Jubilee and ministries: 20 years]
The Interior Ministry of Mikhail Loris-Melikov under orders of Tsar Alexander III began planning an event as early as 1883. In 1886 the government of Tsar Alexander III would celebrate a total of 20 years of reign (having started in 1866) so it was planned the second Great Meeting of April.
On this occasion the celebration and event would be attended by: The State Council, directors of the Okhrana, members of the Russian General Staff, delegates of the provincial Zemstvos, governors or delegates of the provincial governors, delegates of the colonies and the Grand Duchy of Finland and the Kingdom of Poland, as well as the State Duma (and its committees).
This time the Ministry of the Interior also decided to add a celebration in the city of Saint Petersburg for said jubilee, after all 20 years of government were not fulfilled every day.
For his part, Tsar Alexander III planned a reform, not too important as such, since the beginning of the 19th century the Russian Empire had had more or less the same ministries (with some quite temporary).
Tsar Alexander III changed the names a bit (or slightly extended the responsibilities of some ministries), so under the Tsar's government the following configuration was formed:
* Ministry of Education, Culture and Technology (Министерство образования, культуры и технологий, Ministerstvo obrazovaniya, kul'tury i tekhnologiy). Minister: Ivan Davydovich Delyanov (with Alexander Vasilyevich Golovnin now as adviser and deputy minister).
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Министерство иностранных дел, Ministerstvo inostrannykh del). Minister: Nikolai de Girs.
* Ministry of Transport and Railways (Министерство транспорта и железных дорог, Ministerstvo transporta i zheleznykh dorog). Minister: Alexey Pavlovich Bobrinsky.
* Ministry of War (Военное министерство, Voyennoye ministerstvo). Minister: Iosif Vladimirovich Romeyko-Gurko.
* Ministry of the Navy (Министерство военно-морского флота, Ministerstvo voyenno-morskogo fleet). Minister: vacant (de-facto Tsar Alexander III and Romeyko-Gurko's war ministry, for the time being).
* Ministry of the Imperial Court (Министерство Императорского Двора, Ministerstvo Imperatorskogo Dvora). Minister: Illarion Ivanovich Vorontsov-Dashkov,
* Ministry of Finance, Trade and Industry (Министерство финансов, торговли и промышленности, Ministerstvo finansov, torgovli i promyshlennosti). Minister: Nikolai von Bunge.
* Ministry of Internal Affairs (Министерство внутренних дел, Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del). Minister: Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov.
* Ministry of Justice (Министерство юстиции, Ministerstvo yustitsii). Minister: Dmitry Nikolaevich Nabokov.
Now the Ministry of Education was engaged not only in the construction of educational infrastructure and educational programs of the Russian Empire, but also in the 'preservation of the material and immaterial culture of the Russian Empire', and technological research and development within the state ( or help research and development within the Russian Empire).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, War, Navy, Justice, and the Ministry of the Imperial Court (administrators of the actions within the imperial court) did not undergo changes.
The Ministry of Transport and Railways extended its administration to projects such as the navigability of the rivers of Russia, the Moscow Metro, the St. Petersburg tram, etc. In addition to previous work.
The Ministry of Finance, Trade and Industry is dedicated to the planning, implementation and review of Russian economic policy, in addition to projects related to trade, industrial and economic growth, supervision of private industry (in case of violating Russian laws), etc.
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[Research and development department]
With the transformation of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Technology, the Tsar Alexander III and the Minister Delyanov creater the first Research and Development Department (Issledovaniya I Razrabotki) was formed, dedicated to, as its name indicates, the research and development of scientific and / or technical processes, to obtain new technologies, products, materials, processes or services, or the improvement of the aforementioned.
The IIR soon became operational for not only state research, but also to give possible subsidies to researchers and scientists (native or foreign migrants that now lived in Russia) for the development of technology (from which the state or Russia as a whole would have benefits in some way or other through certain contracts).
The IIR's professional model, not dependent on a single scientist or entrepreneur, but on the joint and steady work of various scientists in certain objective or industry, soon motivated Russian private industry to follow a similar approach, albeit much more modest in its early days.
The SEiPK, while developing the Bering or Transpacific Telegraph, also developed its first IIR under the Serbo-Russian scientist Nikola Tesla.
Economically speaking it was another reason for people educated or lacking in resources (but interested in creating inventions and technologies) to move to Russia to try their luck, either in the state or in the growing private industry.
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[Volga-Don]
The Volga-Don Canal was completed in record time, effectively linking the commercial and population passage between the Volga rivers and the Don River. With a series of dam constructions and adequate infrastructure, more than 3,000 kilometers of the Volga River and tributaries became navigable.
Obviously this was very useful for the passage of ships and people through European Russia, from the Caspian and Caucasian regions now economic resources could travel to tributaries of the Don, the Sea of Azov or the Black Sea through the rivers .
With this, the government of Tsar Alexander III then headed towards a project that would take much longer, would be more expensive and undoubtedly with greater complications (occasional delays, weather problems, etc). The White Sea-Baltic Sea Canal, which would run from the White Sea to the Gulf of Finland through Lake Vygozero, Lake Onega, the Svir River, Lake Ladoga, and the Neva River.
Not only that, the project would also include the Volga-Baltic waterway (Volgobalt, Волгобалт) that would link the Volga and the Caspian Sea with the Baltic and the World Ocean through the Neva River.
This would undoubtedly mark another notable growth within the Russian economy.
Unstoppable growth within Russia's own borders.
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[Dynasty: Succession and marriage]
The Romanov dynasty in certain aspects, mainly in that of succession and marriage, was ruled according to the so-called Pauline Laws, created by Tsar Paul I son of Tsarina Catherine II and Tsar Peter III.
