Timeline Russia thru 1910
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Tourism: http://www.russia-travel.com
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)
2Mil BC Seals arrived at Russia's Lake Baikal from the Arctic Ocean about this time.
(Econ., 11/21/20, p.75)
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)
28000BC In 2010 it was reported that starch grains found on 30,000-year-old grinding stones suggest that prehistoric man may have dined on an early form of flat bread, contrary to his popular image as primarily a meat-eater. The grinding stones were discovered at sites in Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic.
(Reuters, 10/19/10)
9580BC The Shigir Idol, a nine-foot-tall totem pole, was carved about this time near Kirovgrad, Russia. In 1890 it was dug out of a peat bog by gold miners. In 2014 advanced technology yielded dated the idol to about this time as Eurasia was still transitioning out of the last ice age.
(NY Times, 3/23/21)
2700BC-2200BC 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)
1600BC - 1400BC In 2010 Russian researchers said traces of a previously unknown Bronze Age civilization have been discovered in the peaks of the Caucasus Mountains thanks to aerial photographs taken 40 years ago. The civilization dated from the 16th to the 14th centuries BC, high in the mountains south of Kislovodsk. The decorations and forms of bronze items found in the area indicated that the civilization is linked to the Kuban civilization, which was discovered at the end of the 19th century at the foot of Mount Kazbek.
(AFP, 10/11/10)
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, Volodymyr the Great, accepted Byzantine Orthodoxy. This is the traditional date for the beginning of Russian Christianity. The Kievan Rus ruler was baptized in the ancient Crimean Greek city of Chersonesus before bringing Christianity to the region.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A14)(AP, 8/1/15)(AP, 7/28/18)
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)
1015 Vladimir I (b.958), a prince of Novgorod and grand prince of Kiev, died. He had married the sister of Byzantine Emp. Basil II and was baptized in Crimea. Originally a Slavic pagan, Vladimir had converted to Christianity in 988 and Christianized the Kievan Rus. His domain split into warring fiefs that eventually gave rise to Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_I_of_Kiev)(Econ, 11/5/16, p.44)
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)
1356 Algirdas of Lithuania acquired Bryansk through inheritance and gave it to his son, Dmitry the Elder. Until the end of the century, the town was contested between Jogaila, Vytautas, Svitrigaila, and Yury of Smolensk.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryansk)
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)
1392 Sep 25, Sergius of Radonezh, aka Sergii Radonezhsky, (b.~1314-1322), a Russian orthodox monk, died. He helped consolidate the Russian church in the time of Mongol rule and was canonized in 1452 as Moscow's patron saint.
(AP, 9/5/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergius_of_Radonezh)
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)
1399 Russian chronicles state that when Kiev was threatened by the Tartars, Kiev citizens had to pay to Khan Timur Kutluk a contribution of 3000 Lithuanian roubles.
(VilNews, 12/17/10)
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)
1410 Russian chronicles say that Novgorod adopted Lithuanian money as legal tender, and the use of marten skins as money was discontinued.
(VilNews, 12/17/10)
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)
1478 Russia’s Ivan the Great destabilized territory under the control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania much of which later became Ukraine. The policy was designed to encourage people living along the frontier to seek Muscovy’s protection.
(Econ, 9/20/14, p.16)
1479 Mar 26, Vasili III, great prince of Moscow (1505-33), son of Ivan III, was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1491 In Russia the Spasskaya Tower was built in Moscow. It was designed by Italian architect Pietro Antonio Solairi, who was hired by Ivan III. In 1935 the Soviet government installed a red star instead of a two-headed eagle atop the 233-foot Red Square tower.
(SFC, 11/7/15, p.A2)
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)
1551 Ivan the Terrible built Sviyazhsk, an island fortress on the Volga to help him conquer the Khanate of Kazan. In 2017 the Assumption Cathedral and Monastery on Svyyazhsk were added to the World Heritage list.
(Econ, 10/22/16, SR p.5)(SSFC, 7/30/17, p.F3)
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)
1601 Large portions of Russia received heavy rains in the summer of 1601, and by the end of the growing season it was clear that most crops would fail. This was later related to a major earthquake in Peru in 1600.
(http://faculty.arec.umd.edu/hleathers/August%202008.htm)
1602-1603 In Russia agricultural failure in 1601 led to widespread starvation in both 1602 and 1603. It claimed the lives of an estimated 2 million people, or about one-third of the population, and more than 100,000 died in Moscow alone. Government inability to alleviate both the calamity and the subsequent unrest eventually led to the overthrow of Czar Boris Godunov, a defining event in Russian history.
(http://faculty.arec.umd.edu/hleathers/August%202008.htm)
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)
1643 Piotr Golovin, the Cossack governor of Russia’s Yakutsk province, sent an expedition under Vasily Poyarkov into the far eastern Amur watershed. After 3 winters Poyarkov returned to Yakutsk with fewer than a quarter of his 160 men.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
1645 Jul 12, In Russia Michael Romanov (b.1596), the first RomanovTsar (1613-1645), died.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_I_of_Russia)
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 at the Council of Pereyaslav, but no original documents have been preserved. A treaty invoked only protection of the Cossack state by the Tsar and was intended as an act of official separation of Ukraine from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Pereyaslav)(Econ, 6/20/15, p.53)
1654 The earliest circular coin bearing the inscription "rouble" on it in Russia was struck by Czar Alexiei Mikhailovitch.
(VilNews, 12/17/10)
1655 Eastern Lithuania was occupied by Russian and Cossack forces. Western Lithuania was occupied by Swedish forces. Following three days of pillaging Vilnius was burned in a fire the lasted 17 days.
(http://tinyurl.com/pm9nvcc)
1655-1661 In Vilnius some 8-10 thousand residents were killed by occupying Russian forces.
(http://tinyurl.com/pm9nvcc)
1656 Oct 24, Treaty of Vilnius (Lithuania): Russia and Poland signed an anti-Swedish covenant.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1666 Russia’s orthodox “Old Believers" split over liturgical reforms.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.73)
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)
1685 Jun, Qing Emperor Kangxi sent Manchu, Chinese and Daurian forces in a siege against Russians at Albazino on the far eastern Amur River. Some 100 of 800 Russians were killed on the first day of the attack. The survivors surrendered and returned to Nerchinsk.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
1686 Russians returned to Albazino on the far eastern Amur River and were again attacked by the Manchus. After a year’s siege they surrendered with only 40 of 900 alive.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
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)
1689 Russian and Manchu delegates met at Nerchinsk and drew up a treaty in Latin. This was China’s first treaty with a European power. China agreed to open up trade in exchange for Russia’s withdrawal from the Amur.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
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, which remained in effect until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1918.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etos_Kosmou)
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 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 27, Russians under Peter the Great defeated the Swedes under Charles XII and Cossacks at the Battle of Poltava. [O.S. See July 8].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poltava)
1709 Jul 8, Peter the Great defeated Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, effectively ending the Swedish empire. [N.S. see June 28].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poltava)
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 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 Frederick William I of Prussia presented his amber room, made as a gift by German artisans in 1701, to Peter the Great. In exchange he received his wish: 55 very tall Russian soldiers. Catherine the Great later added four marble panels from Florence, that were inlaid with precious stones. German troops dismantled it in 1941 and moved it to Konigsberg in 1945, where it was lost during WW II. One of the marble panels turned up in Bremen in 1997. In 1979 the Soviet government initiated a reconstruction, which was unveiled in 2003.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.E6)(WSJ, 1/20/00, p.A20)(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 Russia’s 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)
1722 Peter the Great exploited the chaos in the Persian Empire to lead an expedition into Transcaucasia, he struck an alliance with Vakhtang VI, the Georgian ruler of Kartli.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_within_the_Russian_Empire)
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 18, Peter II Alekseyevich (1715-1730) was proclaimed autocrat of Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_II_of_Russia)
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 Feb 25, Peter II Alekseyevich (1715-1730) was crowned as czar of Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_II_of_Russia)
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 Jan 30, Peter II Alekseyevich (1715-1730), czar of Russia, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_II_of_Russia)
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 6, Russian princess Elisabeth Petrovna (1709-1762) seized power with the help of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. 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.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_of_Russia)(PCh, 1992, p.294)
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, New style date is Aug 6. Georg Richmann (b.1711), German physicist, died of electrocution in St. Petersburg, Russia, during an attempt to duplicate Benjamin Franklin’s “sentry box" experiment. Reportedly, ball lightning traveled along the apparatus and was the cause of his death, 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)(ON, 2/12, p.12)
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 Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Crimean Tartars and Ottoman Turks.
(SFC, 2/4/09, p.A5)
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)
1769-1772 A handful of Russian troops of General Totleben battled against Turkish invaders in Imereti and Kartl-Kakheti.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_within_the_Russian_Empire)
1770 Jul 7, The entire Ottoman fleet was defeated and destroyed by the Russians at the 3-day battle of Chesme [Cesme] on the Aegean Sea. The Ottoman fleet was commanded by Kapudan Pasha Mandalzade Hüsameddin, in the fourth ship from the front (north end) of the line, with Hasan Pasha (1713-1790) in the first ship, Real Mustafa, and Cafer Bey in the seventh.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chesma)(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A24)
1771 Apr 29, Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (b.1700), Italian architect, died in St. Petersburg. He was born in Paris and spent his entire career in Russia. His work included the Winter Palace (1754-1762) in St. Petersburg, which later became the Hermitage Museum.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Bartolomeo_Rastrelli)
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)
1774 In northwestern Russia the Dormition church was built on the shores of Lake Onega in the Kondopoga region of Karelia. It was broadly admired as one of the most remarkable examples of Northern Russia's wooden architecture. On August 10, 2018 it was destroyed by fire.
