The workers of sunny Australia hold together rallies and, by a distant bright day, on April 21, 1856, seek to reduce the working day from 12 to 8 hours. Wages remain the same. It turns out, by the way, that the country’s economy is a state of affairs in which people spend more money on a cultural and pleasant pastime, is only good. In 1886, the example of overseas colleagues followed by American workers. Called by the Knights of the Order of Labor, one of the workers’ parties, organized according to the principle of the Masonic Lodge, 40,000 protesters take to the streets of Chicago. Police disperse the crowd. Unrest resumes with a new force after the dismissal of thousands of protesters. Police open fire and kill six people. The next day, on the evening of May 4, a bomb flies from the crowd to constables. According to some, this is a police provocation, with the aim of veiling the case of the previous shooting of the protesters. One cop dies. Guards of the order shoot indiscriminately at everything that moves, and kill about forty demonstrators. As a result of the “friend fire”, or including the protesters ‘shots, six policemen are killed. A person with an explosive device can not be established. However, four people are sentenced to death. Such rigidity in relation to people who are not the direct killers of the policeman makes a deep, dual impression on society. By and large, simple American workers win. Most of their requirements, rather sooner than later, are met. However, such overtly extremist appeals as “Destroy the animals in human form, calling themselves authorities! A merciless death to them!”, Representatives of workers’ organizations no longer spread. In 1889, the First Paris Congress of the Second International decided to hold demonstrations on May 1 of each year. The Day of International Solidarity of Workers is celebrated annually in 142 countries of the world. Photography – manifestation on Haymarket Square, Chicago, early May 1886

The coronation of Nicholas II Alexandrovich and his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, will be held on May 26, 1896 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Before the beginning of the ceremony, Nikolai sits on the throne of Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich (first in the Romanov dynasty), the empress-mother Maria Fedorovna – on the throne of Alexei Mikhailovich Tishayshy (father of Peter the Great), Alexander Fedorovna – on the throne of Grand Duke Ivan the Third (Great). Photography is a solemn procession near the walls of the Assumption Cathedral. A total of 100 million rubles are spent on the coronation of the seemingly immense and indestructible Empire.The new emperor is married to Victoria Alice Elena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse (German Empire) Ludwig the Fourth and Duchess Alice, daughter of the English Queen Victoria. Wedding and honeymoon occur less than a month after the death of Alexander the Third, November 26, in an atmosphere of mourning and memorial services. Spouses have children – four daughters and, a patient with hemophilia, son Alex. Alexandra’s relationship with the imperial court does not add up. The Empress considers herself infallible, and intolerant to the opinions of others. A born Danish woman, popular in the light of Alexander the Third’s widow, does not like the Germans (who at one time brought a lot of suffering to her historic homeland). This feeling extends to the sister-in-law. At one time, he did not approve of the fascination with the German and the emperor-father. Nicholas insisted on choosing, threatening to abdicate the throne and accept the monastic rank. Nevertheless, having become a monarch, and not a monk, the young emperor points out about the “inadmissibility of senseless dreams of the fate of representatives of zemstvos in the affairs of internal administration.” Speech “anointed” is accompanied by applause. But this performance becomes the benchmark for the rise of general discontent.

На фотографии – Ходынское поле перед началом празднованияAfter 4 days, May 30, solemn events are organized on the Khodynka field. For the people prepared gifts. Gingerbread cookies, a pound bun, sweets, 200 g of sausage, nuts, raisins, prunes and a porcelain cup are wrapped in a calico scarf. At five o’clock in the morning on the field of one square kilometer from 500 thousand to 1 000 000 people gather. A rumor is rolling that the bartenders are handing out gifts to “only their own.” The people rush to the wooden buildings, 1,800 police officers are unable to contain them. The direction of flow is along the ravine and pits left over from the dismantled pavilions. People fall into the hollows, all new human waves roll over them. The death toll, according to official data – 1383 people, according to unofficial – 4000. In addition, about one and a half thousand are injured and mutilated. By noon, the crash site is cleared of traces of drama. At two o’clock Nicholas II arrives, he is met by new crowds and sounds of the orchestra. In the evening, the festivities continue in the Kremlin Palace. Then the crowned spouses dance at the ball of the French ambassador. For reasons of the king, although the Khodyn catastrophe is the greatest misfortune, it should not darken the bright celebration of the coronation. Entry in the diary of Nicholas II; “I found out about this at 10 1/2 am before the Vannovsky report; disgusting impression left of this news. … Going around the tables, we left for the Kremlin. … Let’s go to the ball to Montebello. It was very nicely arranged, but the heat was unbearable.” On the photo – Khodynskoe field before the start of the celebration

