Russian Calendar-In Brief

1808 

Summit in Erfurt

For two weeks, beginning September 27, Alexander I and Napoleon met as two allies in this northern German city. There were balls, celebrations honoring the two emperors, negotiations, parties and meetings with famous personages, including the great poet Goethe. Alexander and Napoleon seemed to be the closest of friends, agreeing on the division of Europe into spheres of influence. This, despite the fact that just one year previous their armies had battled one another, and, within four years, France and Russia would again be at war, one that ended with the collapse of the Napoleonic empire.

1818

Multifaceted Writer

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born on October 28. One of the most famous Russian writers, he is praised for his harsh criticism of serfdom in his Hunter’s Sketches, for his keen observations of Russian life, social movements and generational change in Fathers and Sons, and as the author of subtle works on love and Russian nature.

1878

Mysterious Beauty

Through his canvases, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (born October 24) turned the reality around him into a mysterious and beautiful world, full of symbols and as familiar as ancient Russian icons. Village boys playing turned into the enigmatic Bathing a Red Horse, and a young woman, breast-feeding her child, was transformed (Petrograd, 1918, above) into the Mother of God.

1918

Lost Letters

Having gained power, begun construction of a New World and implemented a switch to the Gregorian calendar, the Bolsheviks could not but take on the challenge of reforming Russian orthography. The move had actually been in the works for some time, since 1904. Yet only revolutionaries, it seems, were able to eliminate a few of the stranger characters and change some grammatical rules – he changes took effect on October 10. Thus did the letters Yat, Fita, Izhitsa and i-Desyatichno disappear; and hard signs no longer graced the ends of words. The rules were simpler, but a whole strata of ancient culture and tradition was lost.