Calendar Items in Brief

1953

september 1

Fifty years ago, the new Moscow State University building was opened on Vorobyovy (Sparrow) Hills. A monument to Mikhail Lomonosov was also unveiled at the university on the same day. The main building of the university is 32 stories high and is topped by a 57-meter spire. 

1878

september 2

On this day the first all women’s college in Russia was opened (August 23, old style). The college was named  Bestuzhevskiye Courses, after Professor Bestuzhev-Ryumin, the official founder and first director. The college was only open to women 21 years and older who had secondary education, and whose families could afford the tuition. “Bestuzhevki” (as the college’s students were called) studied history, philology, physics and mathematics.

1828

september 3

Chemist Alexander Butlerov, father of the theory of chemical structure and founder of the famous Kazan School of organic chemistry, was born on this day. According to Butlerov, characteristics of a substance could be deduced based on its chemical structure and vice-versa. Butlerov authored the popular textbook, Introduction to Complete Studies of Organic Chemistry, in which he introduced his new theory.  

1928

september 6

This is the birthday of Yevgeny Svetlanov, one of Russia’s distinguished conductors. Also a talented pianist and the author of numerous symphonies and musical poems, Svetlanov was for many years chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre. His major works were recorded in the 1960s, when he conducted the Soviet Union’s State Symphony Orchestra.

1993

september 7

Russia’s first Museum of Photography was opened in Nizhny Novgorod on this date ten years ago.

1828

september 9

One this day (August 28, old style) Leo Tolstoy, one of the giants of 19th century Russian literature, was born on his family’s estate in Yasnaya Polyana. Apart from his famous novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy’s works also included the charming autobiographical novels, Childhood, Boyhood and Youth (1852-1856), the novel Cossacks (1863), the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and many others. Russian Life devoted most its Aug/Sep 1998 issue to Tolstoy.

1913

september 9

On this day, military pilot Pyotr Nesterov became the world’s first pilot to do a vertical loop. Aerobatics had been forbidden in the military and Nesterov was arrested for endangering government property, only to be released two weeks later when a Frenchman duplicated the feat and the military was forced to be proud of its “deviant.” Since that time, the maneuver has been called a “Nesterov loop.”

1918

september 9

Writer and translator Boris Zakhoder, winner of many literary awards, would have turned 85 today. Zakhoder largely became famous as a translator of children’s classics: Winnie the Pooh by A.A.Milne, Mary Poppins by Pamela Travers, the Brothers Grimm fairy tales and other works of Czech, German and Polish authors. Zakhoder had a very distinctive voice, so his translations were more adaptations, often abridged, than true translations of the originals. Zakhoder also wrote children’s poetry; his rhymes about animals were known to every child raised in Russia in the 20th century. He died in Moscow in 2000.

1933

september 9

On this day, the Children’s Literature Publishing House was founded. In soviet times it was one of the largest publishing houses, and had several branches in other cities. Such well-known writers as Maxim Gorky, Samuil Marshak, Korney Chukovsky and Arkady Gaidar took an active part in its work.

1938

september 10

On this day, the first All-Union Conductors’ Competition opened in Moscow. Yevgeny Mravinsky and Natan Rakhlin were among its winners.

1873

september 11

Two electric street lamps, devised by inventor Alexander Lodygin, were lit in Odesskaya Street in St. Petersburg. They were the world’s first electric street lamps that replaced kerosene street lamps. The event greatly impressed Petersburgers who, wishing to compare the two types of lighting, brought newspapers to read under old and new lamps.

1908

september 18

Today is the birthday of Armenian astrophysicist Viktor Ambartsumyan, who is internationally known for his work in astrophysics and stellar astronomy. Most of his research was devoted to invariance principles applied to the theory of radiative transfer, inverse problems of astrophysics and the empirical approach to the problems of the origin and evolution of stars and galaxies. Ambartsumyan also served as president of the International Astronomical Union and hosted conferences on the search for extraterrestrial  life. In 1989, Ambartsumyan went on a three-week hunger strike to draw attention to Nagorno-Karabakh’s efforts to secede from Azerbaidjan. He died in Yerevan in 1996.

1893

september 22

Philosopher Alexei Losev was born today. Many of Losev’s works are devoted to detailed studies of Plato, including the voluminous History of Ancient Aesthetics. As Losev’s works were not in accord with communist ideology, in the 1930s he was arrested, sent to a labor camp, and later transferred to the Belomoro-Baltiysky Canal works. Losev was freed in 1933, but his works remained taboo for decades. Only after Stalin’s death was Losev able to publish some of his work, and only with great difficulty. He died in 1988.

