RUSSIAN JEANNE D’ARC

This edition of the program is devoted to an extraordinary woman – Maria Bochkareva — better known in the West as the Russian Jeanne D’Arc. During World War I she signed up as a volunteer for the Russian army. Maria’s courage and bravery won her four Crosses of Saint George, one of the most prestigious Russian military awards.

Maria was born in 1889 in a village nor far from the city of Novgorod in north-western Russia. Later the family moved to Siberia in search for a better life. Maria got married at the age of 16 but was unhappy with her husband – a drunkard and a brute. Strong-willed, with a bent for self-sacrifice, Maria tolerated his harsh treatment, hoping that he would sober down, but unable to bear it any more, she finally left him. In vain she sought happiness in love: the men she loved only made her suffer. So she started thinking if there was some other field into which she could throw all her energy.

In 1914 Russia entered World War One. The situation on the Russian-German front was getting hard for the Russians. Reports about heavy casualties among Russian soldiers prompted Maria to join the army. As it turned our later, that was just what she had been looking for. When, in November 1915, she appeared before commander of a regiment stationed in the Siberian city of Tomsk and told him she wanted to go to the front, he wouldn’t even listen to her, but simply ordered her out. Unwilling to give up, Maria sent a telegram to Emperor Nicholas II in St.Petersburg. The Emperor cabled back, granting his royal permission to admit Maria as a volunteer into the Tomsk regiment that soon left for the front. A fearless soldier as she proved to be, Maria, hardly over 25, took part in bayonet attacks and reconnaissance squads, carried out the wounded under heavy enemy fire. She was wounded four times, two of them seriously. But some inner vitality put her back on her feet and she returned to the regiment to the rousing cheers of her comrades in arms. For her prowess and dauntless courage she got four Crosses of Saint George and was promoted from private to junior officer.

Maria became a legend in her lifetime. Reporters begged her for an interview. Her laconic, witty and image-bearing answers revealed an extraordinary personality looming though the shell of a free-and-easy fighter-girl.

There came the year 1917 and the news of the February revolution. The Czar abdicated and there was formed the Interim Government. All this caused unrest among the troops. Military failures and calls by Bolsheviks to lay down arms resulted in mass desertions. The new government invited Maria Bochkareva to St.Petersburg to report the situation on the front. She arrived at the General Staff. Wearing soldier’s boots and a uniform with the shoulder-straps of a non-commissioned officer, all four Crosses of Saint George shining on her bosom, with her service cap on, her face rough and weather-beaten, she had a strikingly masculine appearance. She announced her name in a coarse, mannish voice and only her eyes, gray and sad, betrayed her feminine origin.

Unembarrassed by the glamour and opulence of the Tavrichesky Palace and curious looks men in tail-coats darted at her, she declared that the troops were demoralized and suggested setting up women’s formations that would boost the troops’ morale. Her speech was so convincing that after a slight hesitation the government gave her the go-ahead to form a women’s battalion known as the Bochkareva death battalion. There was, indeed, something sinister in its name and in black shoulder-straps with an emblem showing a scull and two crossed bones, which symbolized the women’s readiness to sacrifice their lives for their homeland.

Maria issued an address to the women of St.Petersburg: “Citizens to whom the liberty and happiness of Russia are dear, hurry up to join our ranks before it’s too late. Don’t spare your lives…” Thousands of them — housewives, lyceum students, young ladies from noble families, workers and peasants – signed up for volunteer women’s formations.



One must give credit to the Bochkareva death battalion, it fought heroically and endured all hardships of warfare. They were in the trenches when news arrived about the Bolshevik coup in St.Petersburg. Bochkareva was arrested and her battalion was disbanded. When offered to take the Bolshevik side, she refused, saying that she was too tired of war. Not grounded in politics, though, she realized at the moment that while yesterday Russia had been fighting the enemy, now it was moving towards self-destruction. Unlike most men, she didn’t want to meddle in a fratricidal war.

After she was released, Bochkareva decided to go to her village. It was a terrible journey. She nearly died when Bolsheviks threw her out of a railway carriage. Crippled and penniless, she eventually came home.

In 1918 Maria traveled to the United States at the request of the anti-Bolshevik White Army command to obtain financial and military aid. On July 10th she was received by the then US President Woodrow Wilson. He said it was a great honor to him to meet the lady officer who had covered herself with glory and that in America they called her the Russian Jeanne D’Arc. To his question “who is right and who is to blame in Russia?” Maria answered evasively that she knew little about the matter and wouldn’t like to get into an awkward situation. At the same time she asked for guns, tanks, food supplies and troops, which left no doubt about her political sympathies. Maria’s eloquent description of war-ravaged Russia produced a deep impression on the Americans. President Wilson pledged support.

From America Bochkareva went to Britain on a similar mission. After a brief audience with King George V, she returned to Russia. Even though her sympathies lay with the “white”, Maria stubbornly refused to take part in the war against the Bolsheviks. Her stand irritated the “white” command, and, finally, they decided to get rid of her. Maria went back to Tomsk where she changed military uniform for civilian clothes, got herself a bright kerchief and began attending church. The church atmosphere, the quiet signing of the chorus, the flicker of candle lights, gave her comfort and relief and gradually the heavy burden of the past relaxed its grip on her heart.

Once a boy in the street asked her: “Granny, give me a penny for a honey-cake”. Maria slipped coins into this hand, and, back home, glanced at herself in the mirror. She didn’t like what she saw. Untidy hair with streaks of gray made her look well over 50.

In December 1919, when the Bolsheviks entered Tomsk, Maria Bochkareva was arrested and executed by shooting as a sworn and bitter enemy of the Soviet power. She was 32…

Source:The Voice of Russia

“TO HIT NOT IN THE EYEBROW, BUT IN THE EYE”

By Lyubov Tsarevskaya

“Vivid and precise, the Russian language abounds in proverbs. There are tens of thousands of them. They fly from one century to the next, from one generation to another, as if on wings.

