Report of Russian secret police on moral and political state in the country. 150 years ago, sorry

Since 1827, The Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery produced special reports for the tsar, describing the moral and political situation in the Russian society. Four years ago, a large share of these reports was published by the Russian State Archive. Below are some short excerpts from the report summarizing the events of 1860, 150 years ago. Five years had passed since the coronation of Alexander II and only one year remained till the most important act of liberalism in Russia in 19th century (the last three words were, probably, not necessary).

Moral and political review of 1860

On revolutionary projects

For thirty years already, the aggregations of political emigrants in England, France, Belgium and Switzerland have constituted the source of all destructive projects in Europe. The revolutionary propaganda was led by Joseph Mazzini, the tireless advocate of the Italian freedom and the universal republic, in which this dreamer sees the future of the humanity...

The bombs, thrown in 1858 in Paris by Orsini, have proven the extreme danger of the ideas of the emancipation of Italy for the French throne...

Politicians see in the preparations for the popular resistance certain signs of the upcoming merge of the Italian question with the Hungarian, Polish and the Eastern questions. The future may confirm this guess, but it is already clearly seen that the tools chosen for these plans prove their revolutionary and democratic nature.

On Polish expatriates

The Polish emigrants include the expatriates of 1832 and 1848. The former, due to their number and influence, are more important than the latter, who mostly left Poland in young age, because of their inclination to life of leisure, without strict political principles...

According to the directions given in the speech [by Adam Czartoryski], instructions were sent to the Poles in the Tsardom to do nothing till the liberation of peasants [...] but that they should make the Polish peasants believe that the Polish aristocrats forced the Tsar to liberate them.

In the meanwhile, the hopes of the Polish emigrants in Paris and in London are based on the events being prepared in Hungary. They plan that either the rebellion in Hungary in which Poles would participate may become useful for their own rebellion, or that the Hungary, reformed by Austria, will provide them with the moral grounds to demand the reformation of Poland.

On Russian expatriates

In 1860, the number of Russians who left their Fatherland and explicitly joined the opposition, has grown. Some of the most important of them are: 1) Prince Peter Dolgorukov, the author of the book titled "La Verite sur la Russie". Having published the book in Paris, he departed to London, making acquaintance with Herzen and Ogarev. As far as we know, his book was recognized abroad as malicious vilification of the all Russian state and the ruling Dynasty and damaged his reputation among people of reason...

2) Prince Yuri Golitsyn, who fled from Russia due to the being justly punished for the improper correspondence withe Herzen. Because of his narrow-mindedness, he could not succeed in literature and has to earn his living by giving concerts in London and other cities...

3) Someone Kisleyev or Kisteltsev, young man in the age of 28, who calls himself doctor of medicine, while others think he is a clergyman... On 17 [29] November, on the day of anniversary of Polish revolution, Kisleyev was present on the meeting and spoke in favor of revolution.

4) Hierodeacon Agapy, who broke with the archimandrite and fled to London.

All mentioned above have joined the circle of Herzen and Ogarev, who continue their maleficent publications. According to secret information, there are other Russian citizens who did not proclaim their animosity towards the legitimate government but do participate in revolutionary projects. So, it is known that two Russians, retired officer Dietmars and retired state official Mechnikov, fought in the army of Garibaldi.

Poznan

The constitutional rights of the Great Duchy of Poznan give their citizens right to advocate patriotic feelings in public, while promoting hatred to all things German... The government views it forbearingly, as if being afraid of decisive measures. While the Poznan Poles made no rebellious actions in this year, they took every opportunity to prepare the population for such rebellions. Their main weapon in this year was the accusation of police by deputy Niegolewski (probably, Władysław Niegolewski. DM), who suggested that the police was responsible for the sending of fake proclamations, putting Poles on political actions... On the other hand, the demands to allow usage of Polish language in courts never stopped. There were occasions when the prisoners refused to reply in German, pretending they do not understand.

Galicia

The patriotic sentiments were strongest among university students in Krakow, who demanded the lectures in Polish to be allowed by sending the deputy to Vienna, who beat the education inspector who tried to keep them inside the university to prevent demonstrations, who sang the songs from the 1830 rebellion during morning walks and often met in on of the city caffees. An anonymous letter was received, reporting that the students formed a secret society during these meetings. Investigations are underway. Among the people involved in the society, the most important seems to be the retired lieutenant of the Russian army Narcyz Jankowski (Link in Polish. DM) who was mentioned in the letter. In September, Jankowski was arrested on the border and delivered to Krakow.

