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Tatyana Lopukhina

1916–1983

Born
22 Oct 1916, Moscow
Country of birth
Russian Empire, today Russia
Died
2 Dec 1983, New York City
facts
6
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth22 Oct 1916, MoscowProbable1 source
  • Death2 Dec 1983, New York CityProbableDisputed1 competing claim1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Moscow

    Birth, Moscow

  2. Child born: Piotr Dmitrijevitch Galitzine, Prince Galitzine

    Birth, Mendoza

  3. Died · New York City

    Death, New York City

What was it like?

The world around Moscow, 1916: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Tatyana was born around the same time as Édith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, and Ingrid Bergman.

Born around the same time

  • Édith Piaf

    1915 · French singer (1915–1963)

  • Frank Sinatra

    1915 · American singer and actor (1915–1998)

  • Ingrid Bergman

    1915 · Swedish actress (1915–1982)

  • Stanley Matthews

    1915 · English association football player (1915-2000)

  • John F. Kennedy

    1917 · president of the United States from 1961 to 1963 (1917–1963)

  • Indira Gandhi

    1917 · Prime Minister of India (1966-1977; 1980-1984)

Fashion

Diverse Women's Peasant Costume and Decorations

Women's peasant clothing was highly diverse, often featuring a chemise, a pinafore or flapped dress, and specialized headgear like kokoshniks for women or wreaths for girls. Festive outfits were distinguished by rich embroidery, lace, ribbons, and long beaded chest decorations called gaitans.

Men's Peasant Attire and Festive Shirts

Peasant men commonly wore a shirt belted over trousers, often paired with a felt cap and boots or bast shoes. For festive occasions, they might wear shirts made from red calico instead of everyday homespun fabric.

Music

Improvised percussion for dances

During fast pliaska dances, performers often used improvised percussion like wooden spoons, a metal pot, or a scythe to accompany the music.

Khorovod circle dances

Traditional khorovod round dances could involve up to one hundred participants moving in a sunwise circle or in complex lines.

Getting around

Cost and speed of troika travel

Travelers could hire a troika, a carriage with three horses, for approximately 100 rubles to travel from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod, a journey covering over 400 versts that took about 4 days.

Slow river travel against the current

River travel against the current was slow; barges pulled by human haulers (burlaks) from Astrakhan to Nizhny Novgorod covered only about 30 km per day, requiring 70 to 75 days for the trip.

Daily life

Poor conditions in urban worker housing

In urban areas like St. Petersburg, worker housing was frequently described as damp, dark, and filthy, with many residents lacking access to basic running water or toilets. In some studied apartments, entire families lived in spaces similar to kitchens, with some individuals completely deprived of natural daylight.

Rural school life and meals

During the winter school days, children often walked long distances to class and typically ate only bread washed down with water for their midday meal. While attendance was consistent, only about one in three children who enrolled actually completed the three-grade primary school program.

Food

Fasting and feasting cycles

Religious observance meant peasants had over 200 fasting days a year, where they replaced animal fats with vegetable oils like hempseed or sunflower. During festivals, however, they would feast on varied dishes like pancakes, pies with fish, and meat.

Stale bread and sparse peasant meals

Peasant families typically ate cabbage soup and porridge, often without meat, and purposefully consumed stale bread because it was more economical. Milk was usually reserved strictly for the children.

Prices and wages

Prices of basic goods in 1916

In 1916, a pound of black bread cost 2 kopeks, a pound of white bread was 5 kopeks, and a pair of new boots cost 6 rubles.

Worker monthly earnings in 1916

In 1916, a young, low-skilled locksmith earned 45 rubles per month, while a highly skilled locksmith could earn up to 90 rubles.

Work
Around 1900–1914

Average annual wages for industrial workers

The average annual wage for a Russian worker around 1900 was 214 rubles, though earnings varied significantly; for instance, electricians in 1911 earned 485 rubles, while some weavers earned much less.

Around 1900–1913

Extremely long working hours and shifts

Before 1905, factory workdays often lasted 12 to 14 hours, and in extreme cases at the Kolomna Machine Building Plant, shifts reached 19.5 or even 21.5 hours. Some workers, such as at the Semyannikov factory, occasionally worked up to 60 hours consecutively with only breaks for meals.

News and letters

Wartime delays in postal delivery

During the First World War, logistical issues sometimes caused significant delays, such as a letter between nearby towns taking 10 days to travel only 26 versts because it was routed through a regional center.

Unreliable mail delivery in rural villages

In rural areas, mail was often handled by parish clerks who did not always prioritize delivery, and small villages might receive mail only once a week or purely by chance.

During their lifetime

  1. 1917

    The Russian Revolution Begins

    The Russian Revolution led to the abdication of the Tsar and the eventual establishment of a communist state.

  2. 1917

    U.S. Enters World War I in 1917

    In 1917, the United States formally entered World War I, leading to mass mobilization that involved 24 million men registering for the draft.

  3. 1921

    Massive Famine Hits Russia

    A devastating famine killed millions of people, exacerbated by the destruction caused by the Civil War.

  4. 1929

    Stock Market Crashes in 1929

    The U.S. stock market crashed in 1929, leading to the Great Depression and leaving nearly one-third of American banks failed by 1933.

  5. 1932

    Collectivization Causes Great Famine

    Stalin initiated forced collectivization, which led to a catastrophic famine that killed millions of people.

  6. 1933

    FDR Introduces New Deal in 1933

    Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933 and introduced the New Deal, which established programs like Social Security and a federal minimum wage.

Family

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.