 1813, 1828, 1881, 1893, 1954, 1957 and 1962.
(WSJ, 8/3/01, p.A2)
1725 Jan 28, Peter I "the Great"
Romanov (52), Czar of Russia (1682-1725), died. [see Feb 8]
(MC, 1/28/02)
1725 Feb 8, Peter I (52) "the
Great" Romanov, czar of Russia (1682-1725), died. [see Jan 28]
(MC, 2/8/02)
1725 Czar Peter the Great chose
Vitus Bering (44), a Danish seaman in the Russian navy, to lead an
expedition to discover whether or not Asia was connected to America.
(ON, 2/06, p.1)
1725-1727 Catherine I (b.1684) served as empress of
Russia.
(HN, 4/15/98)(MC, 4/15/02)
1727 May 7, Jews were expelled
from Ukraine by Empress Catherine I of Russia.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1727 May 17, Catherine I (b.1683),
Empress of Russia (1725-27), died.
(www.arthistoryclub.com/art_history/Catherine_I_of_Russia)
1727 May 29, Peter II Aleksei (11)
became czar of Russia.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1728 Feb 10, Peter III Fyodorovich
(d.1762), czar of Russia (1761-62), was born in Germany. He married
Catherine, who succeeded him following a coup. [see Feb 21]
(WUD, 1994 p.1077)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)(MC, 2/10/02)
1728 Feb 21, Peter III, Russian
Tsar (1762), husband of Catherine, was born in Kiel Germany. [see Feb
10]
(MC, 2/21/02)
1728 Vitus Bering (47), Danish
explorer in the Russian navy, discovered the Bering Strait between Asia
and North America.
(PCh, 1992, p.286)(ON, 2/06, p.1)
1729 Apr 21, Catharina II, the
Great, writer, empress of Russia (1762-96), was born. [see May 2]
(MC, 4/21/02)
1729 May 2, Catherine the Great
(d.1796), (Catherine II), empress (czarina) of Russia (1762-1796), was
born. She succeeded her husband Peter III to the throne in 1762. "I am
one of the people who love the why of things." [see Apr 21]
(AP, 9/4/97)(HN, 5/2/99)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)
1730 Empress Anna Ivanovna, Peter
the Great's daughter, came to the Russian throne. She recalled Abram
Petrovich Gannibal from exile and appointed him to a new post as a
captain of military engineering.
(www.shaebia.org/wwwboard/contributedarticles/messages/58.html)
1730 The monastery of Saint
Serafim Sarofsky in the village of Deveyevo, Russia, was
constructed. In 1927 the 266 year old complex was liquidated by
the communists and used to store lumber and vegetables until 1991 when
it was returned to the church. Czar Nicholas II once came in secret to
seek a blessing so that his wife would produce a son.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-11)
1732 Apr 17, The 2nd Kamchatka
Expedition was announced in the Russian Senate and Vitus Bering was
named as captain commander. I.K. Kirilov, chief secretary of the
senate, expanded Bering’s mandate to include astronomical and
scientific observations, to explore the seas between Siberia and Japan
and to establish trade relations with peoples encountered.
(ON, 2/06, p.1)
1733-1811 Sergeievich Strogonoff was an enlightenment
aesthete. He was sometimes a friend and sometimes a rival of Catherine
the Great.
(WSJ, 9/7/00, p.A24)
1734 Mar 9, The Russians took
Danzig (Gdansk) in Poland.
(HN, 3/9/99)
c1738 The Vaganova Ballet Academy
was founded. It was later attached to St. Petersburg’s Kirov Ballet.
(WSJ, 3/10/98, p.A1)
1739 Sep 13, Grigory Potemkin
(d.1791), Russian army officer, statesman, Catherine II's lover, was
born. [see Sep 24]
(MC, 9/13/01)
1739 Sep 24, Grigorij A. Potemkin
(d.1791), Monarch of Tauris and friend of Catherine II, was born. [see
Sep 13]
(MC, 9/24/01)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)
1739 Oct 3, Russia signed a treaty
with the Turks, ending a three-year conflict between the two countries.
(HN, 10/3/98)
1741 Apr 11, A commission found
regent Count Biron guilty of treason and sentenced him to death by
quartering. The sentence was commuted to banishment for life in Siberia.
(PCh, 1992, p.294)
1741 Jul 15, George Steller, an
observer with Vitus Bering (1680-1741), claimed to see the American
mainland (Alaska). Bering, a Danish-born mariner, was on an exploratory
mission on behalf of Russia.
(WSJ, 9/12/00, p.A24)(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(ON, 2/06,
p.2)
1741 Jul 16, Vitus Bering
(1680-1741) first sighted Mt. St. Elias, the second highest peak in
Alaska at 18,008 feet.
(AAM, 3/96, p.84)(WUD, 1994 p.140)
1741 Dec 5-6, Russian princess
Elisabeth Petrovna grabbed power. Petrovna (31), the daughter of Peter
the Great, and her husband led a coup d’etat, deposed the infant Czar
Ivan VI, had him imprisoned and reigned until her death in 1762.
(PCh, 1992, p.294)(MC, 12/5/01)
1741 Dec 7, Elisabeth Petrovna
became tsarina of Russia.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1741 Dec 8, Vitus Bering,
Danish-born explorer and commander in the Russian navy, died on an
island off the Kamchatka Peninsula, later named Bering Island.
(ON, 2/06, p.4)
1741 The Russians crossed the
Bering Strait in search of otter and seal pelts to trade with China.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)
1742 Dec 1, Empress Elisabeth
Petrovna ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Russia.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1742 Russia’s Empress Elisaveta
Petrovna presented lands south of Pskov to the A.P. Gannibal
(1696-1781), an African who had been adopted by Peter the Great and
served Peter in various important capacities including spy and privy
councilor.
(http://gotorussia.vand.ru/19.phtml?gorod=19&id=11&num=235)(SSFC,
6/18/06, p.M3)
1743 Aug 17, By the Treaty of Abo,
Sweden ceded southeast Finland to Russia, ending Sweden's failed war
with Russia.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1745 Jan 8, England, Austria,
Saxony and the Netherlands formed an alliance against Russia.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1750-1756 The Smol’ny Convent was built in St.
Petersburg.
(WSJ, 6/27/00, p.A28)
1752 In Russia Abram Petrovich
Gannibal became a Major-General and was appointed in charge of all
military engineering.
(www.shaebia.org/wwwboard/contributedarticles/messages/58.html)
1753 Jul 26, Georg Richmann
(b.1711), German physicist, died of electrocution in St. Petersburg,
Russia. Reportedly, ball lightning traveled along the apparatus and was
the cause of his death. He was apparently the first person in history
to die while conducting electrical experiments.
(Econ, 3/29/08,
p.104)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wilhelm_Richmann)
1755 Jan 12, Tsarina Elisabeth
established the 1st Russian University.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1756-1763 The Seven Years War. France and Great
Britain clashed both in Europe and in North America. In 2000 "Crucible
of War" by Fred Anderson was published. France, Russia, Austria,
Saxony, Sweden and Spain stood against Britain, Prussia and Hanover.
Britain financed Prussia to block France in Europe while her manpower
was occupied in America.
(V.D.-H.K.p.223)(SFC, 7/7/96, BR p.7)(WSJ, 2/10/00,
p.A16)
1758 Aug 25, The Prussian army
defeated the invading Russians at the Battle of Zorndorf. Thousands
were killed.
(HN, 8/25/98)(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1759 Jul 23, Russians under
Saltikov defeated Prussians at Kay in eastern Germany, and one-fourth
of Prussian army of 27,000 was lost.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1760 Oct 9, Austrian and Russian
troops entered Berlin and began burning structures and looting.
(HN, 10/9/98)
1761 Dec 25, Elisabeth Petrovna
(~51), tsarina of Russia (1741-62), died.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1762 Jun 28, Catharine II, Russian
Tsarina, grabbed power. [see Jul 17]
(MC, 6/28/02)
1762 Jul 17, Peter III of Russia
was murdered and his wife, Catherine II, took the throne.
(HN, 7/17/98)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)
1762 Aug 5, Russia, Prussia and
Austria signed a treaty agreeing on the partition of Poland.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1762 Abram Petrovich Gannibal
(1696-1781), an African slave adopted by Peter the Great, was dismissed
by Catherine the Great. He is the great-grandfather of Alexander
Pushkin.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.66)
1762-1796 Catherine the Great ruled over Russia.
(WSJ, 4/13/99, p.A16)
1763-1864 The Circassians, residents of the northwest
Caucasus, fought against the Russians in the Russian-Circassian War
only succumbing to a scorched earth campaign initiated in 1862 under
General Yevdokimov. Afterwards, large numbers of Circassians fled and
were deported to the Ottoman Empire, others were resettled in Russia
far from their home territories.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassians)
1764 Jul 16, Ivan VI (23), Emperor
of Russia (1740-41), was murdered.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1764 Catherine the Great hired
Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-1791) of France to create a statue of
Peter the Great (d.1725). In 2003 Alexander M. Schenker authored "The
Bronze Horseman: Falconet's Monument to Peter the Great."
(WSJ, 12/18/03, p.D6)
1768 Feb 24,
Lithuania-Poland signed an eternal friendship treaty with Russia along
with a guarantee of protection. Lithuania and Poland agreed not to
change their state system.
(LHC, 2/23/03)
1768-1774 The Russian and Ottoman War.
(HNQ, 5/6/02)
1770 Jul 6, The entire Ottoman
fleet was defeated and destroyed by the Russians at the battle of
Chesme [Cesme] on the Aegean Sea.
(HN, 7/6/98)(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A24)(HNQ, 8/25/99)
1771 Fedot Ivanovich Choubine,
Russian sculptor and painter, carved a bust of Catherine the Great.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.126)(http://tinyurl.com/y4ydna)
1771-1778 Sergeievich Strogonoff lived in Paris and
rubbed shoulders with leading French artists.
(WSJ, 9/7/00, p.A24)
1773 Sep 14, Russian forces under
Aleksandr Suvorov successfully stormed a Turkish fort at Hirsov, Turkey.
(HN, 9/14/99)
1773 Dmitri Levitsky (1735-1822),
Kiev born Russian-Ukrainian artist, painted a portrait of Katerina
Khrouchtchova and princess Katerina Khonanskaia.
(Econ, 12/23/06,
p.126)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Levitsky)
1773 The Cossack Yemelyan
Pugachev, pretending to be the dead emperor Peter III, incited a
widespread rebellion.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A8)
1774 Jul 16, Russia and the
Ottoman Empire signed the treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji, ending their
six-year war. This brought Russia for the first time to the
Mediterranean as the acknowledged protector of Orthodox Christians.
(HN, 7/16/98)(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A24)
1775 Catherine the Great received
an ornament containing over 1000 diamonds, the "Sultan Feather" from
the Turkish Sultan Abdulhamid.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)
1775 The Cossack Yemelyan Pugachev
was captured and beheaded.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A8)
1776 The Bolshoi Theater was
founded.
(SFC, 3/29/01, p.A11)
1777 Dec 23, Alexander I, Czar of
Russia, was born.
(HN, 12/23/98)
1779 Mar 31, Russia and Turkey
signed a treaty by which they promised to take no military action in
the Crimea.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1779 Catherine the Great bought
the art collection of Sir Robert Walpole from Walpole’s grandson.
(WSJ, 1/04/00, p.A16)
1781 May 14, Abram Petrovich
Gannibal (b.1696), an African slave adopted by Peter the Great, died.
He served Peter in various important capacities including spy and privy
councilor. He is the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin. In 2005
Hugh Barnes authored “Gannibal: The Moor of Petersburg.”
(Econ, 8/20/05,
p.66)(www.shaebia.org/wwwboard/contributedarticles/messages/58.html)
1782 Aug 7, A statue of Peter the
Great was unveiled in St. Petersburg on the 100th anniversary of his
accession to the throne. It was made by French sculptor Etienne-Maurice
Falconet (1716-1791), who spent 12 years on the work. Empress Catherine
commissioned it in 1765.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.P12)
1783 Jul 24, Georgia became a
protectorate of tsarist Russia.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1783 The Kirov Ballet was founded
in St. Petersburg.
