The World That Never Was (7 page)

Nov:
Bombing of Liceo Opera in Barcelona

United States:
Feb:
Senate agrees extradition treaty with Russia

June:
New York stock market crashes; Rachkovsky hires Pinkertons to follow Korolenko; Columbia World’s Fair in Chicago; Governor Altgelt of Illinois posthumously pardons three of Haymarket Martyrs

Other:

Date: 1894

France:
Meeting in Paris between Henry and ‘Bourdin brother’; provocateur Dumont also there

12 Feb:
Café Terminus bombing by Emile Henry

March:
Pauwels killed by bomb he was carrying to La Madeleine

April:
Foyot Restaurant bomb

21 May:
Execution of Henry

24 June:
President Carnot assassinated by Caserio

Aug–Oct:
Trial of the Thirty, most anarchists acquitted

Russia:
Manasevich-Manuilov visits Rachkovksy in Paris to inspect his activities

April:
Bonus paid to Rachkovsky for his recent successes

Nov:
Death of Tsar Alexander III

Britain:
15 Feb:
Bourdain killed by bomb he was carrying in Greenwich Park; last Gladstone ministry ends

12 April:
Meunier arrested by Melville

14 and 22 April:
Polti and Farnara arrested; visit to lecture by Emma Goldman; anarchist exiles losing heart

July:
Salisbury fails to force Aliens Act through Parliament

Other European:

Belgium:
Feb:
Following withdrawal of lectureship at Free University, Reclus helps found New University

May:
Liège bombings instigated by mysterious Russian Baron Ungern-Sternberg

Italy:
Bombs in Rome

Spain:
21 May:
six convicted for Liceo bombing plot

United States:

Other:
Massacre of insurrectionary anarchist prisoners on Devil’s Island

Date: 1895

France:
Jan:
Formal humiliation of Captain Dreyfus, found guilty of espionage, witnessed by Herzl

Feb:
Amnesty laws allow return of Rochefort and anarchists; Signac exhibits
In a Time of Anarchy
now titled
In a Time of Harmony
; attacks by de Cyon on Finance Minister Sergei Witte in
Nouvelle Revue
; foundation of Pelloutier’s Confédération générale de Travail

Russia:
Esterhazy, the real spy in Dreyfus case, said to have been working as much for Russia as Germany; waves of strikes, with Plekhanov’s Marxism helping bind the masses; Kropotkin comments to Grave that the anarchists must struggle against Marxists in Russia

Britain:
Feb–May:
Mclntyre’s ‘Revelations’ about Coulon’s role in Walsall plot in
Reynold’s Newspaper

May:
Trial and conviction of Oscar Wilde on evidence produced by Littlechild, ex-Special Branch

Dec:
Death of Stepniak in apparent railway accident

Other European:

Belgium:
Jan:
Trial of Liège conspirators: official cover-up of Okhrana role; Reclus embarks on plans for Great Globe

United States:
Okhrana agent Evalenko returns to London, having destroyed Society of Friends of Russian Freedom; United States overtakes Great Britain in steel production

Other:

Date: 1896

France:
Oct:
Laying of foundation stone of Alexander III Bridge in Paris: Rochefort and Boisdeffre present; anarchist Lazare challenges validity of Dreyfus conviction; Reclus explores issue of anti-Semitism: ‘As for the question of race, it becomes lost in the social question'; Harting given the Légion d’honneur, despite five-year sentence pending as ‘Landesen’

Russia:
Jan:
Coronation of Nicholas II, tragedy of Khodynka Field; Pobedonostsev out of favour; exposed by Gorky as an informer, Golovinsky flees to Paris to work as forger for Rachkovsky

Britain:
July:
London Congress of the Second International: anarchists excluded

Oct:
Death of William Morris; Carpenter takes the news to Fred Charles in prison, who weeps; Carpenter, McMillan, Shaw,
Forecasts of the Coming Century

Dec:
Burtsev arrested by Melville

Other European:

Portugal:
Feb:
Bomb in Lisbon against doctor who had declared an anarchist insane

Spain:
7 June:
Corpus Christi bombing in Barcelona

Austria:
Anti-Masonic congress at Trent

Germany:
Johann Neve dies in prison

United States:

Other:

Date: 1897

France:
April:
Jogand-Pages aka Léo Taxil reveals his long-running Masonic hoax at Paris Geographical Society;
La Revue Blanche
publishes its ‘Inquiry into the Commune', contributions from Reclus, Michel, Grave, Rochefort

