June 21 in Russian history

1897: Birthday of Alexander Ignatyevich Shargey. He was born in Poltava (modern Ukraine). In this year in a St.Petersburg prison a young student Maria Vetrova, arrested as a participant of a revolutionary group, burnt herself in a suicidal act of protest. The parents of Alexander participated in the students' revolts in Kiev caused by Vetrova's death. Alexander's father, Ignaty, left the university, and his mother, Lyudmila, was arrested. While in prison, she was diagnosed as having a mental disease. Ignaty left the family and went for study to Germany, but soon returned to St.Petersburg. In 1910, he died. Alexander was raised by his grandmother and grandfather. Being a smart boy, he was deeply interested in science fiction stories, engineering, science. He had even attempted to develop a spaceship. In 1916, Alexander graduated from a gymnasium with a silver medal and entered a Polytechnical institute in St.Petersburg. Two months later he was drafted to the army and became an ensign. In 1917 he was sent to Caucasus, but when the Southern front fell apart in 1918, he and his friend decided to go home. On the road, they were recruited to the Volunteer Army (the White Guard). They fled from the army and stayed in Poltava. Because of the social turmoil, he preferred to stay at home and enjoyed reading. In those days he found an article in a magazine talking about Tsiolkovsky's achievements. Then he moved to Kiev to his step-mother, Elena Kareyeva. He began working. In free hours he wrote a brochure titled "To those who will read in order to build" (published in 1919). The brochure discussed the general theory of jet rockets, optimal trajectories of flights to various planets, space navigation, usage of mirrors to concentrate the solar energy, intermediate space bases, planets gravitation as a way to change the flight direction and so on.

In 1919, the White Guard troops entered Kiev and Shargey was drafted again. On the road, he escapes again. His step-mother finds the documents of someone Yuri Kondratyuk, who died in 1921. This was necessary to save him from Cheka, who persecuted the officers of the tsarist army.

In 1925 he at lasts manages to find books by Tsiolkovsky and he is deeply disappointed when he learns that most of his own work had been done before. Nevertheless, he publishes his second book, "Conquering the interplanetary space" where he further develops his ideas from the first book and it receives praises from V.Vetchinkin, outstanding scientist of those times. In the books he also proposed to use giant guns for acceleration of cargo ships sent to the orbital station. He also developed a gliding landing module. His life goes on and he becomes a constructor of grain elevators. So, he builds a unique grain elevator "Mastodon" in Novosibirsk, without a single metal joint, since iron was in very short supply in Siberia then. This absence of metal parts became a ground for accusation in sabotage in 1930. The local authorities decided that the elevator will fall apart when 10,000 tons of grain will be put there. The "Mastodon" elevator worked for 50 more years, but Shargey-Kondratyuk was arrested and sentenced for three years in Gulag camps. Instead of the camp, he was sent to a specialized construction bureau, so called sharashka (a research lab staffed with gifted Gulag inmates). In this laboratory Shargey designed powerful and effective wind power stations, which were built later in Crimea. In 1937 the Crimean wind power project was closed and he begins to design hydrogen power stations. In 1941, when the war began, he volunteers to join the Soviet army. He was missed in action in October 1941. It was found out later that he survived and joined another regiment, where he fought till February 1942, when he was killed. His body was not found and a part of his notebook was found later in the archives of Wernher von Braun. This fact gave birth to a legend that he was captured by Germans and sent to Peenemünde and after the war was secretly transported to the USA. Others say that he was von Braun himself. Unfortunately, this is not so.

When the space age began, it suddenly turned out that a lot of Shargey-Kondratyuk's ideas were extremely useful. Dr. John Houbolt of NASA, who developed the Lunar Excursion Module, repeated the discoveries of Kondratyuk, who proposed the idea of a separate landing module and developed the optimal landing trajectory for the Moon. Houbolt said later that when he was watching the launch of Apollo-9, he thought about Kondratyuk. Neil Armstrong visited Novosibirsk and gathered a handful of the soil near the house of Kondratyuk, saying that this soil means just as much as the Moon probes for him.

In 1970, Kondratyuk was rehabilitated. In 1977, the court ruled that he committed no crime when he had changed his name.

April 16 in Russian history

1803: Alexander I officially opens the Vilnius University. In 1804, 290 students were studying there, and in 1823 it grew into the largest university of Russia and Europe. In 1830, there were 1321 students. Probably, the most famous graduate of the university was Adam Mickiewicz, the legend of Polish literature. He, like many other students, was a member of a an organization demanding the independence of Poland and Lithuania. Participation of a large number of students in the rebellion of 1831 led to the closure of the university in 1832. The university buildings became the home of the Museum of Antiquities, the Public Library and two gymnasiums. Among the students of these gymnasiums were the first Polish Chief of the State and dictator Jozef Pilsudski, the father of the infamous Cheka Felix Dzerzhinsky and the theorist of literature Mikhail Bakhtin.

