On this day in Russian history

105 years ago 

Fyodor Tyutchev

One of Russia’s greatest poets, Tyutchev may also be its most over-quoted (“Russia cannot be understood with the mind...”). Born November 23, 1803, into an ancient noble family, he served in the diplomatic service for two decades, from which he was dismissed for dereliction of duty. Later reinstated upon the tsar’s order, he became a censor of foreign publications, while also attaining prominence as a Slavophile with a trenchant wit, and creating masterful translations of French, English and German literature into Russian.

120 years ago

Andrei Tupolev

Premier Russian aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev was born on November 10, 1888 and became, beginning in 1924, the principal force behind the creation of Russia’s airplane industry. He was arrested and served in the Gulag from 1937-1941, when he was released to help with the war effort, for which he created the important Tu-2 bomber. In his lifetime, he created over 100 planes, 70 of which were mass-produced, and many which set world records.

20 years ago

Buran space shuttle

The sole launching of the Soviet space shuttle Buran occurred on November 15, 1988. It was unmanned. The shuttle was destroyed by the collapse of its hanger in 2002, but a second test plane survived, and was purchased in 2004 by a technology museum in Speyer, Germany, where it is on display for the public.

100 years ago

Yevgeny Vuchetich

His sculptures are famous (e.g. ‘Motherland Calls’ at Volgograd, pictured) and infamous (Iron Felix Dzerzhinsky on Moscow’s Lubyanka Square, the deconstruction of which became a symbol for the fall of the USSR). Vuchetich was born December 15, 1908, in Ukraine and was a Montenegrin Serb by ancestry. Winner of numerous Soviet-era prizes, he also crafted the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin, in which a 13-meter-high Russian soldier holds a child and brandishes a sword, while standing upon a broken swastika. Vuchetich died in 1974.