Russia:
Ivan Pavlov, ex-student of de Cyon, publishes his research into Conditioned Responses

Britain:
Burtsev publishes incendiary journal
Narodovolets

May:
Thousands attend Trafalgar Square meeting of Montjuich torture victims

16 Dec:
Arrest of Burtsev by Melville, in connivance with Rachkovsky; foundation of League of Libertarian Education

Other European:

Spain:
8 Aug:
Assassination of Spanish Prime Minister Canovas by Angiolillo

Switzerland:
First Zionist Congress in Basle; Okhrana raid on de Cyon’s villa at Territet

Italy:
Malatesta present during riots in Ancona

United States:
Sept:
Ten-week strike by 75,000 miners in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio; twenty shot dead on last day; Benjamin Tucker argues for passive resistance, rather than ballot or violence, in coming revolution

Other:

Date: 1898

France:
Jan:
Zola publishes open letter to President Faure concerning Dreyfus case: ‘J'Accuse’; forgeries used to substantiate Dreyfus charges revealed

Russia:
Aug:
Attack planned by anarchists or nihilists at monument to Alexander II, foiled; Evno Azef returns to Russia; economic slump following overinvestment in now completed railways; Tsiolkovsky begins intensive research into space rockets

Britain:
Feb:
Trial of Burtsev, sentenced to eighteen months’ hard labour

May:
Arrest of Bedborough for obscenity over sale of Havelock Ellis to Special Branch undercover officer

Other European:

Italy:
Malatesta arrested and sentenced to five years on Lampedusa but escapes; cannon fired into bread demonstration in Milan; bourgeoisie watch from their balconies

Switzerland:
10 Sept:
Assassination of Empress Elizabeth of Austria

Italy:
Nov–Dec:
Rome Anti-Anarchist Congress

United States:

Other:

Date: 1899

France:

Russia:

Britain:

Other European:

Italy:
Malatesta escapes from penal colony on Lipari

United States:
Most on communism: ‘Communism is conceivable only in anarchy, and anarchy is possible only through communism'; Thorstein Veblen publishes
The Theory of the Leisure Class

Other:

Date: 1900

France:

Russia:

Britain:

Other European:

Italy:
29 June:
Assassination of King Umberto I by Bresci

United States:
Carnegie sells out to JP Morgan for $480 million, making him the richest man on earth

Other:

Date: 1901

France:
Encausse as ‘Niet’ censures Witte and Rachkovsky’s financial dealings in
Echo de Paris

Russia:
Feb:
Assassination of Minister of Education Bogolepov; formation of police-sponsored trade unions

Britain:

Other European:
6 Sept:
Assassination of President McKinley

United States:

Other:

Date: 1902

France:
Emile Zola dies, asphyxiated in bed in suspicious circumstances; Rachkovsky recalled to Russia after displeasing tsarina

Russia:
Assassination of Interior Minister Sipiagin

Britain:
Kropotkin writes to Guillaume: ‘The time is coming when Marx will be put in his place’; Cloudsden Hill commune closes

Other European:
Azef sent abroad to disrupt émigrés

Belgium:
Rubini, Italian spy in London, attempts to kill Emperor Leopold; anarchist mutinies among cadets in Belgian Army

United States:

Other:

Date: 1903

France:

Russia:
6 April:
Kishinev pogrom; publication of
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
by Black Hundreds newspaper

Britain:
Pageant of Letchworth; Fanny Stepniak involved in creating the garden city

Dec:
Melville retires abruptly from Special Branch

Other European:

Belgium:
July–Aug:
Congress of Russian Social-Democratic Party; split between Menshevik and Bolshevik factions

United States:
Most tells anarchists to look east for inspiration: ‘Let your models be comrades in Russia.’

Other:

Date: 1904

France:
Verne publishes
The Master of the World
; Sebastian Faure founds La Ruche, The Hive, a centre for libertarian education at Rambouillet

Russia:
4 Feb:
Russo-Japanese War begins with Japanese attack on Port Arthur

March:
Anti-Anarchist Conference in St Petersburg

15 July:
Assassination of Plehve

Britain:

Other European:

Switzerland:
Kropotkin suspects agent provocateur among émigrés there

United States:

Other:

Date: 1905

France:
Jan:
Death of Louise Michel; death of Elisée Reclus;
Libre Parole
claims Rothschild funded and controlled the Commune

Russia:
22 Jan:
‘Bloody Sunday’ in St Petersburg

June:
Mutiny on battleship
Potemkin