Tsarist Russia in 1914

0: St. Petersburg: Violence

1. The Winter Palace: Scene of the "Bloody Sunday" massacre, when Tsarist troops fired on peaceful demonstrators outside the Winter Palace, sparking off the 1905 Revolution; 2. The Yusupov Palace: Scene of the murder of the "Mad Monk" Rasputin by Russian Nobles infuriated about his influence in government in 1916.

1: Yalta: Weakness

You find yourself at the Livadia Palace on the Black Sea Coast, where you are taken to see Tsar Nicholas II. He tells you that it is his favourite holiday destination...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

2: Eastern Siberia: Oppression

You find yourself in the bitter cold of Eastern Siberia, used as a place of imprisonment for political dissidents. Even the phrase "free air" has been banned since the 1870s because it sounds too revolutionary! ...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

3: Belozersk: Corruption

You find yourself in a village just outside of Belozersk, a town situated to the north of Moscow, where you are charmingly presented with a selection of fresh berries by some of the local girls. After eating, you are taken to meet some local councillors in the Zemstvo (local authority)...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

4: Ukraine: Agricultural / Industrial Centre

You find yourself in the Western province of Ukraine, home to the famous author Tolstoy. Agriculturally, it is known as the "bread basket" of Russia; industrially, the Donbass...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

5: Georgia: Agricultural Centre

With the 19,000 ft. high Caucasus mountains to the North and the Black Sea to the West, Georgia has a semi-tropical climate which gives it rich agricultural land which supports such produce as tea, oranges and wine. All of the seats in the state assembly are held by the revolutionary Social Democrat party, led in Georgia by Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili – later to be more famous by his revolutionary nickname...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

6: Azerbaijan: Agricultural Reform

You find yourself in Azerbaijan. Many ethnic Russians settled here after Peter Stolypin's agricultural reforms, which inolved accepting government grants to populate uncultivated parts of the Empire...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

7: Moscow: Industrial Centre

One of Russia's great industrial centres and the starting point of the Trans-Siberian Railway - industrial Russia's crowning achievement. Only a few percent of the population live in cities at this time. Life is clearly hard for the workers in the overcrowded slums. The average wage is barely sufficient for a worker to support himself...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

8: Black Sea Coast: Industrial Reform

You find yourself on the Black Sea Coast, at the Noble Brothers' Petroleum factory. This factory is a good example of the foreign investment that has been drawn into Russia by the financial reforms of Sergei Witte, who put Russia onto the gold standard...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

9: Jews

The Pale of Settlement is the only area of the Empire where Jewish people can live. Conditions here are harsh: a growing population means more pressure on the land, with growing poverty being the result. In 1881 a wave of pogroms led to thousands of Jews leaving Russia forever; in 1903, 47 people were killed and scores of women were raped and properties vandalised in Kishinev following a Pogrom organised by the Holy League...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

10: Poles

The Russian Poles attempted a rebellion in 1863, which was brutally crushed by the government. Following an assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II by Polish nationalists in 1866, their language was banned from schools.

11: Uzbeks

You find yourself in Uzbekistan, a great cotton-producing province of the Empire, where you meet the Emir of Bukhara. The revolutionaries here are known as Jaddists, and in 1905 the unexpected defeat of Russia by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War raised hopes among them that Russian rule could be overturned ...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

12: Turks

You are now in Turkmenistan, brutally conquered by the Russians between 1860-1884 and now used as a dumping ground for Polish political prisoners, who form 5% of the entire population ...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

13: Valdivostok: Achievements

Final destination of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was only completed in 1905 after almost 50 years of work and which stretches 9600 miles from Moscow in the West to Vladivostok in the East...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive

14: Port Arthur: Failures

It was here that Russia suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Japanese in 1905, sparking off the series of events that led to the 1905 Russian Revolution

15: Torzhok: Religion in the Empire

You find yourself in the town of Torzhok, looking up the river to the cathedral. The Russian Orthodox religion helps the Tsar to control the people through a mixture of oppression and concession...[Learn more - play the simulation!]

Original colour images taken from the Prokudin-Gorskii Archive