The imperial family donates 90,000 rubles to the victims and 1000 left after all the banquets, bottles of Madeira. The principle of building a relationship of the royal family with the people will be presented from the correspondence of Alexandra Feodorovna with her grandmother, the British Queen Victoria. Victoria: “I rule for more than 50 years, and, nevertheless, I have to think every single day about what I need to do in order to preserve the love of my subjects and make it stronger… Your main duty is to win their love and respect.” Alexandra Alice: “You’re mistaken, dear grandmother. Russia is not England. Here we have nothing to do to deserve the people’s love. The Russian people worship their king as a divine creation. “Photography – victims of the crush on Khodynka. To the beat of time – on the search bar the hymn “God Save the Tsar” (listen) …“Боже царя храни”, слушать

The first congress of the future RSDLP – the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party will be held in 1898, in Minsk, in the safe house of one of the railway employees. There are 9 delegates from the “Unions of struggle for the liberation of the working class” of several large cities of the Empire, as well as the “General Jewish Workers’ Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia” (Bund). The congress was initiated by Peter Berngardovich Struve, son of the Astrakhan governor, philosopher and Marxist. If it is interesting to you, in 1918, with the beginning of the Red Terror P. Struve leaves Russia across the Finnish border. In emigration, he censured the tsarist government with foaming at the mouth for the gentleness he showed towards revolutionaries. Lower row, from left to right: V. Starkov, the future trade representative of the USSR in Berlin, G. Krzhizhanovsky, compiler of the Electrification Plan of Russia (GOERLO), Deputy Commissar of Education, V. Ulyanov and Y. Martov (Tsederbaum). The latter, since 1918, has sharply criticized the Bolshevik leadership for its lack of democracy and cruelty, and condemns the shooting of the royal family. Tribesmen to criticism did not react. In 1920, terminally ill with tuberculosis, Julius Martov moved to Germany

Photography is the home of Pavel Rumyantsev, a railway worker who sympathizes with the revolutionaries. This one, presumably, a fairly well-off worker, does not participate in the meetings. Meetings are held under the guise of celebrating the birthday of his wife Rumyantsev, Olga. The establishment of the RSDLP is already celebrated with a festive dinner – with libations, toasts and songs. The manifesto of the new party says: “Both the movement and the socialist direction, the Russian Social-Democratic Party continues the work and traditions of the entire preceding revolutionary movement in Russia; setting the most important of the immediate tasks of the party in its whole – the conquest of political freedom, social democracy goes to the goal, clearly outlined by the glorious leaders of the old “People’s Will”. But the means and ways that social democracy chooses are different. Their choice is determined by the fact that it consciously wants to be and remains a class movement of organized working masses. She is firmly convinced that “the emancipation of the working class can only be his own business,” and will consistently align all his actions with this basic principle of international social democracy. Long live the Russian, long live the international social democracy! “Comrades, to tune in to the wave of time – the Internationale (listen). I ask everyone to stand up. … Another couple of glasses and, suppose, the host of the house, Pavel Rumyantsev, timidly approaches the festive table. “Tell me, honestly, for whom are you doing all this? Do you really love us, the workers? Can I sit next to you?”

