Russia in Transition
Civilian Life
(1881-1889)

 

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 1881 and 1899.  Currently we have several things here, but more will be added as time permits.
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1 Ruble Note dated 1898

 

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.

 

The Ballerina Mathilde Kshesinskaya

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

In the good years of the 1890's she worked with the ___ballet.  Her mansion in Petrograd was sacked during the Bolshevik revolution.  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.