(AP, 8/10/18)
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)
1777 Stavropol was founded in south-western Russia during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 as a military encampment. In 1785 it was designated as a city.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavropol)
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 of Russia bought 204 works of art from the collection of Sir Robert Walpole (d.1745) from Walpole’s grandson. The sale was brokered by pioneering auctioneer James Christie. In 1789 the Picture Gallery at Walpole’s Houghton estate was destroyed by fire.
(WSJ, 1/04/00, p.A16)(Econ, 5/18/13, p.89)(Econ, 9/28/13, p.63)
1779-1780 In Russia the Molokans split from the Doukhobors because they thought that the Doukhobors neglected the Bible in their belief that God had placed the Word directly into their hearts. The first recorded use of the term "Molokan" appears in the 1670s, in reference to the people who had the practice of drinking milk on the 200 fasting days stipulated by the Orthodox Church.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molokan)(SSFC, 3/17/19, p.A2)
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."
(www.shaebia.org/wwwboard/contributedarticles/messages/58.html)(Econ, 8/20/05, p.66)
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 Sep 18, Leonhard Euler (b.1707), Swiss-born mathematician, died in St. Petersburg, Russia. His work estalished calculus as the basic tool of the mathematical sciences. Euler had introduced latin squares as a new kind of magic squares. It later formed the basis for the “sudoku" number game. In 2016 Ronald Calinger authored “Leonhard Euler: Mathematical Genius in the Enlightenment."
(www.cut-the-knot.org/arithmetic/latin.shtml)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.67)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.72)
1783 Dec 28, The Ottoman Empire signed an agreement with Russia that recognized the loss of Crimea and other territories that had been held by the Khanate. Catherine the Great annexed the Crimea to the Russian empire. 83% or the residents were Tatars.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Empire)(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A8)(Econ, 2/25/06, p.55)
1783 The Kirov Ballet was founded in St. Petersburg.
(WSJ, 7/16/02, p.D6)
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)
1789 Russian soldiers under the leadership of Jose Pascual Domingo de Ribas y Boyons (aka Osip Deribas) chased Ottoman forces from the barracks hamlet of Khadjibey. He recognized the site’s potential for a military base to control the mouths of the Danube, Dniester, Dnieper and Bug rivers. Odessa became the name of the city built there.
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.91)
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)
1790 Jul 19, The naval Battle of Kerch Strait (also known as Battle of Yenikale, by the old Turkish name of the strait near Kerch) took place near Kerch, Crimea, and was a slight victory for Imperial Russia over the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kerch_Strait_(1790))
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 Treaty of Jassy was signed recognizing Russia's 1783 annexation of the Crimean Khanate. The Ottomans signed a treaty with the Russians ending a five year war.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War_(1787%E2%80%931792))(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 Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, Sweden’s envoy to Naples, Italy, was tried for secretly communicating with Russian Empress Catherine the Great.
(AP, 6/5/20)
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 Nov 27, Rabbi Shneur Zalman (1745-1812) of Liadi, a Hasidic leader, was released from prison in St. Petersburg. He had been arrested on charges of treason, laid by Jews who opposed the nascent movement of Hasidism. He was the founder and first Rebbe of Chabad, a branch of Hasidic Judaism.
(Econ, 7/28/12, SR p.6)(http://tinyurl.com/8sqmk9w)
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, (OS) Paul I (b.1754), 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_of_Russia)
1801 Mar 24, Aleksandr P. Romanov became emperor of Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Russia)
1801 May, Russian General Carl Heinrich Knorring removed the Georgian heir to the throne David Batonishvili from power and deployed a provisional government headed by General Ivan Petrovich Lasarev.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_within_the_Russian_Empire)
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 Concepcion Arguello (d.1857), the daughter of Commander Arguello, and proposed marriage. He died that winter while crossing Siberia. In 2013 Owen Matthews “Glorious Misadventures: Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian American."
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/20/13, p.74)
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 (d.1852), Ukrainian-born Russian writer, was born (NS) in Sorochyntsi, Poltava Governorate (later Ukraine). Some sources give April 1 as his birthday. His work included the play “The Inspector General" (1836) and the novels “Taras Bulba" (1835) and “Dead Souls" (1842).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)(WSJ, 4/14/09, p.D7)
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, (OS) Alexander Herzen (d.1870), Russian author, was born. "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 Aug 20, Czar Alexander gave Gen. Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov (1745-1813) command of the Russian army.
(www.climate4you.com/Text/Climate4you%20August%202009.pdf)
1812 Aug 22, Charles Etienne Gudin (44), one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s favorite generals, died near Smolensk after being hit by a cannon ball during Napoleon’s unsuccessful invasion of Russia. His name was later inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. In 2019 his remains were formally identified by DNA tests after a one-legged skeleton was found under a dance floor in Smolensk. In 2021 his remains were repatriated to France.
(The Telegraph, 11/6/19)(https://tinyurl.com/dzjdj5k6)(AP, 7/13/21)
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, The Russian army left Moscow. 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.
(ON, 10/2010, p.11)(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 18, The Russian army attacked French forces on the outskirts of Moscow. Some 2,500-3,000 French soldiers were killed.
(ON, 10/2010, p.11)
1812 Oct 19, French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte began their retreat from Moscow.
(AP, 10/19/97)(HN, 10/19/98)
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 26, In Belarus Napoleon Bonaparte's army began crossing the Beresina River over two hastily constructed bridges. The Battle of Berezina began as Napoleon’s army retreated from its invasion of Russia. Heavy losses were later estimated to be as many as 25,000.
(HN, 11/26/99)(AP, 11/24/19)
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 Dec 6, The majority of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armeé staggered into Vilnius, Lithuania, ending the failed Russian campaign. An estimated 50,000 soldiers reached Lithuania and as many as 20,000 died there. As many as 450,000 soldiers from France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Germany and at least 15 other countries died in the Russian campaign.
(HN, 12/6/99)(Arch, 9/02, p.41)
1812 Dec, 14, The last French units of Napoleon’s Grand Armeé crossed the Nieman River of Lithuania, leaving Russia.
(ON, 10/2010, p.11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Russia)
1812 Dec, Vilnius, Lithuania, was recaptured by Russian forces.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_of_Lithuania)
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)
1812 The Testament of Peter the Great was first published in Napoleonic France to demonstrate that the Russian Empire had grand plans to conquer and subjugate Europe. It was demonstrated to be a fraud in 1879. It was written by a Polish general in the late 1700s and has continued to find mainstream adherants in the modern era, particularly amongst scholars, journalists and politicians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Russavia/Testament)
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 Apr 28, Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov (b.1745), Field Marshal of the Russian Empire, died. Kutuzov forced the French army to leave Russia along the path it had devastated when it entered the country. He served as one of the finest military officers and diplomats of Russia under the reign of three Romanov Tsars: Catherine II, Paul I and Alexander I. His military career was closely associated with the rising period of Russia from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Kutuzov is considered to have been one of the best Russian generals.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Kutuzov)
1813 Aug 27, The 2-day Battle of Dresden was Napoleon’s last major victory against the allied forces of Austria, Russia and Prussia. French forces under Napoleon scored a victory against the Allied army led by Field Marshal Schwarzenberg. Three days after the battle, the Allies surrounded and captured a French corps at the Battle of Kulm.
(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)
1813 Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff was nominated consul general of Russia in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He acquired a farm (named "Mandioca", or manioc) in the north of Rio and collected plants, animals and minerals. He hosted and entertained foreign naturalists and scientists, and explored the flora, fauna and geography of the province of Minas Gerais with French naturalist Augustin Saint-Hilaire from 1813 to 1820.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Langsdorff)
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 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.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/07398a.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/2sqgp9)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.68)
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)
1816 Naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso spent a month around SF Bay while aboard the Russian ship Rurik, which was circumnavigating the globe. Captain Otto von Kotzebue said the Gov. of California invited the crew to witness a bear and bull fight. Spanish troops captured a grizzly bear and a wild bull and chained them for battle on a beach.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.E1)(SFC, 3/4/17, p.C1)
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)
1827 Balkaria, a Caucasus region later known as known as Kabardino-Balkari, was annexed by Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kabardino-Balkaria)
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)
1830 Sep 9, In Russia a cholera epidemic, entering the country from Asia, forced the lockdown of Nizhny Novgorod province. Alexander Pushkin wrote his short story "The Undertaker".
(Econ., 7/6/20, p.69)
1830 Nov 29, In Warsaw young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress, Poland's military academy revolted against the Russian Empire. They were led by lieutenant Piotr Wysocki and were soon joined by large segments of societies of Lithuania, Belarus, and the Right-bank Ukraine. Nicholas I ruthlessly repressed the insurrection and by October 1831 Polish forces capitulated.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_Uprising)(WSJ, 4/13/99, p.A16)
c1830 Franz Kreuger painted a portrait of Empress Alexandra Fedorovna.
(SSFM, 4/1/01, p.61)
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)
1832 May 1, Russia’s Tsar Nicolas I closed Lithuania’s Univ. of Vilnius in response to the November uprising of 1830.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius_University_Library)
1832 Oct, Russian soldiers besieged the village of Gimry in the mountains of Dagestan in an effort to capture Gazi-Muhammad, the first imam of the Caucasus Imamate. Gimry was killed but his follower, Imam Shamil, escaped.