(WSJ, 7/16/02, p.D6)
1783 Catherine the Great annexed
the Crimea to the Russian empire. 83% or the residents were Tatars.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A8)(Econ, 2/25/06, p.55)
1784 Aug 14, The 1st Russian
settlement in Alaska was established on Kodiak Island. Grigori
Shelekhov, a Russian fur trader, founded Three Saints Bay.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1785 Apr 21, Russian Tsarina
Catharina II ended nobility privileges.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1787 Aug 13, The Ottoman Empire
declared war on Russia.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1788 Sep 15, An alliance between
Britain, Prussia and the Netherlands was ratified at the Hague.
(HN, 9/15/99)
1789 Mar 4, Pavel P. Gagarin,
Russian monarch, was born.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1789 Sep 22, Russian forces under
Aleksandr Suvorov drove the Turkish army under Yusuf Pasha from the
Rymnik River, upsetting the Turkish invasion of Russia.
(HN, 9/22/99)
1790 Jul 9, The Swedish navy
captured one third of the Russian fleet at the naval battle of
Svensksund in the Baltic Sea.
(HN, 7/9/98)
1791 Grigory A. Potemkin (b.1739),
Russian army officer, statesman, Catherine II's lover, died. In 2002
Simon Sebag Montefiore authored "Prince of Princes: The Life of
Potemkin."
(MC, 9/13/01)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)
1792 Jan 9, The Ottomans signed a
treaty with the Russians ending a five year war.
(HN, 1/9/99)
1792 May 18, Russian troops
invaded Poland.
(HN, 5/18/98)
1792 May 19, Russian army entered
Poland.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1792-1796 In St. Petersburg Catherine the Great
commissioned the building of the neoclassical rococo Alexander Palace
for her eldest grandson, the future Alexander I.
(WSJ, 9/9/97, p.A16)
1793 Jan 23, Prussia and Russia
signed an accord on the 2nd partition of Lithuania and Poland. The 2nd
partition of Poland. Polish patriots had attempted to devise a new
constitution which was recognized by Austria and Prussia, but Russia
did not recognize it and invaded. Prussia in turn invaded and the two
agreed to a partition that left only the central portion of Poland
independent.
(WUD, 1994, p.1677)(LHC, 1/23/03)
1794 Mar 24, In Cracow a
revolutionary manifesto was proclaimed. The Lithuanian and Polish
nobility under the leadership of Tadas Kasciuska revolted against
Russian control.
(H of L, 1931, p. 81-82)(LHC, 3/23/03)
1794 Jun 23, Empress Catherine II
granted Jews permission to settle in Kiev.
(MC, 6/23/02)
1794 Sep 28, The
Anglo-Russian-Austrian Alliance of St. Petersburg, which was directed
against France, was signed.
(HN, 9/28/98)
1794 Oct 10, The Russian Army
under Gen’l. Alexander Suvorov took Warsaw and captured Tadeus
Kosciusko at Maciejowice. T. Vavzeckis was became the new commander of
the revolutionary forces.
(Voruta #27-28, 7/1996, p.5)(HN, 10/10/98)
1794 Nov 16, Warsaw capitulated to
the Russian Army and the revolution ended.
(Voruta #27-28, 7/1996, p.5)
1794 Ukraine’s port city of Odessa
was founded. Josef de Ribas, a Naples-born adventurer, after leading an
assault on a Turkish Black Sea fortress called Yeni-Dunai, convinced
Catherine the Great that the site of Odessa would be a good one for a
Russian port. A nearby site called Odessos had long been a Greek colony.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.86)
1795 Oct 24, Russia, Austria and
Prussia held a convention in Petersburg to finalize the 3rd division of
the Polish-Lithuanian Republic. Most of Lithuania with Vilnius went to
Russia, Warsaw and the left bank of the Nemunas River went to Prussia
and Cracow went to Austria. King Stanislovas Augustas of Poland was
forced from his capital and moved to Grodno (Gardinas).
(Voruta #27-28, 7/1996, p.5)(MC, 10/24/01)
1795-1805 A Russian merchant after seeing a snuff box
factory in Germany returned to his home near Moscow and began the
Russian production of lacquered papier-mâché snuff boxes.
The artisans of Danilkovo and Fedoskino turned out 13,000 pieces a year
for customers throughout Europe.
(Hem., Nov. '95, p.71)
1796 Nov 7, Catharina II (67),
"the Great", tsarina of Russia (1762-96), died. [see Nov 17]
(MC, 11/7/01)
1796 Nov 17, Catharine II (67),
empress of Russia known as Catharine the Great (1762-96), died. Over
her 69 years she had at least 12 lovers including Prince Potemkin. [see
Nov 7]
(MC, 11/17/01)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)
1797 Jan 15, In St. Petersburg
Russia, Prussia and Austria signed and act that terminated the
Lithuanian-Polish state.
(LHC, 1/15/03)
1798 Dec 24, Russia and England
signed a Second anti-French Coalition.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1799 May 26, Alexander Pushkin,
Russian poet (d.1837), was born (OC). His bicentennial in Russia was
celebrated Jun 6,1999. [see Jun 6]
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AHD, p.1062)(SFC, 6/3/99, p.C2)
1799 Jun 6, Alexander Pushkin
(d.1837), Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature,
was born (NC). He was the descendant of an Abyssinian slave of royal
blood who was given to Peter the Great as a gift. His works included
"Boris Godunov," "Eugene Onegin," and "The Queen of Spades." [see May
26]
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AHD, p.1062)(SFC, 6/3/99, p.C2)(HN,
6/6/99)(WSJ, 7/15/99, p.A16)
1799 The Russian-American Co. was
chartered by Tsar Paul I. It expanded into Spanish California when sea
otter populations declined in Alaska.
(SFC, 6/15/01, WBb p.7)
1801 Mar 11, Paul I (46), Czar of
Russia (1796-1801), was strangled in his bedroom in St. Petersburg
ending 4 years of insane rule. His son Alexander I Pavlovich (23)
succeeded him.
(PCh, 1992, p.360)(SS, 3/23/02)
1801 Mar 24, Aleksandr P. Romanov
became emperor of Russia.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1801 South Ossetia was absorbed
into the Russian Empire along with Georgia.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A12)
1803 Alexander I chose Frenchman
Duc de Richelieu to serve as governor of Odessa (1803-1814). Richelieu
imported acacia tress from Vienna and distributed them free to the
residents, who lined them on Primorsky Boulevard.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.86)
1805 Aug 9, Austria joined
Britain, Russia, Sweden and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in the
Third Coalition against Napoleonic France and Spain.
(HN, 8/9/98)(HNQ, 10/19/98)
1805 Dec 2, Napoleon Bonaparte
celebrated the first anniversary of his coronation with a victory at
Austerlitz over a Russian and Austrian army.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1806 Apr, Nicolai Rezanov (42), a
director of the Russian-American Co., arrived in SF aboard the Juno. He
had proposed a California outpost to serve the Russian colonies in
Alaska and sailed south to establish a settlement on the Columbia River
but could not land there due to difficult seas. He sailed south to the
Presidio at Monterey and negotiated a trade deal with Commander Jose
Arguello. He also fell in love with Commander Arguello’s daughter and
proposed marriage. He died that winter while crossing Siberia.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A1)
1806 May 21, Nicolai Rezanov
(1764-1806), a director of the Russian-American Co., departed SF for
Sitka, Alaska. He died that winter while crossing Siberia.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A1)
1806 Dec 26, Napoleon’s army was
checked by the Russians at the Battle of Pultusk.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1807 Feb 8, At Eylau, Poland,
Napoleon’s Marshal Pierre Agureau attacked Russian forces in a heavy
snowstorm. Like Napoleon, to whom he is most often compared, Alexsandr
Suvorov believed that opportunities in battle are created by fortune
but exploited by intelligence, experience and an intuitive eye. To him,
mastery of the art and science of war was not, therefore, purely
instinctive. Napoleon’s forces ran low on supplies at Eylau and ate
their horses.
(HN, 2/7/97)(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A8)
1807 Jun 25, Napoleon I of France
and Russian Czar Alexander I met near Tilsit, in northern Prussia, to
discuss terms for ending war between their empires.
(AP, 6/25/07)
1807 Jul 7, Napoleon I of France
and Czar Alexander I of Russia signed a treaty at Tilsit ending war
between their empires. It divided Europe among themselves and isolated
Britain.
(HN, 7/7/98)(AP, 7/7/07)
1809 Mar 31, Nikolai V. Gogol,
Russian writer (The Inspector General, Dead Souls), was born.
(HN, 3/31/01)
1809 Finland broke free of Sweden
to become a Grand Duchy of Russia.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.T4)
1809 Russia took the Aland island
group from the Swedes and held it until the Russian Revolution.
(WSJ, 12/5/97, p.A1)
1809-1917 Finland was an autonomous grand duchy under
the Czar of Russia.
(WSJ, 12/17/98, p.A1)
1811 Feb 2, Russian settlers
established Ft. Ross trading post in northern California. Fort Ross was
settled by peg-legged Ivan Kuzkov (Kuskov) in Sonoma County (1912). It
was designed as a base for fur hunters and a warm weather supplier for
the Russian colonies in Alaska. The colonists included 25 Russians and
over 80 Aleut Indians from the islands of western Alaska. Kuskov
managed the settlement until 1821.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1
p.4)(SFC, 6/15/01, WBb p.7)(MC, 2/2/02)
1812 Mar 25, Alexander Herzen
(d.1870), Russian author: "Life has taught me to think, but thinking
has not taught me how to live."
(AP,
8/15/99)(www.bookrags.com/biography/aleksandr-ivanovich-herzen/)
1812 Jun 18, Ivan Goncharov,
Russian novelist of the Russian realism school of thought, was born. He
is best known for his book "Oblomov."
(HN, 6/18/99)
1812 Jun 24, Napoleon crossed the
Nieman River [in Lithuania] and invaded Russia. The French army under
Napoleon crossed the Nemunas River near Kaunas. Prior to his march into
Russia, Napoleon had taken land from Russia and returned it to Polish
control in Warsaw. This assured him safe passage through Poland and
Lithuania on his way to Russia. In 1824 the book “History of the
Expedition to Russia, Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year
1812” by Count de Segur, a general in Napoleon’s army, was first
published. An English translation edited by Gerard Shelley was
published in 1928.
(HN, 6/24/98)(WSJ, 8/25/07, p.P9)(H of L, 1931,
p.83-84)
1812 Jul 18, Great Britain signed
the Treaty of Orebro, making peace with Russia and Sweden.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1812 Aug 17, Napoleon Bonaparte's
army defeated the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk during the Russian
retreat to Moscow.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1812 Sep 7, On the road to Moscow,
Napoleon won a costly victory over the Russians under Kutuzov at
Borodino. This was the greatest mass slaughter in the history of
warfare until the Battle of the Somme in 1916. In 2004 Adam Zamoyski
authored “Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow.”
(HN, 9/7/98)(Econ, 4/17/04, p.81)
1812 Sep 14, Napoleon's invasion
of Russia reached its climax as his Grande Armee entered Moscow--only
to find the enemy capital deserted and burning, set afire by the few
Russians who remained. The fires were extinguished by Sep 19.
(HN,
9/14/98)(http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/B/Borodino.html)
1812 Sep 18, A fire in Moscow (set
by Napoleon's troops) destroyed 90% of houses and 1,000 churches. [see
Sep 14]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1812 Sep, In France as Napoleon’s
army proceeded to invade Russia it numbered 442,000 troops. In Sept. it
reached Moscow with 100,000 men. The remains of the Grandee Armee
struggled out of Russia in 1813 with 10,000 men. A map drawn by Charles
Joseph Minard plots six variables to depict the march over time: the
size of the army, its location on a 2-dimensional surface, the
direction of the army’s movement, and temperatures on various days
during the retreat from Moscow. In 1970 Curtis Cate published the book:
"The War of the Two Emperors."
(Adv. E. Tufte, 5/18/96, p.4)(SFEC, 6/15/97, Z1 p.3)
1812 Sep-Oct, Moscow was burned
under the brief occupation by Napoleon. After the burning the
Neglinnaya River was confined to an underground pipe.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.28)
1812 Oct 19, French forces under
Napoleon Bonaparte began their retreat from Moscow.