1866: Dmitri Karakozov attempts to shoot emperor Alexander II. In 1865 he joined a terrorist organization and was a proponent of the individual terrorism. He thought that the assassination of the tsar will lead to the social revolution. When Karakozov was ready to shoot, a passer-by pushed his hand and Karakozov missed. He was arrested, trialled and sentenced to hanging.

1905: The first Russian trade union is founded: the trade union of typography workers.

1911: The Black Sea navy experiment with the aeroplanes escorts. For the first time, a group of aeroplanes successfully convoy a group of ships.

1970: The museum of the red Latvian riflemen was opened in Riga, Latvia. The Latvian Riflemen Division was a part of the Russian army in the World War I and after the bolshevik uprising they joined the bolsheviks and became the watchdogs of the revolution. They guard the Council of People's Commissars, Lenin's personal train, Kremlin. In April 1918, the Latvian Soviet Division is created. The first commander of the division was I.Vacetis. They oppress the anti-bolshevik rebellions in Moscow, Yaroslavl, Murom, Rybinsk, Kaluga, Saratov, Novgorod and many other places. In 1919 they fought against the White armies of Denikin and Yudenich. In 1920 they fought against general Vrangel and stormed Perekop (a stripe of land connecting Crimea and mainland). After November 1920, when the division was disbanded, many riflemen became prominent members of Cheka and the Red army: I. Vacetis, R. Eideman, R. Berzins, Y. Berzins, K. Stucka, J. Lacis and many others. Ironically, the museum of the red Latvian riflemen in Riga was recently renamed into the museum of the 50 years of occupation. The occupation which might have never happened, had it not been for these riflemen.

Map of locations where the Latvian riflemen fought against the White army and anti-bolshevik uprisings

March 5 in Russian history

1820: After the discovery of the Antarctica, Faddey Bellinsgauzen departs to Australia for repair. After that, he spends the summer of 1820 in the Southern Seas, where he discovers 17 previously unknown islands.

1877: Premiere of Swan Lake, the first ballet written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (other sources give the date March 4). The premiere took place in the Bolshoi Theatre. This ballet is sometimes called the most politicized ballet in the world. In the days of USSR, every time you saw the ballet on all (two) TV channels, you knew something had gone wrong in the country: either the general secretary died, or a coup had happened.

1901: The Russian Orthodox church officially announces that Leo Tolstoy is anathematized. He replies: "I am convinced that the teaching of the church is a harmful lie in the theoretical questions and the collection of the most vulgar superstitions in the practical matters, hiding completely the meaning of the Christian teaching."

1919: A peasants revolt, known as the chapan war, begins in the village Novodevichye in the Samara province (chapan is a peasants upper dress). The main reasons were the prodrazvyorstka (the governmental program of food expropriation, when all peasants were obliged to sell what the government considered a surplus to the government for a fixed, very low price), control over the Soviets established by bolsheviks, the red terror and the persecution of religion. In just a few days, the peasants managed to create a new political, social and military structures. A peasants' army was formed, the Soviets were re-elected and a newspaper was organized. The newspaper wrote that the rebellion is not directed against the Soviets, but against "the power of tyrants, murderers and robbers -- communists, anarchists and others, who kill people, take the last grain and kettle, destroy icons", etc. The revolt was led by the Union of Toiling Peasants, a mix of a trade union and a politicized co-operative, created during the revolution of 1905 and not controlled by any political party. There were about 150,000 people participating in the revolt and it was the largest peasants revolt in Russian history. Unfortunately, the rebels had only some hundred rifles and some machine guns. Others were armed with axes and pikes. And yet, they managed to establish control over Stavropol (modern Togliatti, the city where I was born). The province was located on the borderline between the Red and White armies and the rebellion was very dangerous for the bolsheviks. The revolt was suppressed in March 1919 and thousands were killed.

1942: The Seventh Symphony (also known as Leningradskaya) of Dmitri Shostakovich is performed for the first time in Kuibyshev (Samara). On March 29 it is performed in Moscow, on June 22 -- in London and Tashkent, on July 9 -- in Novosibirsk, on July 19 -- in New York.

February 27 in Russian history

1825: The first chapter of Eugene Onegin is published for the first time. Onegin is a novel in verses, but, just like more common prosaic novels, it was a serial and was published by chapters. The last, eighth chapter was published in 1831 and the book in whole appeared in 1833. I would love to write a huge article about Pushkin and Onegin where I could say everything I'd like to say about the book, but I won't even try, since I know that I wouldn't be able to, even in Russian. Instead, I will simply quote some lines from the preface to Onegin which could be easily a preface to this blog (or any other blog, for that matter :))

Heedless of the proud world's enjoyment,
I prize the attention of my friends,
and only wish that my employment
could have been turned to worthier ends --
worthier of you in the perfection
your soul displays, in holy dreams,
in simple but sublime reflection,
in limpid verse that lives and gleams.
But, as it is, this pied collection
begs your indulgence -- it's been spun
from threads both sad and humoristic,
themes popular or idealistic,
products of carefree hours, of fun,
of sleeplessness, faint inspirations,
of powers unripe, or on the wane,
of reason's icy intimations,
and records of a heart in pain.