Lev Davidovich Trotsky (Bronstein), the future world-famous revolutionary, Lenin’s ally, the founder of the Red Army. Birth – 1879, November 7, the village of Yanovka, Kherson Province. Information about any profession Bronstein, practical, working activities, no. At the end of school education (Nikolaev), Trotsky, outside of any work experience, declares himself a friend of the proletariat, a professional revolutionary. Now, when Ulyanov-Lenin speaks at the First Congress of the RSDLP, he is 19 years old. Leib Bronstein is busy reviving the South Russian Workers’ Union. Soon he will be sent to Siberia for four years. The royal link is not a gulag. Soon enough, Trotsky escapes, not protected by guards and rows of barbed wire. In Europe – Vienna, London, articles written by Bronstein during his wanderings around Siberia have already gained popularity. Revolutionary becomes one of the editors of the newspaper Iskra

Jacob Sverdlov (Eshua Solomon Movshevich). Persistently scribbling on the violin, communicating among themselves in the spirit of the Torah, regularly, and attending the synagogue on their own, the Jewish boys have an advantage over the boys of all other religious denominations of Russia in organizing their own destiny. In this photo, our hero is 29 years old. By the time of the first congress of the RSDLP, Jacob is 23 years old. The first task from the party is the leadership of the Urals and, note, the Ekaterininburg committees of the RSDLP (b). The largest Motovilikha cannon factory in the country is enveloped in a fiery revolutionary spirit. One of his employees, Gabriel Myasnikov, will later become the murderer of the last de jure Russian emperor, Mikhail Romanov.

Upon exclusion from the seminary, I. Dzhugashvili receives a certificate that he has completed four classes and can work as a teacher in elementary public schools. For some time, Joseph has been working as a tutor, and even an “observer-calculator” at the Tiflis Physical Observatory. Actually, this is the entire experience of practical, generally useful work of the future leader. Even at the seminary, Dzhugashvili led the propaganda of Marxism in the workers’ circles, from a certain moment he began to receive money for it. Since 1901, now Koba (nickname – after the name of a romantic Georgian robber) goes to the illegal position. The first undertakings of the revolutionary – the publication of the newspaper “Struggle” and the organization of a large-scale strike of oil workers in Baku (1904), can be considered productive. Since 1903, the time of the Second Congress of the RSDLP, Stalin is a recognized revolutionary, now a “Bolshevik”, and spends most of his time abroad. Foreign voyages alternate with links – by the standards of the Stalinist GULAG “childish,” a few months a year, with the ability to run whenever they like. In 1906, Dzhugashvili was apprehended by a tragedy – the death of his wife, Catherine (Svanidze), from typhus, 8 months after the marriage. The personality of a revolutionary undergoes irreversible changes to excessive rigidity and asceticism. The son, Jacob, later nicknamed Stalin’s “Teen Wolf”, was raised by his mother’s sister until 1921. In March 1917, under a general amnesty from the organizers of the February Revolution, Stalin arrives in St. Petersburg

At the beginning of the twentieth-century turbulent exhaust gas, 95% of Russian and more than 50% of global oil production falls on Baku. The tycoons registered in Russia – Nobili, Rothschilds, Mantashevs (Russians of Armenian descent), make huge profits. Sometimes they donate to theaters and museums, but the “simple man” is outside the scope of their understanding. Meanwhile, the salary of a worker does not reach the ruble a day, he has to work and live in terrible conditions. The photograph depicts something resembling the landscape of Mordor – a forest of oil rigs and swamps of earthen tanks filled with oil. The wells are poisoned. For drinking you have to collect rainwater. Unpaid overtime work, 12—15 hour working day, endless fines, dwelling-barracks with rooms for 80 people. Such a tremendously low level of life, on the one hand, devalues life, on the other hand, makes possible the solidarity of representatives of thirty nationalities, ensures readiness for struggle. … Cossacks called by the authorities dispersed a 40,000-strong mob, killed 8 and wounded 40 workers. Workers, in turn, are detrimental to businesses. In the end, the first collective agreement is drawn up in Russia. A 9-hour working day is established, wages are raised to one ruble. Such a thing as a four-day paid vacation is realized as something fantastic before. The tsar’s reaction is interesting, according to one of the government documents: “… the pliability shown by the oil owners… drew the attention of his imperial majesty the sovereign emperor, since this compliance may have extremely adverse consequences on other factory and factory districts”