“From the depth of time we are reached and touched by human joys and suffering, laughter and tears, love and wrath, faith and unbelief, truth and lie, honesty and deceit, hard work and sloth…,” wrote Mikhail Sholokhov, a classic of Soviet literature, about folk wisdom expressed in Russian proverbs.

Concisely and vividly the proverbs express the national Russian character. Like this one, “Talent without work isn’t worth one grosh (or penny)”.

Russians are richly endowed with a versatile mind, ingenuity, and creative powers; yet it is owing to their hard work and persistence that they have accomplished so much in culture and science and have contributed so generously to the world civilization.

And those of us who are prone to laziness and sloth are reminded by folk wisdom that “Without effort, you can't even pull a fish out of the pond. (which is close to “No pain, no gain.”)

Russians are known for their love of freedom. Russian history is filled with the fight for freedom and independence. However, the Russian soul values the unrestricted inner freedom so much more than the outer freedom guaranteed by society to law-abiding citizens. When you are free to be who you are, free to feel, free to act, then, as the folk wisdom sums it up so well, “As hard as your lot may be, you are free”, or — Freedom to a bird is dearer than a cage of gold”. That is why when fighting for their freedom, Russians did not spare their lives: “Better death in battle than life in the barracks” goes the proverb.

Love of freedom was also expressed in two most important qualities of the Russian national character — patience and endurance, for an ability to endure hardship, suffering, and privation is a victory in itself. There is a proverb to illustrate this, “Put up with it, Cossak, and you’ll become a chieftain”.

Russian hospitality is legendary. Expressed in it is the people’s magnanimity and generosity. A couple of proverbs on the subject: “Not rich yet hospitable”, “The best treat is for the guest.”

The age-old custom to welcome guests with bread and salt is very much alive today. Bread and salt are at once a greeting, a welcome, and a wish of well-being and prosperity for the guest. Without bread there is no life, and no Russian meal. A proverb goes, “It’s a wretched dinner if bread is not served.” And another — “Bread is at the head of everything.”

Kind-heartedness, charity, an exceptional ability to empathize, understand, respect, and accept other ethnic groups the way they are, enabled the Russian nation to create a multinational state in which various ethnic groups live freely side by side. Russians always strive to maintain genial relations with their neighbours. For them, as the proverb goes, “It is bad to offend a neighbour.”

A Russian person is typically devout, even if unconsciously, because of his Orthodox Christian roots. Orthodoxy has played a significant role in shaping the nation as a whole, and this deep-seated trait of the national character has found its expression in Russian folklore.

Russians say, “Conscience is the voice of God”; and, “He who puts his trust in God will never perish.”

Folk wisdom is expressed not only in proverbs but in parables as well. They express profound spiritual truths in an allegorical way. Here is one of them.

“Once upon a time there lived two pots. Their master was a water-carrier. They hung on the ends of a pole the water-carrier put across his shoulder. One of the pots had a crack in it, the other was flawless. The good pot kept all the water poured into it, whereas the cracked pot could only keep half of the water. The defective pot was ashamed of its imperfection. It realized that it couldn’t perform its duty. So one day it shared its concern with the water-carrier.

“Why don’t you throw me in the garbage? Because of my disability you waste your efforts.”

The water-carrier replied, “Look at the path that leads up from the river to the house. What do you see?”

The pot noticed that beautiful flowers were growing on one side of the pathway, whereas the other side was covered with weeds.

“Have you noticed,” asked the water-carrier, “that flowers only grow along the side of the pathway that has been watered through your crack?”

Source:The Voice of Russia

THE SENATE SQUARE

In the year 1782 a monument to Peter the Great, the founder of St.Petersburg, was erected on the Senate Square west of the Admiralty. Dominating its western side is the building of the Senate, hence its name – the Senate Square.

During Napoleon’s invasion of 1812, Czar Alexander I, fearing the city might fall over to the French, ordered to move Peter’s bronze statue to a northern province. At about the same time, a Major Baturin, meeting with Alexander’s close friend Duke Golitsin, told him he had a strange dream: the Bronze Horseman, or the statue of Peter the Great, comes down from its cliff-like pedestal and heads for the palace, while Emperor Alexander walks out to meet him. “Young man,” says Peter, “just look what you’ve done to Russia. But as long as I stay where I am, my city has nothing to fear!” and he turns his bronze horse and gallops back, the hooves clanking heavily over the cobbles. The Duke reported Baturin’s shocking dream to Alexander, whereupon the Emperor cancelled his order, and the statue was left where it was.

The Senate Square saw the first armed insurgence by revolutionary noblemen against autocracy. Staged on the 14th of December, 1825, it went down in history as the Decembrists’ revolt.



Having defeated Napoleon in 1812, the Russian army liberated both its homeland and Europe from the ambitious dictator. Russian officers returning from the overseas campaign brought home war trophies and progressive ideas. While abroad, they got acquainted with European lifestyle and western philosophy – both had profound influence on the Russian nobility. Lacking understanding of the historical, geographical and ethnic differences between Russia and Europe, the reformist-minded youth was totally dejected by a striking contrast between the Western and Russian way of life. Brewing discontent among a certain part of the younger nobility led to the appearance of secret societies, one of which — the Northern Society founded in St.Petersburg – consisted of moderate reformists who pursued the goal of establishing a constitutional monarchy modeled after the English version.

