Late 1901 — early 1902 — Formation of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs).
1901–02 — Student unrest in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Kharkov, and others.
On March 4, a student demonstration took place near Kazan Cathedral; when it was dispersed, more than a thousand students were arrested.
May 7 — A strike at the Obukhov Plant in St. Petersburg (“the Obukhov Defense”).
On Wednesday, February 14, at about 2 p.m., in the reception room of the Minister of Public Education, in the Ministry building, during the minister’s round of petitioners conducted by Privy Councillor Bogolepov, one of them, the Gomel townsman Petr Karpovich, fired a revolver shot and inflicted a fatal wound to the minister’s neck in revenge for reprisals against the student unrest.
This year Leo Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Church. The question “For what?” is still debated to this day.
On September 2, the first football championship in Russia began in St. Petersburg.
On May 16, an Academy of Sciences expedition arrived in Irkutsk to excavate a mammoth, whose carcass had been found on the Berezovaya River.
On June 3, a professor from the Harvard Observatory had just returned from the island of Jamaica with a collection of photographic images that apparently prove the existence of snow on the Moon.
On June 6, thieves stole from a St. Petersburg property owner 50,000 receipts of the State Bank for money deposited for safekeeping. The victim owns two houses and capital of 500,000 rubles. Meanwhile, he denies himself everything, spends 21 kopecks a day on food, and has not been to a bathhouse for 22 years.
On June 9, debates in the Moscow Pedagogical Society on simplifying Russian orthography. The meeting unanimously and without lengthy debate adopted a proposal to remove from the alphabet the letters “izhitsa,” “fita,” and the hard sign “ъ” at the end of words, as well as the letter “yat” (replacing it with “e”), and not to use the soft sign “ь” after the hushing consonants “ch” and “sh.”
On Friday, May 25, in one of Moscow’s churches, the marriage ceremony of the well-known writer Anton P. Chekhov and the actress of the Art (Public) Theatre, O. L. Knipper, was performed. Only a few people were present at the wedding.
On May 26, A. P. Chekhov passed through Nizhny and had a moving meeting with the ailing A. M. Gorky. A. P. Chekhov and his wife left for a kumis-treatment establishment in Aksenovo, Ufa Governorate, and from there, after the kumis course, they will go abroad. In the autumn, A. P. Chekhov’s wife will return to her usual duties in the troupe of the Art Theatre.
June 5. At 7 a.m., in Peterhof, Her Imperial Majesty Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was safely delivered of a daughter, named Anastasia.
June 14 — The trading house Muir & Mirrielees decided to build a grand six-story commercial building (TSUM) on the site of the burned-down department store. The new building, erected to the design of the renowned architect R. I. Klein, will be made entirely of iron and stone; the upper floors will be allocated for warehouses, offices, and a dining room for employees. A sensation were two electric elevators for customers—an innovation at the time.
On January 9, Queen Victoria died. The Queen’s state of mind had been shaken by military events, the death of her beloved grandson Prince Victor Christian, and the recent death of Lady Churchill, a lady-in-waiting whom the Queen dearly loved. No organic illness was found in Her Majesty, but moral depression affected the Queen’s physical condition and caused a natural decline of strength.
On January 21, with great solemnity, the grand colonial store of the partnership of the Eliseev brothers was opened on Tverskaya Street, near the Strastnoy Monastery. The newly opened Eliseev colonial store will be the first in Moscow in terms of size and luxurious finish. It is arranged in a double-height space and impresses with its scale, rich furnishings, and refined decoration done in the Renaissance style. Two enormous electric chandeliers adorned with white crystal create a striking effect in the store. The partnership will deliver its goods to homes by motor vehicle.
On January 29, the Russo-Chinese Bank continues in Beijing the distribution, on behalf of the Russian Tsar, of bread and clothing to poor Chinese people. At present the bank daily distributes, at eight different points in Beijing, more than 18,000 portions of cooked porridge, and since last Saturday, in addition, uncooked rice has also been distributed. The number of residents receiving this rice daily exceeds 15,000. More than 2,200 sets of warm clothing have already been handed out.