The Volga Ruby - Historical Background
The Volga Ruby is first and foremost a story; the leading character and the conspiracy at the centre of the plot are fiction, however, the book's setting and a number of the elements within it are based on Historical Fact. I've written this page to try to introduce you to some of the events that were going on at the time, both in Russia and in Europe as a whole. Don't worry - there are no plot spoilers, just some background information to the time in which the book is set. This is very simplified, however, so if you're interested I'd encourage further reading on the subject.
In 1907 Russia was a country in a state of flux. The Romanov Dynasty had ruled Russia as an absolute monarchy since Mikhail Romanov was offered the throne in 1612. Nicholas II had been crowned Emperor of All The Russias in 1894 and was the son of the Tsar Alexander III; His grandfather was Alexander II who had been the liberator of the Russian people when he passed into law the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861, though he was assassinated twenty years later.
Nicholas had inherited the throne of a nation of simmering discontent, it was the only one of the major powers to have no democracy at all and there was already the roots of a socialist movement to try to establish this. At a celebration in Khodynka of his coronation in 1896 there was a stampede for food and drink that resulted in 1,429 deaths and up to 20,000 people being injured. It was not an auspicious start to his reign. The real trouble, however, started in 1904 when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Port Arthur and war began. The war was unpopular with the people and a failure militarily that resulted in the annihilation of the Russian fleet. By 1905, however, humiliation on the world stage was not Nicholas's only problem. The tinderbox of discontent had been lit and Russia ignited to revolution.
On the 22nd January 1905 a peaceful protest in St. Petersburg made it's way to the Winter Palace hoping to present a petition to the Tsar. The Tsar was not in St. Petersburg at the time and ministers had not conveyed the request to recieve the petition. Under orders of Mirsky, the minister for the interior, the city was garrisoned with extra soldiers to prevent trouble. The large groups of peaceful protesters arrived at the Winter Palace and were met with Cossack soldiers who opened fire to disperse the crowds. This action resulted in many deaths and injuries and the Tsar's image as being the father of the Russian people was irrecoverably damaged; the day was remembered as Bloody Sunday.
The revolution of 1905 failed however in orded to try to quell the revolutionairy fervour Nicholas announced the October Manifesto which made way for the creation of the Duma, the first Russian Parliament. The Duma was to be the lower, democratically elected, house of parliament while the State Council would be the upper, royally appointed, house. In practice, however, Nicholas was unwilling to relinquish power and The First Duma was dismissed after only ten weeks. The Volga Ruby takes place in St. Petersburg around the time of the opening of the Second Duma in 1907.
Europe in 1907 was a continent emerging from a century of massive change and social upheaval. Less than one hundred years had passed since the end of the Napoleonic wars but that period had seen the balance of power change radically. In the east the slow collapse of the Ottoman Empire was creating an unstable vacuum of power in the Balkans that both Russia and Austro-Hungaria wished to fill. In the west France had been weakened by internal strife and was defeated by Prussia in 1871, which in turn paved the way for the unification of Germany and the emergence of a new continental power. Britain, meanwhile, continued to expand her empire outside of Europe and to depend upon her navy to maintain her position as the world's largest power.
The newly united Germany was eager to establish itself as a power and to expand it's influence internationally to rival the empires of Britain and France. It armed itself to do so and, seeing this as a challenge to their own superiority, both the British and the French embarked on increascing their own arms to meet the challenge. In the mean time Austro-Hungaria and Russia tried to extend their influence over the Balkan states.
A series of alliances were formed that altered the political face of Europe. In 1882 the Triple Alliance was signed between Germany, Austro-Hungaria and Italy. In response to this alliance the French and the Russians signed an alliance in 1894, agreeing that if threatened they would support each other. In 1904 the British and the French put old differences aside to form the Ententé Cordiale. In 1907 the British sought an alliance with Russia that would settle colonial differences and mean that the Triple Alliance would be counter-balanced. The idea of the alliances was to avert war, however, when combined with the arms race it in fact made war inevitible. The Volga Ruby is set at the time when the British were seeking to finalise their agreement with the Russians.