In November 1825 Emperor Alexander I died unexpectedly in Taganrog. Earlier his brother Konstantin abdicated from the throne, but the abdication wasn’t announced. The army and citizens swore allegiance to abdicated Konstantin. Soon after that, however, they had to take another oath of allegiance – to Nicholas I. Revolutionaries from the Northern Society made use of the power vacuum to plot a revolt. They circulated rumors among the troops that there had been no abdication and that Nicholas simply seized power, while Konstantin was away. The revolt was scheduled on December 14 when the troops were to give allegiance to Nicholas I.

But contrary to all expectations, most of the troops, except just two regiments, did swear loyalty to the new emperor. The insurgent units then marched onto the Senate Square where naval guards and many onlookers joined them. The crowd shouted: “Hurrah, Konstantin”, “Hurrah, constitution!” The regiments, in full battle array, were waiting for further instructions from their leaders. The latter, some of whom backed down at the last moment, failed to seize the initiative. Troops loyal to Nicholas I surrounded the rebels on all sides of the square. When St.Petersburg’s governor, Count Miloradovich appeared before the soldiers, calling on them to return to barracks, two officers fired mortally wounding him.

The incident predetermined the outcome of the revolt. The Emperor first moved cavalry units against the rebels and then crushed them by artillery fire. The same night first arrests were made. About 300 members of secret societies and some 700 soldiers and officers were arrested. Later five of their leaders were sentenced to execution, and the rest were condemned to penal servitude or exiled to Siberia.


In 1925 the Senate Square was renamed Decembrists’ Square in commemoration of the first armed rebellion against supreme power in Russia.

Source:The Voice of Russia

Dr.Evgeny Botkin

(image from www.pravoslavie.ru)

Dr. Evgeny Botkin (1865-1918)

It is hard to imagine a physician who took the Hippocratic Oath more seriously than Dr. Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin, physician to the last Tsar Nicholas II.

His devotion to Nicholas, Aleksandra and their children cost him his marriage and eventually his life. Despite his enormous sacrifice, little has been written about him. Anyone acquainted with the facts of his life and the details of his service to the Imperial family must consider his efforts heroic.

Dr. Botkin was born in St. Petersburg in Russia in 1865. His father, Dr. Sergey Petrovich Botkin (1832-1889), who served as physician to both Aleksander II and Aleksander III, is considered the father of Russian medicine.

Dr. Evgeny Botkin’s brother, Pyotr, who served as Russian Minister Plenipotentiary in Lisbon, described him as a “studious and conscientious” child who had “a horror of any kind of struggle or fight.”

While studying at the Academy of Medicine, he suffered temporary expulsion for his spirited defence of fellow students who had run afoul of the college administration. As one of five elders elected by his class, he sent a petition to Aleksander III defending the students. Although the Tsar was moved by the sentiments expressed, he could not grant a petition from students and the elders were expelled. It was not uncommon for ‘trouble makers’ from good families who could not be openly arrested to simply disappear at the hands of the secret police.

S.P. Botkin knew that even his prominent status as a physician to Aleksander III could not guarantee his son’s safety. He urged Evgeny to maintain a low profile and to avoid going out alone at night. The five young men met for dinner on the day of their expulsion and vowed to meet annually on that date. All five were soon readmitted to the Academy. True to their word, the elders met every year to dine together and have a group portrait taken. If a member was deceased, the others would include a photograph of him in the group portrait. Botkin attended every gathering from 1889 through 1916.

Upon graduation from the Academy of Medicine in 1889, Dr. Botkin was offered the post of physician to Tsarevich George Aleksandrovich, which he declined, preferring to continue his studies in Berlin and Heidelberg.

After returning to Russia, Botkin lived in near poverty. At that time it was difficult for physicians to make a decent living in Russia since they were not permitted to bill patients for services but were expected to care for anyone requiring medical treatment regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. Later he became a lecturer at the Academy of Medicine and was appointed Chief Physician at St. George’s Hospital, a position which provided a modest income for his wife Olga and for their children Dmitry, George, Tatiana and Gleb.


Image from www.old-picture.com

During the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905, Dr. Botkin served as a volunteer at the front aboard the St. George’s Hospital train. He was later awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Anna for his distinguished war time service and appointed Chief Commissioner of the Russian Red Cross.

In 1907, Dr. Hirsch, Tsarina Aleksandra’s personal physician, died. In 1908, Dr. Botkin was appointed to fill the vacancy. Anna Vyrubova, Aleksandra’s friend and confidante, who was sent to convey to Botkin the news of his appointment, reported that “he received the news with astonishment almost amounting to dismay.” Having grown up the son of a court physician, he realized how demanding the job would be. Age had made him more conservative and more religious, traits which allowed him to adapt to life at court. While he must have been flattered by the Tsar’s confidence in him, he felt “a great burden, a responsibility towards not only the family, but the whole country.”

Tsarevich Aleksey was seen by Dr. Vladimir Derevenko, who was hired by Botkin as an assistant. His calm and personable manner made Dr. Botkin the perfect physician for the Tsarina, who had definite ideas about her ailments and did not like to be contradicted. Her symptoms convinced Aleksandra that she had a heart condition, although Botkin believed her symptoms were due to a ‘nervous condition’ brought on by stress and anxiety.

He usually visited her twice a day at 9 a.m. and again at 5 p.m. Botkin often conversed with Aleksandra in her native German and due to his fluency in foreign languages, he sometimes served as an interpreter when she received foreign visitors.

Members of the imperial family and most members of their household liked and respected Dr. Botkin. The Imperial children were especially fond of him and made him an unwitting partner in one of their games: “A tall stout man who wore blue suits with a gold watch chain across his stomach, he exuded a strong perfume imported from Paris. When they were free, the young Grand Duchesses liked to track him from room to room, following his trail by sniffing his scent”.

Lili Dehn, lady-in-waiting to Aleksandra, described him as “a clever, liberal-minded man” whose “political views were opposed to those of the Imperialists” but whose devotion to the Tsar made these differences seem unimportant.

