David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn & The Courilof Affair (2008) (3 page)

Separation of Church and State in France—culmination of a series of anticlerical reforms. Withdrawal of socialists from the Bloc Republicain and creation of unified Socialist Party (SFIO). Until 1914 and mostly until 1940, France is governed by a series of centre coalitions, generally dominated by the Radicals, while the Socialists remain in opposition.

Fall of Witte (April). Fundamental Laws promulgated, restricting powers of first Duma which meets in May. Conservative Stolypin, new premier, institutes regime of courts-martial to suppress revolutionary terrorism and peasant disorders; hundreds executed 1906-7. Also introduces land reform enabling peasants to leave local communes and own private property (a quarter of the peasantry do so by 1917). Tsar dissolves Duma (July), after the majority party (the Kadets) passes a motion of no confidence in his government.

Dreyfus finally vindicated by a civilian court in France. Clemenceau becomes prime minister (to 1909). His program of social reform is blocked by parliament; industrial unrest is firmly suppressed.

Triple Entente of Great Britain, France and Russia. Second Duma proves as anti-Tsarist as the first and is again dissolved. Third Duma (1907-11) elected under a restricted franchise, producing a majority of moderate supporters for the government. Campaign against illiteracy in Russia—number of elementary schools doubles between 1908 and 1913. Cubism begins in Paris.

HISTORICAL EVENTS

Diaghilev founds Ballets Russes in Paris (to 1929). Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto.

Assassination of Stolypin. Agadir crisis: Germans resist French attempt to make Morocco a protectorate. Marie Curie wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Fourth Duma elected. Massacre of striking miners at Lena, provoking strikes throughout Russia: industrial unrest continues until the outbreak of war. Fall of French premier Caillaux: Poincare forms a cabinet. Nationalist revival as fears of German expansion grow. Poincare, strongly opposed by antimilitaristic socialists, strengthens the army and reinvigorates diplomatic alliances. Morocco becomes a French protectorate. First Balkan War. Second Balkan War. Poincare becomes French president (to 1920). Stravinsky:
Le Sacre du printemps
premiered in Paris, provoking riot
.
“Coco” Chanel opens her first shop in Paris
. Victory over the Sun
—Russian Futurist opera premiered in St. Petersburg. Goncharova:
The Cyclist.

Assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife at Sarajevo (June 28). Allies drawn into World War 1 as a result of championing Serbian independence when this is threatened by Austria-Hungary. Crushing defeat of Russian Second Army by Germans at Tannnenberg (August 26-28). St. Petersburg renamed Petrograd. Assassination of Jaures, French Socialist leader (July 30). Nicholas I takes personal command of Russian army (August), leaving government to the Tsarina who is increasingly under the influence of the “mad monk,” Rasputin. Malevich:
Black Square.

Rasputin assassinated. German artillery attack on Verdun (February-June). Brusilov Offensive (June-August) ruins Austria-Hungary as a military power, but Russians suffer over a million casualties. First Battle of the Somme (July-November). Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. February Revolution: troops ordered to suppress bread riots and strikes in Petrograd side with the workers. Abdication of Nicholas II (March 2). Provisional government set up under liberal Prince Lvov, though the Petrograd Soviet is a rival center of power. Lenin returns to Petrograd (April 3). Socialist Kerensky becomes prime minister (April). Bolshevik (October) Revolution. Lenin becomes head of state. US enters war (April). Serious mutinies in French army. Clemenceau recalled to premiership (November). Balfour Declaration: Britain pledges support for aJewish national home in Palestine.

Freud:
Introduction to Psychoanalysis.
Duchamps:
Fountain
(The Urinal). Satie/Cocteau/Diaghilev/Picasso:
Parade
(ballet).

HISTORICAL EVENTS

Democratically elected Constituent Assembly meets and is dispersed by armed force. Lenin’s cabinet brings Russian calendar in line with Western Europe and moves seat of government to Moscow (January); makes peace— on humiliating terms—with Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk (March). Assassination of Nicholas II and his family (July). “Red Terror”: Soviet police force (Cheka) carry out brutal reprisals against pre-Revolutionary privileged classes. Civil war in Russia and Ukraine (to 1921). Large-scale exodus of refugees from Russia begins—many head for Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Sofia, Belgrade, Tallin and Riga.

President Wilson’s Fourteen Points for world peace (January). Armistice signed between Allies and Germany (November 11).