(Econ, 7/4/15, p.42)
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, Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (d.1910), composer (Tamara), was born in Nizhny-Novgorod, Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mily_Balakirev)
1837 Russia’s first railway line was built by Franz von Gerstner, a Bohemian engineer. It started in St. Petersburg and ended in Pavlovsk, an English-style summer retreat for the Russian aristocracy.
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.86)
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)
1839 Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841), Russian writer, authored “A Hero of Our Time." It is an example of the superfluous man novel, noted for its compelling Byronic hero (or anti-hero) Pechorin and for the beautiful descriptions of the Caucasus.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.35)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hero_of_Our_Time)
1839 Perovskite, a calcium titanium oxide mineral, was discovered by Gustav Rose in the Ural mountains. It was named after Russian minerologist Count Lev Perovski (1792-1856).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perovskite)
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 Russia’s Tsar Nicholas I ordered the creation of private savings banks. Sberbank had its roots here and in the 20th century grew to resemble a Soviet public utility. As of 2012 57.6$ of its shares were held by Russia’s central bank.
(Econ, 6/23/12, p.76)
1841 Alexander II (1818-1881) married Maria of Hessen-Darmstadt (Maria Alexandrovna). The marriage produced seven children. Alexander II succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father in 1855.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSalexander2.htm)
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)
1842 Nikolai V. Gogol (1809-1852), Ukrainian-born Russian writer, published his novel “Dead Souls." It appeared in Moscow under the title, imposed by the censorship, of “The Adventures of Chichikov."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)(WSJ, 4/14/09, p.D7)
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 Russia's secret police.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_von_Benckendorff)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.69)
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 Frenchman Frederic Lacroix authored “The Mysteries of Russia," his take on the supposed brutality of Slavic life.
(http://tinyurl.com/kccwhmc)(Econ, 2/4/17, p.28)
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 (b.1809), Russian novelist and playwright, died (OS) [see Mar 4].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)
1852 Mar 4, Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (b.1809), died (NS) [see Feb 21].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)
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 Jul, Supported by Britain, the Turks took a firm stand against the Russians, who occupied the Danubian principalities (modern Romania) on the Russo-Turkish border. The Crimean War got under way in October. It was fought mainly on the Crimean Peninsula between the Russians and the British, French, and Ottoman Turkish, with support, from January 1855, by the army of Sardinia-Piedmont. The war aligned Anglican England and Roman Catholic France with Islam’s sultan-caliphs against the tsars, who saw themselves as the world’s last truly Christian emperors.
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143040/Crimean-War)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.89)
1853 Sep 20, The Allies defeated the Russians at the battle of Alma on the Crimean Peninsula.
(HN, 9/20/98)
1853 Nov 30, The Russian fleet attacked and burned the wooden Turkish ships at the port of Sinop on the Black Sea coast of northern Turkey. The guns of the Russian ships destroyed the port and its defensive installations. Of the 4,400 Turkish seamen, 3,000 were killed.
(http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h38-br6.htm)
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)
1854 Nikolai Muraviev, a governor of eastern Siberia, raised an 800-strong Cossack unit and floated barges down the Shilka River to the mouth of the Amur River. Through encroachment, diplomacy and impudence he secured the Amur Basin for the Tsar.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.72)
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 9, Sevastopol, under siege for nearly a year, fell to the Allies. France, England, the Ottoman Empire and Sardinia (as Italy was then known) defeated the Russians at Sevastopol in the decisive battle of the Crimean War.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War)(SFC, 7/27/13, p.C2)
1855 Nov 26, Several thousand people staged a parade and banquet at South Park, SF, to celebrate the Allied victory over the Russians in the Crimean War and the capture of the Malakoff fortress in Sevastopol. The celebration turned into a rampage after some 2,500 bottles of claret were consumed.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)(SFC, 7/27/13, p.C2)
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)
1855 Japan acquired some of the Kurile Islands (Kuril Islands), a chain of 56 islands that extended 744 miles from Hokkaido to Russia's Kamchatka peninsula. The Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation established the border between Iturup and Urup. This border confirmed that Japanese territory stretched south from Iturup and Russian territory stretched north of Urup. Sakhalin remained a place where people from both countries could live.
(SFC, 8/14/01, p.A7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands)
1856 Feb 29, Hostilities in Russo-Turkish war ceased.
(HN, 2/29/00)
1856 Mar 30, Russia signed the Treaty of Paris ending the Crimean War. It guaranteed the integrity of Ottoman Turkey and obliged Russia to surrender southern Bessarabia, at the mouth of the Danube. The Black Sea was neutralized, and the Danube River was opened to the shipping of all nations. In 2010 Allen Lane authored “Crimea: The Last Crusade."
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143040/Crimean-War)
1856 Apr 29, A peace treaty between England and Russia was signed.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1856 In Alaska the Russian occupants of the Batzulnetas outpost were massacred by natives.
(AH, 6/07, p.69)
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)
1857 Alexander Herzen (1812-1870), Russia’s first socialist, and Nikolai Ogaryov (1813-1877) began publishing the newspaper Kolokol (Bell) in London, which was then smuggled back into Russia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolokol_%28newspaper%29)(Econ, 2/13/15, p.52)
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 Russia purchased the Alexander courtyard in Jerusalem.
(AP, 1/22/20)
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 Perry McDonough Collins (b.1813) authored “A Voyage Down the Amoor." It told of his 1856-1857 journey down the river shortly before it was annexed by Russia. Perry McDonough Collins was the visionary behind the Russian American Telegraph of 1865-1867. The failed venture aimed to connect America to Europe by telegraph via the Bering Strait.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.70)(www.jstor.org/pss/1794606) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Collins)
1860 Russia’s Emp. Alexander II presented the Mariinsky theater in St. Petersburg as a birthday present to his wife, Maria.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.87)
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 May 21, Elena Molokhovets (1831-1918), Russian writer, published “A Gift to Young Housewives," which remained popular in Russia for half a century.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.141)(http://tinyurl.com/6u8dj4)
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 Jun 2, The Circassian-Russian war, begun in 1763, ended. It left about a million Circassians of the northwest Caucasus dead. Historians in general agree on the figure of some 500,000 inhabitants of the highland Caucasus being deported by Russia in the 1860s. A large fraction of them died in transit from disease.
(Econ, 5/26/12, p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian%E2%80%93Circassian_War)
1864 Circassian fighters in Sochi surrendered to the czarist forces. Circassians were widely dispersed following Russian expulsions.
(AP, 8/21/12)
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)
1865 Russia took Bukhara, Tashkent, and Samerkand (Uzbekistan).
(https://www.afghan-web.com/history/chronology/)
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 30, US Secretary of State William H. Seward signed an agreement with Russia’s Baron Edouard de Stoeckl to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, two cents an acre, a deal roundly ridiculed as "Seward's Folly," "Seward's icebox," and President Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden."
(AP, 3/30/97)(HN, 3/30/01)(Reuters, 5/24/11)
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 Mar 11, Vladimir Odoevsky, Russian prince, senator, scientist writer and critic, died. A collection of his short stories was translated to English in 2012.
(NYT, 9/27/12, p.7)( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Odoevsky)
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)
1869 Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), Russian novelist, published "War and Peace" in its entirety. It had initially been serialized and titled "1805."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy)
1870 Jan 21, Alexander Herzen (b.1812), Russian pro-Western writer and thinker, died. He was known as the "father of Russian socialism", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism (being an ideological ancestor of the Narodniki, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudoviks and the agrarian American Populist Party).
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.103)
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)
1873 Russia established a fixed boundary between Afghanistan and it's new territories. Russia promised to respect Afghanistan's territorial integrity.
(https://www.afghan-web.com/history/chronology/)
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)
1875 In St. Petersburg, Russia, a mansion was purchased by Duke Vasily Naryshkin, whose family included Nataliya Naryshkina, the second wife of Czar Alexis and the mother of Peter the Great. The mansion had been put together by connecting two 18-century houses, one of which belonged to Pushkin's African grandfather Abram Gannibal. After the Bolsheviks nationalized private property, part of the mansion was turned into a stolovaya, a canteen-like restaurant serving utilitarian meals. In 2012 workers found treasure, dating back to 1917, was found in storage space hidden between two floors.
(AP, 3/30/12)
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 Jan 8, [NS date] Russian poet Nikolay Nekrasov (b.1821) died. He is credited with introducing into Russian poetry ternary meters and the technique of dramatic monologue.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Nekrasov)
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 Mar 3, The Treaty of San Stefano was signed after Russo-Turkish War. It assigned Albanian-populated lands to Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia; but Austria-Hungary and Britain blocked the treaty's implementation. Albanian leaders meet in Prizren, Kosova, to form the League of Prizren. The League initially advocated autonomy for Albania. At the Congress of Berlin, the Great Powers overturned the Treaty of San Stefano and divided Albanian lands among several states. The League of Prizren began to organize resistance to the Treaty of Berlin's provisions that affected Albanians.
