|
1857 |
|
|
|
After 20 years of work Russian
neoclassical painter Alexander
Andreyevich Ivanov completes his painting
'Christ's
Appearance to the People'. |
|
|
Russian medical school established in Warsaw. |
|
3 January |
Tsar Alexander II creates a secret committee to study the issue of
gradual peasant emancipation. |
|
15 February |
Russian composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka dies. He was considered
the father of Russian classical music. |
|
|
First issue of Herzen's Kolokol (The Bell) |
(5 September) |
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, Soviet physicist was born. He
pioneered development of Soviet rockets, space science and aeronautical
research. |
|
10 December |
First postage stamp issued by Russian Empire. |
|
1858 |
|
|
28 May |
Treaty of Aigun is signed between Russia and China. The treaty was
the work of Nikolay Muravyov and it established the Russian border with
China along the Amur river. Its provisions were later confirmed by
the Convention of Peking in 1860. |
|
3 July |
Neoclassical painter Alexander
Andreyevich Ivanov dies. |
|
1859 |
|
|
Summer |
Governor-General of Eastern Siberia,
Nikolay Muravyov, visits a peninsula aboard the steam corvette Amerika
it would be named Muravyov-Amursky in his honor. |
|
25 August |
Surrender of Imam Shamil; conquest of Caucasus completed although the
government in Tiflis would have to maintain garrisons in key areas through
the region. |
|
|
Russian novelist Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov
published his best known work 'Oblomov'. It was a
satire of Russian nobility whose social and economic necessity was
increasingly in question
at the time. |
|
|
Writer Fyodor Dostoevsky is allowed to return to European Russia after his
exile in Siberia. |
|
1860 |
|
|
2 July
(20 June) |
The Russian military supply ship Manchur, under the command of
Captain-Lieutenant Alexey Shefner, lands on Pacific coast to found an
outpost called Vladivostok. |
|
18 October |
Convention of Peking is signed between the Qing government of China, and
Russia, England, and France. It was the result of the second Opium
War and required China to give up territory to each of the other nations.
The Russian Empire gained parts of Outer Mongolia, territories along the
Amur river, and the Ussuri Krai. |
|
|
First railway boom in Russia, this would last into the 1870's. |
|
|
Russia opens a consulate in Kashgar, China. |
|
1861 |
|
|
3 March
(19 February) |
Tsar Alexander II issues the
Emancipation
Manifesto that granted serfs the rights of free citizens, and stated
that peasants would be able to buy the land from their former landlords. |
|
1862 |
|
|
|
St. Petersburg
Conservatory is founded with Anton Rubinstein as its director.
Famous graduates of the school would inclued Peter Tchaikovsky,
Sergey Prokofiev, and Dmitry Shostakovich. |
|
19 May |
Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov is born in Ufa, Russia. He would later
go on to become a leading religious painter during the 1890's. |
|
|
A group of Russian composers
(Balakierev, Cui, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky)
announce intentions to create a school of true Russian music. By
1867 they would be known as 'The
Mighty Handful'. |
|
|
Writer Fyodor Dostoevsky publishes his novel "The House of the Dead' which
is about a nobleman sentenced to hard labor in Siberia where he must live
with other (mostly peasant) prisoners who persecute him until he later has
a spiritual re-awakening when he is released from prison. |
|
|
Russian writer Ivan Turgenev completes his
best known novel 'Fathers and Children'. It was the first
Russian novel to gain prominence in the West.
|
|
1863 |
|
|
22 January |
The Second Polish rebellion occurs. The uprising would last into the
following year.
|
|
|
Russian socialist writer and critic Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky
publishes the novel 'What Is To Be Done?'.
|
|
1864 |
|
|
1 January |
Local government assemblies known as Zemstvos are established. They
allowed limited self government at the district and guberniia levels.
Former serfs, peasants and gentry could participate. |
|
|
Writer Fyodor Dostoevsky publishes his short novel 'Letters from the
Underworld'. It is considered to be the first existentialist
writing. |
|
1865 |
|
|
|
The Russian
Empire establishes
the province of Turkestan. |
|
June |
Russian forces
under General Cherniaev capture Tashkent. |
|
1866 |
|
|
|
Moscow Conservatory founded by Nikolai Rubinstein; at its opening
Tchaikovsky was appointed professor of theory and harmony. |
|
|
Russian writer Feodor Dostoevsky publishes his novel
'Crime
and Punishment'. It was regarded as one of his best works
and expresses his religious and existentialist views. |
|
1867 |
|
|
|
The Russians create the Governorate-General of Turkestan under General
Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman, with Tashkent as its capital. |
|
|
Russian government sends Col. A. P. Gorlov
to the United States to study new weapons developments. He would
later purchase a number of American weapons for use in the Russian army. |
|
30
March |
Alaska
sold to the United
States of America for $7,200,000. |
|
18
October |
|
|
1868 |
|
|
|
Poland is fully incorporated as part
of Tsar's dominion. |
|
|
The Russians create the Governorate-General
of the Kazakh Steppe, with Orenburg as its capital. |
|
1869 |
|
|
|
Leo Tolstoy's novel 'War
and Peace' is published. It tells the story of five
aristocratic families before and during the Napoleon's invasion of Russia. |
|
|
Statute is passed that declares that the laws of Finland cannot be changed
without the consent of the Finnish Diet. |
|
1870 |
|
|
|
Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleyev's most
widely known work 'Principles of Chemistry'
is published. |
|
|
The great Russian explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky begins his
first expedition into Central Asia. The expedition would last until
1873 and would explore the Gobi desert, the upper Yangtze, and Tibet. |
|
|
A group of Russian realist artists protesting academic restrictions form
the
Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions to counter St. Petersburg which was
the official center of art in Russia. They would be known as the 'Peredvizhniks'
or 'the wanderers'. |
22 April
(10 April) |
The future revolutionary Vladimir
Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
is born. |
|
1871 |
|
|
|
Russian forces occupy the Ili Valley in northwestern China under the pretext
of helping the Chinese who are fighting Islamic separatists. Russian
forces would remain in the area for the next ten years until the Chinese
threatened war if they are not removed. |
|
1872 |
|
|
|
Russian translation of Karl Marx's book 'Capital'
is published. |
|
|
Carl Faberge takes
over his father's jewelry business. He would later become famous
for his works under Tsar Nicholas II. |
|
|
Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin applies for a Russian patent for his
electric filament lamp. |
|
Summer |
Universal military conscription is proposed, but is
frowned on and referred to committee for further study. |
|
1873 |
|
|
|
Beginning of the To the People revolutionary movement. |
|
|
Major General Obruchev presents Defense
Minister Miliutin with the report 'Thoughts on the Defense of
Russia'. It would greatly influence military policy during the next
decade. |
|
1874 |
|
|
1 January |
Statue on Universal Military Service is passed. The law required all
males regardless of social class to perform active military service from
age 21. |
|
|
A second version of Modest
Mussorgsky's
opera 'Boris
Godunov'
featuring a prologue and four acts is completed. The first version
was completed in 1869 but was rejected. |
|
11 July |
Electrical engineer Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin is granted a Russian
patent for his electric filament lamp, Patent 1619. |
|
1875 |
|
|
|
Electrical engineer Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov invents the 'electric
candle', an electric arc lamp without a regulator. |
|
|
Treaty of St. Petersburg is signed between Japan and Russia. It
stipulated that Japan would give up any claim to Sakhalin in
exchange for the Kuril islands up to the Kamchatka penninsula. |
|
1876 |
|
|
|
The 'Land and Freedom' party is formed.
|
|
|
The Russians establish a fort at Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea. |
