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Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg

1850–1906

Born
9 May 1850, Saint Petersburg
Country of birth
Russian Empire, today Russia
Died
18 Mar 1906, Nice
facts
7
sources
1
images and files
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Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Saint Petersburg

    Birth, Saint Petersburg

  2. Child born: Countess Alexandra von Zarnekau

    Birth, Kutaisi

  3. Died · Nice

    Death, Nice

What was it like?

The world around Saint Petersburg, 1850: 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.

Duke was born the same year as Sofia Kovalevskaya, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Mihai Eminescu.

Born the same year

  • Sofia Kovalevskaya

    19th-century Russian mathematician

  • Robert Louis Stevenson

    Scottish novelist and poet (1850–1894)

  • Mihai Eminescu

    Romanian poet, novelist and journalist (1850-1889)

  • John Collier

    British Pre-Raphaelite painter and author (1850-1934)

  • Guy de Maupassant

    French writer (1850-1893)

  • Karl Ferdinand Braun

    German physicist (1850–1918)

Fashion

Peasant Footwear and Versatile Fur Coats

Peasants frequently wore bast shoes made from tree bark, but wealthier individuals wore leather boots for important occasions. In winter, both rich and poor favored sheepskin coats, which were often worn year-round and served multiple roles, including as bedding.

Uniform Men's Shirts and Diverse Women's Finery

Men's clothing remained relatively uniform, featuring a signature shirt with a side-fastening collar worn untucked and belted. In contrast, women's festive attire was highly diverse, often intricately decorated with embroidery, lace, ribbons, and precious metal threads.

Music

Improvised percussion for fast dances

During fast dances called pliaska, performers sometimes used improvised percussion instruments like wooden spoons, a metal pot, or even a scythe.

Khorovod communal round dance

The khorovod was a popular communal round dance where up to a hundred people moved in a circle, often in a sunwise direction.

Getting around

Railways revolutionized long-distance travel speed

The railway between St. Petersburg and Moscow, opened in 1851, reduced travel time between the two cities from four days by carriage to 22 hours by train.

Around 1825–1849

Four-day coach journeys between capitals

Traveling between St. Petersburg and Moscow by stagecoach took four days of constant travel before the railway was completed.

Daily life

Peasant Log Cabins and Shared Living Spaces

Peasants lived in timber log cabins, often consisting of a single living room with a large brick stove used for heating, sleeping, and cooking. Due to extreme cold, families shared these small, smoke-filled rooms with their livestock during the winter months.

Weekly Steam Baths and Water Access

The home had no plumbing or running water; families relied on pails of water and prioritized a weekly steam bath, often held in the stove itself or a dedicated bath-house. If a steam bath was unavailable, peasants would crawl into the heated oven to bathe.

Food

Everyday drinks and tea culture

Common drinks included kvass made from rye bread or beets, and hot beverages like sbiten, which was sweetened with honey and mixed with spices. Tea drinking also began to spread during this period, though owning a samovar was often a sign of a wealthy household.

Flavoring food during Lenten fasts

To add flavor to Lenten dishes, peasants used hemp or linseed oil, and hemp seeds were used to make a milk-like substance for flavoring soup. Mushrooms were also an essential part of the diet during fasts, with families consuming them in various forms including salted, dried, and fried.

Prices and wages
Around 1840–1849

Annual earnings of laborers

In the 1840s, migrant laborers in St. Petersburg earned around 500 paper rubles per year, while estate coachmen earned 350 paper rubles.

Daily cost of a worker's diet

In the mid-19th century, a worker's daily food expenses for bread, meat, and grain were estimated at approximately 26.5 kopecks, totaling nearly 97 rubles per year.

Work

Common jobs in the Russian Empire

Most people were peasants who farmed crops like rye, oats, and millet, while also engaging in crafts such as weaving, pottery, and logging to supplement their income. Temporary migration to cities for jobs as construction workers, cabmen, or factory workers was also very common.

Daily life and long working hours

Workdays were dictated by seasons and the head of the family, often starting as early as 2:00 a.m. during peak times like threshing. Labor was physically intense and typically lasted from dawn until dusk, often involving 12 to 14 hours of work.

News and letters

International mail speed

International mail to and from Russia often took three weeks to a full month to arrive during the 1840s and 1850s.

Around 1844–1844

Standardized postal rates introduced in 1844

In 1844, a flat rate of 10 kopecks per lot was introduced for letters, regardless of the distance traveled.

During their lifetime

  1. 1860

    Petroleum lamps replaced candles for lighting

    Starting in 1860, petroleum lamps replaced candles and tallow lights in German households, significantly improving home lighting.

  2. 1861

    Emancipation of the Serfs

    The 1861 Emancipation Manifesto freed nearly 50 million serfs, granting them personal freedom but requiring them to redeem their land through long-term government loans.

  3. 1873

    Gründerkrise economic crash began

    In 1873, Germany experienced the Gründerkrise, a severe economic crisis that caused significant financial instability following a period of post-unification industrial boom.

  4. 1874

    Universal Military Service Law

    The 1874 Universal Military Service law reduced mandatory military service from twenty-five years to six years for all social classes.

  5. 1884

    Standardized time zones adopted globally

    In 1884, global standardized time zones were introduced, largely driven by the need to synchronize railway schedules and public life in the industrialized German Empire.

  6. 1891

    Famine and Cholera Epidemic

    A severe famine and cholera epidemic struck Russia in 1891-1892, causing widespread suffering and loss of life across the empire.

Family

Parents

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.