Some courtiers believed that Dr. Botkin told Aleksandra only what she wanted to hear and that he coddled her, thereby enabling her to avoid her official duties. Others distrusted him because he was on friendly terms with Anna Vyrubova, although their relationship rapidly deteriorated when he refused to befriend Rasputin.

Gleb Botkin reported that Rasputin once sought his father’s medical advice on some pretext. After examining Rasputin, Dr. Botkin told him he was perfectly healthy and to avoid calling on him again. From that day on, whenever the two met, “each man turned away his head pretending not to see the other.”

Dr. Botkin’s days were devoted to the care of the imperial family. At night, he kept up with his students from the Academy of Medicine, fulfilled his obligations to the medical societies to which he belonged and pursued his philanthropic interests.

The demands of his position and the devotion with which he performed his duties eventually cost him his marriage. His wife and children accompanied him on the Imperial trip to the Crimea in the fall of 1909, but Olga saw so little of him that she left after three weeks.
In 1910, she had an affair with their children’s German tutor, Friederich Lichinger, whom she later married. Botkin reluctantly agreed to a divorce and retained custody of their children. Olga died in Berlin during the collapse of the Third Reich.

Gleb and his sister Tatiana met the Tsarevich and young grand duchesses for the first time in person at Livadia that fall and were often invited to the palace to play. It was at Livadia that the Imperial children were introduced to Gleb’s stories and drawings about an imaginary planet of toy animals led by a tsar bear. Years later during their Siberian exile, Gleb continued to amuse the Imperial children with these stories.


The outbreak of World War I in August of 1914 found all of the Botkins involved in the war effort. The Tsarina sent Dr. Botkin to Yalta and Livadia to establish hospitals, his elder sons Dmitry and George were at the front, and Tatiana volunteered as a nurse at the Catherine Palace Hospital.

That December, Dmitry, a lieutenant in the Cossack regiment on the eastern front, was killed in action.
Dr. Botkin never faltered in his commitment to relieve physical suffering but after 1914, he lived an increasingly spiritual life and concerned himself with the health of his patients’ souls as well as that of their bodies. It was his spiritual commitment which gave him the strength to endure exile. George, a volunteer with the Fourth Rifles of the Imperial Family, was seriously wounded but survived the war. He was imprisoned and shot by the Nazis during World War II.



When the revolution broke out in St. Petersburg in March of 1917, the Provisional Government placed the Tsarina and her children under house arrest. Botkin stayed with them. Botkin helped Aleksandra through the abdication of Nicholas on March 15, and the Tsar’s return to Tsarskoe Selo on March 22.
He lived under house arrest at the Aleksander Palace with the Imperial family from March until August, accompanying the family and their servants into exile at Tobolsk in north-western Siberia. Gleb and Tatiana were allowed to accompany their father and all three lived together in two rooms of Kornilov House across the street from the former Governor’s Mansion where the Imperial family was confined.

Dr. Botkin unsuccessfully attempted to convince Aleksander Kerensky, President of the Provisional Government, that instead of Siberian exile, Aleksandra and her children should be sent to the Crimea for health reasons. In Tobolsk he argued for better food and more comfortable conditions for the prisoners and complained to the Commandant about the rude treatment the family received from their guards. His request that the family be permitted to spend one hour a day walking in the garden was granted, but permission was refused for Aleksandra and Aleksey to sit on the balcony when they were too ill to walk.
Even gaining permission for the family to open a window during the sweltering summer evenings was a battle. The Imperial servants were permitted to go for walks in town but forbidden to enter the homes of private citizens. Dr. Botkin and Dr. Derevenko were the exceptions since the shortage of doctors meant that their services were needed by local residents.

The fact that he was able to continue his work as a physician and had his children near him made exile easier for him to bear.

Nicholas, Aleksandra and members of their retinue divided up responsibility for the children’s education. Dr. Botkin tutored them in Russian. During this period Gleb continued to create stories and drawings for the Imperial children about his toy animals and added to the plot the story of a revolution and a monarch’s struggle to regain his throne.

On April 26, 1918, Dr. Botkin left Tobolsk with Nicholas, Aleksandra, Grand Duchess Marie and other members of the household. Believing they were bound for England via Moscow, Botkin left a letter for his children assuring them that they would join him in England. Commissar Yakovlev told them that Nicholas would be tried in Moscow and sentenced to deportation along with his family. The others stayed behind with Aleksey who was recovering from a fall and was too ill to travel. When the party arrived in Tyumen on April 29, Botkin was suffering from liver colic brought on by many hours of travel over bad roads.


Image from www.old-picture.com

On May 3, 1918, the Imperial household had been sent to live at Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg. During the seventy-eight days of confinement in Ipatiev House, Dr. Botkin often spent his evenings with Nicholas and Aleksandra. They passed the time together talking, playing cards and listening to Nicholas read aloud. Botkin often spent the night sleeping in Aleksey’s room. On June 23, Dr. Botkin suffered a recurrence of colic severe enough to require a morphine injection and was ill for five days. Aleksandra sat with him for much of that time.

In the early morning hours of July 17, 1918, Botkin was awakened by Commandant Yurovsky and told to inform the prisoners that the White Army was approaching and that they must be moved to the basement for their own protection. Forty minutes later, Dr. Botkin was murdered by a firing squad along with the Imperial family and the remaining members of their household. Botkin was shot twice in the abdomen; one bullet hit his lumbar vertebrae and the other his pelvis. A third bullet hit his legs breaking his kneecaps and legs. He was also shot in the forehead.

The whole Imperial family were killed on the night of July 17, 1918, in the cellar of Ipatiev House".