(AP, 10/19/97)(HN, 10/19/98)
1812 Nov 6, The first winter snows
fell on the French Army as Napoleon Bonaparte retreated form Moscow.
(HN, 11/6/99)
1812 Nov 14, As Napoleon
Bonaparte's army retreated form Moscow, temperatures dropped to 20
degrees below zero. Michel Ney defended the Napoleon‘s rear during the
retreat from Moscow and was called by Napoleon "The bravest of the
brave." He rejoined Napoleon during the Hundred Days and the Waterloo
campaign. After Napoleon‘s defeat, he was found guilty of treason and
shot. It was later suggested that many soldiers died because their tin
coat buttons deteriorated in the extreme cold.
(HN, 11/14/99)(HNQ, 9/21/00)(SSFC, 6/8/03, p.M2)
1812 Nov 27, One of the two
bridges being used by Napoleon Bonaparte's army across the Beresina
River in Russia collapsed during a Russian artillery barrage.
(HN, 11/27/99)
1812 Nov 29, The last elements of
Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armee retreated across the Beresina River in
Russia. Tens of thousands of French troops and civilians perished when
the Russians attacked Napoleon's army as it crossed the Berezina River
in Belarus on the punishing retreat from Moscow. The following Spring
it was recorded that 32,000 bodies were rounded up and burned on the
river banks near Studianka.
(HN, 11/29/99)(AP,
11/26/07)(www.wtj.com/articles/berezina/)
1812 Russia acquired Bessarabia,
the north eastern part of the original principality of Moldavia, in the
aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War (1806-1812).
(Econ, 1/6/07,
p.43)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessarabia)
1813 Jan 2, In Vilnius, Lithuania,
Russian Army head M. Kutuzov announced the end of war in Russia.
(LHC, 1/3/03)
1813 Feb 18, Czar Alexander
entered Warsaw at the head of his Army.
(HN, 2/18/99)
1813 Feb 28, Russia and
Prussia formed the Kalisz union against Napoleon.
(LHC,2/28/03)
1813 Mar 4, The Russians fighting
against Napoleon reached Berlin. The French garrison evacuated the city
without a fight.
(HN, 3/4/99)
1813 Aug
26-1813 Aug 27, The Battle of Dresden was Napoleon’s last major victory
against the allied forces of Austria, Russia and Prussia.
(www.napoleonguide.com/battle_dresden.htm)
1813 Oct 16-19, In the Battle at
Leipzig (aka Battle of the Nations) Napoleon faced Prussia, Austria and
Russia and suffered one of his worst defeats.
(DoW, 1999, p.325)
1813 Oct 18, The Allies defeated
Napoleon Bonaparte at Leipzig.
(HN, 10/18/98)
1813 Henri Jomini left the French
army to fight for Russia in 1813 as a general and aide-de-camp of
Alexander I. By the time of his death in 1869, he had written several
other works, organized the Russian military academy and advised kings
on tactics for their various military campaigns.
(HNQ, 9/1/00)
1814 Sep, The Congress of Vienna
convened in late September and continued to June 8, 1815. Friedrich von
Gentz of Austria served as secretary to the Congress. It was held after
the banishment of Napoleon to Elba. The congress aimed at territorial
resettlement and restoration to power of the crowned heads of Europe
with Prince Metternich of Austria as the dominant figure. Viscount
Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington represented Britain. Alexander I
stood for Russia. Talleyrand stood for France. Prince von Hardenberg
stood for Prussia. In 2007 Adam Zamoyski authored “Rites of Peace: The
Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna.” In 2008 David King
authored “Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War
and Peace at the Congress of Vienna.
(Econ, 4/14/07,
p.94)(www.bartleby.com/65/vi/Vienna-C.html)(SSFC, 4/6/08, Books p.4)
1814 Oct 3, Mikhail Yurevich
Lermontov (d.1841), Russian poet and writer (Demon), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.822)(MC, 10/3/01)
1814 Alexander I of Russia entered
Paris at the head of an anti-Napoleon coalition.
(WSJ, 6/26/96, p.A16)
1814-1876 Mikhail Bakunin was an authoritarian
anarchist.
(WSJ, 8/24/98, p.A10)
1815 Sep 26, Russia, Prussia and
Austria signed a Holy Alliance. "Justice, charity and peace" were to be
the precepts that guided the Holy Alliance as envisioned by Czar
Alexander I of Russia. The alliance of Russia, Austria and Prussia was
formed after the downfall of Napoleon and later all European rulers
signed the agreement except the prince regent of Great Britain, the
pope and the sultan of Turkey. With no specific aims beyond mutual
assistance, the provisions of the Holy Alliance were so vague that it
had little effect on European diplomacy. Metternich quietly replaced
the entire alliance by the purely political alliance of 20 November,
1815, between Austria, Prussia, Russia and England.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/07398a.htm)(HNQ, 7/7/98)
1815 Nov 20, The treaties known
collectively as the 2nd Peace of Paris were concluded. Austria’s
chancellor Klemens von Metternich helped create a “Concert of Europe,”
a system by which 4-5 big powers kept miscreants in check and managed
the affairs of smaller states for over a decade.
(http://tinyurl.com/2sqgp9)(Econ, 6/9/07,
p.68)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/07398a.htm)
1816 Sep 12, Russian agents
commenced construction of a Western-style fortress commanding Waimea
Bay on the island of Kauai, named Fort Elizabeth after the Russian
czarina. Before the fort was completed, Hawaiian King Kamehameha acted
to force the Russians out. The Hawaiians finished construction of the
fort and renamed it Fort Hipo.
(HNQ, 6/5/99)
1816 General A.P.Yermolov served
as Commander of the Russian army in the Caucasus. Military pressure
intensifies as Russian troops continue to advance deep into Chechnya.
Chechnya responded by stepping up its resistance movement, which, for
more than 30 years, was headed by Beibulat Teimiev.
(www.chechnyafree.ru)
1817 Mar 25, Tsar Alexander I
recommended the formation of Society of Israeli Christians.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1817 Aug 24, Aleksei K. Tolstoy,
[Kozjma Prutkov], Russian poet, writer, was born.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/reference/aleksey_konstantinovich_tolstoy)
1818 Apr 17, Alexander II, son of
Nicholas I and Tsar of Russia (1855-1881), was born.
(www2.sptimes.com/Treasures/TC.2.3.17.html)
1818 Oct 28, Ivan Turgenev
(d.1883), Russian novelist, poet, playwright (Fathers & Sons), was
born. [Old Style date]
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9073831)
1818 Nov 9, Ivan Turgenev, Russian
author, was born. His work includes "Fathers and Sons" and "A Month in
the Country." [New Style date]
(HN, 11/9/00)
1818 Nov 21, Russia's Czar
Alexander I petitioned for a Jewish state in Palestine.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1818 Grozny was established as a
Russian fortress.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.C14)
1818 In Russia the Smirnoff family
went into the vodka business.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1819 Russia declared Odessa to be
a free port.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.86)
1820 Sep 4, Czar Alexander
declared that Russian influence in North America extended as far south
as Oregon and closed Alaskan waters to foreigners.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1820s The last jihad started by
mullahs alone forced the Persian Empire to war against Christian
Russia. Persia lost the Caucasus.
(WSJ, 10/10/01, p.A10)
1821 Nov 11, Fyodor Mikhailovich
Dostoevsky (d.1881), Russian novelist who wrote "The Brothers
Karamazov," was born. "Originality and a feeling of one’s own dignity
are achieved only through work and struggle."
(AP, 12/9/97)(HN, 11/11/98)
1823 Alexander Ostrovsky (d.1886),
playwright, was born.
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.A24)
1824 Apr 17, Russia abandoned all
North American claims south of 54' 40'.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1824 The book “History of the
Expedition to Russia, Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year
1812” by Count de Segur, a general in Napoleon’s army, was first
published. An English translation edited by Gerard Shelley was
published in 1928.
(WSJ, 8/25/07, p.P9)
1825 Feb 22, Russia and Britain
established the Alaska/Canada boundary.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1825 The Decembrists consisted of
idealistic military officers who plotted unsuccessfully against the
Russian tsar.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.27)
1826 Sep 26, The Persian cavalry
was routed by the Russians at the Battle of Ganja in the Russian
Caucasus.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1827 Oct 20, British, French and
Russian squadrons entered the harbor at Navarino, Greece, and destroyed
most of the Egyptian fleet there. The Ottomans demanded reparations.
(EWH, 4th ed,
p.770)(www.ipta.demokritos.gr/erl/navarino.html)
1828 Apr 26, Russia declared war
on Turkey to support Greece's independence.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1828 Aug 28, Leo Tolstoy (d.1910),
Russian novelist, was born. His work included "War and Peace" and
"Anna Karenina." "History would be an excellent thing if only it were
true." "It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is
goodness." [see Sep 9]
(WUD, 1994 p.1491)(AP, 4/15/97)(AP, 10/14/99)(HN,
8/28/00)
1828 Sep 9, Leo Tolstoy, Russian
novelist, was born. [see Aug 28]
(HN, 9/9/00)
1828 Russia conquered the Armenian
provinces of Persia, and this brought within her frontier the Monastery
of Etchmiadzin, in the Khanate of Erivan, which was the seat of the
Katholikos of All the Armenians.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
1829 Feb 11, Alexander Griboyedov
(b.1795), Russian diplomat, playwright and composer, was beheaded by a
mob attack on the Russian embassy in Tehran. Griboyedov was protecting
an Armenian eunuch, who had escaped from the harem of the Persian shah
along with 2 Armenian girls. The Russians let the incident pass after
an Iranian apology. They were already at war with the Turks and in
regional competition with the British.
(WSJ, 2/10/96,
p.A18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandr_Griboyedov)
1829 Nov 16, Anton G. Rubinstein,
Russian pianist, conductor and composer, was born.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1829 Nov 20, Jews were expelled
from Nikolayev and Sevastopol, Russia.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1829 Nov 28, Anton Rubinstein
(d.1894), pianist and composer (Omitri Doskoy), was born in
Vykhvatinetz, Podolia. He was the teacher of Tchaikovsky and considered
the only rival of Liszt. His work included 6 symphonies, dozens of
concertos and chamber works, and 20 operas, of which only "The Demon"
has shown staying power. It was based on Lermontov’s Byronic poem.
(WSJ, 7/16/96, p.A9)(MC, 11/28/01)
c1830 Franz Kreuger painted a
portrait of Empress Alexandra Fedorovna.
(SSFM, 4/1/01, p.61)
1830 Nicholas I ruthlessly
repressed the insurrection in Poland.
(WSJ, 4/13/99, p.A16)
1831 Feb 20, Polish
revolutionaries defeated the Russians in the Battle of Growchow.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1831 Feb 25, The Polish army
halted the Russian advance into their country at the Battle of Grochow.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1831 May 26, Russians defeated the
Poles at battle of Ostrolenska.
(HN, 5/26/98)
1831 Jul 30, Helene P. Blavatsky,
founder (Theosophist Cooperation), was born.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1832 Feb 26, The Polish
constitution was abolished by Czar Nicholas I.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1833 May 2, Czar Nicholas banned
the public sale of serfs.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1833 Nov 12, Aleksandr
Porfirievich Borodin (d.1887), physician, chemist, composer (Prince
Igor), was born in Russia. His work included the "Sunless" and
the opera "Prince Igor,’ which was left incomplete.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.T11)(WSJ, 2/6/00, p.A16)(MC,
11/12/01)(LGC, 1970, p.338)
1833 Alexander Pushkin, Russian
poet, wrote his poem "The Bronze Horseman" (Myedny Vsadnik).
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.T11)(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.P12)
1834 Feb 8, Dmitri Ivanovich
Mendeleyev (d.1907), Russian chemist, was born. He formulated the
periodic table of elements.
(V.D.-H.K.p.324)(HN, 2/8/01)
1834-1858 Imam Shamil (1797-1871) ruled over a
self-proclaimed imamat (Chechnya). He united part of the North
Caucasian highlanders in their struggle against tsarist Russia and set
up a theocratic sharia state known as imamat that resisted Tsarist
Russia for 27 years.
(www.chechnyafree.ru)
1835 Trinity Cathedral in St.
Petersburg, Russia, was consecrated. In 2006 a fire collapsed the
central dome and one of four smaller cupolas surrounding it.
