This movie is set in the late 1930s, during the early days of the Soviet Union.
It looks at how communism impacted real-life families, like
that of Jakob Seel in Ukraine.
Here are the historical events that lead up to Jakob's story...
1763 - Catherine the Great of Russia invites Germans to settle in the Russian
Empire.
Jakob's ancestors
would come as part of the mass migration in the years that followed (most likely
c.1804 when her grandson Alexander I invited settlers to Ukraine; they
eventually settled near the Dnieper River, south of the city
of Dnepropetrovsk.)
1871 - October 29 - Jakob Seel is born (in Ukraine)
1894 - Nicholas II becomes tsar of Russia.
c.1900 - Jakob and wife Louisa are married.
1903 - Trans-Siberian Railroad completed.
- Social Democratic Party splits into Bolsheviks (Reds) and Mensheviks (Whites).
- October - Daughter Rahel is born.
1905 - "Bloody Sunday" in St. Petersburg brings political turmoil to Russia.
- Tsar issues October Manifesto, which promised constitutional change.
- the Duma (elected parliament) is established.
1914 - August 1 - Beginning of World War I - Germany declares war on Russia.
- Jakob becomes secretary to a Russian officer
somewhere around this time.
1915 - Tsar takes charge of army as commander-in-chief.
- Tsarina Alexandra is in charge of governing the homefront.
1917 - First Revolution forces the Tsar to abdicate.
- The Provisional Government is set up under Kerensky
- November - The Bolsheviks (the Reds) take over Petrograd
- Lenin establishes the Cheka (the secret police, later called the KGB).
1918 - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed with Germans to get Russia out of WWI.
- July - Tsar Nicholas and his family are executed.
- Civil War begins between the Reds (Bolsheviks) and the
Whites (coalition of royalists and those who supported the parliamentary government from 1917).
- Ukraine declares its independence from Russia.
1921 - The Civil War ends. The Reds are victorious under Lenin.
- New Economic Policy (NEP) is the re-introduction by Lenin of
limited and private trading that followed the Civil War.
- Famine spreads across Russia.
- Lenin’s health deteriorates.
- Communist Army takes control over Ukraine to become part of
Soviet Union
1923 - February - Rahel is married. - December - Grandson Emil is born.
1924 - January 21 - Lenin dies at age 53.
c.1927 - Jakob is forced out of his teaching position.
1927 - May - Granddaughter Marta is born. - Stalin rises to power as new leader of Soviet Union.
1928 - Stalin introduces the 5-Year Plan.
c.1929 - Jakob and family are prevented from leaving to emigrate to Canada.
1929 - Stalin enforces collective farming. Ukrainians are not happy with
this.
1932 - Holodomor (Forced Famine)
- Fall - Stalin orders grain withheld from Ukrainians to break their independent spirit
- Jakob and family live through this time of starvation.
1934 - Secret Police now called NKVD.
1937-1938 - "The Great Terror" - The NKVD (the Secret Police)
make many arrests of supposed "Enemies of
the People".
- Jakob finds himself in prison due to this climate
of fear (in 1938).
- The official Soviet records note that 1,575,259 people were
arrested during
these two years.
1939 - Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Germany and Russia.
- World War 2 begins.
Sign up for email alerts about the feature
film 'Under Jakob's Ladder'...
Sign Up | Privacy Policy
