Timeline

1889

born in the village of Turyia (Northern Russia) in the family of the Russian father, a church painter, and a Komi peasant mother.

1904, June 2

graduated from the Gam advanced school in rural Komi

1904, Aug.

accepted to Khrenovo Teachers’ Seminary in Kostroma

1905

became a member of Socialist Revolutionist party

1906

first arrested

1907

Missionary of Revolution “Comrade Ivan”

1907

joined Evening Courses for Workers (Chsernyaevskiye Kursi)

1909

student of Psycho Neurological Institute

1910

enrolled in Saint Petersburg University

1911

arrested a second time

1911

a trip to Italy as a nurse to escape arrest for political activities

1913

1913

published Crime and Punishment: Service and Reward

1914

graduated from University with First Class Dilploma

1916

Master in Law oral exam and the degree of “Magistrant in Criminal Law”

1917

the editor in chief of Social Revolutionary newspaper “Delo Naroda” (The Affair of the People) [later the Will of People]

1917

a delegate of the Constitutional Assembly of Russia

1918, Jan. 2

arrest by Bolsheviks and imprisonment in Peter and Paul Fortress

1918

on anti Bolsheviks mission in the Russian North

1918, Fall

arrest and death sentence in Velikiy Ustyug

1918, Dec.13

according to Lenin’s order was transferred to Moscow and released

1921, Fall

prohibitions to teach at the University

1921

together with Ivan Pavlov organized the Society for Objective Study of Human Behavior

1922, April 22

public defense of two volumes “System of Sociology” as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Sociology

1922, May

the book “The Influence of Hunger on Human Behavior, Social Life, and Social Organization” was dispersed by the Communist

1922, Sept. 23

expelled from the Communist Russia

1922, Sept.

the beginning of émigré life in Berlin

1922

personal invitation of the President of Czechoslovakia to move to Prague

1923, Oct.

on “Martha Washington” boat to the United States

1924, Jan., March

guest lecturing at the Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin

1924, Fall

position at the University of Minnesota

1929

an invitation from the Harvard University Department of Economics and the Committee on Sociology and Social Ethics and the following offer to found a new Department of Sociology

1930

started teaching at Harvard

1931

the Department of Sociology was established in Harvard with its first Chairman Pitirim Sorokin

1931

Peter was born

1933

Sergei was born

1932, Feb.

moved to the current family house in Cambridge

1937

presided over the International Congress of Sociology in Paris

1949, Feb.

Harvard Research Center in Creative Altruism was established

1955

retirement at the age of 66 and status of emeritus; focus on writings

1961

President of the First International Congress for Comparative Studies of Civilization at Salzburg

1963, April

elected as a President of American Sociological Association

1968, Feb. 10

Pitirim A. Sorokin died at the age of 79.