(AP, 8/26/06)
1837 Jan 2, Mili Alexeyevich
Balakirev, composer (Tamara), was born in Nizhny-Novgorod, Russia.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1837 In St. Petersburg Alexander
Pushkin (b.1799), poet, was killed in a duel with his wife's suitor,
D'Anthes, a French nobleman. Pushkin's work included "Eugene Onegin," a
novel-in-verse, and "Boris Godunov," made famous in the Mussorgsky
opera. In 1993 an English translation of "Strolls With Pushkin" by
Abram Tertz (Andrei Sinyavsky) was published. In 1999 Elaine Feinstein
published "Pushkin: A Biography."
(SFC, 6/3/99, p.C2)(WSJ, 7/15/99, p.A16)(WSJ,
8/3/99, p.A23)
1839 Mar 9, Modest Petrovich
Moussorgsky (Mussorgsky), Russian composer, was born (d.1881). His work
included "Boris Godunov" and "Songs and Dances of Death." His work
"Khovanshchina" was finished and orchestrated by Shostakovich. [see Mar
21]
(WUD, 1994, p.936)(WSJ, 3/24/99, p.A25)(MC, 3/9/02)
1839 Mar 21, Modest Mussorgsky,
composer (Boris Godunov, Night on Bald Mt), was born. [see Mar 9]
(MC, 3/21/02)
1840 Apr 25, Peter Ilyich
Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (1812 Overture), was born. [see May 7]
(SS, 4/25/02)
1840 May 7, Peter Ilyich
Tchaikovsky (d. Nov 6,1893) was born in Kamsko-Votinsk, the Ural region
of Russia (d.1893). His family moved to St. Petersburg in 1850 and
there he studied until he graduated from the school of Jurisprudence
where he entered the Ministry of Justice as a clerk, first-class in
1859. He didn't start to study music seriously until he was 21 under
Nicolai Zaremba, and enrolled into the St. Petersburg Conservatory when
it opened in 1862. His work included the 1812 Overture. In 1985 Roland
John Wiley wrote "Tchaikovsky’s Ballets." [see Apr 25]
(LGC-HCS, p.354-355)(AP, 5/5/97)(WSJ, 11/18/97,
p.A20)(HN, 5/7/99)
1840 Aug 15, English Lt. Richmond
Shakespear began a 500-mile trek with 416 freed Russian slaves to the
Russian Fort Alexandrovsk on the Caspian Sea.
(ON, 4/00, p.8)
1840 Nov 3, English Lt. Richmond
Shakespear reached St. Petersburg, Russia, where Czar Nicholas thanked
him for freeing Russian slaves from the Khan of Kiva.
(ON, 4/00, p.8)
1841 Jul 27, Mikhail Yuryevich
Lermontov (b.1814), poet, novelist, died.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1841 Alexander II married Maria of
Hessen-Darmstadt (Maria Alexandrovna). The marriage produced seven
children.
(www2.sptimes.com/Treasures/TC.2.3.17.html)
1842 Jan 11, Russian authorities
closed down the Vilnius Medicine and Chiropractic Academy.
(LHC, 1/11/03)
1842 Dec 9, Mikail Glinka's his
epic opera "Russlan & Ludmilla," premiered in Petersburg. It was
based on Pushkin's Russianized version of Ariosto's "Orlando
Furioso."
(WSJ, 9/21/95, p.A-20)(MC, 12/9/01)
1844 Mar 6, Nicolai
Rimsky-Korsakov, orchestrator, composer, was born. His work included:
Flight of the Bumble Bee, Sadko, Mlada, Capriccio Espagnol, The Tsar's
Bride, Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1844 Sep 23, Count Alexander von
Benckendorff (b.1783), Russian Lieutenant General and statesman, died.
He was Adjutant General of the Svita and a commander in Patriotic War
of 1812 and is best remembered for having established the Gendarmes in
Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_von_Benckendorff)
1845 Feb 26, Alexander III,
Russian tsar (1881-94), was born in St Petersburg. [see Mar 10]
(SC, 2/26/02)
1845 Mar 10, Alexander III,
Russian tsar, was born. [see Feb 26]
(HN, 3/10/98)
1846 May 30, Peter Carl Faberge
(d.1920), Russian master jeweler and goldsmith was born (May 18 OS) in
St. Petersburg. His work includes the Imperial Coronation Easter Egg
(1896-1908), an enameled, diamond-studded golden egg about 5 inches
long that opens to reveal a 3-inch-long replica of the carriage that
took the czarina to her coronation in 1896; the rococo Imperial
Catherine the Great Easter Egg (1908-1917) and the Rectangular Box with
a monogram of tiny diamonds (1896-1908).
(SFC, 5/23/96,
p.D1,10)(www.britannica.com/ebi/article?tocId=9274244)
1848 Mar 29, Aleksei Kuropatkin,
Russian general, minister of War, was born (March 17 in the old style
calendar).
(www.russojapanesewar.com/kuro.html)
1848 Turgenev authored his comedy
"A Poor Gentleman." A 2002 Broadway production of the play was called
"Fortune’s Fool."
(WSJ, 4/3/02, p.A20)
1849 Jun 17, Russian troops
invaded Hungary.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.448)
1849 Aug 9, Russian forces
defeated the Hungarians at the Battle of Temesovar.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.448)
1849 Aug 11, Lajos Kossuth,
president of Hungary, abdicated in favor of Gen. Gorgey as Russia
intervened in the Hungarian revolution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajos_Kossuth)
1849 Aug 13, Hungary’s Gen. Gorgey
surrendered to the Russian forces. Russia gave Hungary back to Austria.
(PC, 1992 ed,
p.448)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajos_Kossuth)
1849 Sep 14(OS), Ivan Pavlov
(d.1936), Russian physiologist who studied dogs' responses to food
suggestions, was born. He won a Nobel Prize in 1904.
(HN,
9/14/98)(http://www.crystalinks.com/pavlov1.html)
1852 Feb 17, The Imperial Museum,
the 5th and last building of what became known as the New Hermitage,
opened to the public (Feb 2 OS) in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was
commissioned by Nicholas I and designed by Leo van Klenze of Germany.
(www.photofora.com/eugene/centralsquares/newhermitage.htm)(MT,
Winter/03, p.13)
1852 Feb 21, Nikolai Gogol,
Russian playwright (Dead Souls), died. [see Mar 4]
(MC, 2/21/02)
1852 Mar 4, Nikolai Gogol, Russian
writer (43), died. [see Feb 21]
(SC, 3/4/02)
1852 Apr 30, Anton Rubinstein’s
opera "Dmitri Donskoi," premiered in St. Petersburg.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1852-1853 Leo Tolstoy served as a young artillery
officer in Chechnya. He wrote his short story "The Raid" in 1853 based
on his experiences there.
(WSJ, 5/10/00, p.A1)
1853 Sep 20, The Allies defeated
the Russians at the battle of Alma on the Crimean Peninsula.
(HN, 9/20/98)
1854 Mar 28, During the Crimean
War, Britain and France declared war on Russia.
(AP, 3/28/97)
1854 Oct 25, During the Crimean
War, a brigade of British light infantry was destroyed by Russian
artillery as they charged down a narrow corridor in full view of the
Russians. The Crimean War is largely remembered for the Charge of the
Light Brigade, a hopeless but gallant British cavalry charge against a
heavily defended Russian force. The battle began when the Russians
attacked the British-French supply depot at Balaclava, some eight miles
from Sevastopol, on the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula. Taken by surprise,
the British counterattacked but failed to follow up. Through a staff
error, Gen. Lord Cardigan's Light Brigade of 673 horsemen was ordered
to charge the Russian position through a mile-long valley and prevent
them from carrying away some captured cannon. The Light Brigade
advanced up the valley, taking casualties all the way, and reached the
guns. But once there, they could not hold their position and were
forced to retreat. Of the 673 men who took part in the senseless
charge, only 195 were present at roll call that night. The Charge of
the Light Brigade ended the battle, but Balaclava remained in the hands
of the British-French Allies. The event was described in a poem by
Tennyson. French General Bosquet remarked "It is magnificent, but it is
not war."
(AP, 10/25/97)(HNPD, 10/25/98)(HN, 10/25/98)(MC,
10/25/01)
1854 Nov 5, The British and French
defeated the Russians at Inkerman, Crimea.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1854 In northern Russia Solovki
monks fought off a British naval siege.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.83)
1855 Feb 19, Nicholas I Pavlovich
(58), tsar of Russia (1825-55), died. Alexander II became tsar of
Russia.
(www2.sptimes.com/Treasures/TC.2.3.17.html)
1855 Apr 29, Anatol K. Liadov,
Russian composer (Bewitched Lake) [OS], was born.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1855 May 10, Anatoli Liadov,
composer (Enchanted Lake), was born in St Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1855 Sep 10, Sevastopol, under
siege for nearly a year, capitulated to the Allies.
(HN, 9/10/98)
1855 cNov 26, Allies captured of
the Malakoff fortress in Sevastopol.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)
1855 Alexander Herzen, the father
of Russian socialism, published "My Past and Thoughts." In 1998 Aileen
M. Kelly published "Toward Another Shore," a collection of writings on
the Russian Revolutionary tradition.
(WSJ, 8/24/98, p.A10)
1856 Feb 29, Hostilities in
Russo-Turkish war ceased.
(HN, 2/29/00)
1856 Mar 30, Russia signed Peace
of Paris ending the Crimean War.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1856 Apr 29, A peace treaty
between England and Russia was signed.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1857 Feb 15, Mikhail Ivanovich
Glinka (53), Russian composer (Russlan & Ludmilla), died.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1857 Sep 23, The Russian warship
Leffort disappeared in the Finland Gulf in a storm; 826 died.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1858 Jan 25, Mendelssohn's
"Wedding March" was 1st played, at the wedding of Queen Victoria's
daughter Princess Victoria to the crown prince of Prussia.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1858 Jul 2, Czar Alexander II
freed the serfs working on imperial lands.
(HN, 7/2/98)
1859 Nov 19, Mikhail Mikhayl
Ippolitov-Ivanov, Russian musician (Armenian Rhapsody), was born.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1859 Imam Shamil (1797-1871),
Caucasian (Chechen) warrior, surrendered and became an honorary captive
of Alexander II.
(SFC, 8/13/99, p.A14)
1859 The Muslim North Caucasus
region of Chechnya was incorporated into the Russian empire after
hundreds of years of fighting. Czarist armies conquered Chechnya after
decades of fighting.
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.A12)(SFC, 10/26/02, p.A10)
1860 Jan 17, Anton Chekhov
(d.1904), Russian playwright and short story writer, was born. "Man is
what he believes." He was famous for "The Seagull" and "Three Sisters.
" Part of his letters were published in a 1955 edition edited by
Lillian Hellman. In 1997 his later letters from 1899 to actress Olga
Knipper were edited by Jean Benedetti and published as: "Dear Writer,
Dear Actress: The Love Letters of Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper."
(WUD, 1994, p.252)(WSJ, 12/5/97, p.A16)(HN,
1/17/99)(AP, 5/24/99)
1860 Russian pioneers founded
Vladivostok.
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D4)
1861 Feb 27, In Warsaw, Russian
troops fired on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland. Five
marchers were killed.
(AP, 2/27/98)
1861 Mar 3, Russian Czar
Alexander II issued a manifest and statutes to end feudal control of
serfs as part of a program of westernization.
(HN, 3/3/99)(LHC,3/1/03)(WSJ, 12/6/07, p.D7)
1861 Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev,
chemist, determined that the maximum solubility of alcohol in water
occurs at a ratio of 40% to 60%. This became the ideal mixture for
sipping vodka for Russians.
(WSJ, 2/2/98, p.A23)
1861-1871 In 2007 Michael Knox Beran authored “Forge
of Empires: 1861-1871: Three Revolutionary Statesmen and the World They
Made,” a work of comparative history in which he focuses on the US,
Russia and the unifying German states during the 1860s.
(WSJ, 12/6/07, p.D7)
1862 Jul 1, Czar Alexander II
granted Jews the right to publish books.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1862 Nov 11, Verdi's Opera "La
Forza Del Destino" premiered in St Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1862 An earthquake in Russia’s
Lake Baikal region put 200 square km of lakeshore under water.
