April and May in History

APRIL

1 April Fool’s Day is also the 190th birthday of Nikolai Vassiliyevich Gogol. Far from being a fool, Gogol, born Ukrainian, is one of the diamonds in the fund of great Russian literature.

3 This is the 215th birthday of the sculptor Stepan Pimenov (1784-1833). Born in St. Petersburg, he began his studies at the Academy of Arts at the age of 11 and graduated from the Academy with a gold medal. He dedicated his life to beautifying Petersburg with his works. He created the famous sculptures near Kazansky Cathedral, namely the statue of Alexander Nevsky (which earned him a diamond ring from the state), the 16 sculptures near the Admiralty, the chariot on top of Alexandrinsky Theater and many more.

11 Orthodox Easter is celebrated in April this year.

12 160 years ago the great Russian explorer and geographer Nikolai Przhevalsky (1839-1888) was born. In 1867-1869 he explored the Usury region; in 1870-1885 he led four expeditions to Central Asia. Przhevalsky brought back exhaustive descriptions of the terrain, climate, flora and fauna of these regions and his works were published and translated into numerous languages. In 1891 he became an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Science. That same year, the Russian Geographic Society created a Silver Medal and a Prize named after Przhevalsky. The explorer also gave his name to cities, mountain chains, glaciers, species of flora and fauna, notably the famous Przhevalsky horse.

14 This is the 255th birthday of Denis Fonvizin (1744-1792), whom Alexander Pushkin called the “audacious master of satire.” The playwright lived during the reign of Catherine the Great and his social comedies, Brigadir (1770), and Nedorosl (Young Ignorant, 1781) marked the beginning of classic comedy in Russian literature.

15 The 315th anniversary of Catherine I (1684-1727), the peasant-empress who became second wife to Peter the Great and Russia’s first tsarina. Nee Marta Skavronskaya, she married a Swedish dragoon but in 1702 was taken prisoner by Russian troops storming the town of Marienburg. Peter was conquered by her beauty and married her in 1712. She had a great deal of influence over her husband and when Peter died in 1725, she took over the Russian throne. The two years of her reign brought Russia neither order nor prosperity. State coffers were empty, embezzlement and corruption was thriving, and Catherine largely distanced herself from state affairs, ceding much power to the avaricious Alexander Menshikov. She did, however, choose her successor, Peter I’s grandson Peter, before her untimely death.

17 The generation of the 1960s — the shestidesyatniki — will pay tribute to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) on this, his 105th birthday. For all his pluses and minuses, he deserves great credit for exposing some of Stalin’s crimes.

22 In addition to being the 129th birthday of Vladimir Lenin, it is also, ironically, the centenary of Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977). Nabokov’s father served in high positions under Nicholas I and in the Provisional Government of Lenin’s archrival, Alexander Kerensky. Because Nabokov was a Russian émigré writer, most Russians did not discover his superb writing until the late 1980s, with the advent of glasnost. Mashenka (1926) and Luzhin’s Defense (1929-1930) received particular acclaim and many rushed to read his erotic novel Lolita, translated into Russian.

MAY

1 In addition to being International Labor Day (which, of late, has been marked here only with demonstrations by the Russian left), today is also the 75th birthday of the writer Viktor Astafyev (born in 1924). An honest and talented narrator, he tells stories which bemoan the decline of morality, the ravaging of the land and the mindless repression of the Soviet system. Of special importance are his Tsar-Fish (1975), a series of parables, The Damned and the Killed (Proklyaty i Ubitye, 1994) dedicated to the Great Patriotic War and The Sad Detective (1986). Astafyev has always lived outside the vain capitals: first in Vologda and now near Krasnoyarsk.

9 Known as Victory Day, this is a sacred holiday in Russia, which lost 20 million souls in World War II, which ended 54 years ago. War veterans in Moscow will gather in Gorky Park or in the square near the Bolshoi Theater to have their traditional frontovye 100 grams of vodka, but, more importantly, to reminisce and pay tribute to their late comrades-in-arms, both those who fell in the war or who died recently from diseases aggravated by poor living standards.

10 The victory in WWII hearkens to traditions begun by Saint Sergei Radonezhsky (1314-1392), who is venerated in Russia as a great preacher and defender of  the fatherland. He founded the important Troitse-Sergiev Monastery (Sergiev-Posad) during the difficult years of the Mongol yoke and in 1380 blessed his close friend Dmitry Donskoy before the latter fought at Kulikovo field, where Russia was first victorious over the Mongols.

27 The 195th birthday of philosopher Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev (1794-1856). His famous Philosophical Letters earned him renown as a “Westernizer” (vs. the Slavophiles) and denigrator of Russia. Yet his criticism is full of deep sorrow and pain for his homeland: “We are ... an exclusive people. We belong to those nations who don’t seem to be a part of humanity but rather exist only to teach the world some kind of important lesson ... who can tell when we will find our place amongst humanity and how many disasters are we destined to suffer before we accomplish our mission?” Chaadaev’s words were often taken as a sign that he did not love Russia. To which he responded: “Love for one’s Fatherland is a great thing, but there is something even greater: love for the truth.” Further: “I loved my country my way, that’s all there is to it. And for me to live with the reputation of someone who hates Russia was much harder than I can express.”

30 The 185th birthday of Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876), the theoretician of Russian anarchism and the populist movement (narodnichestvo). He summarized his doctrine in his book The State and Anarchy (1873), and participated in the European revolutions of 1848-1849. He was twice sentenced to death, served prison terms in Saxony and Austria and then, extradited to Russia, was imprisoned in Peter and Paul Fortress, in Schlusselburg Castle and in 1857 was exiled to Siberia. In 1861 he fled to London, where he collaborated with Alexander Hertzen and others, and even joined, then broke with Karl Marx and the First International.