Other, less important anniversaries of today are:

1617: The end of the Russo-Swedish war of 1613-1617. Treaty of Stolbovo signed. Russia lost Kexholm and Ingria, Estonia and Livonia. Not forever, though. Sweden recognized tsar Mikhail as the ruler of Russia.

1901: A student Pyotr Karpovich, a member of the party of socialist-revolutionaries, kills the minister of education Nikolay Bogolepov. Karpovich planned the assassination after he learned that Bogolepov ordered to send 183 students of the Kiev university to the army. When Karpovich came to the Bogolepov's office, he witnessed a discussion between the minister and a mayor of Chernigov, who asked to open another school in his hometown. Bogolepov asked: "Give us the proofs that the richer citizens will send their children to this school. We do not want to teach the poor." During the trial, Karpovich said that these words finally convinced him in the necessity of the assassination.

1919: Bolsheviks create Litbel, Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, on the territory of Byelorussia and eastern Lithuania. About half a year later, when the Polish army occupied almost whole territory of Byelorussia, Litbel ceased to exist.

February 22 in Russian history

1918: The beginning of the famous Ice Campaign of the Volunteer Army (Dobrovolcheskaya Armiya, or simply Dobrarmiya). The army was born on December 27, 1917 by general Alexeyev to fight the Red Army. General Anton Ivanovich Denikin also assisted the formation of the Volunteer Army. The commander of the Army was general Lavr Fyodorovich Kornilov. It consisted of officers, soldiers, cadets, students, even schoolchildren who escaped to Don from the parts of Russia controlled by bolsheviks.

By the end of January 1918 there were about 3,500-4,000 soldiers. Together with the Cossacks led by Alexey Kaledin they fought against the regiments of Antonov-Ovseenko. Unfortunately, Cossacks were generally reluctant to support the counter-revolutionary movement and a month later the Volunteer Army had to retreat. On February 22, 1918, they left Rostov and went to Kuban. It was not the "heroic and glorious" campaign, as it is sometimes painted by the historians in emigration. Heroic -- yes, but definitely not that glorious. It was more of a march of the desperate people, who sometimes "confiscated" food from the local population, sometimes executed those who, as they suspected, supported communists, etc. They went under rain and snow, they died from frost and starvation, and reached Kuban in March. They attempted to capture Yekaterinodar (modern Krasnodar), but failed. The Kuban Cossacks, like Don Cossacks, did not grant their support.

General Kornilov was killed during the storm of Yekaterinodar and Denikin became the commander of the Dobrarmiya. He managed to raise the number of the fighters to 30,000-35,000 men and achieved some successes which made many to believe that the Bolshevism would be soon overthrown. In 1919 he almost took Moscow, but he failed. In autumn of 1919 they began to move back southwards and in spring of 1920 what remained of the army were evacuated from Novorossiysk to Crimea. In Crimea, they merged with the Armed Forces of South Russia, led by general Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel. I deeply respect these people, but I am not sure if I would respect them if I had met them face to face.

February 15 in Russian history

1045: The construction of the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Novgorod began. This is the oldest church in Russia that survived till now. Russia.com writes about the cathedral:

This five-domed stone cathedral was built by Vladimir of Novgorod, son of Yaroslav the Wise. His father’s last request was that the St. Sophia Cathedral of Novgorod be built as a sign of appreciation to the Novgorodians due to the fact that they had given so much support to him during his struggle for Kiev. Before the St. Sophia Cathedral was built an ancient wooden, 13-domed church established in 989 existed in its place. The cupolas or the dome-shaped roof are thought to have gained their present shape in the 1150’s, after it was rebuilt after being in a fire. The interior rooms were painted in the 11th and 12th centuries but certain parts of the interior had to be repainted in 1860s. The many frescoes, or paintings done directly on partly dry plaster, have faded to the point where not much of the pictures can be seen due to the many fires. In the 15th century the white stone bell tower was added and the clock tower was finished by 1673. The St. Sophia Cathedral was built as a ceremonial and spiritual institution of the Novgorod Republic during the 12th to the 15th century and stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains. The St. Sophia has been seen by the Novgorodians as a monument standing for their independence something they are very proud of. Fortunately, the Cathedral survived the Nazi occupation of Novgorod, even though the Kremlin was damaged so much from the Nazi abuse. When the Spanish infantry came they removed the large cross from the main dome of the church. In fact till November 16, 2004 the cross spent 60 years in the Madrid’s Military Engineering Academy Museum. Then in 2004 the Spanish minister of defense Jose Bono gave it back to the Russian Orthodox Church. The main cathedral gates of the St. Sophia have led to much speculation as to their origination. Customarily they were thought to have been brought by Saint Vladimir from Korsun in Crimea as part of the apparent Korsun Treasures. There are still a few objects left that can be seen but the gates itself have been replaced on many occasions. Year 1335, Archbishop Basil donated a gate, which was later transferred to Ivan III residence in Alexandrov near Moscow on his request and can still be seen there today. The gates that stand at the St. Sophia Cathedral now are bronze doors that are thought to have been taken by Novgorodian pirates from Sigtuna a Swedish town in 1187. These gates are only opened on special occasions twice a year.