Lieutenant Jankowski, son of a landlord from Kiev region, retired in 1857. For 3 years he lived in Warsaw, making acquaintances and hosting meetings with public book readings. During the arrest, Jankowski managed to destroy some papers. Among the papers found in his apartment were draft program of a Polish democratic committee in Paris, instruction to the secret societies to begin armed rebellion all over Poland and a note saying that 100 brochures of "Przeglad rzeczy polskich" were given to him to deliver to Warsaw

...

In December, a Polish review printed in Paris (Przeglad rzeczy polskich) published and article, where the author mentions the May demonstration in Krakow university and states that the Polish autonomy will be attained by the youth, and offers the younger readers to deepen their patriotic feelings, even though they have already been reproved by many older Polish authoritative thinkers.

Emissaries

The governor of the Polish Kingdom has reported that the Poznan police informed him of the arrival of a Polish emissary Lisecki to the Great Duchy of Poznan. He distributed inciting brochures and pretended he was sent by Miroslawski to investigate the chances of beginning a mutiny in Poznan or in Poland... From a letter sent on February 14 from Paris, it is known that the real name of Lisecki, a.k.a. Gnatowski, was Arthur Trok.

The Polish Kingdom

According to the news from the Kingdom, the Poles there sympathize the events in Sicily and Naples, the national movement in Hungary and Galicia, but remain calm, while awaiting for advantageous changes in the politics. In the meanwhile, they chose to assist the growth of the nation: enhancing the morality of the lower classes by fighting alcoholism and by attracting them to the churches; establishment of municipal banks to liberate the agriculture, especially from the destructive influence of the Jews and to enhance the arable farming. The primary instrument for this was the Farming society, established in 1859, which has grown immensely and established contacts with similar societies in Poznan and Galicia. Very soon the Farmin society started showin signs of maleficent for the monarchy political influence in the Polish Kingdom. So, it deemed necessary to close the provincial departments of the society, preserving the central department in Warsaw. This measure, though, produced dissatisfaction among Poles.

Western districts

(This chapter also described the unrest among Poles in other regions of Russia, including Vilno (modern Vilnius) and Kiev. DM).

Finland

In Finland, a secret society was formed of the people, who write for Swedish newspapers articles hostile to Russia, trying to incite Finns against her rule, especially the younger Finns, among whom destructive ideas were found in the Helsingfors University. These feelings were noted by Swedish politicians who find them useful for their goals. In the end of 1859 Dahlfeld was appointed the Swedish consul in Helsingfors. He made acquaintances among lesser writers, who are his instrument to spread ideas hostile to Russia. British and American consuls cooperated.

On state reforms

In 1860, just like in the previous three years, the most important matter of the Russian politics was the liberation of landlord-owned peasants from serfdom. It was expected that the question will be solved by the end of 1860, but in spite of the efforts of the government, it was impossible... Nobody, though, could underestimate the high moral and political goal represented by the liberation. The full freedom in the discussion, allowed by Your Majesty, helped the detailed investigation of all possibilities. Measures were taken to mitigate unrest when the decrees of Your Majesty were being published, and the measures gave positive results.

In the Baltic regions, where the aristocracy has exclusive rights to own the land they were afraid that their privileges may be violated during the liberation of peasants and that the peasants will have equal rights during the elections.

A part of peasants in the Baltic regions (mostly in Lifland and Estland) expressed their desire to move to new lands in Samara region. In spite of the resistance of some landlords, 400 peasants have moved.

In Crimea, a large number of Crimean Tatars have moved to Turkey this year. This resettlement threatens the landowners of the Crimean peninsula who might not have enough workers to continue cultivating their land. The aristocrats of Crimea gathered in Simpheropol to discuss possible replacement for the lost workforce and the introduction of new machines.

Together with the government's intentions to alleviate the life of peasants, certain private efforts took place in 1860. Mostly, by establishment of sunday schools and temperance associations.

Unnaturally fast growth of temperance associations in 1859 was explained by the rage of the lower classes against liquor stores owners. As soon as measures were taken to prevent violent actions, the growth stopped.

Sunday schools are getting extremely popular and the local education authorities are instructed to pay special attention to prevent dissemination of harmful teachings.

