skip to main |
skip to sidebar
On July 17, 1918 the Romanov family of seven and their servants were murdered at this site in Yekaterinburg, Russia which was then the Ipatiev House. In later years, the Politburo and Premier Boris Yeltsin resisted the growing sacredness of the site and the pilgrims who visited the Ipatiev House and ordered it torn down in 1977. In its place, one of the largest churches in Russia, the Church on the Blood was erected. It opened in 2003/Patricia Leslie
This statue honors the memory of the Romanov children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei at Ganina Yama where the bodies of the children, their parents, and servants were thrown into a pit, 9.5 miles from the murder site/Patricia Leslie
Lily fields at the Ganina Yama pit where the Bolsheviks threw the bodies which they burned with acid for two days before moving them to their second graves, a field 4.5 miles away. When this picture was made 100 years after the family assassinations, large photographs of family members hung on the wooden walkway which surrounded the lily field. Above are two of the Romanov daughters. Every year at the Church of the Blood in Yekaterinburg, thousands gather for services on the anniversary of the murders and then walk four hours to the iron pit at Ganina Yama for more ceremony/Patricia Leslie
The lily field at Ganina Yama with Nicholas II pictured at far left/Patricia Leslie
Fearing the Whites would find the bodies, the Bolsheviks moved them 4.5 miles from Ganina Yama to a field across these railroad tracks, the second burial site. This site was discovered in the late 1970s and kept secret until the Russian government changed in 1989/Patricia Leslie
The second burial site of the Romanovs/Patricia Leslie
The entrance to the Chapel of St. Catherine the Martyr inside the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, St. Petersburg, the third and last burial site of the Romanovs/Patricia Leslie
The Chapel of St. Catherine the Martyr, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, St. Petersburg, with the remains of the Romanovs and their servants, now saints of the Russian Orthodox Church/Patricia Leslie
At the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, St. Petersburg/Patricia Leslie
It's as if a publisher ordered a writer to find the most negative research possible and turn it into a book, and that's exactly what Candace Fleming did with her 2014 The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia.
Fleming and her team found all things bad they could possibly locate about the Romanovs and then packed them into her book. Only when the family begins the last leg of their journey to Siberia and certain death, does Fleming show any sympathy and, maybe a little remorse, over the outcome.
She describes the five children as "young savages" whose parents cared little about their children's education (not true). She ridicules an eight-year-old's behavior (show me a perfect eight-year-old), and the grammar of a 13-year-old. Tsk, tsk.
From criticizing the children to sneering at the family's pets, clothing, languages, childcare, schooling and illnesses, Fleming goes overboard to paint the family as n'er do wells, dilettantes with nothing more to do than smoke (Nicholas), frown and lay around (Alexandra), ignore their offspring and fail to keep up with their studies (the children). (I suppose Fleming has never been a parent.)
What was good about the Romanovs? Oh, yes, the women played nursemaid during the War.
Even the speaker's condescending attitude makes its way onto the pages while she reads the book, no doubt given instruction to read in a haughty manner. She succeeds!
Designed to influence young readers, it's no wonder adults are not Fleming's market since anyone with a smidgen of Romanov knowledge would quickly recognize this portrayal as a lopsided, petty picture of a family sacrificed on the altar of politics.
On her website Fleming carries a trailer for the book which makes light of the family and their plight, accompanied by whimsical music.
Hundreds of books have been written about the family and this sad chapter of Russian history which elicit our sympathy and attempt to understand rather than ridicule. Who else does this? It may be the first time Fleming has been compared to Trump.
patricialesli@gmail.com
Vladimir Putin, Feb. 20, 2020/Wikimedia, Kremlin
A tour guide in Moscow laughed when I bought a magnet at a gift shop with Vladimir Putin on one side and Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president from 2008 to 2012, on the other side. With a gradual turning of the magnet, the pictures morphed into likenesses of each man.
"Putin will be premier for life," the tour guide joked. Seven years later, and it looks like she may be right.
Vladimir Putin meeting with permanent members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, July 17, 2020/Kremlin
On July 1, 2020 Russian voters amended their constitution giving Putin the right to run for office in 2024 and extend his reign as Russia's president until 2036 when he'll be 84 years old.
