Prince Dolgorukov was appointed Russian ambassador to Tihrán. He was previously first secretary of the Russian legation at Constantinople. He arrived in Tihrán in January 1846.
• See Conspiracies and Forgeries: The Attack upon the Bahá'í Community in Iran by Moojan Momen where it says "Prince Dolgoruki....was Russian Minister in Tehran from 1845 to 1854".

The Báb was removed from Máh-Kú. Prior to this He had communicated His higher claims to His followers.
• Hájí Mírzá Áqásí was alarmed by the developments at Máh-Kú and ordered that the Báb be moved to Chihríq. [Bab131; DB259; GPB1920]
• The Báb's presence in Máh-Kú, so close to the Russian frontier, was also a cause for concern for the Russian government. Prince Dolgorukov, the Russian Minister in Tihrán, asked that He be removed. It is likely that this request was made in 1847 but not carried out until this time. [Bab131; BBR72; TN13]
• The Báb had been in Máh-Kú for nine months. [DB259]

Bahá'u'lláh was released from the Síyáh-Chál.
• This was owing to: the efforts of the Russian Minister Prince Dolgorukov; the public confession of the would-be assassin; the testimony of competent tribunals; the efforts of Bahá'u'lláh's own kinsmen; and the sacrifices of those followers imprisoned with Him. [GPB104–5]
• Mírzá Májíd-í-Ahi, the Secretary to the Russian Legation in Tehrán and brother-in-law of Bahá'u'lláh, Prince Dolgorki, the Russian Ambassador, pressured the government of Násirí'd-Din Sháh to either produce evidence against Bahá'u'lláh or to release Him. In absence of any proof, Bahá'u'lláh, Who was initially condemned to life in prison, was forced by the King to choose a place of exile for Himself and His family. The Czar sent and escort of fifty officers to accompany Him to a place of safety from Tehran to the Iraqi border. [BKG99; Sunburst P129]
• See CH43–4 for the role of the Russian Consul in securing His release. He invoked his full power as an envoy of Russia and called out the Sháh and his court for their barbaric behaviour.
• See BKG101–2, CH44 and DB647–8 for the physical condition of Bahá'u'lláh upon release.
• See BKG101, DB648–9 and GPB105 for the words of Bahá'u'lláh to Mírzá Áqá Khán upon His release.
• The Russian minister invited Bahá'u'lláh to go to Russia but He chose instead to go to Iraq. [DB650]
  • It may be that He refused the offer because He knew that acceptance of such help would almost certainly have been misrepresented by others as having political implications. [BBIC:8]

As a result of the war between Russia and Turkey some 11 million people were freed from the Turkish yoke. Adrianople was occupied by the Russian ally, Bulgaria. The Ottoman enemies were brought to the gates of Istanbul. [BKG262; GPB225]
• See BKG460 for the Siege of Plevna.

Russian Orientalist, Baron Viktor Romanovich Rosen (1849–1908), at a meeting of the Oriental Section of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society in St. Petersburg, read a paper written by a junior colleague and former student, Aleksandr Grigor'evich Tumanski (1861–1920). He was a Russian soldier and orientalist who took a close interest in the Bahá'ís and spent some time in the Bahá'í community in Ashkhabad. He published the text and a translation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas as well as a number of papers.
• In 1893 the author published this document in the original Persian, with Russian translation, together with a eulogy composed by the celebrated Bahá'í poet, Mírzá 'Alí-Ashraf-i Laehíjání, known by his sobriquet, Andalíb ('Nightingale'; d. 1920). Since 'Andalíb was an eyewitness to the events he describes, his eulogy may be treated as a historical source. Tumanski's scholarly publication of the Kitáb-i 'Ahdí in the Proceedings of the Oriental Department of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society. [The 1893 Russian Publication of Baha'u'llah's Last Will and Testament: An Academic Attestation of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Successorship by Christopher Buck and Youli A. Ioannesyan; Baha'i Studies Review 19 (cover date, 2013; publication date, 2017)] iiiii

Mírzá `Azízu'lláh visited Count Leo Tolstoy, and spoke to him at length about the history and teachings of the Faith and of the station of Bahá'u'lláh. [EB185; RB3:172-3]
• For Mírzá `Azízu'lláh's own account of the interview see EB186–9.
• See BW10:569–70 for Tolstoy's response to the Faith.