On administration

All credit institutions have been merged in one State Bank. It is too soon to make any conclusion on the effect of this measure, but the first impression of the merchants was that the activity of the new bank is limited by the responsibility and insufficient capital.

On the internal political state of the Empire

To conclude the report, we have to note that the spirit of the people of the Empire strives for the growth of the civil rights on modern liberal ground. These views are expressed in magazines, where, in spite of the efforts of the censorship, very often too liberal and even dangerous views are found. The liberal journalism incites the intellectual ferment and helps the illegally imported revolutionary magazines, directed against the existing state and monarchy. What is true for other countries, should be true for Russia: the unrestrained freedom of press is the greatest danger for the existing state, but the press can also be the best instrument in the hands of the government.

Besides the love towards liberal establishments, the dreams of restoration of independency of separate nations have also made their way into Russia. These dreams are insecure for the multinational Russian Empire. They can be observed not only in the Western districts, but also in Little Russia and Finland. The modern politics of the West gives more grounds to these dreams, especially to those of Poles, whose loyalty even earlier was doubtful.

Adjutant-general Dolgorukov

March 22, 1861

130th birthday of Alexander Railway Bridge

The Alexander Railway Bridge was opened on August 30, 1880. In the end of 19th centuryBy that time, it was the longest bridge in Europe, 1436 meters. It was also the last large bridge in Russia built from imported iron. Newspapers compared it to the Suez channel. The importance of the bridge was that it was the point of connection of the railroads from Moscow and Western Russia and the railroads of Urals and Siberia, including the Trans-Siberian Railway.

In 1918, two spans were exploded by retiring troops. After the revolution the bridge was renamed to Syzran Bridge, after a nearby city.

I cross Volga along this bridge every year and, I have to admit, every time I feel a bit scared: it's so long and thin and you see the running water below :)

Here you can find some old photographs of the Alexander Bridge: Gallery of Syzran. In 2004, the bridge was reconstructed and now it looks differently: Bridge reconstruction. And I like this photo.

Protests of African students in Moscow, 1963

On December 18, 2007, I wrote about the march organized by African students in Moscow in 1963 as a protest against the murder of a student from Ghana. One of our readers, Mark Thorpe, wrote to me saying that he had found an old issue of Green Bay Press-Gazette (Wednesday evening, Decenber 18, 1963, number 172, published in Green Bay, WI) with an article about these events. Mark has kindly scanned and sent this article to me, and now you can read it below.

African Students Storm Kremlin in Racial Riot

Med Student’s Knifing Death Causes Protest

by Preston Grover MOSCOW (AP) — Several hundred students from Ghana and other African nations stormed into Red Square today right under Premier Khrushchev’s office windows, fought with police and tried to break into the Kremlin. The students said they were protesting the fatal stabbing of a student from Ghana by a Russian last Friday. The Africans broke past barricades into Red Square, where Russians march on May Day and on the anniversary of the October Revolution. But the scene was more reminiscent of the wild days of the revolution in 1917.

‘Moscow Like Alabama’

The students bore a sign showing a knife plunged into the head of an African. Another sigh declared: “Friend today, the devil tomorrow.” “Moscow is a second Alabama,” shouted one student. The students fought police all the way to the Red Square from the Ghanian Embassy a mile away where they first gathered. They stormed over a barricade of Soviet trucks at the entrance to Red Square, fighting police on top of the trucks and underneath. The big gates of Spasky Tower, the main entrance from the Kremlin into Red Square, banged shut as students rolled over police opposition and tried to get into the Kremlin.

Past Khrushchev’s Office

They stormed past the office of Khrushchev. They were separated from his office by the big red brick wall of the Kremlin. Whether he was inside his office was not known. Inside the Kremlin, the Soviet Parliament was meeting, discussing the new budget. Police apparently at no time used their guns to control the students. Instead they wheeled out loudspeakers appealing for them to go home. “Red Square is closed,” one of the sound trucks blared out. But the students payed no attention. Shortly after 2 p.m., crowds of shoppers who had swarmed into the square were ordered out along with foreign correspondents.