Writes Oksana Antonenko in a report this month titled Winning the Referendum and Losing Legitimacy in Putin’s Russia:
"Once again [referring to the 1991 referendum], over 77 percent of voters (according to official results) voted in favour of the proposed package of 206 amendments. The large number of amendments was deliberately intended to disguise their true intent: to abolish the term limit for President Putin and to allow him to run again in 2024."*
Dr. Antonenko is a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Kennan Institute and based in Cambridge, U.K.
Last week at the Kennan in a Facebook live talk, scholars Eric Lohr from American University and Matthew Rojansky, Kennan director, discussed Mr. Putin's reign, What Two More Presidential Terms Mean for Putin’s Legacy.Without a hint of sarcasm, they referred to Putin throughout the presentation as "czar" .
If Putin makes it to 2036, Dr. Rojansky said, he will have served as Russia's leader longer than Joseph Stalin and Catherine the Great. (Ivan the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, were named, too, in different contexts.)
Dr. Lohr laughed when Dr. Rojansky asked him to project the likelihood of Putin making it to 2036: A lot can happen between now and then, he said. Events have a way of "suddenly turning."
In its 1000 year history, only two Russian leaders have retired from office before they died. (Test: Who were they?**) "Counter-acting forces" Dr. Lohr hinted, will likely end Mr. Putin's reign before 2036.
Dr.
Lohr described Russian youth as "pretty apolitical now," but the
Russian scene can change quickly and this group can "become something
very powerful."
Dr. Lohr noted that in France Napoleon won the title of consulate for life, but things didn't exactly work out that way.
Putin is able to blame local governments for most problems in Russia, said Rojansky, since nothing bad happens because of the president (paraphrasing Putin's nuances), ensuring his tenure, at least, for the time being.
Lohr explained that Russia's oligarchs want to keep Putin in office since they rely on him for their wellbeing and who wants to start all over and train someone new?
“It’s not just Putin’s will that matters here: it’s those with wealth, the so-called oligarchs, around him. They have an enormous amount to lose if he were to go, because then someone new would come in and redistribute wealth and power and etcetera. So I think it’s just as important that they are unwilling to see him go, but divining what his true intentions are is something that is beyond I think the skills of any of us Kremlin watchers.”
There's not a legitimate means to transfer Putin's power.
Most Russians today, Dr. Lohr said, are not thinking too much about politics: They are thinking about their mortgages, their children's schooling, and the economy. (For the past two months, Russia has sold more gold than natural gas, a first.)
Putin is "riding the nationalist tiger," said Lohr, especially after the Crimean invasion. A "turning point" can ignite "a sudden turn" in the environment.
The most important lesson to be learned from 1917, the start of the Russian revolution, Dr. Lohr said: "Never do it again."
Past czars had tradition and religion "on their side" but Putin has neither.
Answering a question from a viewer, Lohr said it was difficult to know if Putin holds more assets and is the richest person in the world. One of the new constitutional amendments passed prohibits elected leaders from holding foreign bank accounts, but it is suspected that a lot of Putin's wealth is tied up in other names, accounts, groups, funds, etc.
Dr. Lohr noted the Russians were "angered" that Russia was not invited to the 75th anniversary of the D-Day commemoration last year.
According to Dr. Lohr, "violence is usually a last resort" that governments use since it is a sign of weakness, not strength. (Writer's note: Portland, Oregon.)
When asked to cite good books to read, Dr. Lohr laughed and said he likes to get away from politics because "it's so depressing," but he is reading great Russian literature again, specifically, The Brothers Karamazov, this time with his son.
*Proposed amendments included acknowledging God, enshrining a minimum wage, banning same sex marriage, strengthening the powers of the State Duma, and banning territorial concessions.
**Yeltsin and Khrushchev
The grave of Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971). See Khrushchev's bust in the center of the tombstone. Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow/Photo by Patricia Leslie
The grave of Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007) at Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow/Photo by Patricia Leslie
patricialesli@gmail.com
If Russian scholar and cultural historian George Feifer (1934-2019) had not died, it's unlikely I would have ever known about his book, Justice in Moscow (1964), which I found listed in Harrison Smith's engaging obituary of Mr. Feifer in the Washington Post last November.