(www, Albania, 1998)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_San_Stefano)
1878 Jul 13, The Treaty of Berlin was the final act of the Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878), by which the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Abdul Hamid II revised the Treaty of San Stefano signed on 3 March the same year. The Treaty of San Stefano had ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The Congress of Berlin divided the Balkans among European powers. The Slavic converts to Islam in the Sandzak region of southwestern Serbia were separated from their ethnic cousins in Bosnia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Berlin_(1878)) (AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)(WSJ, 6/16/99, p.A20)
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 Sep, In St. Petersburg Chinese diplomat Wanyan Chonghou agreed to a treaty that awarded Russia a number of important parts of Xinjiang and gave Russia valuable long-term trading privileges deep in Qing territory. Chonghou had been expected get territory returned to Qing rule.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.72)
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_)
1880 Russia began keeping records of its weather.
(Econ, 7/31/10, p.40)
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)
1882 In Russia the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society was founded to support Russian pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.84)
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 novelist and playwright, died in France. His best play was “A Month in the Country." 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.
(WSJ, 4/26/95, p.A-14)(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 The Russian book “Way of a Pilgrim," or a copy of it, was present at a Mount Athos monastery in Greece in the 19th century, and was first published in Kazan, Tatarstan, under the Russian title that translates as "Candid Narratives of a Pilgrim to His Spiritual Father." In 1931 it was translated into English by R. M. French. The story recounted the narrator's journey as a mendicant pilgrim across Russia while practicing the Jesus Prayer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_of_a_Pilgrim)
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 Gustavovich Faberge (1846-1920) to make an Easter egg for the Empress. She received the 1st egg Easter Sunday in 1885 and the tradition continued to 1917. In 2008 Toby Faber authored “Faberge’s Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived and Empire."
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.M2)(WSJ, 10/5/08, p.A17)
1884 In Denmark the Alexander Nevski church was built in Copenhagen on a request by Czarina Maria Feodorovna, the Danish-born mother of Nicholas II.
(AP, 1/20/10)
1885 Jan 3, Anna Pavlova Russia’s premier ballerina, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1885 Mar 30, Russian troops inflicted a crushing defeat on Afghan forces at Ak Teppe despite orders not to fight. In the Panjdeh Incident Russian forces seize the Panjdeh Oasis, a piece of Afghan territory north of the Oxus River. Afghans tried to retake it, but were finally forced to allow the Russians to keep Panjdeh, and the Russians promised to honor Afghan territorial integrity in the future.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panjdeh_incident)(http://tinyurl.com/y2fzk4xm)
1885 Nov 17, The Serbian Army, with Russian support, invaded Bulgaria.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1885 Russian artist Ilya Repin created his painting "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581," which depicts Russian czar Ivan the Terrible cradling his dying son after striking him in a fit of rage. It became the first painting in the Russian empire in 1885 to be officially banned from being displayed. It was allowed back into Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery several months later. In 1913, a mentally unstable man attacked the painting with a knife. The then-curator of the gallery was so distressed by the vandalism that he threw himself a under a train. In 2018 Igor Podporin damaged the painting. In 2019 Podporin was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for vandalizing the painting.
(AP, 4/30/19)
1886 Feb 9, Modest Mussorgsky’s (1839-1881) opera “Khovanschchina," arranged by Rimsky-Korsakov, premiered in St. Petersburg. The Gregorian date is Feb 21.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khovanshchina)
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 Piotr Smirnov was made 'Official Purveyor' of vodka to the imperial Russian court. His pure, charcoal-filtered vodka became the toast of the Czars. Later, one of Smirnov's sons escaped Russia's revolution and restarted the family business in Paris, adopting the francophone name Smirnoff. The pure Smirnoff vodka took America by storm in the 1930's and went on to become a global icon.
(www.diageo.com/en-row/AboutDiageo/OurHistory/)
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 20, Alexander Ulyanov (b.1866), the older brother of Lenin, the older brother of Lenin, was executed for a conspiracy to assassinate Czar Alexander III.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Ulyanov)(WSJ, 10/5/00, p.A24)
1887 Jul 7, Marc Chagall (d.1985), French painter and designer, was born in Vitebsk, Belarus, Russia, as Moishe Shagal. 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 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 May 11, Songwriter Irving Berlin (d.1989), Jewish composer of White Christmas, was born Israel Isadore Baline in Temun, Russia. He arrived in the US with his family at age 5.
(AP, 5/11/97)(HN, 5/11/98)(SFC, 12/28/12, p.E1)
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)
1888 In Jerusalem the Mary Magdalene convent was consecrated. Its decoration was overseen by Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, consort to Russia’s Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the brother of Tsar Alexander III.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.82)
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 May, A flu epidemic was reported in Bukhara, Russian Empire. By November the epidemic had reached Saint Petersburg. The 1889-1890 flu pandemic, better known as the "Asiatic flu" or "Russian flu", killed about 1 million people worldwide. It was the last great pandemic of the 19th century. Virologists in 2002 attempted to gather viral tissue from frozen grave sites in Siberia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1889%E2%80%931890_flu_pandemic)(SFCM, 2/17/02, p.27)
1889 Jul 29, Vladimir Zworykin, called the "Father of Television" for inventing the iconoscope, was born in Russia.
(AP, 7/30/97)
1889 In Russia construction began on the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. It took 6½ years to comp0leted 362-room hotel. In 2012 it was sold to Alexander Klyachin, owner of the Azimut Hotel chain, for $275.6 million.
(SFC, 9/27/12, p.7)
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 May, Russian writer Anton Chekov (30) traveled to Sakhalin Island, a penal colony, to survey the prisoners and publicize their conditions. The experience crystallized his political awareness. "Sakhalin Island," his account of the expedition, was published in 1893.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.8)(Econ., 7/4/20, p.78)
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 A metalic likeness of Catherine the Great was erected in Simferepol, the capital of Crimea, to commemorate the century of Catherine's capture of the peninsula. It was torn down after the Russian revolution.
(Econ, 6/8/19, p.48)
1890 German Kaiser Wilhelm II ended Bismarck’s secret Reinsurance treaty with Russia. This helped drive Russia into the arms of France.
(Econ, 10/25/14, p.84)
1890 The Shigir Idol, a nine-foot-tall totem pole, was dug out of a peat bog by gold miners near Kirovgrad, Russia. In 2014 advanced technology yielded a remarkably early origin: roughly 11,600 years ago, a time when Eurasia was still transitioning out of the last ice age.
(NY Times, 3/23/21)
1890 In Jerusalem a small tract known as Sergei's Courtyard, named for Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, a son of Czar Alexander III, was built. It became part of the larger Russian Compound, most of which Israel purchased in 1964, when Israel paid $3.5 million in oranges because it lacked hard currency. In 2008 Israel approved handing back Sergei's Courtyard to Russia. The actual transfer took place in 2011.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Compound)(AP, 10/7/08)(AP, 3/21/11)
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 Russia began construction of the Trans-Siberian railway. The state project was completed in 1916.
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.88)
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 Russian anarcho-communist Peter Kropotkin authored "The Conquest of Bread". Originally written in French, it first appeared as a series of articles in the anarchist journal Le Révolté. It was first published in Paris with a preface by Élisée Reclus, who also suggested the title. Between 1892 and 1894, it was serialized in part in the London journal Freedom, of which Kropotkin was a co-founder.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conquest_of_Bread)
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 Mar 5, Nikolai Leskov (b.1831), Russian writer, died. His major works included Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1865), which was later made into an opera by Shostakovich. In 2013 new translations of 17 of his stories were published by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.F4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Leskov)
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)
1898 Pyotr Smirnov (b.1831), Russian vodka manufacturer, died. In 2009 Linda Himelstein authored “The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire."
(SSFC, 5/31/09, Books p.J2)
1899 Jan 21, Alexander Tcherepnin (d.1977), composer, was born in St Petersburg, Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Tcherepnin)
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."
(http://lib.ru/NABOKOW/nabokr.txt)(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A5)(WSJ, 4/22/99, A20)
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)
1899 Frederick Bruce Thomas (1872-1928), an American-born black businessman, moved to Moscow and renamed himself Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas. He became one of the city’s richest owners of variety theaters and restaurants. The Bolshevik Revolution ruined him. He escaped with his family to Constantinople in 1919. In 2012 Vladimir Alexandrov authored “The Black Russian," a biography of Thomas.
(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.F2)
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)
1905 Feb 2, Ayn Rand (d.1982), writer and social philosopher (Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead), was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, as Alisa Rosenbaum. 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand)
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 Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), Russian anarchist, authored "Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution)(Econ., 12/19/20, p.50)
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 17, Russia’s Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (b.1857), the brother of Tsar Alexander III, was assassinated by a terrorist bomb at the Kremlin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Sergei_Alexandrovich_of_Russia)(Econ, 12/19/09, p.82)
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 May 29, The Russian ship Dmitrii Donskoi was scuttled off an eastern Korean island after the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese war. In 2018 a South Korean company claimed to have found the sunken warship. The company speculated about 200 tons of gold bars and coins worth 150 trillion won ($132 billion) would still likely be aboard the ship.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Dmitrii_Donskoi)(AP, 7/19/18)
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 A Russian monk named Ilarion authored “In the Mountains of the Caucasus," which extolled the recitation of the “Jesus Prayer." This triggered the “name-deifier" dispute among the Orthodox. In 2009 Jean-Michael Kantor an d Loren Graham authored “Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity."
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.90)
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. Russia and Great Britain signed the convention of St. Petersburg, in which Afghanistan was declared outside Russia's sphere of influence.
(https://www.afghan-web.com/history/chronology/)(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 1967 Henri Troyat’s “Tolstoy" became available in English. In 2007 Leah Bendavid-Val authored “Song Without Words: The Photographs and Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy." In 2011 Rosamund Bartlett authored “Tolstoy: A Russian Life."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy)(WSJ, 12/1/07, p.W10)(SSFC, 12/4/11, p.F4)
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)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
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Tourism: http://www.russia-travel.com
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)
2Mil BC Seals arrived at Russia's Lake Baikal from the Arctic Ocean about this time.