Image from www.rusbereza.ru

Later, White Army investigators found the following unfinished letter, which Dr. Botkin had begun writing to his brother Alexander:
“I am making a last attempt at writing a real letter – at least from here – although that qualification, I believe, is utterly superfluous. I do not think that I was fated at any time to write to anyone from anywhere. My voluntary confinement here is restricted less by time than by my earthly existence. In essence I am dead – dead for my children – dead for my work … I am dead but not yet buried, or buried alive – whichever, the consequences are nearly identical … The day before yesterday, as I was calmly reading … I saw a reduced vision of my son Yuri's [George’s] face, but dead, in a horizontal position, his eyes closed. Yesterday, at the same reading, I suddenly heard a word that sounded like Papulya. I nearly burst into sobs. Again – this is not a hallucination because the word was pronounced, the voice was similar, and I did not doubt for an instant that my daughter, who was supposed to be in Tobolsk, was talking to me … I will probably never hear that voice so dear or feel that touch so dear with which my little children so spoiled me … If faith without works is dead, then deeds can live without faith [and if some of us have deeds and faith together, that is only by the special grace of God. I became one of these lucky ones through a heavy burden – the loss of my first born, six-month old Serzhi*] … This vindicates my last decision … when I unhesitatingly orphaned my own children in order to carry out my physician's duty to the end, as Abraham did not hesitate at God's demand to sacrifice his only son.”

In 1981, along with Nicholas, Aleksandra, their children and servants, Dr. Botkin was canonized a martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia. On July 17 1998, the eightieth anniversary of his death, Dr. Botkin’s remains were buried with those of the Imperial family and their servants in the Catherine Chapel in the cathedral of the Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. His granddaughter, Marina Botkina Schweitzer, attended the funeral with her son Constantine. Along with the Imperial family and those who were murdered with them, Dr. Botkin was canonized a ‘passion bearer’ (one who met death with Christian humility) by the Russian Orthodox Church on August 19-20, 2000 at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.

Source:RT

GREAT RUSSIAN POET MIKHAIL LERMONTOV

In February 1837 Russia mourned the death of its most beloved poet Alexander Pushkin. In those days, so full of sorrow, the attention of the public was attracted by a verse of a young poet, Mikhail Lermontov. In this poem, dedicated entirely to Pushkin’s death and called “On the Death of the Poet,” the young Lermontov expressed his bitterness and anger over the attitude to Pushkin in high society, where they justified the poet’s murderer. The authorities responded by deporting Lermontov in exile to the Caucasus, where a war with the Chechens was on. Strange as it may seem, that very exile made the poet famous.

Mikhail Lermontov was born in Moscow, in 1814, into a noble family. His ancestors on his father’s side came from an old Scottish dynasty, the Lermonts. Members of the dynasty were scattered throughout the globe and one of the branches settled in Russia and came to be known as Lermontovs.

His mother died when he was three and the boy was raised by his granny, who was so doting on him that took him away from his loving father. Later on his father would write in his will: “You have wits, my boy, so don’t you ever neglect them but beware of wasting them on useless things: this is an innate gift and you’ll report to God on how you used it one day! You have a good heart, my dear. Thank you, my dear, for your gentle love and attention.”

Undoubtedly, the family drama had an impact on the future poet. He grew up an impressionable introvert, nervous but sensitive to other people’s pain. That’s why his younger days’ lyrics are so painfully tragic and full of profound emotion.

At 16, Lermontov read a book about Byron and was greatly impressed. He envied this British fellow, who died in Greece, during the Greeks’ liberation struggle. Byron’s works had a lasting effect on Lermontov and in many literary reviews the two go together as close spirits. When identified with Byron, Lermontov said: “Not Byron – of different kind chosen of fate, yet still unknown, outcast as he and driven from home. Yet Russian I – in heart and mind!”

Lermontov was dreaming of a literary career but became an officer graduating from the Guards Officers and Cavalry Cadets School. Exiled to the Caucasus for his verse on Pushkin’s death, Lermontov found himself at the core of the Russian army’s military operations against the Chechens. For courage in action he was repeatedly nominated for government awards in the form of orders and golden weapons. But Emperor Nicholas I had his own view of Lermontov and crossed his name out of the lists of candidates. The poet was upset, since a higher rank would enable him to retire and take up literary work. Nevertheless, while in exile Lermontov produced the best of his works, such as the romantic poems “Mtsyri” and “The Demon,” the psychological novel “A Hero of Our Time,” stories and verses that brought him fame.

According to contemporaries, Lermontov was not an easy-going person. Clever and sarcastic, he was difficult to make friends with but was, nevertheless, sensitive to love and endlessly devoted to those who had managed to make it into his heart. That very devotion made him demanding. A false note in a relationship caused him to withdraw into himself and struck him off balance to a point where a start-over became unthinkable. In that case he turned sarcastic sparing neither himself nor the people around him. He grew sick of the high-flown and immoral atmosphere he had to live in. His always-present snigger drove a wedge into his relations with a fellow officer, Nikolai Martynov, which resulted in the poet’s tragic death in a duel on July 15th, 1841.

Lermontov was killed at the age of 27, in the prime of his maturing personality. Being at odds with the society around him, he would have overcome it in time to indulge in what he was destined for – literary work. But he was unprepared for that and cracked under the pressure of everyday life.

Pushkin and Lermontov always go together in Russian literature as two poetic geniuses. They may change places, of course, depending on the reader’s preferences…

“On the Death of the Poet,”

The poet is no more! He's fallen
A slave to honour -
Lead in his chest, for vengeance calling,
The proud head bowed at last - he died!...
He would not brook the rankling shame
The petty calumnies, the stain
They sought to put upon his name....
Alone he stood, and now is slain!
Is slain... What use in lamentation,
Or empty choruses of praise,
Belated words of exculpation?
Say rather - Fate cut short his days!
Yet - are you blameless, you who banned
His free, brave talent out of spite,
And smouldering flames to white heat fanned
That should have been extinguished quite?
Come, be content, then - such refinement
Of pain was more than he could bear.
The lamp of genius is no longer shining,
The laurel wreath is fading now and sear.

