March 13 in Russian history

1807: Death of Nikolay Rezanov, Russian diplomat, merchant, on of the founders of the Russian-American Company, an initiator of the first Russian circumnavigational expedition. He was born in 1764 and was a talented boy. At the age of 14, he spoke 5 languages. Since 1791 till 1793 he works as the secretary of the poet and politician Gavriil Derzhavin. Since 1797 he works in the Senate. He gets married in 1794, but in 1802 his wifed died. In August 1803, he leaves St.Petersburg with the expedition of Ivan Kruzenshtern, visits Japan and goes to Alaska. In Sitka, he meets a unique man, the governor of Russian America, merchant Alexander Baranov. Lack of food in the Russian colonies in Alaska makes the colonists to search for the supplies in the south. In spring of 1806, Rezanov on the ship Juno comes to el presidio Hierba Buena, later known as San Francisco, to sign trading contracts with the Spanish colonists. The Spanish king prohibited the colonists to trade with foreigners, but here a really romantic story begins. Rezanov meets 15 years old donna Maria de la Concepcion Marcella Arguello (or simply Conchita), the daughter of the commander of the fort don Jose Dario Arguello. She fell in love with him and he love her, too. Don Jose also liked the Russian traveler and he did his best to help him. Rezanov offered Conchita to become his wife and she agreed. They engaged, but he had his duties. In June 1806, Juno leaves California with food supplies for Alaska. Rezanov must return to St.Petersburg and then he would return to Conchita. In Alaska, Rezanov get pneumonia, but continues his way back home. In Krasnoyarsk, his weakened heart fails and he dies. Conchita was waiting for him for thirty years. She heard of his death, but did not believe the rumours. At last, in 1849 she becomes a nun in a Dominican monastery. She died in 1857, when she was 67 years old. In Alasks, near Sitka, there is an island named by Rezanov after his bride -- Arguello.

In 1978, poet Andrei Voznesensky and musician Alexander Rybnikov created a musical "Juno and Avos", based on these events. The musical is still very popular in Russia.

1887: An attempt of assassination of Alexander III fails. 15 minutes before the emperor's carriage goes enters the scene, six people with three bombs are detained. A month and a half later, the five organizers of the plot were sentenced to death. One of them was Alexander Ulyanov, brother of Vladimir Ulyanov, aka Lenin. Alexander III, having read the revolutionary program of the terrorists, notes: "This is not even a madman's writing, but a creation of a complete idiot".

1930: The last unemployment office in Moscow is closed. USSR becomes the first country of the world without unemployment.

1964: A Soviet trial in Leningrad sentences the great Russian poet Joseph Brodsky to 5 years of exile for "parasitism".