(Econ., 11/21/20, p.75)
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)
28000BC In 2010 it was reported that starch grains found on 30,000-year-old grinding stones suggest that prehistoric man may have dined on an early form of flat bread, contrary to his popular image as primarily a meat-eater. The grinding stones were discovered at sites in Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic.
(Reuters, 10/19/10)
9580BC The Shigir Idol, a nine-foot-tall totem pole, was carved about this time near Kirovgrad, Russia. In 1890 it was dug out of a peat bog by gold miners. In 2014 advanced technology yielded dated the idol to about this time as Eurasia was still transitioning out of the last ice age.
(NY Times, 3/23/21)
2700BC-2200BC 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)
1600BC - 1400BC In 2010 Russian researchers said traces of a previously unknown Bronze Age civilization have been discovered in the peaks of the Caucasus Mountains thanks to aerial photographs taken 40 years ago. The civilization dated from the 16th to the 14th centuries BC, high in the mountains south of Kislovodsk. The decorations and forms of bronze items found in the area indicated that the civilization is linked to the Kuban civilization, which was discovered at the end of the 19th century at the foot of Mount Kazbek.
(AFP, 10/11/10)
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, Volodymyr the Great, accepted Byzantine Orthodoxy. This is the traditional date for the beginning of Russian Christianity. The Kievan Rus ruler was baptized in the ancient Crimean Greek city of Chersonesus before bringing Christianity to the region.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A14)(AP, 8/1/15)(AP, 7/28/18)
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)
1015 Vladimir I (b.958), a prince of Novgorod and grand prince of Kiev, died. He had married the sister of Byzantine Emp. Basil II and was baptized in Crimea. Originally a Slavic pagan, Vladimir had converted to Christianity in 988 and Christianized the Kievan Rus. His domain split into warring fiefs that eventually gave rise to Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_I_of_Kiev)(Econ, 11/5/16, p.44)
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)
1356 Algirdas of Lithuania acquired Bryansk through inheritance and gave it to his son, Dmitry the Elder. Until the end of the century, the town was contested between Jogaila, Vytautas, Svitrigaila, and Yury of Smolensk.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryansk)
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)
1392 Sep 25, Sergius of Radonezh, aka Sergii Radonezhsky, (b.~1314-1322), a Russian orthodox monk, died. He helped consolidate the Russian church in the time of Mongol rule and was canonized in 1452 as Moscow's patron saint.
(AP, 9/5/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergius_of_Radonezh)
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)
1399 Russian chronicles state that when Kiev was threatened by the Tartars, Kiev citizens had to pay to Khan Timur Kutluk a contribution of 3000 Lithuanian roubles.
(VilNews, 12/17/10)
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)
1410 Russian chronicles say that Novgorod adopted Lithuanian money as legal tender, and the use of marten skins as money was discontinued.
(VilNews, 12/17/10)
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)
1478 Russia’s Ivan the Great destabilized territory under the control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania much of which later became Ukraine. The policy was designed to encourage people living along the frontier to seek Muscovy’s protection.
(Econ, 9/20/14, p.16)
1479 Mar 26, Vasili III, great prince of Moscow (1505-33), son of Ivan III, was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1491 In Russia the Spasskaya Tower was built in Moscow. It was designed by Italian architect Pietro Antonio Solairi, who was hired by Ivan III. In 1935 the Soviet government installed a red star instead of a two-headed eagle atop the 233-foot Red Square tower.
(SFC, 11/7/15, p.A2)
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)
1551 Ivan the Terrible built Sviyazhsk, an island fortress on the Volga to help him conquer the Khanate of Kazan. In 2017 the Assumption Cathedral and Monastery on Svyyazhsk were added to the World Heritage list.
(Econ, 10/22/16, SR p.5)(SSFC, 7/30/17, p.F3)
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)
1601 Large portions of Russia received heavy rains in the summer of 1601, and by the end of the growing season it was clear that most crops would fail. This was later related to a major earthquake in Peru in 1600.
(http://faculty.arec.umd.edu/hleathers/August%202008.htm)
1602-1603 In Russia agricultural failure in 1601 led to widespread starvation in both 1602 and 1603. It claimed the lives of an estimated 2 million people, or about one-third of the population, and more than 100,000 died in Moscow alone. Government inability to alleviate both the calamity and the subsequent unrest eventually led to the overthrow of Czar Boris Godunov, a defining event in Russian history.
(http://faculty.arec.umd.edu/hleathers/August%202008.htm)
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)
1643 Piotr Golovin, the Cossack governor of Russia’s Yakutsk province, sent an expedition under Vasily Poyarkov into the far eastern Amur watershed. After 3 winters Poyarkov returned to Yakutsk with fewer than a quarter of his 160 men.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
1645 Jul 12, In Russia Michael Romanov (b.1596), the first RomanovTsar (1613-1645), died.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_I_of_Russia)
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 at the Council of Pereyaslav, but no original documents have been preserved. A treaty invoked only protection of the Cossack state by the Tsar and was intended as an act of official separation of Ukraine from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Pereyaslav)(Econ, 6/20/15, p.53)
1654 The earliest circular coin bearing the inscription "rouble" on it in Russia was struck by Czar Alexiei Mikhailovitch.
(VilNews, 12/17/10)
1655 Eastern Lithuania was occupied by Russian and Cossack forces. Western Lithuania was occupied by Swedish forces. Following three days of pillaging Vilnius was burned in a fire the lasted 17 days.
(http://tinyurl.com/pm9nvcc)
1655-1661 In Vilnius some 8-10 thousand residents were killed by occupying Russian forces.
(http://tinyurl.com/pm9nvcc)
1656 Oct 24, Treaty of Vilnius (Lithuania): Russia and Poland signed an anti-Swedish covenant.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1666 Russia’s orthodox “Old Believers" split over liturgical reforms.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.73)
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)
1685 Jun, Qing Emperor Kangxi sent Manchu, Chinese and Daurian forces in a siege against Russians at Albazino on the far eastern Amur River. Some 100 of 800 Russians were killed on the first day of the attack. The survivors surrendered and returned to Nerchinsk.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
1686 Russians returned to Albazino on the far eastern Amur River and were again attacked by the Manchus. After a year’s siege they surrendered with only 40 of 900 alive.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
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)
1689 Russian and Manchu delegates met at Nerchinsk and drew up a treaty in Latin. This was China’s first treaty with a European power. China agreed to open up trade in exchange for Russia’s withdrawal from the Amur.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.71)
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, which remained in effect until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1918.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etos_Kosmou)
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 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 27, Russians under Peter the Great defeated the Swedes under Charles XII and Cossacks at the Battle of Poltava. [O.S. See July 8].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poltava)
1709 Jul 8, Peter the Great defeated Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, effectively ending the Swedish empire. [N.S. see June 28].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poltava)
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 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 Frederick William I of Prussia presented his amber room, made as a gift by German artisans in 1701, to Peter the Great. In exchange he received his wish: 55 very tall Russian soldiers. Catherine the Great later added four marble panels from Florence, that were inlaid with precious stones. German troops dismantled it in 1941 and moved it to Konigsberg in 1945, where it was lost during WW II. One of the marble panels turned up in Bremen in 1997. In 1979 the Soviet government initiated a reconstruction, which was unveiled in 2003.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.E6)(WSJ, 1/20/00, p.A20)(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 Russia’s 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)
1722 Peter the Great exploited the chaos in the Persian Empire to lead an expedition into Transcaucasia, he struck an alliance with Vakhtang VI, the Georgian ruler of Kartli.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_within_the_Russian_Empire)
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 18, Peter II Alekseyevich (1715-1730) was proclaimed autocrat of Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_II_of_Russia)
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 Feb 25, Peter II Alekseyevich (1715-1730) was crowned as czar of Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_II_of_Russia)
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 Jan 30, Peter II Alekseyevich (1715-1730), czar of Russia, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_II_of_Russia)
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 6, Russian princess Elisabeth Petrovna (1709-1762) seized power with the help of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. 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.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_of_Russia)(PCh, 1992, p.294)
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, New style date is Aug 6. Georg Richmann (b.1711), German physicist, died of electrocution in St. Petersburg, Russia, during an attempt to duplicate Benjamin Franklin’s “sentry box" experiment. Reportedly, ball lightning traveled along the apparatus and was the cause of his death, 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)(ON, 2/12, p.12)
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 Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Crimean Tartars and Ottoman Turks.
(SFC, 2/4/09, p.A5)
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)
1769-1772 A handful of Russian troops of General Totleben battled against Turkish invaders in Imereti and Kartl-Kakheti.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_within_the_Russian_Empire)
1770 Jul 7, The entire Ottoman fleet was defeated and destroyed by the Russians at the 3-day battle of Chesme [Cesme] on the Aegean Sea. The Ottoman fleet was commanded by Kapudan Pasha Mandalzade Hüsameddin, in the fourth ship from the front (north end) of the line, with Hasan Pasha (1713-1790) in the first ship, Real Mustafa, and Cafer Bey in the seventh.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chesma)(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A24)
1771 Apr 29, Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (b.1700), Italian architect, died in St. Petersburg. He was born in Paris and spent his entire career in Russia. His work included the Winter Palace (1754-1762) in St. Petersburg, which later became the Hermitage Museum.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Bartolomeo_Rastrelli)
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)
1774 In northwestern Russia the Dormition church was built on the shores of Lake Onega in the Kondopoga region of Karelia. It was broadly admired as one of the most remarkable examples of Northern Russia's wooden architecture. On August 10, 2018 it was destroyed by fire.
