1904 was a really eventful year witnessing the birth of many would-be celebrities in various parts of the world. One of them was the founding father of China's economic reforms Deng Xiaoping. A devout Communist, Deng joined the Chinese Communist party where he made a head-spinning career. His life was certainly not a bed of roses though and major successes were often interlaced with terrible setbacks. During the Cultural Revolution of the Sixties, Deng fell out of favor and was stripped of all his posts. The setback proved short-lived though given Deng's huge popularity which later helped him initiate his radical economic modernisation reforms. Under Deng's wise leadership, the People's Republic was fast transforming from a introverted totalitarian giant into a prosperous market-oriented superpower whose opinion no one in the whole world can dare to ignore. Deng Xiaoping lived a long and hard-working life and, until his very death on February 19, 1997, he remained China's preeminent and most respected politician.
Also in 1904 the great theoretical physicist and science administrator Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York city. The author of many treatises on the quantum theory of electrons and positrons, the theory of cosmic rays and of nuclear structure, Oppemheimer is widely known as the head of a team of leading scientists in an effort which was crowed by the successful testing of the 1945 atomic bomb explosion at Alamogordo. Acutely aware of the destructive capability of the atomic bomb he had helped to develop, Robert Oppenheimer eventually refused to join in a project to build a hydrogen bomb which led to accusations of disloyalty and his security clearance being withdrawn in 1954. The year 1904 saw the birth of a constellation of cultural celebrities whose artistic impact is still being felt today...
Salvador Dali - the world-acclaimed Spanish Surrealist painter whose early work was very much inspired by the founding father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Religious themes also found reflection in Dali's painstakingly masterful style. Salvador Dali drew much inspiration from his Russian-born wife Galina whose image he perpetualised in many portraits.
Vladimir Horowitz - the Russian-American pianist who was admired for his romantic style and great technical brilliance. Horowitz's playing is often compared to that of the inimitable Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt.
Jean Gabin - the outstanding French film actor who is also very well known in Russia. Gabin created strong characters always true to their duty and justice.
Pablo Neruda - the Nobel Prizewinning Chilean poet who wrote extensively about the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, the Battle of Stalingrad and Latin American history. A poetic genius, Neruda also was a career diplomat representing his country in ambassadorial and consular posts in many countries. Back in Russia, the 36 year-old Emperor Nicholas the Second and his wife Alexandra were celebrating the much hoped-for birth of crown prince Aleksei, their first son after a string of all-daughter additions to the royal family. There was one thing that cast a shadow over the family jubilation, though. Aleksei was a hemophiliac which means that even a minor cut or bruise could kill him because his blood simply refused to clot. It was then and there that a Siberian peasant and mystic Grigory Rasputin made such an ample use of Aleksei's disease. In November 1905 he was introduced to the imperial couple and promised to cure the ailing prince. Rasputin's powers of suggestion had a soothing effect on the prince whose appreciative parents gave the self-styled healer a major sway over the matters of state which eventually led to very tragic consequences for the royal family and the Russian Empire as a whole. Rasputin was widely accused for Russia's military reversals during World War 1 and the revolutionary upheavals that followed. Aleksei's fate was terrible. After his father's abdication, the whole family was placed under house arrest and in 1918, the 14 year-old Aleksei, his parents and four sisters were executed in Yekaterinburg...
The year 1904 also gave start to the Russo-Japanese war which Russia lost. leading to a string of major upheavals we'll talk about next time. We end this brief roundup of the year 1904 on a sad note. July 15 was the last day in the life of the great Russian playwright and short-story writer Anton Chekhov whose world-acclaimed The Seagull and the Cherry Orchard comedies, The Three Sisters drama and other plays are still being extensively staged around the world. Besides his dramaturgical talent Chekhov was really unsurpassed as the author of a host of hilarious short stories. Anton Chekhov was a major influence on Russian and world literature.
Narrator: This was a brief look at the main highlights of the 1904 provided you by the head of our English-language service, Vladimir Zhamkin.
    


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