Riot Attracts Curious

People continued to pile into adjoining streets, never having seen an angry demonstration of foreigners against Russians. The students remained in the square for a time and were reinforced later by some 200 more who came, apparently carrying a message of protest. They made their way to Spasky Gate, where a Kremlin official came out and said a delegation of 10 would be received by the Ministry of Higher Education. A group of the demonstrators then headed for the ministry with their petition of complaint. By 3 p.m., Red Square had been cleared. The barricades were withdrawn and the demonstration was over. It was the first such demonstration by foreign students here directed at the Russians. Ghanian students demonstrated last February in Communist Bulgaria, claiming racial persecution.

Medical Student Killed

Thousands of African students are studying in Communist schools, many of them with all expenses paid. The dead man was identified as Asare Addo, who was studying medicine at Kalinin 100 miles northwest of Moscow. He was said to have been killed Friday. Some students said Soviet officials issued a statement blaming the death on natural causes, but the Africans disputed this. Emerging from a conference in the Kremlin, some of the students said Education Minister Vyacheslav Yelutin denied that the student, Asare Addo, was stabbed. They said Yelutin told them Addo was drunk, had fallen down in the street, and died of cold. The minister told a full investigation had been ordered. Several students who were at the conference told reporters they did not believe this report. They said they were informed that Addo wanted to marry a Russian girl and was killed by a Russian man who was opposed to the marriage. Students said they prepared for today’s demonstration by sending telegrams to Ghanian students in Odessa, Kharkov and other university towns, asking them to come to Moscow. Each was given a red head band, a sign of mourning in Ghana. At the outset, the protest was orderly. When it became apparent that the students planned to carry their protest through the streets, police reinforcements were rushed in. Some rocked a police car, threatening to overturn it. Others forced their way between and under the trucks blocking the entrance of Red Square.

What Stalin said about Hiroshima

The text below is taken from the record of the meeting of Stalin and W. Averell Harriman, the U.S. Ambassador to the USSR. Full declassified document is available here. The text was published in Russian by Sergey Oboguev in his blog. Thanks to Sergey for the interesting find.

Conversation. 8:20, Moscow, August 8, 1945.

TOP SECRET

Present: W. A. Harriman, American Ambassador

        George F. Kennan, Minister Counselor

        Generalissimus Stalin

        V. M. Molotov, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs

        Mr. Pavlov, Soviet interpreter

...

The Ambassador asked what he thought of the effects of the news of the atomic bomb would have on the Japanese.

The Generalissimus replied that he thought the Japanese were at present looking for a pretext to replace the present government with one which would be qualified to undertake a surrender. The atomic bomb might give them this pretext.

The Ambassador observed that it was a good thing we had invented this and not the Germans. For long, he said, no one had dared think it would be a success. It was only a few days before the President had told Stalin about it in Berlin that we had learned definitely that it would work succesfully.

The Generalissimus replied that Soviet scientists said that it was a very difficult problem to work out.

The Ambassador said that if the Allies could keep it and apply it for peaceful purposes it would be a great thing.

The Generalissimus agreed and said that would mean the end of the war and aggressors. But the secret would have to be well kept.

The Ambassador said that it could have great importance for peaceful purposes.

The Generalissimus replied, "unquestionably". He added that Soviet scientists had also tried to do it but had not succeeded. They had found one laboratory in Germany where the Germans had evidently been working on the same problem but Russians could not find that they had come to any results. If they had found it, Hitler would never have surrendered. England, too, had gotten nowhere with these researches although they had excellent physicists.

The Ambassador explained that the English had pooled their knowledge with us since 1941. But it had taken enormous installations to conduct the experiments and to achieve final results.

The Generalissimus remarked that this had been very expensive.

...

Photos from early Soviet years

Recently, I stumbled upon a web-site on the art of photography, some pages of which were devoted to the classic photographers. The web-site features a large collection of shots made by these photographers in 1920s, 1930s and later. Lots of magnificent pictures and scenes from daily life. Here are some of those photographers and their web-pages (the text is in Russian, but never mind, the collections are title like "1924-1929", so you won't get lost):

• Alexander Rodchenko, the author of that famous portrait of Lilya Brik at the top of this post. Rodchenko was a good friend of Lilya and Osip Briks and Vladimir Mayakovsky.
• Maxim Dmitriev, one of the earliest enthusiasts of photography
• Boris Ignatovich
• Yevgeny Khaldey
• Ivan Shagin
• Arkady Shaykhet

I found this web-site when I was looking for photos of the Russian/Soviet silent movie stars. While searching, I found another web-site called "Silent Cinema Actors". The author has also made separate web-sites for the "brightest" stars of that era, like Vera Kholodnaya.