Wikipedia also has an interesting article about the temple.

1495: Elena, daughter of Ivan III, marries Alexander, the Great Duke of Lithuania. Both countries hoped that the marriage will increase their influence in this constantly competing couple, but the balance was too stable, Russia did not become catholic and Lithuania did not accept orthodoxy. Elena suffered because of this competition between her father and her husband. After their death, she spent the rest of her life under home arrest in a Lithuanian castle.

1895: Sisters Eugenia, Helen and Maria Gnessin, known in Moscow as outstanding pianists, founded the first musical college in Russia. This college, renamed to the Gnessin State Musical College, is one of the best Russian musical schools.

1919: The Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense adopted the decree on cleaning the railroads from snow. Railroads were very important during the Civil War and the winter was snowy. All men in the age from 18 to 50, living withing 20 kilometres from a railroad, were obliged to participate in the cleaning: "Some committee members from the areas where the works are not done satisfactorily, whould be arrested. In the same areas, a number of peasants must be taken as hostages and executed if the snow is not cleaned."

February 7 in Russian history

1238: Batu Khan captures Vladimir. Only three months earlier, the knyaz of Vladimir Yuri, son of Vsevolod (known as Bolshoye Gnezdo, the Big Nest) refused to send troops to help knyaz of Ryazan, Yuri Igorevich. Tens of Russian knyazes competed for their own lands and refused to co-operate to save the country. Ryazan was completely destroyed in December, 1237. Vladimir lost the key ally on the South. Now, on the 5 February, Batu Khan camped near the walls of Vladimir. Knyaz Yuri left the city to his sons Vsevolod and Mstislav and the chieftain Pyotr Oslyadkovich and left to gather an army that would be able to withstand the Tatars. Batu Khan offered Vladimir to surrender, promising to spare the life of another Yuri's son, Vladimir Yurievich, who was captured a week ago in Moscow. The leaders of the city refused and Vladimir Yurievich was killed with swords. Vsevolod and Mstislav attempted to offer a ransom and went out of the gates with rich gifts, but Batu Khan ordered to kill them, too. They were killed in front of the Golden Gates of Vladimir, the main gates of the city. On February 6, the Tatars were preparing the attack and on February 7 they broke the walls, entered the city, sacked and burnt it. The citizens of Vladimir attempted to hide in the Uspensky cathedral with its thick stone walls, but the Tatars put huge fires around the cathedral and all the people died. A month later, knyaz Yuri and his new army lost the battle on river Sit'. I visited Vladimir this summer and saw these Golden Gates (I am still writing a story of this trip and will post it as soon as I finish it). The Uspensky cathedral was rebuilt and it still exists. The remains of the city walls are there, too.

1920: Bolsheviks executed one of the leaders of the White Guard, the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak. A brilliant naval officer, participant of polar expeditions, geographer, commander of the Black Sea fleet, he became a prominent political figure, a leader of the counter-revolutionary movement. In 1918, he was appointed the military and naval minister of the so called Siberian government of Russia in Omsk. Two months later, he organized a coup and proclaimed himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia. In 1919, his troops began to lose the war to the Bolsheviks and Kolchak attempted to move his government to Irkutsk. Part of the railroad from Omsk to Irkutsk was controlled by the Czech Legion, who promised him safe passage, but instead they arrested him. The French representative of the Entente in Siberia, Maurice Janin, who controlled the Czech Legion, handed him over to a leftist organization called Political Centre in Irkutsk. The organization was created by bolsheviks especially to give impression that Janin contacted SRs, not bolsheviks. Immediately after they got Kolchak, the Political Centre was disbanded and Kolchak became a prisoner of Cheka. As a payment for Kolchak, bolsheviks allowed Janin to take a large amount of gold from Siberia. The White Army troops led by Vladimir Kappel attempted to save Kolchak, but the Bolsheviks executed him on a direct order from Moscow after two weeks of "investigation". His body was thrown into a small river Ushakovka.