CHRONOLOGY - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 414

1852
Louis Napoleon proclaimed emperor of France.
Leo Tolstoy publishes Childhood.
Death of Gogol.

1858-1860
Russia accelerates penetration of northeast Asia,
acquiring Amur-Ussuri and Maritime region
from China.

1853
Menshikov ultimatum to Turkey.
War with Turkey.
Russian naval battle over Turks at Sinope.
Ostrovsky's first play produced.

1859
Shamil surrenders in north Caucasus; conquest of
Caucasus complete except for Circassia (1864).
Goncharov's Oblomov .

1859-1860
Noble deputations come to St. Petersburg.

1854
Allies land in the Crimea.
Founding of fortress of Vernii (modern Almaty).
Founding of Khabarovsk.

1860
Founding of Vladivostok.
Rural courts introduced.
State bank established.
China recognizes Russian expansion in Treaty of
Peking.

1854-1856
Crimean War; Russia at war with Great Britain,
France, and Ottoman Empire.

1855
Allies take Sevastopol.
Death of Nicholas I.

1860-1873
First railway boom.

1861
Emancipation Manifesto of February 16 abol-
ishes serfdom in Russia.
Discontent over terms of emancipation leads to
peasant and student unrest and formation of
first revolutionary groups.
Establishment of St. Petersburg Conservatory.

1855-1881
Reign of Alexander II.

1856
Peace of Paris, ending Crimean War.
Alexander's speech to the nobility of Moscow
stresses the need to end serfdom “from above.”
Hereditary gentry status restricted to top four
ranks of Table of Ranks.
Relaxation of Russian policy toward Poland.

1862
Bismarck becomes chancellor of Prussia.
St. Petersburg Conservatory founded, with
Anton Rubinstein as its first director.
The Mighty Handful (Balakerev, Cui, Borodin,
Rimsky-Korsakov, and Mussorgsky) announce
intention to create a school of national Russian
music.
Publication of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons.

1857
(January) Secret committee for serf reform
established.
(November) Nazimov Rescript invites nobility to
collaborate in reforms; Chief Committee on
Peasant Affairs under Rovstovtsev established
to oversee emancipation.
Alexander Ivanov's painting Christ's Appearance
to the People.

1863
Leo Tolstoy begins War and Peace .
University Statute increases faculty rights.
Publication of N. G. Chernyshevskii's What Is to
Be Done?
Convocation of Finnish Diet (parliament).

1857-1867
Herzen publishes Kolokol ( The Bell ) from London.