1908 video: Winter in Moscow

I thought it might be a good New Year's gift to the readers :)

Upcoming anniversary

On April 1, Nikolay Gogol will be 200. Unknown fans recently launched the web-site Gogol200.ru. It's in Russian, but you can view a huge collection of illustrations to Gogol's books. Explore them, while I'm away on business trip till next Friday :).

I have to warn that the web-site is built in Macromedia Flash and it may be very uncomfortable.

Stratfor report

These guys dig Russia. Or so it seems at the first glance.

The Financial Crisis and the Six Pillars of Russian Strength.

I've always been a bit skeptical about all those "objective" circumstances which supposedly define political, economical and cultural life of a country. Otherwise, the analysis is interesting.

While Russia’s financial sector may be getting torn apart, the state does not really count on that sector for domestic cohesion or stability, or for projecting power abroad. Russia knows it lacks a good track record financially, so it depends on — and has shored up where it can — six other pillars to maintain its (self-proclaimed) place as a major international player. The current financial crisis would crush the last five pillars for any other state, but in Russia, it has only served to strengthen these bases. Over the past few years, there was a certain window of opportunity for Russia to resurge while Washington was preoccupied with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This window has been kept open longer by the West’s lack of worry over the Russian resurgence given the financial crisis. But others closer to the Russian border understand that Moscow has many tools more potent than finance with which to continue reasserting itself.

March 11 in Russian history. Armed neutrality. Barsov's grammar

1780

(28 February Old Style)

In 1775, when British colonies in America began their war for independence, France and Spain supported the separatists and Great Britain had to look for allies. In June 1775, King George III asked Russian empress Catherine the Great to send troops to America to suppress the rebellion. For Russia, free trade was way more important than the alliance with the old rival, who attempted to blockade Spanish and French ports. American privateers also interfered with Russian-English sea trade, but the losses they caused were tiny compared with the consequences of the British blockade. Catherine II refused to join the war against American separatists. Instead, in 1780, she launched an international campaign for free maritime trade. From Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy:

[Empress Catherine II of Russia] under pressure from Great Britain on the one hand to enter an alliance and from the northern powers on the other to help protect their neutrality, found her own shipping becoming more subject to interference from the belligerents. The result was the declaration of 1780, identifying the principles by which Catherine proposed to act and the means—commissioning a substantial portion of her fleet to go "wherever honour, interest, and necessity compelled"—by which she proposed to enforce those principles. Broadly, these principles were that neutral shipping might navigate freely from port to port and on the coasts of nations at war; that the property of subjects of belligerent states on neutral ships should be free except when it was classed as contraband within the meaning of the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1766; and that a port was assumed to be blockaded only when the attacking power had rendered its ships stationary and made entry a clear danger.

(read more)

More about the League of Armed Neutrality from the POV of Russian history in The History of Russian Navy:

Although the Declaration was enforced for only three years, it was, nonetheless, an original doctrine of major significance. It contributed to the understanding among nations of the inviolability of peaceful merchant vessels, their right to be free from the threat of piracy and harassment, and that wanton disregard of such rights would not be tolerated by Russia and its allies. Enforcement of the Declaration by the Russian Navy confirmed that a powerful naval fleet commanded international respect and that Russia had become a maritime power that was able to support its policies and punish offenders. In effect, the Declaration of Armed Neutrality served to elevate the reputation of the Russian Navy. The Baltic Fleet gradually strengthened. As early as 1777 Admiral Greig had suggested a new table of ship's proportions and the refurbishing of ship armaments. The 54-gun vessels vanished from use, replaced by more powerful ones; 66- and 74-gun vessels with larger-calibre cannon became the base of the fleet. The strength of the Baltic Fleet was additionally reinforced by eight 100-gun, three-decked ships of the line, the first of which was the handsome Rostislav. In the year 1784 the Rostislav's dimensions were impressive-55 metres in length and a displacement of 3,500 tons. The next ships to be built were the Saratov, the Three Saints and the Saint Ioann Chrestitel, which proved their worth against the best-equipped vessels in the British and Swedish fleets.