(Econ, 7/19/03, p.41)
1863 Jan 22, The interim
Lithuanian government in Warsaw announced an uprising against Russian
rule. The uprising aspired to restore the Polish-Lithuanian state and
was supported by large numbers of peasants.
(DrEE, 9/14/96, p.4)(LHC, 1/22/03)
1863 Oct 1, 5 Russian warships
were welcomed in NYC.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1864 Mar 2, Russian Czar
Alexander II upheld reforms in Poland that gave landholders ownership
of their lands.
(LHC,3/1/03)
1864 Tchaikovsky composed the
overture "The Storm."
(WSJ, 8/11/98, p.A16)
1865 Mar 1, Anna Paulowna Romanova
(70), great monarch of Russia, died.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1865 Aug 10, Alexander K.
Glazunov, composer (Chopiniana), was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1865 Sep 6, Russia forbade the use
of Latin letters in the Lithuanian language. Following the 1863
uprising the Czarist authorities prohibited the publication of
Lithuanian books in Roman letters. Books in Cyrillic were allowed but
not accepted by the people. Secret book couriers smuggled in Latin
lettered books until 1904.
(DrEE, 9/14/96, p.4)(LC, 1998, p.24)
1866 Apr 16, Karakozov attempted
to assassinate Tsar Alexander II of Russia.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1866 Dec 4, Wassily Kandinsky
(d.1944), Russian artist, was born. He is credited with the invention
of abstract art.
(WUD, 1994, p.778)(WSJ, 8/13/99, p.W10)(HN, 12/4/00)
1867 Feb 15, Fyodor Dostoevsky
married his stenographer Anna Snitkina in St. Petersburg.
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.45)
1867 Mar 29, The United States
purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars. [see Mar 30]
(HN, 3/29/99)
1867 Mar 30, U.S. Secretary of
State William H. Seward reached agreement with Russia’s Baron
Stoeckl to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, two cents
an acre, a deal roundly ridiculed as "Seward's Folly." The treaty was
signed the nest day.
(AP, 3/30/97)(HN, 3/30/01)
1867 Oct 9, The Russians formally
transferred Alaska to the US. The U.S. had bought Alaska for $7.2
million in gold.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1867 Oct 18, The United States
took formal possession of Alaska from Russia.
(AP, 10/18/97)
1868 Mar 16(OS), Maxim Gorkei
(Aleksvey Maksimovich Pyeshkov [aka Gorky], d.1936], Russian dramatist,
was born. "A good man can be stupid and still be good. But a bad man
must have brains." [see Mar 28]
(WUD, 1994 p.611)(HN, 3/16/98)(AP, 2/23/01)
1868 Mar 28(NS), Maxim Gorki,
Russian writer, was born. [see Mar 16]
(HN, 3/28/98)
1868 May 18, Nicholas II, the last
Russian czar, was born. He and his family, were assassinated by
revolutionaries.
(HN, 5/18/99)
1869 Feb 26, Nadezjda K.
Krupskaja, Russian revolutionary, wife of Lenin, was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1869 Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev
(1834-1907), Russian chemist, formulated the periodic table of elements
[see 1871]. In 2001 Paul Strathern authored "Mendeleyev’s Dream," a
history of chemistry.
(V.D.-H.K.p.324)(HN, 2/8/01)(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A17)
1870 Apr 22, Vladimir Ilyitch
Lenin (d.1924), also known as Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, Russian
revolutionary leader and first communist leader of USSR, was born. It
was later learned that he was a hereditary noble and that he had a
French mistress named Inessa Armand. In 1996 Richard Pipes edited "The
Unknown Lenin: From the Secret Archive."
(V.D.-H.K.p.260)(WSJ, 10/23/96, p.A19)(SFC, 3/27/97,
p.A15)(HN, 4/22/98)
1870 Jul 20, Vladimir D. Nabokov,
Russian jurist, minister of Justice (1918-19), was born.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1870s Nikolai Przhevalsky,
explorer and naturalist, noted that the "combat of the chirus
[antelope] is fierce, and that the long, sharp horns inflict terrible
wounds."
(NH, 5/96, p.51)
1871 Jul 29, [Gregory Efimovich]
Rasputin, mad Russian monk, seer, was born.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1871 Alexander Ostrovsky wrote
"The Forest." It was a comedy play of bad manners and greed that
featured the character Raissa Pavlovna, a cousin to Turgenev’s Natalia
Petrovna.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.E1)
1871 Russian chemist Dmitri
Mendeleyev developed the periodic classification system of the
elements, presenting a periodic table listing the elements in 1871.
[see 1869] Born in Siberia, the last of 17 children, Mendeleyev
eventually found success in academia. While writing a basic textbook on
chemistry in the 1860s, he attempted to find a way to classify the
elements. His periodic system gained acceptance over time. His periodic
table left gaps for elements as yet undiscovered, but he correctly
predicted the properties of three of those elements. The table and his
concepts of periodic law gained more acceptance with the approach of
the 20th century, forming the basis for modern chemistry.
(HNQ, 1/4/01)(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A17)
1872 Jan 6, Alexander N. Scriabin,
composer (Prometheus), was born in Moscow.
(MC, 1/6/02)
1872 Jan 12, Russian Grand Duke
Alexis began a gala buffalo hunting expedition with Gen. Phil Sheridan
and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1872 Mar 19, Sergei Diaghilev,
ballet director, was born in Gruzino Novgorod, Russia. [see Mar 31]
(MC, 3/19/02)
1872 Mar 31, Sergei Pavlovich
Diaghilev, dance master (Imperial Ballet), was born in Russia. [see Mar
19]
(MC, 3/31/02)
1872 Jun 6, Alexandra Fjodorovna
Romanova, the last Russian Tsarina (1894-1918), was born. She was later
killed with her husband by revolutionaries.
(HN, 6/6/99)(MC, 6/6/02)
1872 Fyodor Dostoevsky
(1821-1881), Russian author, completed his novel “The Possessed,” also
known as “Besy” or “The Devils.” In it he foresaw political terrorism
on the eve of its birth among revolutionary groups.
(WSJ, 1/28/06, p.P12)
1873 Mar 20, Sergei V.
Rachmaninov, Russian-US pianist, composer (Aleko), was born. [see Apr 1]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1873 Apr 1, Composer Sergei
Rachmaninoff (d.1943) was born in Novgorod Province, Russia. [see Mar
20]
(AP, 4/1/98)
1873 May 3, Nikolay N. Tcherepnin,
composer of ballets, songs, was born in St. Petersburg.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1873 May 15, Nikolay N.
Tcherepnin, composer of ballets, songs, was born in St Petersburg,
Russia.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1873 Repin created his painting
"The Volga Barge."
(SSFC, 11/3/02, p.M6)
1874 Jul 26, Serge Koussevitsky,
conductor of the Boston Symphony, was born in Vishny-Volotchok, Russia.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1874 Kramskoi created his painting
"The Peasant Ignatii Pirogov."
(SSFC, 11/3/02, p.M6)
1875 Russia recognized Japan's
control over the 4 southernmost Kurile Islands.
(SFC, 1/19/99, p.A8)
1876 Apr 22, Tchaikovsky completed
his "Swan Lake" ballet.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1876 Russia under Alexander II
invaded Ottoman-controlled Bulgaria with a mixture of humanitarian and
imperialistic motives following reports that Turks were massacring
Bulgarians.
(SFC, 9/7/08, Books p.5)
1877 Mar 4, The Russian Imperial
Ballet staged the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s incomplete ballet
"Zwanenmeer" (Swan Lake) in Moscow.
(WSJ, 5/18/99, p.A24)(HN, 3/4/01)(SC, 3/4/02)
1877 Apr 24, Russia declared war
on the Ottoman Empire.
(HN, 4/24/98)
1877 Nov 17, Russians launched a
surprise night attack that overran Turkish forces at Kars, Armenia.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1877 Dec 14, Serbia joined Russia
in war on Turkey.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1877-1878 The Russo-Turkish War.
(AP, 7/13/97)
1878 Feb 10, Peter Tchaikovsky’s
4th Symphony in F, premiered.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1878 Mar 3, Russia and the
Ottomans signed the treaty of San Stefano, granting independence to
Serbia. With the Treaty of San Stefano (and subsequent negotiations in
Berlin) in the wake of the last Russo-Turkish War, the Ottoman Empire
lost its possession of numerous territories including Bulgaria,
Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia. The Russo-Turkish wars dated to the
17th century, the Russians generally gaining territory and influence
over the declining Ottoman Empire. In the last war, Russia and Serbia
supported rebellions in the Balkans. In concluding the Treaty of San
Stefano, the Ottomans released control of Montenegro, Romania and
Serbia, granted autonomy to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and allowed an
autonomous state of Bulgaria to be placed under Russian control.
(HN, 3/3/99)(HNQ, 2/23/01)
1878 Jul 13, The Treaty of Berlin
amended the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, which had ended the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The Congress of Berlin divided the
Balkans among European powers. Austria-Hungary and Britain, alarmed at
the possibilities of growing Russian power, concluded the Treaty of
Berlin, reducing the military and political gains Russia had made with
the San Stefano treaty.
(AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)(HNQ, 2/23/01)
1878 Aug 13, Leonid Vladimirovich
Nikolayev, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1878 A repressive general of the
Russian Czar was shot and wounded by revolutionary Vera Zasulich. She
was able to talk a jury into acquitting her. Oscar Wilde’s first play,
“Vera” (1883), was inspired by her actions.
(SFC, 9/24/08, p.E1)
1878 In Afghanistan the new amir,
Dost Mohammad’s son, signed a treaty of friendship with Russia. British
Gen’l. Frederick "Little Bobs" Roberts was sent with an army to force
Afghanistan into a treaty ceding foreign policy to the British. The
treaty was concluded but the British envoy was murdered.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)
1879 Mar 29, Tchaikovsky’s opera
"Yevgeny Onegin," premiered in Moscow.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1879 Oct 26, Leon Trotsky
(d.1940), a leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, was born. "Old age is
the most unexpected of all the things that happen to a man." [see Nov 8]
(AP, 8/21/98)(HN, 10/26/98)
1879 Nov 7, Leon Davidovitsj
Trotsky, [Leib Bronstein], Russian revolutionary, was born. [see Oct
26, Nov 8]
(MC, 11/7/01)
1879 Nov 8, Leon Trotsky, Russian
communist leader who rivaled Lenin, was born. [see Oct 26, Nov 7]
(HN, 11/6/98)
1879 Dec 21, Iosif Vissarionovich
Dzhugashvili, aka Joseph Stalin, was born. Joseph Stalin, Communist
leader of the Soviet Union was responsible for the killing of more than
10 million of his own people.
(HN, 12/21/98)(HNQ, 4/6/00)
1880 Feb 17, Tsar Alexander II of
Russia survived an assassination attempt.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1880 Apr 26, Mikhail Fokine
(d.1942), choreographer, founder of modern dance, was born in Russia.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1880 Jul 6, Russia’s Tsar
Alexander II, less than a month after Tsarina Maria's death on June 8,
formed a morganatic marriage with his mistress Princess Catherine
Dolgoruki, with whom he already had three children. A fourth child
would be born to them before his death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_II_of_)
1880s-1890s Lev Ivanov was the second ballet master
of the St. Petersburg imperial theaters, assistant to Marius Petipa. In
1997 Roland John Wiley published "The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov."
(WSJ, 11/18/97, p.A20)
1881 Feb 4, Kliment J. Woroshilov,
marshal, president USSR (1953-60), was born.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1881 Feb 9, Feodor M. Dostoevsky
(59), Russian novelist (Crime & Punishment), died.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1881 Mar 13, Alexander II
(b.1818), Tsar of Russia, was assassinated. A bomb was thrown at him
near his palace by the anarchist group People’s Will led by Sophia
Perovskaya. He was succeeded by his son Alexander III (36). A wave of
repression and persecution followed. In 2005 Edvard Radzinsky authored
the biography “Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar.”
