24 May — all of Petersburg buries Generalissimo Suvorov. These were the first funerals in the new Russian history to carry such a meaning: from here begins a series of special farewells by Russian society to its best people (Pushkin, Dobrolyubov, Turgenev, Tolstoy...)—funerals that turn into opposition demonstrations, an expression of feelings of personal, national, and political dignity.
“The Guard is tired after the parade,” Paul I declared, explaining why he forbade the Guardsmen to take part in the funeral of the great Russian commander. The tsar himself also did not attend the funeral of A. V. Suvorov, preferring instead yet another review of hussars, Leib Cossacks, and the changing of the guard.
True, at one of the intersections on Sadovaya Street the funeral procession blocked the way of the emperor and his small retinue. Paul I was forced to stop and even take off his hat. He was gradually surrounded by people who had come to see the Generalissimo off on his final journey. The crowd inadvertently pressed in on him, wanting a better look at the funeral procession. To his great displeasure, two women, not noticing the rider on horseback, leaned their elbows on the emperor’s stirrups.
The procession turned onto Nevsky Prospekt and headed for the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, while Paul I rode off to yet another review.
An order of the St. Petersburg chief of police is in force: no one is to wear sideburns.
There are no Jews in Moscow or Petersburg. Under Catherine II, after the annexation of Crimea and Novorossiya and the partitions of Poland, the concept of the Pale of Jewish Settlement was established, which included the Little Russian and Novorossiya provinces, Crimea, and the provinces annexed from Poland in the three partitions. There Jews may enjoy all civil rights on an equal basis with other people of the middle estate. Access to the rest of the empire is forbidden to them. In the places of registration, Jews are subject to double taxes.
The emperor’s son, Alexander, has been married for two years to the Baden princess Elizaveta Alexeyevna. He receives a pension of 500,000 rubles a year, has been appointed chief of the second Guards regiment and inspector general of the army, head of the “War and Navy Chancellery,” chief director of the empire’s police, and president of the Senate; in addition, the grand duchess is separately allotted 150,000 rubles annually.
The invention by the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta of a source of direct current.
29 December — Charles Nelson Goodyear was born; he invented the rubber vulcanization process in 1839, but did not patent it immediately. Competitors took advantage of his achievement. He had nothing at all to do with the company that bears his name. He spent most of the rest of his life in debtors’ prisons and died a poor man.