In 1761 the weaponry of the Russian fleet was updated. More powerful shell-firing guns were installed on the lower decks, and in 1788 effective short-range cannon (carronades) were placed on the quarterdeck and forecastle of larger vessels. New copper sheathing protected ships' hulls and increased their speed. The fleet was regularly provided with officers from the Naval Cadet Corps (Naval Academy), which graduated a hundred such officers annually.

Inasmuch as war against Sweden loomed on the horizon, Russia was well-advised to refurbish its Baltic Fleet. The Swedes were hesitant to concede their dominant position in the Baltic to Russia. Friedrick Chapman, considered one of the foremost shipwrights of his day, was commissioned by Sweden to build 64-gun ships of the line and 40-gun frigates with heavy 24- and 36-pound artillery on the lower-deck batteries. In addition, the Swedish rowing fleet was reinforced by well-armed smaller vessels-hemmems, turums, udems and light, maneuverable gun-boats. The King of Sweden, Gustav III, awaited an excuse to begin hostilities against Russia.

Encyclopedia of Russian History adds an interesting conclusion to the article about the League of Armed Neutrality:

The league was remembered in the United States, somewhat erroneously, as a mark of Russian friendship and sympathy, and bolstered Anglophobia in the two countries. More generally, it affirmed a cardinal principle of maritime law that continues in effect in the early twenty-first century. Indirectly, it also led to a considerable expansion of Russian-American trade from the 1780s through the first half of the nineteenth century.

1783

The Commission of Peoples Schools entrusted Anton Barsov, professor of the Moscow University, with the task of writing a course of Russian grammar.

Among earlier works of Barsov were a chronology of Russian history, "Collection of 4291 Ancient Russian proverb", translations of French, Greek and Latin works on politics and philology, including "Cellarii Orthographia Latina", a method of Russia stenography "De Brachygraphia" and other works. He participated in the writing of the dictionary of Russian language. He finished work on the first volume of the dictionary when the new job made him to send all materials he had collected for the dictionary to the Academy and concentrate on the grammar course.

He was writing the course since 1783 till 1788, but the Commission of Peoples Schools decided not to publish it. It was lost and we can only use incomplete copies. Members of the Commission concluded that the course was overloaded with details and unsuitable for schools. Another possible cause was, probably, Barsov's ideas about the reform of the orthography. Some of those proposals were implemented in the 20th century, during the 1918 reform. So, he proposed to eliminate the hard sign "ъ" at the ultimate position after consonants, to exclude redundant letters "θ" and "И", in favor of their duplicates "Ф" and "I", correspondingly, and to replace "ъ" with an apostroph or the soft sign "ь" in the middle of words. He also offered to introduce a new ligature, "io", to denote the sound for which Karamzin later invented a new letter "ё", which is stil used in Russian alphabet.

His grammar was not published at that time, but now it is still in print, both in Russian and in English. Moreover, you can download the full text in Russian (1981 edition) as a PDF file for free (23.2Mb).

From the preface to The Comprehensive Russian Grammar of A.A.Barsov by Lawrence W. Newman:

This volume contains the first publication of the Comprehensive Russian Grammar of Anton Barsov (1730-1791). Written between 1783 and 1788 for use in schools, it would have needed to be shortened and simplified to fulfill its original purpose. Its publication helps fill an important lacuna in the history of the Russian grammatical tradition, as well as providing new information about eighteenth-century Russian. Barsov was professor of rhetoric at Moscow University for thirty years, including the period when he was writing the grammar. The influence of his university work was apparently great, to judge, for example, from Karamzin's testimony (cited here from V.V. Vinogradov, Iz istorii izučenija russkogo sintaksisa, Moscow: Moscow University, 1958, page 49): if, says Karamzin, he "knows how sometimes to pause over a word, how to be cautious, then he owes this advantage to this one extremely learned man." It is likely that the grammar, or at least lectures from which it was derived, was not completely lost, but played a minor role in the education of a generation of Russian intellectuals.

March 10 in Russian history. Stoletov's research of photoelectric effect

1888

(26 February Old Style)

The experiment set by Alexander Stoletov is finally successful. The photoelectric effect was first observed in 1839 by Becquerel, but its discovery is usually attributed to Heinrich Hertz. Stoletov, though, was the first who deduced the laws and patterns of this effect.

