United States: Publication of Johann Most’s booklet Revolutionary Warfare; police captain Bonfield issues shoot-to-kill orders regarding streetcar strike amid mass unemployment, Chicago; Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor
Other: Jan: General Gordon trapped in Khartoum by Mahdi and killed; Malatesta travels to Argentina; prospects for gold in Patagonia
Date: 1886
France: Release of Louise Michel and Peter Kropotkin from prison, the latter a cause of diplomatic confrontation with Russia; troops stationed at strike-bound Decazeville mines in Aveyron
March: Gallo throws Prussic acid into the Paris Bourse; General Boulanger appointed minister for war in Freycinet’s cabinet
Oct: Clément Duval, member of the Panthers of Batignolles, commits burglary in the name of anarchism; publication of Verne’s Robur the Conqueror and Drumont’s La France Juive
Russia: July: Alexander Kropotkin shoots himself in Siberia, unable to face prospect of release from exile
Britain: 8 Feb: Trafalgar Square riot ('Black Monday'); Kropotkin settles in England, in Oct founds Justice with Charlotte Wilson; tensions in the Socialist League between anarchists and Marxists and suspicion of police infiltration; Morris publishes Pilgrims of Hope; Henry James, The Princess Casamassima; Richard Jefferies, After London
Other European:
Belgium: May: Commemoration of Commune results in a jacquerie
Nov: Okhrana raid from France destroys Swiss printing presses of the People’s Will
United States: McCormick strike in Chicago
4 May: Haymarket bombing; Eleanor Marx speaks ‘brilliant words of fire’ to huge protest meeting in New York
Other:
Date: 1887
France: Paris police estimate more than 150 revolutionary groups in the city; Boulanger posted to Clermont-Ferrand; fall of Grévy’s government owing to scandal of honours-selling by son-in-law; return of General Boulanger to Paris; bankruptcy of Panama Canal company, previously concealed by bribes; Rachkovsky persuades Lev Tikhomirov, de facto leader of People’s Will, to recant
Russia: Failed attempt to assassinate tsar by Alexander Ulyanov (older brother of Lenin) and others; conspirators hanged in May; Kennan revisits the tsarist labour camps in Siberia for Century Magazine; Russian population grown by almost 50 per cent in previous twenty years
Britain: Jan: Hyndman publishes A Commune for England
June: Jubilee Plot against Queen Victoria foiled; questionable role of police provacateurs under Edward Jenkinson; Eleanor Marx withdraws from Socialist League in protest at anarchists
13 Nov: Trafalgar Square riot ('Bloody Sunday')
Other European:
Germany: April: Schnaebele border affair threatens war with France, Bismarck already re-elected; Wilhelm II succeeds to German Imperial Throne;
Belgium: Provocateur Pourbaix lures socialist leader Defuisseaux into conspiracy and destroys career; Léo Taxil, now fiercely anti-masonic, granted audience with Pope Leo XIII
United States: 11 Nov: Execution of Haymarket Martyrs
Other: Malatesta active in anarchist propaganda in Buenos Aires; Auguste Vaillant lured into ‘peon’ labour in Argentina by emigration agents
Date: 1888
France: Jan: Louise Michel shot while lecturing in Le Havre; Boulangism at its height
Russia: De Cyon helps broker transfer of large part of Russian debt from Germany to France
Britain: Bryant and May matchgirls’ strike;
Aug–Oct: Jack the Ripper murders in London’s East End; publication of TheTaking of Dover, imagining a Franco-Russian invasion; Special Branch no longer specifically ‘Irish’
Other European: Number of anarchist demonstrations in Belgium outnumber those of all other socialist groups; anarchist James Ensor paints Christ’s Entry into Brussels
United States: Publication of Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backwards, sells 200,000 copies; arrival of Russian immigrant Alexander Berkman
Other:
Date: 1889
France: April: Panama promoters provide slush fund for anti-Boulangist campaign: Boulanger forced into exile; Paris Exposition and centenary of French Revolution of 1789, Eiffel Tower; two concurrent socialist congresses in Paris plan for May Day 1890 and eight-hour-day demands
Nov: Lecturing in Paris, Tarrida del Marmol demands ‘Anarchism without adjectives’
Russia: April: Yakutsk massacre of internal exiles; Kara Outrage; Volkhovsky escapes from Siberia; after an appeal to the tsar, Tikhomirov received back into Orthodox, conservative fold
Britain: Publication of Charles Booth’s poverty maps of London
19 Aug: London Dock strike; publication of Stepniak’s Career of a Nihilist; Fabian Essays; arrival of Rochefort; in flight from treason charges as a Boulangist, attacked by Communard; return of Malatesta from Argentina
Other European:
Switzerland: Feb: Bomb testing kills one radical, injures another
Belgium: Trial of ‘Grand Complot’ reveals dynamite supplied by police; Publication of La Revue Blanche
Italy: First in a series of bank failures that La Civita Cattolica will blame on Jewish interests
United States: Violent strikes in Colorado and American west
Other:
Date: 1890
France: May Day passes off without predicted confrontations; troops posted to Paris
