Separators have appeared in Russia, which is contributing to the development of butter-making. Soon, in the Yaroslavl, Vologda, Tver, Smolensk, Novgorod, Baltic, and Vistula provinces, butter will be produced: for the domestic market from sweet cream, and for export abroad from soured cream, using the Danish method.
In January, a strike broke out at Morozov’s textile factory in the settlement of Nikolskoye, near Orekhovo station in Vladimir Province—the first mass workers’ action in Russia. More than 8,000 workers were employed there. They ransacked the office, the factory shop, and the foreman’s apartment. The workers’ leaders—Pyotr Anisimovich Moiseyenko, Vasily Sergeyevich Volkov, and L. I. Abramenko (Luka Ivanov)—put forward demands to the management: raise wages, regulate fines, and so on. The strikers were supported by workers from neighboring enterprises.
To suppress the strike, the governor arrived with a military detachment. Workers’ deputies, including Volkov, were surrounded by Cossacks and arrested. More than 600 workers were expelled from the factory by administrative order, and 33 people were brought to trial.
By the law of June 3, night work at cotton, linen, and woolen mills was prohibited for women and adolescents under 17.
On March 30, 1885, Russian troops under General Komarov defeated Afghan forces near the Kushka River, securing the Merv oasis (Turkmenistan) for Russia. This was the only military conflict during the reign of Emperor Alexander III.
The German firm Daimler built two examples of one of the world’s first motorcycles—though it did not yet bear that name; it was a “riding machine.” It had a wooden frame, belt drive, and auxiliary stabilizing rollers on the sides. The engine had a single cylinder, producing 0.5 hp at 700 rpm. The machine’s equipped weight was 90 kg. Speed: 12 km/h. On August 29 of that year, Gottlieb Daimler received a patent for it.
Starting this year, N. N. Benardos would receive patents in France, Belgium, England, Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Austria-Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and the United States for the welding method he invented.
In December, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy came to Sofya Andreyevna quite unexpectedly and said: “I came to say that I want to divorce you; I can’t live like this; I’m leaving for Paris or America... Wherever you are, the air is poisoned.” A scandal began. The children ran in and burst into tears. They parted almost amicably. Lev Nikolayevich took his daughter Tanya and went to visit friends.
In Kyiv in 1885, the civilian governor S. M. Gudim-Levkovich unexpectedly died while visiting a brothel in the city center.