The book is all about the lower court system in Russia in the 1960s, and if the subject sounds dull, believe me, the way Mr. Feifer writes, it's anything but.
Written from an American perspective (Mr. Feifer was born in Paterson, N.J. and educated in the U.S.), Justice was one of several books Mr. Feifer wrote about Russia, including two semi-autobiographical novels.
He first went to Russia in 1959
as a guide for an American automotive show and then later as an
exchange
student. That led to his affinity for and writing about Russian everyday life
and the characters he discovered and befriended (one of whom he married and later divorced).
The book's dialogue can run for pages, but Mr. Feifer's excellent writing never leaves a reader wondering who is speaking. He brings the courtroom to life with his personal descriptions of domestic conflicts, minor crimes, and harsh penalties. (Shouts from the audience were [are?] permissible.)
Disagreements about childcare, living arrangements, alcohol's effects, and financial responsibilities filled the courts. Grandmothers often were handed parental roles while parents continued their flings. Marriage then (and now? Russia's divorce rate in 2016 was 60%, meaning there were more divorces than marriages) seemed like a sometime-thing which few took seriously.
It's a rare day in Russia when there are no weddings/Photo by Patricia Leslie, Tsarskoye Selo, 2018
Courts were open to anyone who wanted to come and see. On the occasions when the courtrooms were crowded and no seats were available, Mr. Feifer's dress (coat and tie) got him in. (Pages 200-201)
Before trial, a two-to-four months' wait in jail for lesser crimes was not unusual. Many charged remained free, but Russia had no patience with those who failed to contribute to society. (88-89)
There was "the Soviet tendency to set an example by punishing the more affluent wrongdoers more severely. In the People's Court it is poor work in the factory, rather than a poor purse, that puts a defendant at a disadvantage." (79)
"Hooliganism" (being lazy without contributing to society) was a crime frequently mentioned. Russian citizens then could not understand the "American way," i.e., that many Americans live at societal expense. Mr. Feifer quotes a cleaning woman: "I just don't see how you can justify people living off capital instead of sweat." (198) (A label commonly applied was known as "the Parasite Law.")
It was assumed that most of the accused were to be found guilty (216-17), and not every accused (save juveniles and mentally ill persons) were represented by lawyers.
Mr. Feifer often observed "palsy-walsy" relationships between prosecutors and judges in courtrooms where the accused had no legal representation!
In some cases, the defendant's attorney was so harsh on the client, the attorney came across as a prosecutor, and in one courtroom, the attorney stated he didn't believe his own client!
Many defendants relied on "the investigator" who supposedly acted as a researcher of the crime. Individuals had little protection in the courts which Mr. Feifer blamed on Peter the Great, Nicholas I, "and even the Moguls," rather than Stalin. (102)
Stalin's tomb at the Kremlin Wall, Red Square, Moscow/Photo by Patricia Leslie, 2018
At Red Square, Moscow/Photo by Patricia Leslie, 2018
Catherine the Great's gift of Peter the Great's statue welcomes visitors to St. Petersburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, 2018
Unlike American legal hierarchy, Russian judges often abandoned the judiciary to become lawyers since the pay was about the same and attorneys' hours were shorter with opportunities to earn more "on the side." (234)
Mr. Feifer found lawyers to be better dressed than judges, friendlier to strangers (like himself), and full of questions about American legal practice.
He observed many scars and amputations among Russian lawyers whose World War II experiences were evident. "When these Russians talked about disarmament, there was a ring of honesty to their appeals." (237-38)
In the early 60s punishment for "economic crimes" was treated in the extreme. Despite earlier codes which defined sentencing for "currency speculation" to several years in prison, upper courts could change punishments to executions which they did. (247-248)
But rather than punishment and in "spirit of dedication to the Fatherland and to Communism," the book cites the primary purpose of Soviet courts was to educate the people about laws, discipline, and the respect of others related to "the rules of socialist living and behavior." (107)
Sixty years later and one wonders how this 1960s version compares to
present-day Russia. With a thriving bureaucracy, it is doubtful much has changed.
A great book which I obtained through Fairfax County's interlibrary loan program.
