Two of my favourite Indie Books.
A handful of Earth - by kind and thoughtful Larisa Walk, who has written a lovely book about her birth-country. She obviously has great love for Russia and it's history and fairy tales. It's about the Mongol invasion of Russia. As elsewhere when they invaded, they took the loveliest women and made them their own. Here is one of those women, a women with great courage - and added to that the touch of a fairy tale too. As a child I had a book of Russian fairy tales, I remember the cover but not the content; I must find another.
“You have always tried to be like a son I never had to me, my girl.” - A Handful of Earth http://tinyurl.com/8yghfs9
The second book is a wonderful biography by
Teodor Flonta @TeodorFlonta ·
#Unique insight into one of the most disturbing periods of modern #European #history - #ALuminousFuture @TeodorFlonta http://dld.bz/cTRmG
My childhood best friend was Polish so I had to read this book, for it told the story of the Russian domination of Romania during the terrible Cold War. I'd heard the same stories; the black van in the woods, the taking of their land and produce, the terror - but I also heard (and now read) of spirits unbowed-uplifted, simple people with a longing for more than their present subjugation gave them, a longing for freedom. To hear them again as an adult was powerful to say the least. A beautiful book, that shows how a loving family can help a child get though all the horrors of living in a land under another country's oppression.
1612 Russian film 2007
· The czar of Russia has died and a power vacuum has developed. This period in the late 16th and early 17th century has been called "The Time of Troubles." There are many impostors who claim to the right to rule, but there's only one heir, the Czarina Kseniya Godunova. She has married a Polish military leader who wants to claim the Russian throne in her name so he can rule all of Russia. As the Poles move in on Moscow in an attempt to install the czarina on the throne, Andrei, a serf with a life-long infatuation of the czarina attempts to save her from her brutal Polish husband. A complicated story wrapped around mysticism and legend climaxes in a bloody battle between the Poles and the Russians for control of the empire.
- Written by Mark Pontoni
Russia has always fascinated; starting as a young girl with a love of Ballet that led me to the likes of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. Shakespeare, to the best Hamlet I have ever seen; a 1964 black and white version, I'd really like a digital copy of, and finally, at Art School, Diaghilev and that wonderful time of design. Following on from the music above I found Shostakovich a life-changing find especially Babi Yar. I realised he had fooled his governments edits to express communism in a positive way - for his wondrous music made form for a gloomy, tortured people and I started to wonder about the dark Russian "soul", and why everyone seemed obsessed by that soul.
Beauty call over, let's not forget more terrible times. Of course we did the Russian Revolution in history and we all could understand the reasons for communism making such headway, and we had the cold war too, and all that madness pervading everything, helping form art and the culture of Europe and the rest of the world in a dark, magnificent way; it made for modernity and yet so many were/are oblivious as to the influences of communism (and fascism) on our free art.
As well as the great Russian novels, I read Lenin and I also saw how the beauty of his words would surely influence dreamers as well as hungry believers. I'm not a believer type-so I could also see the terror of the reality. Thinking, not just believing, is the greatest gift your genes and education can give you.
Of course I then delved further, into history. From what I can glean, (one incident lately on twitter made this observation very true) most of their history is now ignored, even buried in Russia. WE remember how awful we were (are), when we fought and lost, as well as won, even so, little of our true character is still seen in that history of what are still called the "common people", the ruling class still pretends. St Pauls is full of tombs of generals as if denying the true reason for its making, supposedly the worship of god, but seemingly a glorious monument to war, where the generals usually lived out their lives in great houses and the ordinary people were lucky to just come home.
However, we are free to study and find our past no matter what it says about us. Whereas the common people in Russia, losing their cruel and terrible leaders; the ordinary people, so cruelly treated for many centuries , had now captured the heart and soul of their county, and made it theirs; changing what they wanted to forget. In the process they made true terror, not just for themselves, but for their neighbours, and it will be centuries before this can ever be forgotten. Nazi horror is fading... even if it shouldn't, but Russia.....no...here I add with hope...not yet.
I slowly realised why the Russian soul differed. They suffered greatly under waves of conquers and never forgave nor forgot, the only way forward is to heal that soul and to stretch out and grasp the willing hands who would prefer them to join them in true peace rather, than return to a dreadful past, that can only bring more pain. It is a huge country made up of many ethnic tribes that seem to have been stomped into one people instead of celebrating their differences. I hope that those people have not forgotten their own histories and if they have perhaps one day those who have held Russia's great history intact can give it back to them; just as in our smaller individual ways we who have sought our ancestors, good and bad, are better for it.
The 2007 film called simply 1612 brought that to life, I think it was supposed to be the usual serve of propaganda, but that somehow failed (perhaps it meant to - like Shostakovich ) and did something far greater, added to our understanding of the internal chaos that had failed Russia over and over and the awful, savage treatment of the lower classes. It was blaming Poland and Lithuania for their problems and true they were some of their many aggressors, a powerful country trying to take over a weaker one. Same reason for war in every place and in every age. I am aware of why the Russians gloried in their old enemies subjugation not that long ago, but that was then and this is now - our old enemies are now our friends - wounds are nearly healed, this is the secret for a good life for everyone in Russia too, is not vengeance but friendship. I agree so much with the idea below by:
Lee Bok Seong @LeeBokSeong2
@AngelaMortimer2 . Retaliation Brings Endless trouble Sleepless nights And beating of our breasts Better Purify our minds
The end of the film was fascinating - a myth perhaps - a great general, a serf was about to become the next Tsar and might have made a great one, however, he was outed as a peasant, ironically by the enemy and the Romanovs gained the throne and continued the class terror to the terrible end we all know so well.
Taken a step further to the present; to the crushing of the middle and poor classes continues again, all over the world; this time not by a tsar, emperor , or king but a new bureaucracy - this time not of the old ruling class but a new class driven by riches; sometimes motivated by crime, sometimes just money and making it, often at someone else's expense. Worse is the desire for control of the world using their idea of what world they would like to see, such as unfair propaganda in our press. Our comparatively new democracies don't seem powerful enough to control them but are often controlled instead. Worse they don't recognise the dangers that most can see are coming.
How do I end this; I can't it is not up to me nor the many people like me. Russia amongst others, has to find its own inner peace and worth. Worth - don't have to look far see what great thinkers, scientists, writers and artists the Russians have produced, all that it needs is a wise leader who has the knowledge and foresight to see a way for Russia to befriend the rest of the world without losing face, then we can all move forward and remember but not be haunted by the past.