Here's a little biography of Stoletov taken from Russia-InfoCentre:

Born: August 10, 1839

Deceased: May 27, 1896

Eminent Russian physicist, Alexander Stoletov, was born to the family of a merchant in 1839. Alexander’s father owned a grocery shop and his mother, a well-educated woman, did her best to teach her children Russian language and arithmetic before they started attending a secondary school. Alexander was four when he learned to read and he spent days reading, since his health wasn’t very good.

In 1849 Alexander entered the gymnasium in Vladimir. He graduated it seven years after with a diploma of honours and gold medal for outstanding achievements in learning. Same year Alexander Stoletov was enrolled to the faculty of physics and mathematics of Moscow State University and received educational scholarship from the state.

In 1860 Alexander finished the university and passed master’s examination. However, master thesis defense had to be postponed, because Alexander Stoletov went to Europe for new knowledge. He spent three years in Berlin, Heidelberg and Gottingen, studying physics, and fascinated physicists with his talent. (He studied at Gustav Kirchhoff, who called Stoletov "his most gifted student" DM)

First scientific research Alexander Stoletov performed abroad. Young scientist found out that dielectric properties of water had no effect on electromagnetic interaction of conductors. In 1865 Stoletov returned to Russia and soon got a position of a teacher of mathematical physics and physical geography in Moscow State University. Physicist read brilliant lectures and prepared his master thesis, "The General Problem of Electrostatics and Its Reduction to the Simplest Form". Young scientist solved this problem and defended his master thesis in 1869. Following years were spent in effort to create his own physical laboratory – Moscow State University had no experimental facilities, and scientists had to go abroad to perform research. In 1871 Alexander Stoletov started working on his doctor dissertation and studied magnetic properties of iron. Creating a theory of how electric machines worked was an important task, since there was no such science as “electro-techniques”. Stoletov again went to Germany, where he discovered some important patterns in the magnetism of iron.

In 1872 Alexander Stoletov successfully defended his doctor dissertation, and the following year brought him a position of professor in Moscow University. Same year his physical laboratory finally opened – Russian scientists didn’t need to go abroad to perform experiments anymore. The physicist read popular lectures, wrote popular scientific papers and supervised a physical society. After defense of doctor dissertation Alexander Stoletov became a world-known scientist – he visited opening ceremony of physical laboratory in Cambridge in 1874, and represented Russian science at I World Congress of Electricity in Paris in 1881, where he reported on proportion factors between electrostatic and electromagnetic units of measure. Stoletov suggested using Ohm for electric resistance. In 1888 Alexander Stoletov started studies of photo effect, which was discovered by Hertz the year before. Elegant experiments resulted in a discovery of the law linking critical pressure, electromotive force of a battery and distance between the electrode and the net. Later this constant was named after him.

In 1893, three Academy members recommended Stoletov for becoming a member of the Academy of Sciences. However, the President of the Academy, Great Prince Konstantin, refused to sign necessary papers explaining himself with the “unbearable temper of Alexander Stoletov”. Such decision was a hard blow for the physicist, and many scientists sympathized with him due to that unfair situation. Health of the great scientist was weak since his early childhood, and in May 1896 Alexander Stoletov died of pneumonia.

Some other important works of Stoletov include:

• On the Kohlrausch's measurement of the mercury unit of electric resistance;
• Sur une méthode pour déterminer le rapport des unités électromagnétiques et électrostatiques;
• On the electricity of juxtaposition;
• On the critical state of bodies (4 articles);
• Actino-electric research;
• Ether and electricity;
• Essay on the development of our knowledge of gases;
• Introduction into acoustics and optics.

Some Stoletov's achievements:

• Stoletov was the first to show that with the increase of the magnetic field the magnetic susceptibility of iron grows, but then begins to decrease.
• He built the curve of the magnetic permeability of ferromagnetics, known as the Stoletov's curve.
• Developed two new methods of measurement of magnetic properties of various materials.
• He calculated the the proportion between electrodynamic and electrostatic units, producing a value very close to the speed of light.
• Studied the outer photoelectric effect, discovered by Hertz.
• Built the first solar cell based on the outer photoelectric effect and estimated the response time of the photoelectric current.
• Discovered the direct proportionality of the intensity of light and the current caused by it (Stoletov's law)
• Discovered the decrease of the solar cell's sensitivity with time (fatigue of solar cells).
• Developed quantitative methods of the study of the photoelectric effect.
• Discovered the Stoletov's constant (defines the ratio between the intensity of the electric current and the gas pressure under the maximum current).