(PCh, 1992, p.557)(WSJ, 4/17/03, p.D8)(WSJ,
10/27/05, p.D7)
1881 Mar 16, Modest P. Mussorgsky
(42), Russian composer (Boris Godunov), died. [see Mar 28]
(MC, 3/16/02)
1881 Mar 28, Modest Petrovich
Mussorgsky (42), composer, died. [see Mar 16]
(MC, 3/28/02)
1881 Apr 22, Alexander Kerensky,
Russian PM (1917), was born in Simbirsk.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1881 Apr 27, Pogroms against
Russian Jews started in Elisabethgrad.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1881 May 4, Aleksandr F. Kerenski,
Russian premier (1917) Predecessor to Bolshevist coup), was born.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1882 Jan 31, Anna Pavlova,
ballerina, choreographer, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1882 May 15, May Laws: Czar
Alexander III banned Jews from living in rural Romania.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1882 Jun 10, Vasily Perov
(b.1833), Russian painter, died.
(http://center.rusmuseum.ru/InetBookNew/perov_paint_eng.html)
1882 Jun 17, Igor Fedorovich
Stravinsky (d.1971), U.S. composer, was born in Oranienbaum, Russia. He
wrote "The Rite of Spring" and "The Firebird" among other symphonies.
His work also included "The Rake’s Progress" and "Oedipus Rex." The
libretto for Rake’s Progress was written by W.H. Auden and Chester
Kallman.
(WUD, 1994, p.1405)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A8)(WSJ,
12/4/96, p.A16)(HN, 6/17/98)
1883 Mar 13, Sergei Degaev (26)
shot and killed Lt. Col. Georgii Sudeikin, security chief of Czar
Alexander III. The 2 men had conspired to undermine both the government
and the Revolutionary People’s Will. Degaev fled Russia to the US where
he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics at Johns Hopkins and became the 1st
math prof. At the new Univ. of South Dakota, where he taught until he
died in 1921. In 2003 Richard Pipes authored “The Degaev Affair.”
(WSJ, 4/17/03, p.D8)
1883 Apr 1, Aleksander V.
Aleksandrov, Russian composer, conductor, was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1883 Sep 3, Ivan Turgenev
(b.1818), Russian writer, died in France. In 1977 V.S. Pritchett
authored the biography “The Gentle Barbarian: The Life and Work of
Turgenev.” In 2005 Robert Dessaiz authored “Twilight of Love: Travels
With Turgenev,” an exploration of Turgenev’s work.
(www.nndb.com/people/697/000055532/)(SSFC, 9/18/05,
p.F2)
1883 Sep 14, A Ukase barred
Yiddish theater in Russia.
(www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1010)
1883 Dec 10, Andrej J. Vyshinski,
Russian lawyer, foreign minister and UN-ambassador, was born.
(MC, 12/10/01)
1883 The opera "Mazeppa" by
Tchaikovsky was completed.
(WSJ, 5/7/98, p.A21)
1883-1888 "Chekhov: The Early Stories 1883-1888" was
later translated and published by Patrick Miles and Harvey Pitcher.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, BR p.5)
1884 Feb 18, Police seized all
copies of Tolstoy's "What I Believe In."
(MC, 2/18/02)
1884 Alexander Ostrovsky, social
realist, wrote his play "Innocent as Charged."
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.A24)
1884 Russia’s Czar Alexander III
commissioned jeweler Carl Faberge to make an Easter egg for the
Empress. She received the 1st egg in 1885 and the tradition continued
to 1917.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.M2)
1885 Jan 3, Anna Pavlova
Russia’s premier ballerina, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1885 Mar 30, In Afghanistan,
Russian troops inflicted a crushing defeat on Afghan forces Ak Teppe
despite orders not to fight.
(HN, 3/30/99)
1885 Nov 17, The Serbian Army,
with Russian support, invaded Bulgaria.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1886 Feb 23, Tchaikovsky’s
symphonic poem "Manfred" premiered.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1886 Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910),
Russian writer, authored his novel “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.”
(WSJ, 2/25/06, p.P6)
1886 Alexander Ostrovsky (b.1823),
social realist playwright, died.
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.A24)
1887 Feb 15, Alexander Borodin
(b.1833), Russian composer, died. He had worked on his epic opera
"Prince Igor" for 18 years. It was completed in 1888 by Glazunov and
Rimsky-Korsakov. [see Feb 27]
(WSJ, 9/19/96, p.A18)(WSJ, 5/7/98, p.A21)(WSJ,
2/6/00, p.A16)(MC, 2/15/02)
1887 Feb 27, Alexander
Porfiryevich Borodin (53), Russian physician, composer (Prince Igor),
died. [see Feb 15]
(MC, 2/27/02)
1887 Mar 23, Felix Felixovitch
Yussupov (Youssoupoff), Russian prince, murderer of Rasputin, was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1887 Mar 24, Ivan Kramskoy
(b.1837), Russian portrait painter, died.
(www.asopa.com/publications/2002december/kramskoy.htm)
1887 May 8, Alexander Ulyanov,
brother of Lenin, was hanged for assassination of tsar.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1887 Jul 7, Marc Chagall (d.1985),
French painter and designer, was born in Vitebsk, Russia. He left there
in 1907 to attend art school in St. Petersburg. He was sent to Paris by
a benefactor and befriended Chaim Soutine and Alexander Archipenko and
stayed until 1914. "From late cubism he adopted a manner of making
forms and space interpenetrate." His work included "Les Amoureux" (The
Lovers - 1916), a portrait of himself and his wife. In 1996 it sold for
$4.2 mil. In 1997 Mikhail Guerman published "Marc Chagall: The Land of
My Heart - Russia."
(SFC,7/2/96,p.E3)(WSJ,10/8/96,p.A20)(SFEC,12/797,Par
p.6)(HN, 7/7/01)
1887 Oct 31, Rimsky-Korsakov's
"Capricio Espagnol," premiered in St Petersburg.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1887 Alexander Ulyanov, the older
brother of Lenin, was executed for a conspiracy to assassinate Czar
Alexander III.
(WSJ, 10/5/00, p.A24)
1887 Chekhov’s first completed
play, "Ivanov," was a technical and critical disaster. A revised
version faired better in 1889.
(WSJ, 11/21/97, p.A20)
1888 Apr 26, Aleksandr Mikhailov,
astronomer, was born in USSR.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1888 Nov 10, Andrej N. Tupelov,
Russian aircraft builder, was born.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1888 Nov 17, Peter Tchaikovsky's
5th Symphony premiered in St. Petersburg.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1888 Nikolai Ivanovich (d.1938),
Russian editor, writer and Communist leader, was born.
(WUD, 1994, p.195)(WSJ, 5/19/99, p.A20)
1889 May 25, Igor Sikorsky,
aviation engineer, was born in Russia. He moved to America in 1919 and
developed the first successful helicopter.
(HN, 5/25/99)(ON, 3/06, p.5)
1889 Jul 29, Vladimir Zworykin,
called the "Father of Television" for inventing the iconoscope, was
born in Russia.
(AP, 7/30/97)
1890 Feb 10, Boris Pasternak
(d.1960), Russian novelist and author, was born. His greatest novel,
Dr. Zhivago, was rejected for publication in the USSR "No single man
makes history. History cannot be seen, just as one cannot see grass
growing." [OS][see Feb 18]
(AP, 10/6/98)(HN, 2/10/99)
1890 Feb 18, Boris L. Pasternak,
Russian poet, writer (Dr. Zhivago), was born. [ NS][see Feb 10]
(MC, 2/18/02)
1890 Feb 28, Vaslav Nijinsky,
ballet dancer (3/12 NS), was born in Kiev, Ukraine. He was the
pre-eminent ballet artist of his day and at 20 became the protege and
lover of Sergei Diaghilev. He spent some time in psychotherapy during
which he made a number of abstract drawings. Nijinsky died in 1950 in
London. [see Mar 12]
(SFC, 9/29/97, p.E5)(MC, 2/28/02)
1890 Mar 9, Vyacheslav Molotov,
former Soviet Prime Minister and signer of a non-aggression pact with
Nazi Germany, was born.
(HN, 3/9/99)
1890 Mar 12, Vasav Nijinsky
(d.1950), Russian dancer, was born. He was considered the world's
greatest ballet dancer. [see Feb 28]
(HN, 3/12/99)
1890 Aug 12, Al Goodman Nikopol,
orchestra leader (NBC Comedy Hour), was born in Russia.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1890 Oct 23, Borodin's Opera
"Prince Igor" was produced posthumously in St. Petersburg.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1890 Leo Tolstoy wrote his novel
"The Kreutzer Sonata."
(WUD, 1994, p.795)
1890 Anton Chekhov visited the
Russian penal colony at Sakhalin. The experience crystallized his
political awareness.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.8)
1891 Apr 23, Jews were expelled
from Moscow.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1891 May 8, Helena Petrovna
Blavatskaya (b.1831), Russian theosophist (Madame Blavatsky), died.
(WUD, 1994 p.157)(MC, 5/8/02)
1891 May 15, Mikhail Bulgakov
(d.1940), Russian novelist (Notes of a Dead Man, Heart of a Dog), was
born.
(HN, 5/15/01)(Econ, 3/13/04, p.86)
1891-1892 A severe famine led to the death of many
peasants.
(WSJ, 10/5/00, p.A24)
1891-1967 Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian writer. He was the
Paris correspondent for Izvestia at the outset of Stalin’s purges in
1932, and won the Stalin Peace Prize in 1953. His books include: "The
Ninth Wave" (1951), "The Thaw," and "People, Years and Life," his
memoirs that began coming out it Novy Mir in 1960. Joshua Rubenstein
wrote his biography in 1996 titled: "Tangled Loyalties: The Life and
Times of Ilya Rubenstein."
(WSJ, 4/2/96, p.A-12)
1892 Oct 8, Sergei Rachmaninoff
first publicly performed his piano "Prelude in C-sharp Minor" in Moscow.
(AP, 10/8/97)
1892 Dec 18, Tchaikovsky's "The
Nutcracker Suite" ["Nutcracker Ballet"] publicly premiered in St.
Petersburg, Russia, at the Maryinsky Theater.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, DB p.44)(AP, 12/18/97)
1892 Pavel Tretyakov, a wealthy
Moscow businessman and patron of the arts, donated his collection of
about 1200 works to the city of Moscow, together with the wing of his
residence in which the works were housed. In the Hall of Ivanov the
"Appearance of Christ to the People" dominates the room.
(WSJ, 2/21/96, p.A-12)(WSJ, 8/12/96, p.A11)
1893 Jul 19, Vladimir Mayakovsky,
Russian poet, was born.
(HN, 7/19/01)
1893 Oct 28, Peter Ilyich
Tchaikovsky conducted the first public performance of his Symphony
Number Six in B minor ("Pathetique") in St. Petersburg, Russia, just
nine days before his death.
(AP, 10/28/98)
1893 Nov 6, Composer Peter Ilyich
Tchaikovsky died in St. Petersburg, Russia, at age 53.
(HFA, '96, p.18)(AP, 11/6/97)
1893 Nov 22, M. Kaganovitsj Kogan,
people's commissioner for Stalin, was born.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1893 The Kresty Prison in St.
Petersburg was built to hold political prisoners. In 2001 some 8,800
men were crammed into it with as many as 14 men per cell.
(SFC, 5/23/01, p.A10)
1893 The Russalka, a 19th
century ironclad, Russian vessel sank in the Baltic Sea with 177
sailors aboard. In 2003 it was discovered off the Finnish coast.
(AP, 7/26/03)
1893 Many Russian pilgrims for the
ceremony of the Holy Fire Shrine at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
died in a snowstorm north of Jerusalem.
(Econ, 12/16/06, p.61)
1894 Apr 17, Nikita S Khrushchev
(d.1971), Soviet premier (1958-64) during the Cold War, was born.
(HN, 4/17/99)
1894 May 10, Dimitri Tiomkin,
composer (Academy Award 1954- High and Mighty), was born in Russia.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1894 Oct 20 (OS), Alexander III
(b.1845), Russian tsar (b.1881-94), died in Livadia, Crimea.
(MT, Fall/03, p.12)(www2.sptimes.com)y
1894 Nov 20, Anton Rubinstein
(64), Russian composer (Dmitri Donskoi), died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1895 Feb 8, Tchaikovsky's "Swan
Lake," premiered in Petersburg.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1895 Feb 18, Semjon Timoshenko,
Russian marshal, inspector-general (WW II), was born.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1895 Apr 23, Russia, France, and
Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong peninsula to China.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1895 Apr 24, S. Constantine
Timoshenko, Russian marshal, people's commissioner, was born.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1895 Jun 11, Nikolai A. Bulganin,
premier of the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1958, was born.