Yet the assassin knew no hesitation
In cooly taking aim... not one
Beat missed that heart; no saving revelation
Made tremble that fell hand which held the gun....
Hard is it though indeed to credit
How came it that this common emigre,
This fortune hunter, this upstart careerist,
This poor blind tool of destiny,
Should, in his insolence, so spurn our land,
Her language and her customs fair
And spare no thought her chiefest pride to spare
Nor pause to wonder what it was - he dare,
To think 'gainst what he raised his hand!...

So he is slain - our singer - dead and gone
Like that less-known but well-beloved one
Of whom he told in wondrous poetry,
Who, like him by a ruthless hand undone,
A victim fell to senseless jealousy.

Why did he leave his peaceable pursuits and friendships
For this false world of harsh constraint and envy
To free and ardent heart so straight a pen?
Why did he give his hand to futile tattlers?
Why did he credence lend to liers, flatterers,
Who from his youth had been a judge of men?...

They've robbed him of his crown and set a crown of thorns
All wound about with laurel on him now
The hidden spikes have deeply torn
The poet's glorious brow;
And even his last moments were envenomed
By gossips ill-disposed and vulgar whispering
And so he died - filled with vain thirst for vengeance
And plagued by broken hopes fast festering....
The splendid songs will sound no more,
To silence must the great voice yield
In that small room without a door....
And - ah! - those lips are sealed.

________________________

But as for you, you arrogant descendants
Of fathers famed for their base infamies
Who, with a slavish heel, have spurned the remnants
Of nobler but less favoured families!
Who throng the throne, alert for gain - and gory
As executioners who cloak their vile intent
In robes of justice - so to slaughter Glory,
Freedom and Genius, seeming innocent!
But there's God's judgement, which fears not to wait;
A dreadful Judgement that's not bought nor sold.
It knows your inmost thoughts, ye panders reprobate,
It does not even hear the clink of gold.
Before this seat your slanders will not sway
That Judge both just and good...
Nor all your black blood serve to wash away
The poet's righteous blood.



A cossack lullaby *****

Sleep, my darling, sleep, my baby,
Close your eyes and sleep.
Darkness comes; into your cradle
Moonbeams shyly peep.
Many pretty songs I'll sing you
And a lullaby.
Pleasant dreams the night will bring you....
Sleep, dear, rock-a-bye.

Muddy waters churn in anger,
Loud the Terek roars,
And a Chechen with a dagger
Leaps onto the shore.
Steeled your father is in gory
Battle.... You and I,
Little one, we need not worry... .
Sleep, dear, rock-a-bye.

There will come a day when boldly,
Like your dad, my son,
You will mount your horse and shoulder,
Proud, a Cossack gun.
With bright silks your saddle for you
I will sew.... There lie
Roads as yet untrod before you....
Sleep, dear, rock-a-bye.

You'll grow up to be a fearless
Cossack, and a true.
Off you'll ride, and I'll stand tearless,
Looking after you.
But when you are gone from sight, son,
Bitterly I'll cry....

May the dreams you dream be light, son;
Sleep, dear, rock-a-bye.
Thoughts of you when we are parted
All my days will fill.
In the nighttime, anxious-hearted,
Pray for you I will.
I'll be thinking that you're lonely,
That for home you sigh....
Sleep, my son, my one and only,
Sleep, dear, rock-a-bye.

I will see you to the turning,
And you'll ride away.
With my icon you will journey
And before it pray.
Let your thoughts in time of danger
To your mother fly.
Close your eyes and sleep, my angel,
Sleep, dear, rock-a-bye.

*****

Sources:The Voice of Russia,www.friends-partners.org

Famous modern russian composer-Alexey Rybnikov

Born: July 17, 1945

Composer Aleksei Rybnikov has always boasted non-conventional thinking and original approach: he is the author of the first Soviet rock-operas, the first rock-n-roll broadcast on the national radio, and a variety of ingenious novelties in composition and sound recording. In the course of his long and prolific career he has composed music for over a hundred well-known Russian feature films.

Alexei L’vovich Rybnikov was born on July 17, 1945, in Moscow. Unique musical gift of Alexei revealed itself at an early age: when an eight-year old boy he already became the author of several piano plays and music for the film Baghdad Thief. At 11 he composed music for the ballet Kot v Sapogah (Puss in Boots). A great role in moulding the future composer’s outlook belonged to his teacher Aram Ilyich Khachaturyan. When introduced to Khachaturyan by Alexei’s father, a violinist, the boy demonstrated his music to the adult composer, and this in many ways determined the future of Rybnikov.

Aleksei RybnikovFrom 1956 to 1962 Alexei studied at the Central Music School for Gifted Children. In 1962 he entered the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatoire, where he studied at Khachaturyan’s composition class, and graduated it with honours in 1967. After that he took post-graduate course in 1969.

At 18 Rybnikov already had his own family. In order to provide for it he had to combine his conservatoire studies and creative activity with giving private music lessons, working as a concertmaster at a theatre institute and even as an accompanist in a kindergarten. From 1969 to 1975 Alexei Rybnikov taught at the chair of composition in the Moscow Conservatoire.

The composer made his official debut with performing his piano sonata Khorovody (Round Dances) composed at the first course of Conservatoire studies. The composition aroused interest in music circles.

Aleksei Rybnikov After graduation Rybnikov, along with instrumental composition, turned to other genres. He composed romances Molitva (Prayer) and Telephone to the lyrics by L. Ashkenazi. The records of his soundtrack for the film Big Space Travel (1973) were sold in great numbers, over a hundred thousand copies. The release of soundtrack for the children’s film Priklyuchenia Buratino (Adventures of Buratino) (1975) exceeded a million records.

