The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated: The Empire That Was Russia
Timeline

1860s

Subjugation of the Caucasus

1863

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii is born in Murom, Vladimir Province, Russia (originally it was believed he was born in St. Petersburg)

1864-1869

Tolstoy writes War and Peace

1866

Dostoyevsky publishes Crime and Punishment

1867

Sale of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to the United States

1868

Nikolay Aleksandrovich (Nicholas II) is born at Tsarskoye Selo, near St. Petersburg

1870

Vladimir Ilich Lenin is born in Simbirsk, Russia

1870s

Conquest of Central Asia (Khiva, Bokhara, Turkestan)

1879

Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Josef Stalin) is born in Gori, Georgia (Russian Empire)

1881

Assassination of Alexander II

1881-1894

Reign of Alexander III

late 1880s

Prokudin-Gorskii studies painting at the Imperial Academy of Arts; studies chemistry with D.I. Mendeleyev

1889 - 1891

Prokudin-Gorskii continues his studies for two more years in Berlin and Paris

1890

Prokudin-Gorskii marries Anna Aleksandrovna Lavrova

1890

Apprentices in photochemical laboratories, becomes familiar with the work of Adolf Miethe and Edme Jules Maumene

1891

Construction begins on Trans-Siberian Railroad

early 1890s

Prokudin-Gorskii returns to Russia

1894

Death of Alexander III

1894 -1917

Reign of Nicholas II

1897

Prokudin-Gorskii begins to present the technical results of his photographic research to the Fifth Department of the Imperial Russian Technical Society (IRTS). (He would continue these presentations through 1918)

1897

First modern census in Russia

1898

Prokudin-Gorskii publishes the first in a series of works on the technical aspects of photography

1898

Prokudin-Gorskii presents his paper: "On Photographing Falling Stars (Star Showers)" to the IRTS

1900

Boxer Rebellion, Russian occupation of Manchuria

1900

Prokudin-Gorskii exhibits his black and white photography at the Paris Exposition, under the auspices of IRTS

1901

Trans-Manchurian line of the Chinese-Eastern Railway completed

1903

Prokudin-Gorskii publishes the booklet about photography with instant hand cameras

1903

Social Democrats (Marxist revolutionaries) of the Russian Empire split into two competing wings: Menshevik and Bolshevik

1904-1905

Russo-Japanese War

1904

Prokudin-Gorskii compiles photographic material for a large illustrated volume of the Manchurian battlefield

1904

Trans-Siberian Railway [from Moscow to Vladivistok] completed through Manchuria

1906

Prokudin-Gorskii becomes editor of the Petersburg journal Fotograf-liubitel (Amateur Photographer) and serves in this post until 1909. He writes a series of technical articles in the principles of color reproduction

1906

Prokudin-Gorskii receives the gold medal at the International Exhibition in Antwerp and a medal for "Best Work" from the Photo Club in Nice for his color photography

1907

Prokudin-Gorskii envisions and formulates a plan for the photographic survey of the Russian Empire, using a new innovative system

1908

Prokudin-Gorskii conducts slide presentations of his color photography innovations for audiences at IRTS, the Petersburg Photographic Society, and elsewhere in St. Petersburg

May 1908

Prokudin-Gorskii photographs Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Poliana

1908

Prokudin-Gorskii conducts several presentations of his color slide projections; attracts the attention of The Grand Duke Mikhail Aleksandrovich, who facilitates an introduction to Tsar Nicholas II

early 1909

Nicholas II invites Prokudin-Gorskii to give a slide presentation to the Imperial court at Tsarskoye Selo. Prokudin-Gorskii receives official support to implement his plan to photographically document the Russian Empire

summer 1909

Prokudin-Gorskii completes photographic trips along the Mariinskii Canal system and industrial areas of the Ural mountains

March 1910

First formal viewing at court by the Tsar of Prokudin-Gorskii's photographs of Mariinskii Canal system and industrial areas of the Ural mountains

1910

Prokudin-Gorskii photographs the Volga Region

1910

Death of Tolstoy

January 1911

Prokudin-Gorskii delivers lecture at the Academy of Arts in Petersburg entitled "Monuments of Antiquity Along the Mariinskii Canal System and the Upper Volga, and a few words about the Significance of Color Photography"

1911

Prokudin-Gorskii photographs Turkestan and Afghanistan

1911-12

Prokudin-Gorskii documents the areas involved in the Napoleonic campaigns in Russia to celebrate the 100th anniversary of "The Fatherland War"

1912

Prokudin-Gorskii documents the Kamsko-Tobol'skii Water Route and the Oka River

1912

Official support for Prokudin-Gorskii's documentary project is terminated

1912

Prokudin-Gorskii founds the Biochrome Company, which markets services in both color photography and photographic printing (black and white and color)

1914

Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand at Sarajevo

1914-1918

First World War

1915

Official support for Prokudin-Gorskii's documentary project is briefly resumed; Prokudin-Gorskii documents the Murmansk Railroad

1916

Trans-Siberian Railway completed

February 1917

February Revolution

March 1917

Abdication of Nicholas II

November 1917

Bolshevik Revolution in Russia

July 1918

Nicholas II and family assassinated in Yekaterinburg

Summer 1918

Prokudin-Gorskii leaves Russia for Norway, then England

1920-1922

Prokudin-Gorskii writes a series of articles for the British Journal of Photography and publishes a patent for a "camera for colour cinematography"

1922

Prokudin-Gorskii moves to France

1924

Vladimir Ilich Lenin dies in Gorki (near Moscow)

1924

Stalin succeeds Lenin and assumes title of Secretary General of the Communist party's Central Committee

1939-1945

Second World War

1940

Germany occupies France

August 1944

Liberation of Paris

September 1944

Prokudin-Gorskii dies in Paris