(HN, 6/11/99)
1895 The first Mormon missionaries
went to Russia.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A12)
1896 May 26, Nicholas II, the last
Czar of Russia, was crowned.
(HN, 5/26/98)
1896 Aug 9, Leonide Massine,
Russian-born US choreographer (Diaghilev Ballet Russe 1914-20), was
born.
(WUD, 1994, p.882)(MC, 8/9/02)
1896 Oct 7, Nicholas and Alexandra
of Russia made a state visit to France and with Pres. Felix Faure
laid the cornerstone for the Pont Alexandre III.
(WSJ, 6/26/96, p.A16)
1896 Nov 26, Russia disclosed a
plan to seize Constantinople if Britain intervenes in Crete.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1896 Dec 2, Georgi Zukov, Soviet
general during World War II who captured Berlin, was born.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1896 Jane Addams visited Russia.
Tolstoy berated her as an absentee landlord.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A16)
1897 The Protocols of the Elders
of Zion were 1st printed. They were copied from a novel by Hermann
Goedsche and believed to be concocted by the secret police of Czar
Nicholas II. Goedsche claimed a secret group of rabbis were plotting to
take over the world. His story was based on Maurice Joly’s "Dialogues
in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu."
(SFC, 10/24/02, p.A9)
1897 The Singer sewing machine
company built a huge factory in Russia.
(SFC, 5/16/01, p.D4)
1898 Jan 10, Sergei M. Eisenstein
(d.1948), Russian director (Alexandr Nevski) [OS], was born in Riga,
Latvia. He became a renowned film director in Russia. In 1999 Ronald
Bergan published the biography: "Sergei Eisenstein: A Life In
Conflict." [see Jan 23]
(SFEC, 5/2/99, BR p.1,10)(MC, 1/10/02)
1898 Jan 23, Sergei Eisenstein,
Russian film director (Battleship Potemkin), was born. [see Jan
10]
(MC, 1/23/02)
1898 Dec 16, Pavel Tretyakov
(b.1832), founder of Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Tretyakov)
1898 Rimsky-Korsakov fashioned a
short play by Alexander Pushkin, "Mozart and Salieri," into a one-act
opera.
(WSJ, 1/14/04, p.D10)
1898 Harbin, China, was built by
Russian workers who extended the trans-Siberian railway across
Heilongjiang province.
(SFC, 5/8/01, p.C2)
1898 Konstantin Stanislavsky and a
partner founded the Moscow Art Theater.
(WSJ, 2/11/98, p.A20)
1899 Jan 2, Alexander Tcherepnin,
composer, was born in St Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1899 Mar 18, Lavrenti Beria
(d.1953), chief of Soviet secret police under Stalin, was born.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1899 Apr 23, Vladimir Nabokov
(d.1977), writer, was born in Russia. His work included "Lolita,"
"Pnin," and "Pale Fire." He was an avid butterfly collector. "There is
no science without fancy, and no art without facts."
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A5)(WSJ, 4/22/99,
A20)(http://lib.ru/NABOKOW/nabokr.txt)
1899 Leo Tolstoy published his
last big novel: "Resurrection." In 1999 composer Tod Machover debuted
his opera "Resurrection" with the Houston Grand Opera. It was based on
Tolstoy's work.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A20)
1900 Sep 1, Andrei Vlasov, Russian
general (Red Army, Wehrmacht), was born.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1900 Nov 7, Efrem Kurtz, conductor
(Houston Symph 1948-54), was born in St Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1900 Nov 9, Russia completed its
occupation of Manchuria.
(HN, 11/9/98)
1900 Dec 9, The Russian Czar
rejected Paul Kruger’s pleas for aid to the Boers in South Africa
against the British.
(HN, 12/9/01)
1900 Apollinarius Vaznetsov
painted a view of workmen building the 12th century wooden ramparts of
the Kremlin.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.31)
1901 Jan 31, Chekhov's "Three
Sisters" opened at Moscow Art Theater.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1901 Nov 25, Japanese Prince Ito
arrived in Russia to seek concessions in Korea.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1901 Anton Chekhov (d.1904),
Russian playwright, married German actress Olga Knipper. In 2004 Antony
Beevor authored “The Mystery of Olga Chekhova,” the story of Olga
Knipper’s niece and nephew.
(SSFC, 9/11/04, p.M3)
1901 The Russian Orthodox Church
excommunicated writer Leo Tolstoy, a self-described Christian
Anarchist, for blasphemy.
(WSJ, 1/18/08, p.W10)
1902 Jan 8, Georgy M. Malenkov,
Stalin's successor as head of CPSU, PM (1953-55), was born.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1902 Feb 1, U.S. Secretary of
State John Hay protested Russian privileges in China as a violation of
the "open door policy."
(HN, 2/1/99)
1902 Mar 20, France and Russia
acknowledged the Anglo-Japanese alliance, but asserted their right to
protect their interests in China and Korea.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1902 Anton Chekhov published his
collected works.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, BR p.5)
1902 "The Lower Depths," a play by
Maxim Gorky premiered in Moscow. It focused on the desperately poor,
homeless and disaffected people of the time.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.B1)
1902 V.I. Lenin’s What Is To Be
Done? was published and espoused the need for a disciplined,
centrally-directed revolutionary party. This work, along with several
articles preceding it, comprised Lenin’s most distinctive contributions
to Communist theory. His three key theoretical elements were: that the
workers have no revolutionary consciousness and that their spontaneous
actions will not lead to revolution; that consciousness must be brought
to workers by intellectual leaders; and the revolutionary party must
consist of full-time, disciplined, centrally-directed professionals
capable of acting as one man.
(HNQ, 3/22/99)
1903 Mar 12, The Czar of Russia
issued a decree providing for nominal freedom of religion throughout
his territory.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1903 Apr 17, Gregor Piatigorsky,
cellist, was born in Ekaterinoslav, Russia.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1903 Apr, Russia instigated a
Jewish pogrom in Kishinev, Bessarabia (Moldova). 49 people died and
some 600 were seriously injured.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1903 Jun 6, Composer Aram
Khachaturian was born in Tiflis, Russia.
(AP, 6/6/03)
1903 Nov 17, Vladimir Lenin’s
efforts to impose his own radical views on the Russian Social
Democratic Labor Party split the Party into two factions, the
Bolsheviks, who supported Lenin, and the Mensheviks. The followers of
the Marxist revolutionary line espoused by V.I. Lenin called themselves
the majority, or Bolsheviks, and referred to their rivals as the
minority, or Mensheviks. The Mensheviks took a less radical position,
seeking cooperation with middle-class parties. The two factions grew
into separate parties, with Bolshevism becoming the strategy that led
to the overthrow of Russian czarism and the establishment of soviet
power in the revolutions of 1917. The Bolsheviks renamed themselves the
Russian Communist Party in 1918 and the word Bolshevik was finally
dropped from the official title of the Soviet Communist Party in 1956.
(HN, 11/17/98)(HNQ, 3/17/00)
1903 Marius Petipa, director of
the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg for 40 years, was pensioned off.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A20)
1903 Rasputin, the Russian monk
and confidant of the Romanov’s, came to St. Petersburg as an ascetic
holy man and claimed to be inspired by visions of the Virgin Mary.
(WSJ, 3/25/96, p.A-15)
1903 The Kishinev pogrom in
Odessa, Russia set Vladimir Jabotinsky afire with the Jewish cause and
placed him on a Zionist path. His biography: "Lone Wolf" by Shmuel Katz
was published in Hebrew in 1993 and in English in 1996.
(WSJ, 4/22/96, p.A-20)
1904 Jan 6, A Japanese railway in
Korea refused to transport Russian troops.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1904 Feb 4, Russia offered Korea
to Japan and defended its right to occupy Manchuria.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1904 Feb 6, Japan's foreign
minister severed all ties with Russia, citing delaying tactics in
negotiations over Manchuria.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1904 Feb 8, The Russo-Japanese War
began. In a surprise attack at Port Arthur, Korea, the Japanese
disabled seven Russian warships. During the war, Russia suffered a
series of stunning defeats to Japan; the fighting ended with an
agreement mediated by President Theodore Roosevelt, who went on to win
the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
(HN, 2/7/97)(AP, 2/8/04)
1904 Feb 10, Russia and Japan
declared war on each other.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1904 Feb 20, Alexei Kosygin,
Soviet Premier, was born.
(HN, 2/20/98)
1904 Mar 7, The Japanese bombed
the Russian town of Vladivostok.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1904 Mar 15, Three hundred
Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1904 Mar 24, Vice Adm. Tojo sank
seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port
Arthur.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1904 Jul 15, Anton Pavlovich
Chekhov (44), Russian writer (Uncle Vanya), died of tuberculosis.
Chekhov wrote his play "The Cherry Orchard" in this year. In 1998
Donald Rayfield published "Anton Chekhov: A Life." An assay of his
plays was written by Maurice Vallency: "The Breaking string." Vladimir
Nabokov examined his short stories in "Lectures on Russian Literature."
In 1988 V.S. Pritchett wrote a biography. In 1998 Philip Callow
published "Chekhov: The Hidden Ground," and Donald Rayfield published
"Anton Chekhov: A Life." In 1999 Peter Constantine translated and
published "Undiscovered Chekhov: Thirty-Eight New Stories."
(WUD, 1994, p.252)(WSJ, 11/5/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 3/9/98,
p.A16)(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.8)(SFEC, 2/14/99, BR p.6)(MC, 7/15/02)
1904 Jul 21, After 13 years, the
4,607-mile Trans-Siberian railway was completed. [see Jul 31]
(MC, 7/21/02)
1904 Jul 31, The Trans-Siberian
railroad connecting the Ural mountains with Russia’s Pacific coast, was
completed. [see Jul 21]
(HN, 7/31/98)
1904 Aug 6, The Japanese army in
Korea surrounded a Russian army retreating to Manchuria.
(HN, 8/6/98)
1904 Aug 12, Aleksei N. Romanov,
son of tsar Nicolas II, was born.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1904 Aug 24, In the field battle
at Liaoyang, China, some 200,000 Japanese faced 150,000 Russians. The
Japanese defeated the Russians in October.
(MC, 8/24/02)(PC, 1992, p.654)
1904 Sep 19, Gen. Nogi assaulted
Port Arthur: 16,000 Japanese casualties.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1904 Oct 1, Vladimir Horowitz,
Russian-born American virtuoso pianist, was born in Kiev, Ukraine.
(HN, 10/1/98)(MC, 10/1/01)
1904 Oct 16, The Russian Baltic
fleet under Rear-Admiral Zinovi Rozhestvensky departed to lift the
Japanese blockade at Port Arthur, Manchuria.
(ON, 5/04, p.6)
1904 Oct 22, The Russian Baltic
fleet mistakenly fired on British fishing ships near Dogger Bank
killing 2 fishermen. The fleet was in fear of Japanese torpedo boats.
(ON, 5/04, p.7)
1904 Nov 28, The pivotal capture
by the Japanese of 203 Meter Hill overlooking Port Arthur occurred
during the bloodiest battle of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. The
battle of November 28-December 5, 1904, resulted in Japanese forces
taking the strategic 203 Meter Hill, allowing them to bombard and sink
the Russian fleet in the harbor at Port Arthur. Russia
surrendered the city of Port Arthur to Japan on January 1, 1905.
(HNQ, 9/20/99)
1904 Dec 5, Japanese destroyed
Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1904 Dec 16, Japanese warships
quit Port Arthur in order to cut off the Russian Baltic fleet’s advance.