Another wedding in Russia/Photo by Patricia Leslie, 2018
patricialesli@gmail.com
Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018
Last week at the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Štěpán Černoušek, founder of the Gulag.cz Association, presented A Journey to the Gulag, a film he made of a 2016 trip to a Gulag camp in Siberia.
The camp was one of the labor prisons which originally got their start in 1919 under Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) and surged under the leadership of Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) who used them for cheap labor and as a place to stash recalcitrants or anyone who remotely may have been deemed suspicious of Stalin's goals, whatever they were.
Mr. Hynek Kmoníček, the ambassador of the Czech Republic to the U.S., welcomed guests to the Kennan Institute and introduced Mr. Černoušek/Photo by Patricia Leslie
With a team of photographers and videographers, Mr. Černoušek's group traveled by air, water, and foot to an abandoned camp in a remote region 120 miles from the closest town, one of four labor camps Mr. Černoušek
visited between 2009 and 2016.
On the way, the
boat they rented for lake travel broke down, and they had to wait for a
passing rescue vessel to carry them on their journey, rushing, since
time was limited for them to catch a return flight home before winter advanced.
It
is cold in September in Siberia, especially when traveling at high
speeds across a lake in an open boat.
From left are Mr. Štěpán Černoušek and Steven Barnes at the Kennan Institute/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Reaching the coast, the men tore their way through the thick tagia to the site, fearful of bears but none were shown.
In the remote forest they found a ghost site with few remains save broken railway tracks covered by the tagia, and barbed wire, practically hidden by the overgrowth.
The tagia is beautiful, like jewelry treasures of the woods with its stripes of many colors and varying heights and widths, reminiscent of giraffe statues, in contrast to the harsh conditions the former residents lived at the camp.
The tagia and 'Part of 'Project 503' to build a railroad from Salekhard to Igarka near Turukhansk on the Yenisey River, close to the site Mr. Černoušek and his group found /Photo by Dr. Andreas Hugentobler - Own work, CC BY 2.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=818367
Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018
Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018
Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018
Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018
At the remnants of the camp's hospital, the men found a prisoner's diary written by an engineer, and a dark, sad solitary confinement cell about the size of a parking space with four high walls and single window near the ceiling, much like today's solitary cells in Virginia prisons. (Thank you, ACLU of Virginia for filing a class-action lawsuit.)
An estimated 20 million persons from Russia,
the U.S., Poland, France, the Netherlands, and other European nations
were confined in subhuman conditions to the camps. (Americans ventured
to Russia to work on construction projects, Mr. Černoušek said.)
He finished the film in February.
Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018
Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018
Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018
Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018
After the Kennan screening ended, a line of guests formed to try virtual "augmented reality" and experience more of the camps through special lenses.
Moscow
has a Gulag museum which is not big, Mr. Černoušek said. When President
Vladimir Putin opened it last year, he never mentioned Stalin's
name.
Introducing Mr. Černoušek was Hynek Kmoníček, the ambassador of the Czech Republic to the U.S.
Mr. Černoušek is a Czech citizen and a Russia scholar who, like many enthusiasts, began his study of the Gulag as a hobby, to satisfy his curiosity.
"I never dreamed [his hobby] would end up in Washington, D.C. at the Kennan Center," he said. His goal is to "share my experience" using new technologies and 3-D with as many persons as he can.
"It's necessary to speak more about it [now] because it's an international topic," Mr. Černoušek said.
"Some young people in Russia do not know what the Gulag was."
He intends to document the sites and educate the world about the Gulag (an acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration).
Recently he visited California's World War II American internment camps for the Japanese.
For him, finding and learning about the Gulag has been "a great adventure" which continues, and his team, all of whom enjoy the outdoors, wants to go back.
Appearing with Mr. Černoušek were Steven Barnes, associate professor of history at George Mason University, and Izabella Tabarovsky of Kennan, the moderator.
In 2016 Ms. Tabarovsky discovered that her great-grandfather, Leonty Briskin, was taken in 1941 from his family to the Gulag. Fifteen years later he was "rehabilitated" in the "Khrushchev Thaw," and his case closed, which was the same year, 1956, his family learned he died in prison in 1944. Still, she writes, even today some Russians are ashamed that their family members, although unwilling participants, were part of Gulag camps.
I wanted to ask Mr. Černoušek about the source of his funding.
patricialesli@gmail.com
Posts