Russian poet Isabella Grinevskaya wrote the play "Báb" which was performed in St. Petersburg in 1904 and again in 1914 and once again in 1917. It was translated into French and Tatar (and later into German by Friedrich Fiedler) and lauded by Leo Tolstoy and other reviewers at the time. It is reported to have been Tolstoy's first knowledge of the Faith.
• In 1910-11 she spent two weeks in Ramleh as a guest of `Abdu'l-Bahá and after she returned to Russia she had several letters and Tablets from Him.
• Immediately upon her return from Egypt in January of 1911 she began work on the book "A Journey in the Countries of the Sun", an account of her visit with 'Abdu'l-Bahá. This work was not completed until 1914 because in the summer of 1912 she made a trip to Paris to work with the French translator of "Báb", Madame Halperin, and when she returned to Leningrad she began work on the drama entitled Bahá'u'lláh. It was published in Leningrad in 1912 but was never performed. "Journey", a book of some 550 pages did not get published because of the disruption caused by the advent of the war. See BW6p707-712 for the article "Russia's Cultural Contribution to the Bahá'i Faith" by Martha Root.
• For a photo see BW6p709 or here.
• Also see Notes on the Bábí and Bahá'í Religions in Russia and its territories by Graham Hassall.
• Isabella Grinevskaya (the pen name of Beyle (Berta) Friedberg), born in Grodno in 1864, died in Istanbul in 1944. [Revolvy] In His message to Isabella Grinevskaya, 'Abdu'l-Bahá praised her efforts to stage theatrical performances about the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh but cautioned her that people's attention at that moment was focused on "war and revolution." However, He added, "the time for staging it will come" and it will "have a considerable impact" in Europe.

  Ms. Grinevskaya's play about the Báb was first staged in St. Petersburg in January 1904. Mr. Tolstoy read the play and wrote Ms. Grinevskaya to praise her and share his sympathy with the Baha'í teachings, according to an article by Martha Root in the 1934-1936 edition of The Bahá'í World.

The Treaty of Portsmouth formally ended the 1904–05 Russo-Japanese War. It was signed on September 5, 1905,[1] after negotiations from August 6 to August 30, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, United States.[2] U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was instrumental in the negotiations and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Were it not for US diplomacy and the military restraint displayed by the other European nations, the Russo-Japanese war might have become the first world war. [Wikipedia]
• According to some historians, the 1905 Russo-Japanese War was the first truly modern war, involving as it did both the telegraph and the telephone, along with machine guns, barbed wire, illuminating star shells, mine fields, advanced torpedoes, and armored battleships. The war's resolution might also be called the world's first modern "peace," inasmuch as its end came about through perhaps the first use of so-called multi-track diplomacy, involving not only the belligerents but also the United States and, significantly, input from civil society. [One Country]

Opposition to the Faith began in Russia. [BW3:35; BBR473]
• For details see BW3:34–43.

As part of a general anti-religious campaign launched under Stalin, the Soviet authorities abrogated the constitution of the Spiritual Assembly of 'Ishqábád (now Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) and the Assembly was dissolved. [BW3:37-43; BW8p88; SETPE1p154; YS2]
• Bahá'í schools and libraries were closed. [BBRSM173]
• Not long after, the government ordered that all religious buildings in the Soviet Union were the property of the government and the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár locked. As soon as the doors were sealed by the authorities the friends gathered in the surrounds gardens for prayers. They came in far greater numbers that had requested the Temple. Too it was expropriated and later leased back to the Bahá'ís. [BBD122; BBR473; BBRSM161; BW3:37]
• The chairman of the Local Spiritual Assembly, Jináb-i Gulpáygání, as representative for the community, was chosen to go to Moscow to appeal the case where the authorities agreed to remove the seals from the gates making the grounds accessible to the friends. [YS2]
• For the history of the persecution of the Bahá'ís in the Soviet Union see BBR473 and BW3:34–43.
• Note: PP364–5 says it was 1929.
• See The Bahá'í Community of Ashkhabad; Its Social Basis and Importance in Bahá'í History by Moojan Momen.

The passing of George Adam Benke (b. Fredericksfelt, south Russia in 1878) in Sofia, Bulgaria. Shoghi Effendi declared him to be "the first European martyr. [BW5:416–418, LDG1p263]
• He had become a Bahá'í as a result of the visit of Harlan and Grace Ober to Leipzig in 1920 and the further efforts of Miss Alma Knoblock. [BW5p416]
• He translated the works of Bahálláh that had been translated into Russian by Thomansky and Rosenberg.
• In June of 1931 he was called upon to help Marion Jack in Sofia where is knowledge of Russian facilitated his efforts. He stayed for three months.
• Again in 1932 he was asked to go to Sofia where he passed away after a very short period of discomfort.
• Shoghi Effendi called him the first European martyr. [LDG1:263; MC359]
• Photo 1 of his gravesite in Sofia.
• Photo 2 of his headstone.

