Back in those days Austria-Hungary, Britain, Germany, Italy,
Russia and France were ruling supreme deciding European and world policy
as a whole. The imperial ambitions entertained by these powers fed the
militaristic sentiment that was already running high on the continent.
The man in uniform was very much "in", royals liked dressing
up in military attire and officers were a privileged caste. The rising
militarism sent defense spending soaring and considerably beefed up the
Europeans' military muscle.
The advances made in science and technology ushered in a slew
of new and more lethal weapons. New methods of steel smelting led the way
to the production of harder steel brands for use in long-distance artillery
whose effective range had doubled and now stood at 7 kilometers. The gunners
were now able to shoot at the rate of 10 salvos per minute from faraway
positions. Automatic weapons, primarily machine guns, were also being souped
up changing the entire nature of war-making which was getting increasingly
destructive. This new danger was not lost on the more aware part of the
European public resulting in big strides made by a movement which has since
been known as pacifism.
The fruits of industrialization were increasingly being felt
in the opening decade of this century with such previously unknown things
as automobiles, telephones, telegraph and cinema fast becoming routine.
The most impressive of all were plane flights when the occasional death
of pilots who got killed before the very eyes of thousands of gawkers only
stirred up the public interest in this very dangerous business. Flying
as a passenger was equally unsafe and the Russian Prime Minister Pyotr
Stolypin became the first politician to risk his neck taking a plane ride.
Unfortunately, his pilot died when his aircraft crashed two days later.
Back in those days prominent airmen were household names basking in even
greater popularity than that enjoyed by film actors and leading politicians.
Members of an international congress held in Copenhagen in 1910
decided to celebrate each March 8th as the international women's day.
In Russia, two wonderful women were born in 1910. One was poet
Olga Berggolts, much loved for her lyrical poetic cycle about the heroic
defense of Leningrad during World War Two and the other was the legendary
pilot Valentina Grizodubova who, together with two other women pilots made
a non-stop 10,000 kilometer flight from Moscow to the Far East in 1938.
During the war, Valentina Grizodubova commanded an air force regiment.
Also in 1910 the world bid goodbye to many outstanding personalities,
among them the Nobel prizewinning German microbiologist Robert Koch. He
identified the germ of tuberculosis which proved an effective cure for
the theretofore lethal disease.
The year 1910 also became the last in the life of the outstanding
Russian painter Mikhail Vrubel whose Demon, Lilacs and the Swan Princess
are executed in a manner all his own standing apart from every other known
painting style.
We also remember the memory of the great Russian author Leo Tolstoy
and his equally larger-than-life American colleagues Mark Twain and O’Henry
whose literary talent and sparkling humor has had generations of people
awed and laughing everywhere...
The great French choreographer Marius Petipas also died in 1910.
He had lived a long and fruitful life leaving behind a string of brilliantly
staged classical ballets. Petipas spent many years in Russia and his name
is inseparable from the worldwide glory since gained by the Russian ballet.
Florence Nightingale lived a long 90 years. An English nurse,
generally accepted as the originator and founder of modern nursing, she
set up a team of nurses who assisted the wounded during the Crimean War.
Thanks to the selfless work done by those noble-hearted ladies, the mortality
rate in the British military hospitals dropped from 42 percent down to
just 2 percent. In 1856 she opened the Nightingale training school for
nurses at London's St.Thomas Hospital. A medal was later instituted in
her memory which is regularly awarded to nurses who have saved soldiers'
lives in battle.
THE 20TH CENTURY: YEAR AFTER YEAR series of historical programs
is prepared for you by Vladimir Zhamkin.
