80 Years Ago in Northeastern Asia

Marja Sklodowska, born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867 (then still part of the Russian empire), became one of this century's most famous scientists, working in both physics and chemistry. She studied in Paris and there met and married her husband, Pierre Curie, and is since better known as Marie Curie. Marie Curie is most well known for her work on radioactivity, and the discovery of the new elements radium and polonium. Her discoveries were key for the development of nuclear power. Curie died of leukemia in 1934, likely as a result of exposure to high levels of radiation during her various experiments.

One of the greatest pieces of Russian music ever written is the Vespers, composed by Rachmaninoff at the height of the First World War in 1915. Its proper Russian title is the "All-Night Vigil" (Vsenoschchnoye Bdeniye) written for the Easter mass of the Russian Orthodox church. In Russian church music, instruments are not used, and the work is sung by choir a cappella--without musical accompaniment.

The 300-year old Romanoff dynasty in Russia is overthrown in the 1917 Russian Revolution. Russia is turned into a republic, called the Soviet Union, or USSR (from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). Forces loyal to the tsar fought against the new Soviet government's army, called the Red Army. The loyalists were called the "whites". Even with British, French, American and Japanese support, the White armies could never form a united alliance and they lost the war by 1920. Poland, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and Finland successfully broke free of Russian rule during the revolution, although Poland fought a war against the Red Army in 1920-21. The Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia attempted to break free but were reconquered by the Red Army.

A brief chronology of revolution:

1916: failure of the Brusilov offensive --heavy Russian losses--demoralization of Russian troops and war-weariness on the home front reach dangerous levels

1917 Feb: several days of demonstrations in Petrograd (formally St Petersburg) --the government orders troops to open fire--next day these troops mutiny- -revolution in Petrograd--Tsar Nicholas abdicates when he hears that Moscow too has joined the Revolution--a Provisional Government is created under Alexander Kerensky

1917 March: Vladimir Lenin returns from exile --Lenin headed the Communist Party, also called the Bolsheviks, the extreme wing of the Socialist movement

1917 June 3: First All-Russia Congress of Workers and Soldiers Soviets opens (a "soviet" is a Socialist assembly or council)

1917 June: Kerensky Offensive --to counteract the influence of Lenin, Kerensky orders a new offensive, hoping military success will bring him popularity--the offensive fails and mass desertions and mutinies begin in the army

1917 July: The July Days --workers and soldiers in Petrograd demand the Soviet takes power

1917 Aug: The Kornilov putsch --attempt by General Kornilov to establish a right wing dictatorship is a disastrous flop--Kerensky cannot rely on the army and loses much prestige when he must call on the communists to help save the government

1917 Sept: The Bolsheviks win control of the Petrograd Soviet --in the countryside peasant seizure of land from the nobles continues

1917 Oct: Bolsheviks overthrow the Kerensky government

1917 2 Nov: Bolsheviks gain Moscow

1918 Jan: Russia proclaimed a democratic federal republic

1918 July: Tsar and family murdered

1921: Kronstadt Mutiny --promises of democracy are not kept--an anti-Lenin revolt by the navy is put down--Lenin now rules as virtual dictator

1922 Dec: The USSR is formally established

1924:Lenin dies --in the resulting power struggle, Josef Stalin wins--his main rival Leon Trotsky flees Russia but is later murdered in Mexico--Stalin establishes a police state that lasts for more than 60 years

Marc Chagall (1887-1985), a native of Vitebsk in Russia, was a painter, printmaker, and designer whose works combine images from personal experience with formal symbolic elements. These various elements are combined by virtue of their inner poetic force, rather than by rules of pictorial logic. His works foreshadowed the development of the "surrealist" school of painters. He left Russia for good in 1923 and lived in exile in France until his death. His Russian Jewish upbringing gave Chagall a rich spiritual heritage: he painted the dreams of the heart, not the mind. His early work in particular relies on themes from his Jewish upbringing in Russia. The painting "The Fiddler", inspired the famous movie "The Fiddler on the Roof".

1928 saw the premiere of the ballet Apollo, with music by Igor Stravinksy and choreography by George Balachine and performed Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, marking a new era in symphony music and dance. All the Russian performers were living in exile in France, having fled the Russian Revolution. It was with this work, his second ballet set to the music of Stravinsky, that Balanchine, at age 24, achieved international recognition and began his lifelong partnership with the composer. Stravinsky (1882-1971) is acknowledged as one of the great composers of the twentieth century.