Bahá'ís in the Soviet Union were persecuted by the authorities. [BBR473, BW8p87-90, 179-81, BW14p479-481, SETPE1p155; YS6]
• Five hundred Bahá'í men were imprisoned in Turkistán. [Bw8p89]
• Many Persian Bahá'ís living in various cities of the Soviet Union were arrested, some are sent to Siberia, others to Pavladar in northern Kazakhstan and yet others to Iran. [BW8p87, 179, 184]
• Six hundred Bahá'í refugees-women, girls, children and a few old men, went to Iran, most to Mashhad. [BW8p89]
• The Bahá'í Temple in Ishqábád (now Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) was confiscated and turned into an art gallery. [BDD122, BW8p89]
• The Bahá'í schools were ordered closed. [BW8p89]
• Spiritual Assemblies and all other administrative institutions in the Caucasus were ordered dissolved. [BW8p89]
• Shoghi Effendi included all these territories in his Ten Year Plan, unveiled in 1953, as follows:
  • The National Spiritual Assembly of Germany and Austria was made responsible for opening Albania, Estonia, Finno—Karelia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia (Moldova), Romania and White Russia (Belarus) and for consolidating Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (S.F.S.R.), and Yugoslavia.
  • The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of lran was made responsible for opening Kirgizia (later named Kyrgyzstan), Mongolia, Tajikistan (Tadzhikistan) and Uzbekistan, and for consolidating Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Turkmenistan.
  • The National Spiritual Assembly of the United States was responsible for opening Kazakhstan, Sakhalin, and the Ukraine. [BW20p196-197]

The Universal House of Justice announceed the demolition of the House of Worship in 'Ishqábád (now Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) by the Soviet authorities owing to earthquake damage. [BBD122; BW14:479–81]
• For a picture of the damaged Temple see BW14:481.

The launching of a subsidiary Two Year Subsidiary Plan for the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries. [Message 8 February 1990; Ridván Message 1992; BW20p195-224].

Goals were:

1. attraction of numerous supporters
2. great increase in the translation, publication and dissemination of Bahá'í literature
3. the extension of the administrative order in the region by the erection of local and national spiritual assemblies [AWH71]

See the message that was sent to the Conference date the 21st of November 1990 by the Universal House of Justice found at Mess86-01p178 which included messages from Shoghi Effendi dated the 11th of January 1923 and the 2nd of January 1930 with predictions about the future of Russia. [CBN Vol 3 No 8 March 1991 p1-3]

The Second World Congress was held in New York City to commemorate the centenary of the passing of Bahá'u'lláh and the completion of the Six Year Plan. It was attended by some 28,000 Bahá'ís from some 180 countries. [BBD240; VV136-141; BW92-93p95-102, 136]
• Nine auxiliary conferences were held in Buenos Aires, Sydney, New Delhi, Nairobi, Panama City, Bucharest, Moscow, Apia and Singapore. [BINS283:3-4]
• For pictures see [BINS283:9-10], [BW92-3p100] and [VV136-141]
• "New York will become a blessed spot from which the call to steadfastness in the Covenant and Testament of God will go forth to every part of the world." - 'Abdu'l-Bahá [AWH77-8 90-1 105-6]
• On the 25th of November a concert was held in Carnegie Hall as a birthday tribute to Dizzy Gillespie called "Celebrating the Bahá'í Vision of World Peace". [VV141]
• On the 26th of November Bahá'ís around the world were linked together by a live satellite broadcast serving the second Bahá'í World Congress, the nine auxiliary conferences and the Bahá'í World Centre and it was received by those with access to satellite dish antennas. [BINS283:1–5, 8; BINS286:10; BINS287:4]
• For the message of the Universal House of Justice read on the satellite link see BW92–3:37–4.
• For accounts of personal experiences by some of the attendees see In the Eyes of His Beloved Servants: The Second Bahá'í World Congress and Holy Year by J. Michael Kafes.
• The film, 'Abdu'l-Bahá: Mission to America, made by Elizabeth Martin, was prepared for the World Congress program and also used in the Theme Pavilion. [HNWE45]

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Russia formally received its re-registration documents under the new law on religious organizations that was passed by the Russian Parliament in the fall of 1997.
• Formal recognition as a "centralized religious organization" entitled the community to full rights to teach and proclaim the Faith, publish and import literature, rent and own property, invite foreign nationals etc. [From "European Bulletin" Issue 60 February 1999]