May: Arrest and trial of mainly Russian conspirators in bomb plot organised by ‘Landesen’
Dec: Assassination of Seliverstoff in Paris
Russia: Rapprochement with England suggested by Salisbury; Lazarev escapes from Siberia; Chekhov visits penal colony on Sakhalin
Britain: The Society of Friends of Russian Freedom founded and Free Russia first published; publication of Morris’ News from Nowhere, Morris withdraws from Commonweal leaving it in anarchist hands
July: Arrival of Louise Michel in London; Dr John Creagh, Auguste Coulon and Fred Charles in Sheffield, Carpenter absences
Oct: Collapse of Barings Bank
Other European: Burtsev in Bulgaria at time of bomb arrests in Paris; fall of Bismarck
United States: Dec: Stepniak begins a visit and lecture tour of several months
Other: Dec: Carpenter sails through Suez to Ceylon
Date: 1891
France: Jan: Rachkovsky and Minister of Interior Durnovo meet in Nice to discuss Okhrana strategy; Zo d’Axa founds L’En Dehors; doctrine of live according to instincts
May: Violent clashes in Clichy and Fourmies; early macabre crimes by Ravachol; theft of explosives
Russia: April: Jews expelled from Moscow; in St Petersburg for Exposition, for which exhibits borrowed from 1889 Paris, Flourens has meeting with tsar, arranged by back channels
July: Visit of French naval squadron to Kronstadt
Aug: Secret letters of Franco-Russian agreement’ de Mohrenheim to St Petersburg to take credit; widespread famine, denied by authorities
Britain: Delivery of Russian Memorandum to Lord Salisbury’s government
May: Inspector Melville of Special Branch informs Italian authorities of Malatesta’s travel plans; Melville offers his services, unofficially, to the Okhrana; recruitment of Coulon as Special Branch informant, who instigates Walsall bomb conspiracy; Oscar Wilde expresses anarchist sympathies in The Soul of Man Under Socialism; anarchist friend of Oscar Wilde, Barlas, fires revolver at Houses of Parliament
Other European:
Switzerland: Rachkovsky uses forged documents to disrupt Russian émigrés
Spain: Malatesta on lecture tour, advised to avoid violence in Cadiz
Belgium: Suicide of General Boulanger in Brussels
Italy: Malatesta expelled
United States: Evalenko aka Sergeyev sent to infiltrate Society of Friends of Russian Freedom
Other: Most again imprisoned on Blackwell’s Island
Date: 1892
France: Feb and March: Bombings by Ravachol and others, Ravachol arrested at Café Véry
&nb
sp; 25 April: Café Véry bombing by Meunier; Malatesta and Emile Henry dispute in print the validity of terror tactics; L’En Dehors speaks out against police conspiracy to talk up bomb risks
Sept: Scandal of Panama Canal bribes in Drumont’s Libre Parole
Nov: Henry targets Carmaux Mining Company with bomb that explodes in police station; flees to London
Russia: Sergei Witte becomes influential finance minister; as a young lawyer in Samara, among exiles, Lenin assimilates People’s Will ideas
Britain: 7 Jan: Arrest of Walsall conspirators; influx of French and Italian anarchists swells the émigré colonies; Sûreté officials follow; Russian immigration to East End at high levels
6 May: Trial of Nicoll and Mowbray on incitement charges, latter acquitted
July: Inspector Houllier to London
Other European:
Spain: Jan: Insurrection in Jerez; four ringleaders executed
Belgium: Rochefort visiting Ostende and duelling nearby; three days of bomb attacks in Liège
Switzerland: Documents forged by Okhrana circulating, including one accusing Stepniak of selling out to England
Germany: Cholera epidemic in Hamburg
United States: March: Documents forged by Okhrana circulating, including one accusing Stepniak of selling out to England
June: Henry Clay Frick becomes chairman of Carnegie Steel Company; strike begins at Homestead steelworks, Pinkertons deployed
13 July: Berkman wounds Frick in assassination attempt; Most horsewhipped by Goldman
Other:
Date: 1893
France: July: Riot follows Bal des Quat'z'Arts in Paris; election of government with ‘socialist’ representation; expropriations carried out by anarchists operating out of London, many arrested
12 Oct: Russian fleet visits Toulon and sailors later received in Paris
12 Nov: Leauthier stabs Serb ambassador
9 Dec: Vaillant throws bomb into Chamber of Deputies;
12 Dec: Enactment of the ‘Lois Scélérates’ the Wicked Laws
Russia: Jan: Russian commission of inquiry into Panama visits Paris and London; recruitment of Evno Azef into the Okhrana; secret military agreement signed with France
Britain: Five Russian nihilists deported to Dover by the French authorities
April: William Melville appointed head of Special Branch
Sept: Strikes and riot at Featherstone; publication of Griffith’s Angel of the Revolution
Dec: Publication of attacks on anarchists by ‘Z’ and ‘Ivanoff’
Other European:
Spain: 10 Feb: garrotting of supposed Jerez ringleaders
Italy: Peasant revolts in Sicily, anarchists active in Carrara marble quarries
Sept: Attempted bomb assassination of Captain-General of Catalonia by Paulino Pallas
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: Sep
t: 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
The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents Page 4