Rybnikov also composed music for stage plays Kovarstvo i Lyubov’ (Treachery and Love), Prozrachny malchik (Transparent Boy), and Skazka o Chetyrekh Blizhetsakh (A Tale of Four Twins).

The Star and Death of Joaquin Murrieta The composer gained recognition and fame mostly due to his works for music theatre. The year 1976 saw the premiere of the rock opera Zvezda i smert' Khoakina Murety (The Star and Death of Joaquin Murrieta) in Lenkom Theatre. It was the first rock opera in the Soviet Union, and a kind of revolution in the theatre. The production went with a bang making both the play and the music very popular.

Juno and Avos Though getting a lot of tempting offers Rybnikov chose the freedom of creation by starting work on his new modern opera Yunona and Avos (Juno and Avos) (based on Voznesensky’s poem) which combined the traditions of Russian Orthodox prayer with English art rock. Its premiere took place in 1981 in Lenkom Theatre. In 1982 the Ministry of Culture of the USSR banned the release of the album Yunona and Avos. Rybnikov applied to court and won the case. Later the rock opera started touring around the world. The play has been performed for over 20 years and still remains a sell-out show.

In 1988 Alexei Rybnikov founded the production and creative association “Sovremennaya Opera” (Modern Opera). In 1992 the theatre came out with the premiere of Rybnikov’s mystery musical Liturgia Oglashennykh (The Liturgy of the Catechumens) that was performed there for 70 times within two seasons.

In the late 1994 – early 1995 the Modern Opera Theatre toured in the USA. The Liturgy of the Catechumens won public acclaim. In 1996 the opera was performed in “The Spectacle and Sound Space of Alexei Rybnikov”, a theatre created according to Rybnikov’s design. In 1999 Alexei Rybnikov’s Theatre was open.

Along with theatre work Rybnikov proceeded in instrumental composition. In 1998 he created the ballet Vechnye Tantsy Lyubvi (Eternal Dances of Love).

Aleksei Rybnikov In 2000 Rybnikov’s new musical drama Maestro Massimo premiered in the State House of Radio Broadcasting and Sound Recording. In 2001 Alexei Rybnikov restored the lost score of the ballet Baldur's Dreams by the Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt after Scandinavian epos. Its premiere took place at the festival in Bergen (Norway) in 2002. The same year saw the premiere of the television film Deti is bezdny (Children from the Abyss) directed by Pavel Chukhrai and produced by Steven Spielberg, with the soundtrack by Alexei Rybnikov. The film is dedicated to the hard lot of Jewish children dwelling on the territory of the Soviet Union during World War II.

Alexei Rybnikov lives and works in Moscow. Apart from music, his major passion, the composer is keen on traveling.

Source:www.russia-ic.com

The soundtracks to the movie "You wouldn't even dream it".(Teenagers love story)



link.

The soundtrack to the movie "Big Space Travel"- "Milky Way" (fantastic)



The music to the movie "The Tale About Star-Child" (final) by Oscar Wilde stories.

THE BEGINNING OF STALINISM

By Tatyana Shvetsova


It is hard to say just what kind of policy the Soviet government would have been conducting, if its founder, Vladimir Lenin hadn’t died on January 21st 1924. Although in the last year of his life Lenin didn’t really play an active political role, nonetheless, in the eyes of the communists he remained the leader of the revolution. Lenin’s funeral became a display of trust shown by the communists’ followers in the transformations in society. Hundreds of thousands of these followers at the time joined the ranks of the communist party. A decision Lenin on death bedwas taken to preserve the body of the leader in a special Mausoleum, built for the purpose on Red Square. In Lenin’s honor Petrograd was renamed Leningrad.

After Lenin’s death his deputy – a seasoned Bolshevik Alexei Rykov was appointed head of the government, i.e. Chairman of the Soviet of People’s Commissars. While as of 1922 the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party was occupied by Joseph Stalin. Historian Pyotr Deinichenko writes:

“Already during Lenin’s lifetime Stalin attempted to oust all other influential party leaders, securing for himself the leading position at the helm. After Lenin’s death, there remained but one serious adversary and rival to contend with – Leon Trotsky. The position of General Secretary of the Party permitted Stalin to infiltrate ‘his own people’ into the uppermost echelons of power, thus strengthening his grasp on overall power in the country.

People pay their last respects to Lenin. January 1924Moreover, since 1920 he headed the apparatus of the influential Workers and Peasants Inspection – a body of state control from 1920 to 1934. Stalin had no clear-cut position regarding the country’s development after Lenin’s death. However, he most convincingly played the role of impartial judge and faithful follower of Lenin’s ideals.

Stalin’s principal rival, Leon Trotsky, championed extreme leftist views, which not always won him the support of party members even in the years of military communism. Nonetheless, Trotsky’s ideas found ready support among the working masses. Disgruntled by the domination of party bureaucracy, they were inspired to organize strikes and set up, as they put it, ‘genuinely workers’ underground groups. Besides, Trotsky demanded a democratization of the party and reducing the role of the party apparatus.

Trotsky acted first, accusing Stalin’s staunch supporters of the time, Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, of betraying the cause of the revolution and displaying ‘right leanings’. However, Trotsky didn’t allow for the entire might of the party propaganda apparatus being turned against him.

Stalin started out by denying Trotsky’s role in the revolution and the Civil war, putting to doubt the theory of world revolution, that Trotsky was an active proponent of, and that up until then nobody had the least doubt about. It was then that Stalin began to speak of the victory of socialism in one separate country. This remark had once been made by Vladimir Lenin, however, the way it was served up by Stalin it acquired patriotic overtones.