(AP, 8/10/18)
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)
1777 Stavropol was founded in south-western Russia during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 as a military encampment. In 1785 it was designated as a city.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavropol)
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 of Russia bought 204 works of art from the collection of Sir Robert Walpole (d.1745) from Walpole’s grandson. The sale was brokered by pioneering auctioneer James Christie. In 1789 the Picture Gallery at Walpole’s Houghton estate was destroyed by fire.
(WSJ, 1/04/00, p.A16)(Econ, 5/18/13, p.89)(Econ, 9/28/13, p.63)
1779-1780 In Russia the Molokans split from the Doukhobors because they thought that the Doukhobors neglected the Bible in their belief that God had placed the Word directly into their hearts. The first recorded use of the term "Molokan" appears in the 1670s, in reference to the people who had the practice of drinking milk on the 200 fasting days stipulated by the Orthodox Church.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molokan)(SSFC, 3/17/19, p.A2)
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."
(www.shaebia.org/wwwboard/contributedarticles/messages/58.html)(Econ, 8/20/05, p.66)
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 Sep 18, Leonhard Euler (b.1707), Swiss-born mathematician, died in St. Petersburg, Russia. His work estalished calculus as the basic tool of the mathematical sciences. Euler had introduced latin squares as a new kind of magic squares. It later formed the basis for the “sudoku" number game. In 2016 Ronald Calinger authored “Leonhard Euler: Mathematical Genius in the Enlightenment."
(www.cut-the-knot.org/arithmetic/latin.shtml)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.67)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.72)
1783 Dec 28, The Ottoman Empire signed an agreement with Russia that recognized the loss of Crimea and other territories that had been held by the Khanate. Catherine the Great annexed the Crimea to the Russian empire. 83% or the residents were Tatars.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Empire)(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A8)(Econ, 2/25/06, p.55)
1783 The Kirov Ballet was founded in St. Petersburg.
(WSJ, 7/16/02, p.D6)
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)
1789 Russian soldiers under the leadership of Jose Pascual Domingo de Ribas y Boyons (aka Osip Deribas) chased Ottoman forces from the barracks hamlet of Khadjibey. He recognized the site’s potential for a military base to control the mouths of the Danube, Dniester, Dnieper and Bug rivers. Odessa became the name of the city built there.
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.91)
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)
1790 Jul 19, The naval Battle of Kerch Strait (also known as Battle of Yenikale, by the old Turkish name of the strait near Kerch) took place near Kerch, Crimea, and was a slight victory for Imperial Russia over the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kerch_Strait_(1790))
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 Treaty of Jassy was signed recognizing Russia's 1783 annexation of the Crimean Khanate. The Ottomans signed a treaty with the Russians ending a five year war.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War_(1787%E2%80%931792))(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 Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, Sweden’s envoy to Naples, Italy, was tried for secretly communicating with Russian Empress Catherine the Great.
(AP, 6/5/20)
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 Nov 27, Rabbi Shneur Zalman (1745-1812) of Liadi, a Hasidic leader, was released from prison in St. Petersburg. He had been arrested on charges of treason, laid by Jews who opposed the nascent movement of Hasidism. He was the founder and first Rebbe of Chabad, a branch of Hasidic Judaism.
(Econ, 7/28/12, SR p.6)(http://tinyurl.com/8sqmk9w)
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, (OS) Paul I (b.1754), 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_of_Russia)
1801 Mar 24, Aleksandr P. Romanov became emperor of Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Russia)
1801 May, Russian General Carl Heinrich Knorring removed the Georgian heir to the throne David Batonishvili from power and deployed a provisional government headed by General Ivan Petrovich Lasarev.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_within_the_Russian_Empire)
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 Concepcion Arguello (d.1857), the daughter of Commander Arguello, and proposed marriage. He died that winter while crossing Siberia. In 2013 Owen Matthews “Glorious Misadventures: Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian American."
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/20/13, p.74)
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 (d.1852), Ukrainian-born Russian writer, was born (NS) in Sorochyntsi, Poltava Governorate (later Ukraine). Some sources give April 1 as his birthday. His work included the play “The Inspector General" (1836) and the novels “Taras Bulba" (1835) and “Dead Souls" (1842).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)(WSJ, 4/14/09, p.D7)
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, (OS) Alexander Herzen (d.1870), Russian author, was born. "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 Aug 20, Czar Alexander gave Gen. Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov (1745-1813) command of the Russian army.
(www.climate4you.com/Text/Climate4you%20August%202009.pdf)
1812 Aug 22, Charles Etienne Gudin (44), one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s favorite generals, died near Smolensk after being hit by a cannon ball during Napoleon’s unsuccessful invasion of Russia. His name was later inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. In 2019 his remains were formally identified by DNA tests after a one-legged skeleton was found under a dance floor in Smolensk. In 2021 his remains were repatriated to France.
(The Telegraph, 11/6/19)(https://tinyurl.com/dzjdj5k6)(AP, 7/13/21)
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, The Russian army left Moscow. 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.
(ON, 10/2010, p.11)(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 18, The Russian army attacked French forces on the outskirts of Moscow. Some 2,500-3,000 French soldiers were killed.
(ON, 10/2010, p.11)
1812 Oct 19, French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte began their retreat from Moscow.
(AP, 10/19/97)(HN, 10/19/98)
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 26, In Belarus Napoleon Bonaparte's army began crossing the Beresina River over two hastily constructed bridges. The Battle of Berezina began as Napoleon’s army retreated from its invasion of Russia. Heavy losses were later estimated to be as many as 25,000.
(HN, 11/26/99)(AP, 11/24/19)
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 Dec 6, The majority of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armeé staggered into Vilnius, Lithuania, ending the failed Russian campaign. An estimated 50,000 soldiers reached Lithuania and as many as 20,000 died there. As many as 450,000 soldiers from France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Germany and at least 15 other countries died in the Russian campaign.
(HN, 12/6/99)(Arch, 9/02, p.41)
1812 Dec, 14, The last French units of Napoleon’s Grand Armeé crossed the Nieman River of Lithuania, leaving Russia.
(ON, 10/2010, p.11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Russia)
1812 Dec, Vilnius, Lithuania, was recaptured by Russian forces.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_of_Lithuania)
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)
1812 The Testament of Peter the Great was first published in Napoleonic France to demonstrate that the Russian Empire had grand plans to conquer and subjugate Europe. It was demonstrated to be a fraud in 1879. It was written by a Polish general in the late 1700s and has continued to find mainstream adherants in the modern era, particularly amongst scholars, journalists and politicians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Russavia/Testament)
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 Apr 28, Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov (b.1745), Field Marshal of the Russian Empire, died. Kutuzov forced the French army to leave Russia along the path it had devastated when it entered the country. He served as one of the finest military officers and diplomats of Russia under the reign of three Romanov Tsars: Catherine II, Paul I and Alexander I. His military career was closely associated with the rising period of Russia from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Kutuzov is considered to have been one of the best Russian generals.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Kutuzov)
1813 Aug 27, The 2-day Battle of Dresden was Napoleon’s last major victory against the allied forces of Austria, Russia and Prussia. French forces under Napoleon scored a victory against the Allied army led by Field Marshal Schwarzenberg. Three days after the battle, the Allies surrounded and captured a French corps at the Battle of Kulm.
(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)
1813 Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff was nominated consul general of Russia in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He acquired a farm (named "Mandioca", or manioc) in the north of Rio and collected plants, animals and minerals. He hosted and entertained foreign naturalists and scientists, and explored the flora, fauna and geography of the province of Minas Gerais with French naturalist Augustin Saint-Hilaire from 1813 to 1820.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Langsdorff)
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 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.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/07398a.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/2sqgp9)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.68)
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)
1816 Naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso spent a month around SF Bay while aboard the Russian ship Rurik, which was circumnavigating the globe. Captain Otto von Kotzebue said the Gov. of California invited the crew to witness a bear and bull fight. Spanish troops captured a grizzly bear and a wild bull and chained them for battle on a beach.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.E1)(SFC, 3/4/17, p.C1)
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)
1827 Balkaria, a Caucasus region later known as known as Kabardino-Balkari, was annexed by Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kabardino-Balkaria)
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)
1830 Sep 9, In Russia a cholera epidemic, entering the country from Asia, forced the lockdown of Nizhny Novgorod province. Alexander Pushkin wrote his short story "The Undertaker".
(Econ., 7/6/20, p.69)
1830 Nov 29, In Warsaw young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress, Poland's military academy revolted against the Russian Empire. They were led by lieutenant Piotr Wysocki and were soon joined by large segments of societies of Lithuania, Belarus, and the Right-bank Ukraine. Nicholas I ruthlessly repressed the insurrection and by October 1831 Polish forces capitulated.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_Uprising)(WSJ, 4/13/99, p.A16)
c1830 Franz Kreuger painted a portrait of Empress Alexandra Fedorovna.
(SSFM, 4/1/01, p.61)
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)
1832 May 1, Russia’s Tsar Nicolas I closed Lithuania’s Univ. of Vilnius in response to the November uprising of 1830.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius_University_Library)
1832 Oct, Russian soldiers besieged the village of Gimry in the mountains of Dagestan in an effort to capture Gazi-Muhammad, the first imam of the Caucasus Imamate. Gimry was killed but his follower, Imam Shamil, escaped.