(HN, 12/16/98)
1904 Dec 30, Dmitri B. Kabalevsky,
composer, was born in St Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1904 Dec 31, Nathan Milstein,
concert violinist, was born in Odessa, Russia.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1905 Jan 2, After a six-month
siege, Russians surrendered Port Arthur to the Japanese.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1905 Jan 9, (Old Style calendar)
On what would become known as "Bloody Sunday," Russian Orthodox Father
George Gapon led a procession in St. Petersburg of some 200,000 who
were marching on the Winter Palace to present their grievances to Czar
Nicholas. Troops on the scene panicked, firing into the crowd and
killing hundreds, thus igniting the Revolution of 1905. Across Russia,
government officials were attacked, peasants seized private estates and
workers’ strikes virtually paralyzed the economy. In St. Petersburg, a
council (soviet) of workers’ delegates threatened to take over the
government. Nicholas consented to the adoption of a constitution
and election of a parliament (Duma). The first Duma met in 1906. [see
Jan 22]
(HNQ, 10/1/00)
1905 Jan 22, (New Style calendar)
On what would become known as “Bloody Sunday,” Russian Orthodox Father
George Gapon led a procession in St. Petersburg of some 200,000 who
were marching on the Winter Palace to present their grievances to Czar
Nicholas. Troops on the scene panicked, firing into the crowd and
killing hundreds, thus igniting the Revolution of 1905. Across Russia,
government officials were attacked, peasants seized private estates and
workers’ strikes virtually paralyzed the economy. In St. Petersburg, a
council (soviet) of workers’ delegates threatened to take over the
government. Nicholas consented to the adoption of a constitution
and election of a parliament (Duma). The first Duma met in 1906. [see
Jan 9]
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A27)(HNQ, 10/1/00)(AP, 1/22/07)
1905 Jan 27, Russian General
Kuropatkin took the offensive in Manchuria. The Japanese under General
Oyama suffered heavy casualties.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1905 Feb 2, Ayn Rand (d.1982),
writer and social philosopher (Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead), was born
in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her work espoused the political-economic
philosophy of Objectivism, capitalism and what she called "rational
selfishness." She graduated from the University of Leningrad in 1924
and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a citizen in 1931. In
Objectivism, the individual alone and his acts of self-interest are
seen as the positive driving force of society. Rand rejected ideologies
of altruism and self-sacrifice. Her novels "Fountainhead" (1943) and
"Atlas Shrugged" (1957) and a number of non-fiction works brought wide
recognition to her and her theories. Rand founded the journal The
Objectivist in 1962. She died in 1982. "Upper classes are a nation’s
past; the middle class is its future." "So you think that money is the
root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of money?"
(AP, 4/30/97)(AP, 5/13/98)(HNPD, 9/27/99)(MC, 2/2/02)
1905 Feb 21, The Mukden campaign
of the Russo-Japanese War, began. In one of the largest battles ever
fought up to that time, some 750,000 Japanese and Russian soldiers
engaged in the battle for Mukden in the Russo-Japanese War. The 3-week
battle pitted 400,000 Japanese and 350,000 Russians stretched over a
front extending more than 90 miles. More than 100,000 were left dead or
injured as the Russians began a retreat toward Harbin on March 9.
(HN, 2/21/98)(HNQ, 4/23/99)
1905 Feb 24, Russian Minister of
Agriculture, Alexi Yermolov offered the Czar a new constitution.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1905 Feb 27, Japanese pushed
Russians back in Manchuria, and cross the Sha River.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1905 Mar 3, The Russian Czar
agreed to create an elected assembly.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1905 Mar 5, Russians began to
retreat from Mukden in Manchuria.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1905 Mar 8, The peasant revolt in
Russia was reported to be spreading to Georgia.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1905 May 24, Mikhail Sholokhov,
Russian novelist (And Quiet Flows the Don), was born. He won a Nobel
Prize in 1965.
(HN, 5/24/01)(MC, 5/24/02)
1905 May 27, The Russian-Japanese
naval Battle of Tsushima began. Japanese fleet destroyed the Russian
East Sea fleet in Straits of Tushima. [see May 28]
(ON, 5/04, p.9)
1905 May 28, A Japanese fleet
under Adm. Heihachiro Togo defeated a Russian fleet under Adm. Zinovi
Petrovich Rozhestvensky in the Battle of Tsushima. The Russian fleet
lost 22 ships out of 38 to the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima
Straits. In 2002 Constantine Pleshakov authored "The Tsar’s Last
Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima."
(WSJ, 9/6/00, p.A27)(ON, 5/04, p.9)
1905 Jun 8, US Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt offered to act as a mediator in the Russo-Japanese War.
(AP, 6/8/05)
1905 Jun 10, Japan and Russia
agreed to peace talks brokered by President Theodore Roosevelt.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1905 Jun 27, The battleship
Potemkin succumbed to a mutiny on the Black Sea.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1905 Jun 29, Russian troops
intervened as riots erupt in ports all over the country, leaving many
ships looted.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1905 Jul 8, The mutinous crew of
the battleship Potemkin surrendered to Rumanian authorities.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1905 Jul 22, Boris Alexandrov,
conductor (Red Army Song/Dance Ensemble), was born.
(MC, 7/22/02)
1905 Sep 5, The Russian-Japanese
War ended as representatives of the combating empires, meeting in New
Hampshire, signed the Treaty of Portsmouth. Japan achieved virtually
all of its original war aims.
(AP, 9/5/97)(HN, 9/5/98)
1905 Oct 20, A Great General
Strike in Russia began and lasted 11 days.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1905 Oct 20, Russian tsar allowed
Polish people to speak Polish.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1905 Oct 30, Czar Nicholas II of
Russia issued the October Manifesto, granting civil liberties and
elections in an attempt to avert the burgeoning support for revolution.
Nicholas also accepted the 1st Duma (Parliament)
(HN, 10/30/00)(MC, 10/30/01)
1905 Nov 10, Sailors revolted in
Kronstadt, Russia.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1905 Nov 22, British, Italian,
Russian, French and Austrian-Hungarian fleet attacked the Grecian Isle
of Lesbos.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1905 Dec 1, Twenty officers and
230 guards were arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia for the revolt at
the Winter Palace.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1905 The State Duma was founded in
St. Petersburg. It was abolished in 1910.
(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A12)
1905 Over 1 million Russians
staged a general strike demanding political reforms.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1905 Russia attacked Japan but was
easily defeated. [see May 28]
(V.D.-H.K.p.286)
1905 Another large pogrom took
place against the Jews in Odessa, Ukraine. Many began to leave, mainly
for the USA.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.88)
1906 Feb 20, Russian troops seized
large portions of Mongolia.
(HN, 2/20/98)
1906 Mar 20, Army officers in
Russia mutinied at Sevastopol.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1906 Apr 10, A report from Russia
said 7 soldiers were killed during a rebellion at the garrison in
Tiflis (Tbilisi, Georgia). On April 17 it was reported that 315
soldiers were killed in a fight between mutineers and loyal troops.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A15)
1906 May 10, Russia's Duma
(Parliament) met for the 1st time.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1906 Apr 14, Russian writer Maxim
Gorky was in NYC raising funds for the revolt in Russia. He had just
been ordered out of 2 respectable hotels due to his relationship with
Russian actress Mlle. Andreivea.
(SFC, 4/15/06, p.A7)
1906 Jul 3, George Sanders, actor
(All About Eve-Academy Award 1950), was born in Russia.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1906 Sep 12, Dmitri Dmitriyevich
Shostakovich, St Petersburg Russia, composer, was born. [see Sep 25]
(MC, 9/12/01)
1906 Sep 25, Dimitri Shostakovich
(d.1975), Soviet composer who wrote 15 symphonies, was born. His work
included the Violin Concerto No. 2. [see Sep 12]
(WUD, 1994, p.1320)(SFC, 1/30/98, p.E5)(HN, 9/25/98)
1906 Dec 19, Leonid Brezhnev,
Soviet General Secretary of the Communist arty and President of the
Supreme Soviet from 1964 until 1982, was born in the Ukraine.
(HN, 12/19/98)(MC, 12/19/01)
1906-1911 Petr Stolypin served as prime minister
until he was executed. In 2001 Abraham Ascher authored the biography:
"P.A. Stolypin."
(WSJ, 5/16/01, p.A21)
1907 Feb 18, 600,000 tons of grain
were sent to Russia to relieve the famine there.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1907 Mar 1, There were only
15,000 Jews left in Odessa, Russia. The attacks on the Jews continued
as more and more evacuated.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1907 Mar 5, The 2nd Russian
Duma, which included 7 Lithuanians, began work. The Duma stayed in
session until June 15.
(LHC, 3/5/03)
1907 Mar 22, Russians troops
completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese
forces.
(HN, 3/22/97)(AP, 3/22/99)
1907 Jun 16, The Russian czar
dissolved the Duma in St. Petersburg.
(HN, 6/16/98)
1907 Jun 26, Russia’s nobility
demanded drastic measures to be taken against revolutionaries.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1907 Aug 31, England, Russia and
France formed their Triple Entente.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1907 Nov 26, The Russian Duma lent
support to Czar in St. Petersburg, who claimed that he had renounced
autocracy.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1907 Stalin (1879-1953) organized
an armed robbery on 2 coaches carrying treasure to the state bank in
central Tbilisi, Georgia. He delivered his gains to Lenin. In 2007
Simon Sebag Montefiore authored “Young Stalin.”
(Econ, 5/19/07, p.88)
1907 Britain and Russia carved
Iran into spheres of influence.
(WSJ, 4/2/07, p.A6)
1907 Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev
(b.1834), Russian chemist, died. He formulated the periodic table of
elements in 1869. He also authored the 1st modern chemistry text in
Russia. In 2001 Paul Strathern authored "Mendeleyev’s Dream," a history
of chemistry.
(V.D.-H.K.p.324)(HN, 2/8/01)(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A17)
1908 Feb 14, Russia and Britain
threatened action in Macedonia if peace was not reached soon.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1908 Apr 5, Japanese Army reached
the Yalu River as the Russians retreated.
(HN, 5/5/97)
1908 Jun 8, King Edward VII of
England visited Czar Nicholas II of Russia in an effort to improve
relations between the two countries.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1908 Jun 21, Nikolai A.
Rimsky-Korsakov (64), prolific Russian composer, orchestrator
(Scheherazade, The Tsar's Bride, The Legend of the Invisible City of
Kitezh), died in Lyubensk.
(AP, 6/21/08)
1908 Sep 9, Russia grabbed part of
Poland.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1908 Sep 30, David Oistrakh,
violinist and professor at the Moscow Conservatory, was born in Odessa,
Russia (Ukraine).
(HN, 9/30/00)(MC, 9/30/01)
1908 Natalia Goncharova, Russian
artist, painted "Bleaching Linen" and "Self Portrait With Yellow
Lilies."
(WSJ, 5/2/03, p.W6)(WSJ, 10/5/05, p.D14)
1908 At the Olympic games in
England, Russia objected to separate medal totals and flag-flying for
athletes from Finland, die to its control over Finland. The Finns
marched with no flag.
(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.R2)
1909 Jan, Former Russian Baltic
Fleet Rear-Admiral Zinovi Rozhestvensky died.
(ON, 5/04, p.9)
1909 Mar 26, Russian troops
invaded Persia to support Muhammad Ali as the Shah in place of the
constitutional government.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1909 Jul 5, Andrei Gromyko,
diplomat, USSR President (1985-89), was born. [see Jul 18]
(MC, 7/5/02)
1909 Jul 18, Andrei Gromyko, USSR
diplomat and President (1985-89), was born. [see Jul 5]
(MC, 7/18/02)
1909 Sergei Bulgakov (1871-1944),
Russian philosopher and economist, authored “Vekhi,” in which he
describes the sorry state of the Russian intelligentsia.
(Econ, 8/9/08,
p.25)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Bulgakov)
1910 Jan 21, A British-Russian
military intervention took place in Persia.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1910 May 29, Mili Alexeyevich
Balakirev (73), Russian composer (Islamej), died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1910 Nov 7, Leo Tolstoy (b.1828),
Russian earl and writer (War & Peace), died at the rural Astapovo
train station [OS, NS=Nov 20]. In 2007 Leah Bendavid-Val authored “Song
Without Words: The Photographs and Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy.”
(WSJ, 8/6/99,
p.W11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy)(WSJ, 12/1/07, p.W10)
1910 Alexei von Jawlensky, Russian
painter, created the portrait "Schokko." In 2003 it was auctioned for
$8.2 million.
(SFC, 11/12/03, p.D4)
1910 The State Duma in St.
Petersburg was abolished.
(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A12)
1910 Arkhip Kuindzhi (b.1842),
Russian painter, died.
(www.artsstudio.com/reproductions/kuindzhi.htm)
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