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Sergey Rashevsky

1866–1904

Born
17 Jul 1866, Russian Empire
Country of birth
Russian Empire, today Russia
Died
15 Dec 1904, Port Lüshun
facts
5
sources
1
images and files
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Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth17 Jul 1866, Russian EmpireProbable1 source
  • Death15 Dec 1904, Port LüshunProbable1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Russian Empire

    Birth, Russian Empire

  2. Child born: Zinaida Rashevskaya

    Birth, Daugavpils

  3. Died · Port Lüshun

    Death, Port Lüshun

What was it like?

The world around Russian Empire, 1866: 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.

Sergey was born around the same time as Maxim Gorky, Nicholas II of Russia, and Richard Strauss.

Born around the same time

  • Maxim Gorky

    1868 · Russian and Soviet writer (1868–1936)

  • Nicholas II of Russia

    1868 · 14th and last Emperor of Russia (1894–1917)

  • Richard Strauss

    1864 · German composer and orchestra director (1864–1949)

  • Marie Dressler

    1868 · Canadian-American actress (1868-1934)

  • Camille Claudel

    1864 · French sculptor (1864–1943)

  • Pompeu Fabra

    1868 · Catalan linguist (1868–1948)

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 1875–1899

Cost of Post-Horse Travel

Travelers using post-horses paid 8 to 10 kopecks per horse per verst, making a 450-verst trip from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod cost over 100 rubles. A journey using one's own horses for a similar distance was significantly cheaper, costing only 20 to 25 rubles.

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

Worker maintenance costs

Around this time, maintaining a worker in the capital provinces required about 100 rubles annually, with basic daily food costs for bread, meat, and a side dish totaling 26.5 kopecks.

Around 1860–1860

Annual worker earnings in 1860

In 1860, a skilled worker in the Russian Empire typically earned between 150 and 300 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
Around 1858–1858

Introduction of postage stamps

Russia officially began using postage stamps for internal mail on January 1, 1858, changing how private letters were sent.

Around 1850–1859

International mail speed

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

During their lifetime

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 1891

    Trans-Siberian Railway Construction Begins

    The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in 1891, eventually connecting distant parts of the empire and opening new economic opportunities.

  4. 1903

    Trans-Siberian Railway Completed

    The Trans-Siberian Railway was completed, boosting industrial development and enabling travel across the vast Russian Empire.

Family

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.