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Chronology for An Ordinary Marriage

Chronology of major events in the lives of the Chikhachev family (contains spoilers!):
 

  • 1762    Russian noble estate freed from obligatory state service.

  • 1796     Death of Catherine the Great, accession of her son, Paul I.

  • 1798     Andrei Ivanovich Chikhachev is born on 20 February; his mother, Anna Semenovna, dies soon after Andrei’s birth; Andrei goes to live with his paternal aunt, Elizaveta Mikhailovna Zamytskaia; Natalia’s brother Aleksandr born

  • 1799     Natalia Ivanovna Chernavina is born, on 26 August

  • 1799, 1805, 1807, 1812-1814 Russian wars with Napoleon (invasion of Russia – 1812)

  • 1801     Assassination of Paul I, accession of his son, Alexander I

  • 1803    Natalia’s brother Pavlin born on 22 January

  • 1804    Natalia’s brother Yakov born on 28 February

  • 1809     Andrei’s father, Ivan Mikhailovich, dies on 13 July

  • 1813    Andrei begins his army service at the Noble Regiment, a military school

  • 1816     Andrei made second lieutenant of the Noble Regiment; Andrei and his brother Ivan formally divide their father’s property between them

  • 1818    Andrei’s brother Ivan’s half of the family estate is put under the administration of the Board of Trustees on the grounds of his “dissolution”; Andrei retires from his regiment and returns to the country

  • 1820     Andrei and Natalia marry (17 Sept)

  • 1821     Andrei and Natalia’s first daughter, Anna, is born and dies in infancy

  • 1822     Natalia’s father, Ivan Yakovlevich, dies in October

  • 1823     Natalia and Andrei move temporarily to Moscow—it is unknown how long they stay. Their visit coincides with and probably was prompted by a court case with Andrei’s “dear aunt A. S. Kupreianova”

  • 1824    Andrei “had the happiness” to see the Emperor in person in Vladimir

  • 1825     Natalia’s two oldest brothers, Aleksandr and Pavlin, drown in a boating accident on 12 April

  • 1825     Natalia and Andrei’s son Aleksei is born in early September.

  • 1825     Death of Emperor Alexander I, accession of his brother, Nicholas I; Decembrist Revolt

  • 1828     Natalia’s mother Aleksandra Nikolaevna dies on 24 January

  • 1829     Natalia and Andrei’s daughter Aleksandra is born on 26 October

  • 1831     Cholera epidemic. Andrei serves as temporary local health inspector

  • 1832     “Moved from Borduki to Dorozhaevo”

  • 1833     Yakov retires from naval service and settles permanently at Berezovik

  • 1835     Andrei and Natalia begin building a stone house in Dorozhaevo (27 May)

  • 1837     Aleksei sent to Moscow to attend the Noble Institute

  • 1837     Death of Pushkin

  • 1837     Birth of a third daughter to Natalia and Andrei, named Varvara (23 March)

  • 1838     Varvara dies on 14 June

  • 1839     Aleksandra sent to school in Moscow. Suffers a “cruel illness“ there

  • 1841     Aleksandra begins to attend Mme. Shreier’s pansion (school) in Moscow

  • 1842     Andrei and Natalia in Moscow to visit their children (winter-spring)

  • 1842     Chikhachev family pilgrimage to Kiev

  • 1843     Stone house in Dorozhaevo is finished and they move in

  • 1842-51 First major Russian railroad built between St. Petersburg and Moscow

  • 1845     Andrei begins publishing articles in journals and newspapers

  • 1845     Andrei suffers extended illness

  • 1845     Yakov dies on May 27 from injuries sustained in an accidental fire in his own study. Aleksei inherits his estate at Berezovik, Chikhachev family lives year-round at Dorozhaevo

  • 1847-50 Aleksei in military service in Poland

  • 1848     Aleksandra marries Vasilii Ragozin, their first son Ivan is born the same year

  • 1848     Andrei experiences a religious awakening

  • 1848-49 Revolutions in Europe. Russian army active in Polish Galicia on their way to the Hungarian campaign. Aleksei sees some action in Poland before being transferred; a cousin and Aleksei’s patron, General Pavel Yakovlevich Kupreianov, is severely wounded in Poland

  • 1849     Aleksandra’s second son is born

  • 1850     Aleksandra dies in August, following ‘difficult birth’ of third son in July; Andrei suffers emotional and religious crisis following his daughter’s death and lives for six weeks in a monastery in Suzdal

  • 1854     Aleksei and his wife Anna Boshniak have first son, Konstantin (Kostya), on 15 March

  • 1855     Death of Nicholas I, accession of his son, Alexander II

  • 1855-56 Crimean War

  • 1860     Aleksei’s wife, Anna, becomes ill following the birth of their second son (who does not survive)

  • 1861     Emancipation of the serfs

  • 1861    Aleksandra’s second son, Andryosha, dies at the age of 12

  • 1861-64 The Great Reforms (establishing trial by jury and local administrative reform as well as emancipation)

  • 1866     Natalia dies following an illness

  • 1874     Aleksei dies at 49, cause of death unrecorded

  • 1875     Andrei dies, at 77

  • 1879    Kostya’s first son, Aleksandr, born on 20 April

  • 1888    Kostya’s second son, Anatolii, born on 28 June

  • 1890    Kostya’s daughter, Elena, born on 11 May

  • 1917    Revolutions in St. Petersburg. Collapse of the Tsarist Government and Bolshevik takeover

  • 1918    Konstantin Chikhachev, son of Aleksei, dies and the estate becomes the communal property of the village. Andrei’s stone house becomes the village school, and Konstantin’s daughter, Elena, remains there as schoolteacher. Most of Andrei’s public and private libraries are destroyed or dispersed sometime in the years of civil war and collectivization that followed.

  • 1920    Aleksandr Konstantinovich goes to the Crimea

  • Bef. 1925    Elena Konstantinovna dies

  • 1925    Brief popularity of local history societies, and the death of Konstantin’s daughter, Elena, results in Chikhachev fund being deposited in the State Historical Archive of Ivanovo Oblast’.

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