Stalin’s remarks hit close to home: the prospects of an endless revolutionary struggle were less than appealing to many. The Red Army servicemen were tired of the many years of war – after all, many had set off for the front in 1914, during the First World War!

Stalin in 1928The ‘revolutionary bureaucrats’, who had pushed themselves forward in the years of Civil war, also wanted to make ample use of the advantages of their situation.



In 1925 Stalin went even further, supporting a number of measures in favor of the peasantry. In the eyes of the true communists this was a concession to the wealthy peasantry, so-called ‘kulaks’. The head of the party organization of Leningrad communists Grigory Zinoviev spoke of the erroneous nature of the theory of building socialism in one separate country. Neither did he like the state policy in favor of the peasantry. However, Stalin came out on top yet again. At the 14th Party Congress he took upon himself the role of arbiter between the ‘rightists’ and the ‘leftists’. Despite the fact that Lenin’s widow and companion-in-arms Nadezhda Krupskaya took the side of the opposition, the Congress threw its weight in with Stalin. Soon after this Grigory Zinoviev was removed from his post, and the Leningrad party organization was now headed by Sergey Kirov, Stalin’s faithful disciple.



The struggle continued. And in 1926 Leon Trotsky, already removed from the post of Army Minister, insisted that the revolution had been betrayed by the bureaucrats and the sole solution lay in a speedy development of heavy industry, improvement of the conditions of life of the workers, democratization of the party and a struggle against the wealthy peasantry. However, it wasn’t easy for Trotsky and his followers to spread these ideas in the masses, since the party apparatus, controlled by Stalin, would not permit this. So the opposition decided to opt for subterfuge and set up clandestine organizations, and spread its ideas in the lower party cells. The Trotskists were under constant observation by the GPU (Secret Police) under the Government of the USSR, which had taken over the functions of the VCHka.

In October 1926 a Plenary meeting of the party Central Committee expelled Leon Trotsky and Grigory Zinoviev from the Politburo. Thus Stalin’s theory of building socialism in one separate country prevailed. The opposition was still trying to put up a resistance. In autumn of 1927 they clandestinely printed a program of party reforms. The key demand of this program was the independence of the Central Committee from the Party Apparatus.

State Security bodies used this as a pretext, and practically all noteworthy followers of Leon Trotsky were expelled from the party. In the Sergey Kirovbeginning of 1928 Trotsky and some 30 other oppositionists were exiled to Alma-Ata, in Kazakhstan.

The 15th party congress, which was held in December 1927, proclaimed an end to ‘Trotskyism’, and, accordingly, a rejection of the notion of ‘a world revolution’.

The country had to learn to survive surrounded by a hostile environment, and this required a strong economy.

In the briefest possible time a revolution had to be effected in industry and agriculture. Few doubted the imperative need for this. Everyone was convinced of the proximity of a war with ‘the world of capital’. Run-of-the-mill workers and communists perceived industrialization as a constituent part of a struggle for the survival of the revolution. An adversary in this struggle was the Russian peasantry, which comprised a major part of the population of the country. The entire lifestyle and hopes and aspirations of the peasants cut across the communists’ plans for a strong industrial power. The conflict between the town and the village, which emerged back in the years of the First World War, now reached its climax.

At the end of 1927 bread shortages became a reality: the peasants had supplied a quarter less grain than the previous year. The country had lost its main export commodity and was now without currency, so needed for realizing industrialization plans. Once again, food supplies to the city were threatened. Stalin made an immediate decision: instead of protracted and gradual collectivization it was necessary to set up gigantic agricultural enterprises, which could compete with the small farmer and backyarder. At the same time workers units were sent to the villages to impound grain surpluses.

This policy of returning to surplus appropriation system sparked the indignation of many party members, something that became evident at the April Plenary meeting of the Central Committee in 1928. To strengthen his position, Stalin made effective use of the court proceedings against 53 people in the Ukrainian town Shakhty. These people, chiefly engineers and technicians, were accused of industrial sabotage at the orders of the former owners of the mines. The party propaganda used the Shakhty case to maximum advantage. The entire affair was presented as a conspiracy of international capital against the revolution. Once again, the issue of the ‘rightist threat’ was raised, and in this connection – the danger that the wealthy ‘kulak’ farmers presented.

Nonetheless, polemics inside the party continued. Now Stalin’s chief opponent was Party Central Committee member Nikolai Bukharin. Nikolai BukharinHe believed that plans of forcing the peasantry to go to extra expense for the sake of industrialization needs could only lead the country to terror and starvation. Stalin, in turn, vaguely expatiated about ‘right leanings’ within the party, without actually revealing any names.

In November 1928 the Plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee unanimously condemned the ‘right deviations’. In the name of the party’s unity Nikolai Bukharin and his associates voted in favor of Stalin’s resolutions on industrialization and development of the socialist sector in agriculture. After this they could no longer openly voice their ideas.

The opposition no longer presented a major threat.

As soon as the party line shifted to the left, rank-and-file communists all turned against Leon Trotsky. Soon he was accused of setting up an “anti-Soviet party” and on January 21st 1929 he was expelled from the country. Nikolai Bukharin paid an even bigger price, since they black-marked him for contacts with the Trotskists and all other mistakes, right back to when he dared oppose Lenin in 1915, so he was removed from all posts.

The Central Control Commission conducted a thorough purge within the party ranks. Over 170 thousand Bolsheviks were expelled – moreover, a third – for political opposition to the party line.”

This is how Stalin achieved his long-cherished plans of rising to the summits of political diktat.

_________________________

Illustrations: “Russia. A Complete Encyclopaedic Guide.” Moscow, OLMA-PRESS, 2002
“USSR”, Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, Moscow, 1990

Source:The Voice of Russia