Selected Items from
Late 19th Century Russia
(1879-1899)

 

 

Russia at the turn of the Century

No discussion about a nations military can be complete without showing the civilian life of the time. This is because no military exists in a vacuum, it is a product of its times. This section will try to give the reader a glimpse of what life was like during the turn of the last century. It will feature pictures, history, stories, and other facets of Russian civilian life during the period between 1879 and 1899.

Items in our Collection

Earlier Period Relics

Back to Civilian Life of
Russia in Transition

Later Period Relics

 

 

Russian 1 Ruble Note (dated 1898)

 Front

 Back

 

 

Gold Ruble Coin (1)

Here you can see both sides of a gold five ruble coin minted in 1898.  When issued they weighed 4.3 grams.

The front has the value (5 rubles) below the Imperial double headed eagle.  The opposite side has the Tsar's portrait surrounded by writing.

Front Back

 

 

Silver Kopek Coins (1)

Here you can see both sides of a 25 kopek silver coin minted in 1896.  When issued it weighed 6 grams.

The front has the value (25 kopeks) and the date of minting below the Imperial double headed eagle.  The opposite side has the Tsar's portrait surrounded by writing.

Front Back
 

The upper example shows both sides of a silver five kopek coin from 1890.  When issued it weighed 0.9 grams.

The front has its date of minting at the top, the value in the middle, with the mint initials below (St Petersburg mint).  The bottom has a pair of laurel leaves.  The reverse has a Tsarist eagle.

    
Front Back
 

 

 

Copper Kopek Coins (1)

The upper example shows both sides of a copper two kopek coin from 1895.  When issued it weighed 6.55 grams.

The front has its date of minting at the top, the value in the middle, with the mint initials below (St Petersburg mint. The bottom has a pair of laurel leaves.

The reverse has a Tsarist eagle with writing above and the words two kopeks below.

 
Front Back
 

A quarter kopek coin minted in 1898 can be seen in the lower example.  It weighed 0.82 grams when minted. 

The front shows its value, the year, then the mint initials (again, St Petersburg mint).  The opposite side features the Tsar's monogram.

Front Back
 

 

 

One Ruble Postage Stamp (1889)

Here you can see a one ruble postage stamp from 1889.  This design is imperforate (it has no perforations on the sides).  What can also be seen below the Tsarist eagle are the two post horns and lightning bolts.

The post horns were used on the first Tsarist stamps of the late 1850's.  They are based of an old European custom of sounding a horn when the mail coach arrived.  Lightning bolts were added to symbolize the telegraph.

 

 

Newspapers from 1895 and 1896

These are two newspapers from the mid-1890's.  Each of them were only four pages in length.  The one at the bottom right was written in Cyrillic and in a Central Asian language.

We will translate a few of the main headlines as soon as we have time so that you can understand more of this era.

 

 

CDV Photograph of Ballerina Mathilde Kshesinskaya

The woman who could have been the Tsarina of the Russian Empire.  She was courted by Nicholas II for three years before he met Alexandra of Hesse, whom he would later marry.

In the good years of the 1890's she worked with the Saint Petersberg Imperial Theater ballet where she earned the highest title in her field,  prima ballerina assoluta.  She had a difficult work relationship with the director of the Imperial Ballet, Petipa, and envied the young dancer Anna Pavlova.

Her mansion in Petrograd was sacked during the Bolshevik revolution.  It was from the balcony of her former house that Vladimir Lenin addressed revolutionary crowds.

She finally left Russia for France in 1920.  Later she would marry Grand Duke Andrei.  Margot Fonteyn was one of her more famous students when she taught ballet in Paris.

 

Sources Cited

(1) Uzdenikov, V., Coints of Russia, Finansy I Statistika, Moscow, 1986. Print.