N-Japanese war of 1904—1905 becomes the catalyst for many subsequent revolutionary events. The initial psychological reason for the confrontation with the ambitious Eastern Power is as follows. During a trip to Japan, Nicholas II receives saber blows from a samurai, who believes that excessive honor is given to a foreign emperor. The attacker dies three months after the sentence is pronounced (life imprisonment), but the monarch harbors a fierce grudge against all Japanese. The external reason is the unrestrained advance of the Russian troops in Korea, the construction of military fortifications, contrary to the treaties with Japan. In addition, the intention of the samurai to saddle the 450 millionth China and lay the foundation of the world superpower with unclear objectives, causes the desire to somehow stop them. Before that, in the First Japanese-Chinese War, as well, for control over Korea, the Japanese gain experience in waging war at sea with armored ships. In the autumn of 1894, a battle will take place at the mouth of the Yalu River (north-west coast of Korea), with approximately equal forces (12 and 18 pennants, respectively). Japan has 4 ships seriously damaged, 100 people killed. China loses 5 sunk cruisers, and 650 sailors. The Qing Empire wins the battle – drives the Japanese squadron away from the transport ships. However, fearing new demoralizing losses, the government of the Celestial Empire forbids the fleet to go to sea. In early 1895, the battle for Weihaiwei (now the administrative district of the PRC) will take place. The Japanese attack the surrounded Chinese fleet (27 pennants, two battleships of Italian construction), destroy it completely, together with 2000 sailors, losing 200 fighters and 2 destroyers. A serious shortcoming of the Chinese fleets is the lack of high-explosive fragmentation projectiles. Available armor-piercing pigs inflict minimal damage to the enemy. Russian officers do not bother themselves with a detailed analysis of instructive battles of the “Asian powers”. The photo shows a map of the alignment of forces and major battles of the Russo-Japanese War

Port Arthur is an important Russian naval base in China. Photograph of 1904. During the First Japanese-Chinese War of 1894, the city was captured, and Japanese troops showed incredible cruelty to civilians. A year later, at the request of the Russian empire patronizing China, Japan returns the territories. But, from this time on, the Japanese harbor anger toward Russia. The militarization of the Land of the Rising Sun is gaining an incredible scale. It should also be noted that in 1867 Japan successfully carried out the Meiji restoration (the westernization of society). If at one time American Indians would have done social and technical changes according to the progressive European model, then the presidents, or indeed, the leaders of North America, would now be Vinita and Chinganchguky. Unlike the Iroquois and Sioux, samurai find the strength to change in order to remain themselves. In 1897, by the sole decision of Nicholas the Second, contrary to the resolution originally agreed upon with Witte (to leave friendly China alone), a Russian squadron was advanced to Port Arthur. The ruling dynasty is unable to resist the invasion. The self-rule of the king does not benefit the relations of the two great powers. Since 1901, Russia has received a completely rebuilt military base on the part of the planet where serious passions are boiling, and where the interests of the Russian people themselves are viewed the least

On the night of February 9, 1904, without waiting for the government of Nicholas II to clarify the reasons for the deployment of Russian garrisons in Korea under the guise of foresters, despite the agreement, and not listening to the assurances in the style of “They-there-no,” Japan begins the war. Two days later, diplomats from the Land of the Rising Sun officially report on the state of affairs. Photography – shelling of the Russian fleet in Port Arthur, from the dominant heights. I must say that four out of every five 11-inch Japanese shells do not explode. This and other factors allow the Port Arthur garrison to last 320 days. The irretrievable loss of Russia – 10 thousand people, 23 thousand prisoners, Japan – 35 thousand dead

The armored cruiser “Thunderbolt” (“Gromoboy”), one of the best ships of the First Russian Squadron (and with a relatively happy fate). To enjoy your gaze. The manufacturer – the Baltic factory, St. Petersburg. It is quite characteristic of its time the ship was launched in 1899, put into operation a year later. The displacement is 12,500 tons, the length is 147 meters, the width is 21 meters, the total power of the machines is 15,500 hp, the travel speed is 36 km. hours, autonomous navigation distance of 15 000 km. The main armament is four 203 mm., Sixteen 152 mm., Twenty four 75 mm. guns, four torpedo tubes. Crew 872 people. During the battle in the Korean Strait, the cruiser loses 91 sailors killed, but remains on the move and, after repair, becomes operational. In 1922, “Thundercaster” was dismantled for metal. In the First Worldwide Ships with Mixed Weapons, Dreadnoughts are pressed, they are also battleships with a displacement of 17,000 tons, the main trump card of which are large-caliber guns (305 mm and above). Russia manages to produce several battleships for the Great War