Laws created on April 5 (NS: 16), 1797 (although Paul himself planned it years before when he was still Tsarevich), which established certain points, unlike the laws of succession of Peter I:
* The inheritance was established by law, so there was no doubt who could inherit (Peter I established that the emperor designated his own heir to him). Thus the succession would not pass to an 'illegitimate' or 'natural' heir (as a result of the possibility, rumor or paranoia of Paul I himself of being passed in the succession by orders of Catherine II).
* Male heirs always had the preference, introducing Austrian or semi-salty primogeniture (Peter I made no distinction as to whether the heir designated by the emperor was male or female).
* Regency was introduced over an emperor if he was a minor (something not foreseen by Peter I).
* It was forbidden that the Russian throne be occupied by someone who was not part of the Russian Orthodox faith.
And Alexander I complement in 1820: A son / daughter or children of unequal marriage (morganatic) lost their right to the Russian throne.
Since then all subsequent emperors received the throne through Pauline laws, and although they had power over those laws, they chose not to change them.
Tsar Alexander III for his part understood that certain parts of the Pauline laws could be problematic in the future (lack of 'adequate' candidates for example).
So in 1883, Tsar Alexander III planned his first draft of a new law of succession for the Russian imperial house.
* The succession of the Russian throne would continue to be preferentially masculine over the feminine line, and following the succession father-son or brother-brother, etc (without violating the 'natural law').
** But the official line of the Imperial Romanov house would be only that of Tsar Nicholas I, and of legitimate children of the marriage of said Tsar (or of later Tsars). Thus the bastard lines of tsars (or tsarinas, in the case of Catherine II for example) earlier and later had no right to inherit the Russian throne.
* If someone underage rose there would still be regency.
* An emperor of Russia had to be of Russian Orthodox faith.
* Morganatic marriage would be regulated by the reigning emperor as follows:
1-Princes (knyaz) and princesses of royal blood (that is, more remote members of the Romanov family, great-grandchildren of emperors that are no longer part of the main branch, etc.) could marry morganatic individuals, that is, of a different social status (houses not reigning, or not noble).
1.b- Provided that said marriage did not violate any law of the Orthodox Church or the Russian state.
1.c- As long as the emperor or the Holy Synod did not declare that it would be too scandalous (if the emperor or the authorities vetoed it).
2-Grand Dukes, Grand Duchesses and the Tsesarevich (sons and grandsons of an emperor, former or reigning) needed the approval of the reigning tsar to perform a morganatic marriage (as long as it occurred during the reigning tsar's government) and maintain positions within the succession of the imperial house.
2.b-In case the succession passed to the female line, due to the absence of legitimate male heirs, the husband (and childs) of said woman of royal blood had to adopt the dynasty of the imperial house as his dynastic name. For the continuation of the Romanovs (as a clan) on the throne.
The divorce would be carried out according to orthodox laws.
Emperor Alexander III also realized that he had to better encode the surname of the Russian imperial house, abroad various documents recognized the dynasty as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov, others simply like the Romanovs (within Russia itself it was recognized as a dynasty that gave rise to various tsars, but which was extinguished by male line, but there was no exact mention of the imperial house as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov on all occasions).
And the princes of royal blood away from the government, more than a surname, they used their name, patronymic and some princely title given by the reigning emperor or past ones, but no surname like Romanov or Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov.
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[Quarter finals]
Matches of the quarterfinals of the fourth edition of the Russian Soccer League:
* Arkhangelsk vs Vladivostok: Vladivostok wins 2 to 1 over the Arkhangelsk team.
* Erivan vs Anadyr: Erivan wins 1 to 0 over Anadyr.
* Omsk vs Kharkov: Kharkov wins 3 to 1 over Omsk.
* Moscow vs Murmansk: Murmansj wins 2 to 1 over Moscow.
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[International]
Treasure Island is published for the first time in full in book format in the city of London, on May 23rd. Book written by Robert Louis Stevenson.
On May 26, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is officially consecrated.
On June 16, in Victoria Hall a total of 163 children are suffocated due to a stampede to get treats, without a doubt a sad disaster.
June 28, Milan is the first city (and region) in Italy to have a power station.
In June, on a difficult day to know, the Vietnamese campaign of the German Empire began, with the interest of establishing a German protectorate over the northern regions of Vietnam.
This puts Germany in conflict with the Vietnamese Black Flag army, and obviously with Chinese authorities (more eventually than directly). However, the Germans not only have superior weapons to supplant their numerical inferiority, but also with the support in resources of the Dutch East Indies (diverted by the Germans themselves to the colony and the campaign), and the support of the Dutch navy and the German navy.
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* Russian perspective: German Vietnam campaign.
"You know what, using the same tactic that we used in Lanfgang or Korea over and over will not be productive for us, it will work a few times, if we have luck. But I would't give it more thant two shots, three in the best outcome." Emperor Alexander III mentions.
"What does that have to do with Germany?" Foreign Minister Nikolai de Girs asks.
"It means that we will have to relax our territorial expansion in the Pacific for the moment. And don't do crazy things like give weapons to vietnamese, we will need to focus more on the economy and technological development of the fleet and protectorates for the moment. As the Germans continue to expand their fleet and their colonies in Asia or the Pacific, for the moment the English should also pay attention to them, and not only to us. " Emperor Alexander III responds. "I don't like what the Germans are going to do with the Vietnamese ... I hate it indeed, but at the moment we can't do anything."
"... The Austrians and French should also be concerned about German expansion, after all, Austrian Borneo is nearby. What should we do in case of Anglo-French-Austrian cooperation?" The minister exclaims.
"The British will not force Germany into our arms like that, nor will they force us into Germany's arms. Franco-Austrian cooperation is more likely for the moment...But, for now we can only watch and see." The emperor ends.