(Econ, 7/4/15, p.42)
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, Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (d.1910), composer (Tamara), was born in Nizhny-Novgorod, Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mily_Balakirev)
1837 Russia’s first railway line was built by Franz von Gerstner, a Bohemian engineer. It started in St. Petersburg and ended in Pavlovsk, an English-style summer retreat for the Russian aristocracy.
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.86)
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)
1839 Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841), Russian writer, authored “A Hero of Our Time." It is an example of the superfluous man novel, noted for its compelling Byronic hero (or anti-hero) Pechorin and for the beautiful descriptions of the Caucasus.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.35)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hero_of_Our_Time)
1839 Perovskite, a calcium titanium oxide mineral, was discovered by Gustav Rose in the Ural mountains. It was named after Russian minerologist Count Lev Perovski (1792-1856).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perovskite)
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 Russia’s Tsar Nicholas I ordered the creation of private savings banks. Sberbank had its roots here and in the 20th century grew to resemble a Soviet public utility. As of 2012 57.6$ of its shares were held by Russia’s central bank.
(Econ, 6/23/12, p.76)
1841 Alexander II (1818-1881) married Maria of Hessen-Darmstadt (Maria Alexandrovna). The marriage produced seven children. Alexander II succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father in 1855.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSalexander2.htm)
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)
1842 Nikolai V. Gogol (1809-1852), Ukrainian-born Russian writer, published his novel “Dead Souls." It appeared in Moscow under the title, imposed by the censorship, of “The Adventures of Chichikov."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)(WSJ, 4/14/09, p.D7)
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 Russia's secret police.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_von_Benckendorff)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.69)
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 Frenchman Frederic Lacroix authored “The Mysteries of Russia," his take on the supposed brutality of Slavic life.
(http://tinyurl.com/kccwhmc)(Econ, 2/4/17, p.28)
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 (b.1809), Russian novelist and playwright, died (OS) [see Mar 4].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)
1852 Mar 4, Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (b.1809), died (NS) [see Feb 21].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)
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 Jul, Supported by Britain, the Turks took a firm stand against the Russians, who occupied the Danubian principalities (modern Romania) on the Russo-Turkish border. The Crimean War got under way in October. It was fought mainly on the Crimean Peninsula between the Russians and the British, French, and Ottoman Turkish, with support, from January 1855, by the army of Sardinia-Piedmont. The war aligned Anglican England and Roman Catholic France with Islam’s sultan-caliphs against the tsars, who saw themselves as the world’s last truly Christian emperors.
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143040/Crimean-War)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.89)
1853 Sep 20, The Allies defeated the Russians at the battle of Alma on the Crimean Peninsula.
(HN, 9/20/98)
1853 Nov 30, The Russian fleet attacked and burned the wooden Turkish ships at the port of Sinop on the Black Sea coast of northern Turkey. The guns of the Russian ships destroyed the port and its defensive installations. Of the 4,400 Turkish seamen, 3,000 were killed.
(http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h38-br6.htm)
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)
1854 Nikolai Muraviev, a governor of eastern Siberia, raised an 800-strong Cossack unit and floated barges down the Shilka River to the mouth of the Amur River. Through encroachment, diplomacy and impudence he secured the Amur Basin for the Tsar.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.72)
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 9, Sevastopol, under siege for nearly a year, fell to the Allies. France, England, the Ottoman Empire and Sardinia (as Italy was then known) defeated the Russians at Sevastopol in the decisive battle of the Crimean War.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War)(SFC, 7/27/13, p.C2)
1855 Nov 26, Several thousand people staged a parade and banquet at South Park, SF, to celebrate the Allied victory over the Russians in the Crimean War and the capture of the Malakoff fortress in Sevastopol. The celebration turned into a rampage after some 2,500 bottles of claret were consumed.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)(SFC, 7/27/13, p.C2)
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)
1855 Japan acquired some of the Kurile Islands (Kuril Islands), a chain of 56 islands that extended 744 miles from Hokkaido to Russia's Kamchatka peninsula. The Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation established the border between Iturup and Urup. This border confirmed that Japanese territory stretched south from Iturup and Russian territory stretched north of Urup. Sakhalin remained a place where people from both countries could live.
(SFC, 8/14/01, p.A7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands)
1856 Feb 29, Hostilities in Russo-Turkish war ceased.
(HN, 2/29/00)
1856 Mar 30, Russia signed the Treaty of Paris ending the Crimean War. It guaranteed the integrity of Ottoman Turkey and obliged Russia to surrender southern Bessarabia, at the mouth of the Danube. The Black Sea was neutralized, and the Danube River was opened to the shipping of all nations. In 2010 Allen Lane authored “Crimea: The Last Crusade."
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143040/Crimean-War)
1856 Apr 29, A peace treaty between England and Russia was signed.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1856 In Alaska the Russian occupants of the Batzulnetas outpost were massacred by natives.
(AH, 6/07, p.69)
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)
1857 Alexander Herzen (1812-1870), Russia’s first socialist, and Nikolai Ogaryov (1813-1877) began publishing the newspaper Kolokol (Bell) in London, which was then smuggled back into Russia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolokol_%28newspaper%29)(Econ, 2/13/15, p.52)
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 Russia purchased the Alexander courtyard in Jerusalem.
(AP, 1/22/20)
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 Perry McDonough Collins (b.1813) authored “A Voyage Down the Amoor." It told of his 1856-1857 journey down the river shortly before it was annexed by Russia. Perry McDonough Collins was the visionary behind the Russian American Telegraph of 1865-1867. The failed venture aimed to connect America to Europe by telegraph via the Bering Strait.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.70)(www.jstor.org/pss/1794606) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Collins)
1860 Russia’s Emp. Alexander II presented the Mariinsky theater in St. Petersburg as a birthday present to his wife, Maria.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.87)
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 May 21, Elena Molokhovets (1831-1918), Russian writer, published “A Gift to Young Housewives," which remained popular in Russia for half a century.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.141)(http://tinyurl.com/6u8dj4)
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 Jun 2, The Circassian-Russian war, begun in 1763, ended. It left about a million Circassians of the northwest Caucasus dead. Historians in general agree on the figure of some 500,000 inhabitants of the highland Caucasus being deported by Russia in the 1860s. A large fraction of them died in transit from disease.
(Econ, 5/26/12, p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian%E2%80%93Circassian_War)
1864 Circassian fighters in Sochi surrendered to the czarist forces. Circassians were widely dispersed following Russian expulsions.
(AP, 8/21/12)
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)
1865 Russia took Bukhara, Tashkent, and Samerkand (Uzbekistan).
(https://www.afghan-web.com/history/chronology/)
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 30, US Secretary of State William H. Seward signed an agreement with Russia’s Baron Edouard de Stoeckl to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, two cents an acre, a deal roundly ridiculed as "Seward's Folly," "Seward's icebox," and President Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden."
(AP, 3/30/97)(HN, 3/30/01)(Reuters, 5/24/11)
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 Mar 11, Vladimir Odoevsky, Russian prince, senator, scientist writer and critic, died. A collection of his short stories was translated to English in 2012.
(NYT, 9/27/12, p.7)( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Odoevsky)
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)
1869 Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), Russian novelist, published "War and Peace" in its entirety. It had initially been serialized and titled "1805."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy)
1870 Jan 21, Alexander Herzen (b.1812), Russian pro-Western writer and thinker, died. He was known as the "father of Russian socialism", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism (being an ideological ancestor of the Narodniki, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudoviks and the agrarian American Populist Party).
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.103)
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)
1873 Russia established a fixed boundary between Afghanistan and it's new territories. Russia promised to respect Afghanistan's territorial integrity.
(https://www.afghan-web.com/history/chronology/)
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)
1875 In St. Petersburg, Russia, a mansion was purchased by Duke Vasily Naryshkin, whose family included Nataliya Naryshkina, the second wife of Czar Alexis and the mother of Peter the Great. The mansion had been put together by connecting two 18-century houses, one of which belonged to Pushkin's African grandfather Abram Gannibal. After the Bolsheviks nationalized private property, part of the mansion was turned into a stolovaya, a canteen-like restaurant serving utilitarian meals. In 2012 workers found treasure, dating back to 1917, was found in storage space hidden between two floors.
(AP, 3/30/12)
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 Jan 8, [NS date] Russian poet Nikolay Nekrasov (b.1821) died. He is credited with introducing into Russian poetry ternary meters and the technique of dramatic monologue.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Nekrasov)
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 Mar 3, The Treaty of San Stefano was signed after Russo-Turkish War. It assigned Albanian-populated lands to Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia; but Austria-Hungary and Britain blocked the treaty's implementation. Albanian leaders meet in Prizren, Kosova, to form the League of Prizren. The League initially advocated autonomy for Albania. At the Congress of Berlin, the Great Powers overturned the Treaty of San Stefano and divided Albanian lands among several states. The League of Prizren began to organize resistance to the Treaty of Berlin's provisions that affected Albanians.