Versailles Peace Treaty (US refuses to ratify). Weimar Republic in Germany (to 1933). France regains Alsace and Lorraine. Clemenceau secures 8-hour day for workers in France, but further union reforms are blocked.

Postwar Jewish immigration to France swelled by arrivals from North Africa, Turkey, Greece and Eastern Europe (later from Germany and Austria).

In 1914 there were an estimated i20,oooJews in France; by 1939,
c
. 300,000. Workers from Poland and Algeria, later refugees from Italy, Armenia, Russia and Spain make France the most popular destination for immigrants in Europe.

Cocteau and “Les Six” frequenting the Gaya bar (soon to become “Le Boeuf sur le toit” after Milhaud’s ballet of 1920, and one of Paris’s most fashionable bohemian nightspots). Sylvia Beach opens bookshop Shakespeare & Company in Paris.

Vast program of reconstruction of devastated north-east France (to 1925). General election (November): huge majority to right-wing coalition (Bloc National), who rigorously enforce the terms of the peace treaty, maintain large standing army and seek to make military alliances with all Germany’s neighbors. French mandate in Syria and Lebanon. Socialist Party splits at congress at Tours: foundation of French Communist Party (SFIC). League of Nations founded. Stravinsky:
Pulcinella.

French resist British attempts to lower German war reparations. Start of regular radio bulletins from the Eiffel Tower. Tenth Party Conference: Lenin bans opposition within the Communist Party and introduces New Economic Policy (NEP). Famine in Russia (to 1922).

Paris in the 1920s viewed as the cultural capital of the Western world, attracting artists and intellectuals of many nationalities. Famous expatriates there include Picasso, Man Ray, Miro, Chirico, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Ford, Joyce, Beckett, Durrell, and the “Lost Generation” of American writers, e.g. Hemingway, Pound, Williams, Stein, Dos Passos, Anderson and Fitzgerald. Les Six:
L’Album des Six;
premiere
of Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel
by the Ballets Suedois.

HISTORICAL EVENTS

Stalin becomes Secretary of Communist Party Central Committee. Russia becomes USSR. Mussolini’s march on Rome. British mandate in Palestine. Paris emerging as political and cultural centre of the Russian diaspora; Committee of the Zemstvos formed to set up schools and provide financial assistance for refugees. Forty Russian professors engaged by University of Paris. During the 1920s over a hundred Russian cabarets, restaurants and cafes open.

Hyper-inflation in Germany. Repeated German defaults on reparations lead Poincare (French prime minister once again) to send troops into the Ruhr Valley. Hitler’s Munich
putsch
fails. Matisse:
Odalisque aux bras leves. La Roue—
film directed by Abel Gance. Poulenc:
Les Biches
(ballet).

Dawes Plan ends reparation crisis. Poincare’s Bloc National beaten by a coalition of the left, the Cartel des Gauches. French financial crisis which a series of seven cabinets (to 1926) fails to resolve. France recognizes USSR. Death of Lenin. Russian conservatoire in Paris founded, the composer Rakhmaninov later becoming honorary chairman. League of Nations estimates number of Russian refugees living in France at
Paris qui dort
(first science-fiction film) and
Entr’acte,
directed by Rene Clair. Period of Franco-German reconciliation—
apaisement
—under foreign minister Briand (to 1930). Locarno Pact guarantees existing Franco-German frontier. French troops evacuate the Ruhr. Hitler:
Mein Kampf.
Society of Young Russian Writers and Poets holding regular literary evenings in Paris: lecturers include Zaitsev, Khodasevich, Shestov, Shmelyov, Berberova, Ivanov and Tsvetaeva. Russian artists working in Paris include Chagall, Bilibin and Goncharova. Picasso:
Les trois danseuses.
Bonnard:
La Fenetre, Le Bain.
Paris International Exposition of Decorative Arts & Modern Industries.
La Peinture Surrealiste
—the first ever Surrealist exhibition, at Gallerie Pierre in Paris. Russian Orthodox church and Theological Institute opens in Paris. Josephine Baker makes her Paris debut in
La Revue negre.
Union Nationale forms government led by Poincare, whose conservative policies (slashing government expenditure and raising taxes) stabilize the French economy. France sponsors Germany’s entry into the League of Nations. Briand and Stresemann share Nobel Peace Prize. Trotsky dismissed from Politburo in USSR. Jean Renoir directs
Nana.
Chanel launches the “little black dress.”