1938

september 24

The transcontinental non-stop flight of Marina Raskova, Polina Osipenko and Valentina Grizodubova began on this day. Their plan, the Rodina (“Motherland”) covered 6450 km in 24 hrs and 29 min and set a new international long-distance record for a non-stop flight piloted by women (for more details on Raskova’s flights, see Russian Life, Jan/Feb 2003).

1908

september 28

This is the birthday of Irakly Andronikov (real name: Andronikashvili), writer, literary critic and Lermontov scholar, who was also much admired for his humorous “oral tales.”

1948

september 30

On this day, the State Filmoteque was founded. The Filmoteque later gained an entry in the Guinness Book of Records, because it housed the world’s largest collection of films and documentaries. In 1966 the Filmoteque opened “Illusion” in Moscow, a cinema house specializing in foreign films, with branches in other cities. Frequently, films were shown in the original, without cuts. At that time, foreign films were not shown very often and people lined up for hours to buy tickets. 

1898

october 2

Academician Zinaida Ermolieva, a Soviet microbiologist and bacteriochemist, was born today. Ermolieva’s main work was on the study of cholera and antibiotics. She was the first scientist in Russia to obtain the first specimens of today’s penicillin (1942) and streptomycin (1947).  

1918

october 5

The Moscow Criminal Investigation Department was formed on this day. By 1920, the department had succeeded in bringing about a radical reduction in the number of criminal gangs and of crimes committed in the capital. Today, the department’s staff includes more than 4,000 employees.

1943

october 6

Russian painter Alexander Shilov turns 60 today. Creator of many official portraits of famous writers, actors, diplomats and political leaders, Shilov has a realist style imitating the old masters, which has become very popular in Russian mass culture. Shilov’s personal museum opened in Moscow in 1996 (see Russian Life, March 1998). 

1768

october 6

On this day, the Russo-Turkish War of 1768 -1774 began. The war was over in 1774 and ended in Kyuchuk-Kainardzhursky Peace Treaty, under which Russia received a free outlet to the ports of the Black Sea, and through them to the Mediterranean.

1873

october 8

Alexei Shchusev, architect of the Moscow Hotel and other notable Moscow buildings, was born on this day. Shchusev was one of the most prolific architects of his day, and his career was symbolic of the compromises with state authority that many people had to make during the soviet period. The daunting task of designing Lenin’s Mausoleum was also entrusted to Shchusev, who, in his search for appropriate forms, turned to the ancient tradition of a memorial edifice in the shape of a pyramid. 

1863

october 9

Russian conductor and pianist Alexander Ziloti (sometimes written Siloti) was born on this day. First-cousin to Sergei Rakhmaninov, friend (and editor) of Peter Tchaikovsky and son-in-law of Pavel Tretyakov, Ziloti traveled to Europe in 1900, where he became widely known as a soloist and virtuoso. Upon his return to Russia in 1901, he was appointed chief conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic Society. In 1903 Ziloti moved to St. Petersburg, where he started a series of symphonic and chamber concerts that were popular in the capital’s musical life for 20 years. In 1919, he emigrated to Germany via Finland and in 1921 moved to the US. Beginning in 1926, Ziloti taught piano in the famous Julliard School of Columbia University. He continued to perform as a pianist until late in life, most notably in an all-Liszt concert with Toscanini in November 1930.

1933

october 13

Theatre and film director, actor and stage professor Mark Zakharov turns 70 on this day. Zakharov is today chief director of the famous “Lenkom” theater in Moscow.

1653

october 14

On this day, the Zemsky Sobor in Moscow decreed the unification of Ukraine and Russia. The two nations would not separate again until 1991. 

1908

october 15

The premiere of Stenka Razin, the first Russian silent film, took place on this day. The film lasted seven and a half minutes and was 224 meters long. It was a dramatization of the popular story of Stenka Razin, a popular thief, and his mistress, a Persian princess. Provoked by his companions and inflamed by drink and jealousy, Stenka Razin threw the princess into the waves. There the film abruptly ended with the title “The End.”

1898

october 27

The MKhAT (Moscow Artistic Academic Theater) was opened on this day with a performance of “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich,” the historical drama by Alexei Tolstoy. The theater was founded by Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, two prominent directors. 

1918

october 30

The State Oriental Museum was founded in Moscow on this day from private collections and from the collections of the Polytechnic Museum and Stroganov’s Academy of Applied Art. The number of exhibits was later enlarged with the finds of archeological expeditions. More than 100,000 items were added from the Caucasus, Chukotka, Siberia and Central Asia. The museum also has very large collections of Japanese, Chinese, Korean and South Asian art.