(www, Albania, 1998)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_San_Stefano)
1878 Jul 13, The Treaty of Berlin was the final act of the Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878), by which the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Abdul Hamid II revised the Treaty of San Stefano signed on 3 March the same year. The Treaty of San Stefano had ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The Congress of Berlin divided the Balkans among European powers. The Slavic converts to Islam in the Sandzak region of southwestern Serbia were separated from their ethnic cousins in Bosnia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Berlin_(1878)) (AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)(WSJ, 6/16/99, p.A20)
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 Sep, In St. Petersburg Chinese diplomat Wanyan Chonghou agreed to a treaty that awarded Russia a number of important parts of Xinjiang and gave Russia valuable long-term trading privileges deep in Qing territory. Chonghou had been expected get territory returned to Qing rule.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.72)
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_)
1880 Russia began keeping records of its weather.
(Econ, 7/31/10, p.40)
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)
1882 In Russia the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society was founded to support Russian pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.84)
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 novelist and playwright, died in France. His best play was “A Month in the Country." 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.
(WSJ, 4/26/95, p.A-14)(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 The Russian book “Way of a Pilgrim," or a copy of it, was present at a Mount Athos monastery in Greece in the 19th century, and was first published in Kazan, Tatarstan, under the Russian title that translates as "Candid Narratives of a Pilgrim to His Spiritual Father." In 1931 it was translated into English by R. M. French. The story recounted the narrator's journey as a mendicant pilgrim across Russia while practicing the Jesus Prayer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_of_a_Pilgrim)
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 Gustavovich Faberge (1846-1920) to make an Easter egg for the Empress. She received the 1st egg Easter Sunday in 1885 and the tradition continued to 1917. In 2008 Toby Faber authored “Faberge’s Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived and Empire."
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.M2)(WSJ, 10/5/08, p.A17)
1884 In Denmark the Alexander Nevski church was built in Copenhagen on a request by Czarina Maria Feodorovna, the Danish-born mother of Nicholas II.
(AP, 1/20/10)
1885 Jan 3, Anna Pavlova Russia’s premier ballerina, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1885 Mar 30, Russian troops inflicted a crushing defeat on Afghan forces at Ak Teppe despite orders not to fight. In the Panjdeh Incident Russian forces seize the Panjdeh Oasis, a piece of Afghan territory north of the Oxus River. Afghans tried to retake it, but were finally forced to allow the Russians to keep Panjdeh, and the Russians promised to honor Afghan territorial integrity in the future.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panjdeh_incident)(http://tinyurl.com/y2fzk4xm)
1885 Nov 17, The Serbian Army, with Russian support, invaded Bulgaria.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1885 Russian artist Ilya Repin created his painting "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581," which depicts Russian czar Ivan the Terrible cradling his dying son after striking him in a fit of rage. It became the first painting in the Russian empire in 1885 to be officially banned from being displayed. It was allowed back into Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery several months later. In 1913, a mentally unstable man attacked the painting with a knife. The then-curator of the gallery was so distressed by the vandalism that he threw himself a under a train. In 2018 Igor Podporin damaged the painting. In 2019 Podporin was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for vandalizing the painting.
(AP, 4/30/19)
1886 Feb 9, Modest Mussorgsky’s (1839-1881) opera “Khovanschchina," arranged by Rimsky-Korsakov, premiered in St. Petersburg. The Gregorian date is Feb 21.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khovanshchina)
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 Piotr Smirnov was made 'Official Purveyor' of vodka to the imperial Russian court. His pure, charcoal-filtered vodka became the toast of the Czars. Later, one of Smirnov's sons escaped Russia's revolution and restarted the family business in Paris, adopting the francophone name Smirnoff. The pure Smirnoff vodka took America by storm in the 1930's and went on to become a global icon.
(www.diageo.com/en-row/AboutDiageo/OurHistory/)
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 20, Alexander Ulyanov (b.1866), the older brother of Lenin, the older brother of Lenin, was executed for a conspiracy to assassinate Czar Alexander III.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Ulyanov)(WSJ, 10/5/00, p.A24)
1887 Jul 7, Marc Chagall (d.1985), French painter and designer, was born in Vitebsk, Belarus, Russia, as Moishe Shagal. 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 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 May 11, Songwriter Irving Berlin (d.1989), Jewish composer of White Christmas, was born Israel Isadore Baline in Temun, Russia. He arrived in the US with his family at age 5.
(AP, 5/11/97)(HN, 5/11/98)(SFC, 12/28/12, p.E1)
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)
1888 In Jerusalem the Mary Magdalene convent was consecrated. Its decoration was overseen by Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, consort to Russia’s Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the brother of Tsar Alexander III.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.82)
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 May, A flu epidemic was reported in Bukhara, Russian Empire. By November the epidemic had reached Saint Petersburg. The 1889-1890 flu pandemic, better known as the "Asiatic flu" or "Russian flu", killed about 1 million people worldwide. It was the last great pandemic of the 19th century. Virologists in 2002 attempted to gather viral tissue from frozen grave sites in Siberia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1889%E2%80%931890_flu_pandemic)(SFCM, 2/17/02, p.27)
1889 Jul 29, Vladimir Zworykin, called the "Father of Television" for inventing the iconoscope, was born in Russia.
(AP, 7/30/97)
1889 In Russia construction began on the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. It took 6½ years to comp0leted 362-room hotel. In 2012 it was sold to Alexander Klyachin, owner of the Azimut Hotel chain, for $275.6 million.
(SFC, 9/27/12, p.7)
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 May, Russian writer Anton Chekov (30) traveled to Sakhalin Island, a penal colony, to survey the prisoners and publicize their conditions. The experience crystallized his political awareness. "Sakhalin Island," his account of the expedition, was published in 1893.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.8)(Econ., 7/4/20, p.78)
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 A metalic likeness of Catherine the Great was erected in Simferepol, the capital of Crimea, to commemorate the century of Catherine's capture of the peninsula. It was torn down after the Russian revolution.
(Econ, 6/8/19, p.48)
1890 German Kaiser Wilhelm II ended Bismarck’s secret Reinsurance treaty with Russia. This helped drive Russia into the arms of France.
(Econ, 10/25/14, p.84)
1890 The Shigir Idol, a nine-foot-tall totem pole, was dug out of a peat bog by gold miners near Kirovgrad, Russia. In 2014 advanced technology yielded a remarkably early origin: roughly 11,600 years ago, a time when Eurasia was still transitioning out of the last ice age.
(NY Times, 3/23/21)
1890 In Jerusalem a small tract known as Sergei's Courtyard, named for Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, a son of Czar Alexander III, was built. It became part of the larger Russian Compound, most of which Israel purchased in 1964, when Israel paid $3.5 million in oranges because it lacked hard currency. In 2008 Israel approved handing back Sergei's Courtyard to Russia. The actual transfer took place in 2011.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Compound)(AP, 10/7/08)(AP, 3/21/11)
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 Russia began construction of the Trans-Siberian railway. The state project was completed in 1916.
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.88)
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 Russian anarcho-communist Peter Kropotkin authored "The Conquest of Bread". Originally written in French, it first appeared as a series of articles in the anarchist journal Le Révolté. It was first published in Paris with a preface by Élisée Reclus, who also suggested the title. Between 1892 and 1894, it was serialized in part in the London journal Freedom, of which Kropotkin was a co-founder.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conquest_of_Bread)
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 Mar 5, Nikolai Leskov (b.1831), Russian writer, died. His major works included Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1865), which was later made into an opera by Shostakovich. In 2013 new translations of 17 of his stories were published by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.F4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Leskov)
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)
1898 Pyotr Smirnov (b.1831), Russian vodka manufacturer, died. In 2009 Linda Himelstein authored “The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire."
(SSFC, 5/31/09, Books p.J2)
1899 Jan 21, Alexander Tcherepnin (d.1977), composer, was born in St Petersburg, Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Tcherepnin)
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."
(http://lib.ru/NABOKOW/nabokr.txt)(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A5)(WSJ, 4/22/99, A20)
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)
1899 Frederick Bruce Thomas (1872-1928), an American-born black businessman, moved to Moscow and renamed himself Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas. He became one of the city’s richest owners of variety theaters and restaurants. The Bolshevik Revolution ruined him. He escaped with his family to Constantinople in 1919. In 2012 Vladimir Alexandrov authored “The Black Russian," a biography of Thomas.
(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.F2)
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)
1905 Feb 2, Ayn Rand (d.1982), writer and social philosopher (Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead), was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, as Alisa Rosenbaum. 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)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand)
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 Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), Russian anarchist, authored "Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution)(Econ., 12/19/20, p.50)
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 17, Russia’s Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (b.1857), the brother of Tsar Alexander III, was assassinated by a terrorist bomb at the Kremlin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Sergei_Alexandrovich_of_Russia)(Econ, 12/19/09, p.82)
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 May 29, The Russian ship Dmitrii Donskoi was scuttled off an eastern Korean island after the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese war. In 2018 a South Korean company claimed to have found the sunken warship. The company speculated about 200 tons of gold bars and coins worth 150 trillion won ($132 billion) would still likely be aboard the ship.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Dmitrii_Donskoi)(AP, 7/19/18)
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 A Russian monk named Ilarion authored “In the Mountains of the Caucasus," which extolled the recitation of the “Jesus Prayer." This triggered the “name-deifier" dispute among the Orthodox. In 2009 Jean-Michael Kantor an d Loren Graham authored “Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity."
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.90)
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. Russia and Great Britain signed the convention of St. Petersburg, in which Afghanistan was declared outside Russia's sphere of influence.
(https://www.afghan-web.com/history/chronology/)(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 1967 Henri Troyat’s “Tolstoy" became available in English. In 2007 Leah Bendavid-Val authored “Song Without Words: The Photographs and Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy." In 2011 Rosamund Bartlett authored “Tolstoy: A Russian Life."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy)(WSJ, 12/1/07, p.W10)(SSFC, 12/4/11, p.F4)
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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