Defenders of the Soviet Homeland waiting for assistance from Russia: interview

Posted on 11th April 2012 in The monuments of world

Just 20 minutes on the Estonian island of Saaremaa has a regular meeting of the Pärnu County Court-it was the 87-year-old Stepan Timofeeviča Nikeeva. Estonian State accusing it of being involved navigate several persons in April 1949, in Siberia. This event is Tallinn, as a crime against humanity. The meeting was unusual not only because of the short. It was prescriptive, and it settled a number of organizational matters. In particular, the Court ruling on the appointment of the aged defendant forensic. If she confirms that the State of health of Stepan Timofeeviča does not allow him to participate in the court session, the criminal proceedings may be terminated. This possibility has emerged after the recent Estonian criminal procedure code (CPC) accordingly. This nuance and used the Defender Nikeeva, Director of the legal Bureau of Tallinn “Markus” Alexander Nikolayevich Bushes, that is the case from the outset, from 2002 onwards! But, in his opinion, not the ability to terminate a criminal case is marked. So what? For the answer to a lawyer asked the correspondent BakuToday .

BakuToday: Why process so long, is now in its ninth year?

This is due to the health of my client, who at the beginning of the process has been 78 years.

BakuToday: Why a new edition of the CODE of CRIMINAL PROCEDURE of Estonia?

This influence practices and the recommendations of the European Court of human rights, which had long been believed that there should be a reasonable period of time. For many years, the physical impossibility of the accused to participate in court hearings is torture, this is a sword of Damocles hanging over him, that cannot affect his spiritual state, psyche. In short, created the necessary legal basis for the termination of criminal proceedings, regardless of the alleged crimes, including crimes against humanity, since the CODE of CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, art. 199 ER (circumstances precluding criminal proceedings “) does not specify the types of crimes. Paragraph 6 said that if a suspect or an accused suffers from an incurable disease and cannot therefore take part in criminal proceedings and punished, the case is terminated. This formed the basis for applications for appointment of a forensic medical examination. The relevant medical reports presented to the Court. Confirm or refute them can only forensic examination. Will have to wait up to six months.

BakuToday: I have to highlight this process-in the case was a large group of people.

It Is. Many have already died. And Nikeeva in this case there is another extra in survivor, on which no decision-Estonian Rudolf Sisask. He is a citizen of the Republic of Estonia. Thus, the Estonian State it accuses him and it “protects”.

BakuToday: But Sisask, like Nikeev, is considered to be Russian compatriot?

It is what it is. However, if a citizen of the RUSSIAN FEDERATION living in Estonia, Nikeeve something and was known in Russia, the Sisaske-nothing. Do not be surprised if his defense is protected by purpose-that is, a lawyer appointed by the State. It is not even in the General Ledger, and in the osobosti case. It was created on the basis of the ill-fated rewriting of history, as the second world war and the post-war order of the Baltic States and Eastern Europe. After all, the problem with the prosecution of former Soviet citizens as Nikeev and Sisask, not yet been definitively resolved because of its superficial and artificiality. The problem is not removed from the agenda because the ideologists of the innocence of a history of Estonian independence, as well as policy-”historians” of Estonia, are concerned, as a cover-up, or beautified by Estonians on the side of Hitler’s regime in the Soviet army during the second world war. Last today in Estonia is served as the second liberation war to regain independence.

BakuToday: and such cases as saaremaaskoe, not one?

Only Estonia and Latvia on several similar cases have attracted over 30 older persons for alleged crimes against humanity. They have been involved in resettling Nazi collaborators and kulaks-bandits who had fought with arms against collectivization. The current defendants and catching spies. The case opened and those who shot and killed in the battle, the partisans who engaged in terror, murder and robbery becoming commonplace. They were not able or unable to flee to the West, as well as sitting out in the Woods, as a rule, for fear of retribution for service in the armed forces, the destruction of the Jews during the German occupation, Soviet activists and Communists, members of their families. And here’s the fight against bandits, or as their today Tallinn calls the guerrillas-heroes, has been declared a crime against humanity!

BakuToday: say the so-called Soviet “criminals”, now under arrest, was a lot.

Really can be. I know about the fate of the 30 victims of the Estonian and Latvian Themis. Notable worldly share 84-year-old resident of Latvia Mikhail Farbuha. In 2000, he was convicted to five years in prison. He was fortunate his parole released two years later. But only after the European Court of human rights found that “conditions for the serving of sentences were inadequate, given his age, State of health, and specific requirements.” Moreover, the same court found all this “degrading” and awarded 5000 euros in compensation. Not everyone is so lucky. Among those prosecuted for “crimes against humanity” were the elderly defendants have died yet at the stage of the preliminary investigation. This Is Vladimir Lukyanov, Alfred Noviks. Immediately or after a short period of time after the trial, Johannes Classen, Eugene died Savenko, Mikhail Neverovskij, Vasily Kirsanov, Karl-Leonhard Pauls. Solomon Murin hanged himself in prison hospital and lived in Pärnu Basil Beskova Court tried to evict even in Russia.

BakuToday: But these facts are not known to the general public, even in the Baltic States.

Here is the fact that I want to draw the most attention. Initially their cases still have repercussions, including outside the Baltic States, inter alia, in Russia. The person of the accused were the objects of attention of public organizations and journalists. But over time, the MEDIA lost interest in the fate of these innocent people. Here is the 9 May is celebrated nationally, this is our everything. On this day, and will remember the Nikeeve, but in the narrow family circle. But between two holiday of the victory unheard victims justice States which take revenge on them for their past. Not “keep control” problem and anti-fascist organization that saw the depth of react mostly on ad hoc scandalous “PE” nationalists note not all trials are completed, they are continuing, but the same fellow countrymen, their organizations don’t notice this problem. Moreover, it does not rise and at the inter-State level. But the statement of international friendship families “, who recently boasted, in Estonia, the head of the Accounting Chamber of RUSSIAN FEDERATION Sergey Stepashin, completely ignore simple families that suffer from politicized justice for their elderly relatives. They are not today nor understanding nor the support of the Russian Federation. Omission is, in fact, looked more like a plea for victims in slaughter. And all for the sake of not offending the Baltic States and preserve the image of Russia as a European country. The same concerns the Katyn, Russia’s recognition of the entire blame for the death of thousands of Polish officers. Even if the world is to blame, why hesitate to put Moscow on the question of liability of Poland for the destruction of almost one hundred years ago, tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war? The oblivion-contempt.

BakuToday: in accordance with the laws of the time pursued today in the Baltic Soviet junior officers, rank-and-file operupolnomočennye faith and truth as their homeland.

I have kept appearing in 1988, the book “operation” blue triangle “which tells about the life of little liking for chekists of Estonia. I got it as a gift from my client’s party described the book of events. That’s dedication, “Maltsev with respect and gratitude for the protection and moral support in the time of troubles. Stepan Nikeev. May 10, 2006, “. Stepan Nikeev, think protection and moral support for the Russian State. Always and everywhere. This wish and Rudolf Sisask, others who suffered in the “time of troubles”. After all, their fault only that they survived to the present day and subjected to inhuman, inhumane behaviour on the part of the State, which aims to take revenge for their historic defeat suffered by the country’s own fault. The object of revenge are 80 year old men. That is why I repeat again and again that Russia would help to remedy the situation, which would be revisiting their heroes, declared in the Baltics criminals or those accused of crimes against humanity. Attention await not only they but also members of their families.

BakuToday: the whole truth, it cannot be forgotten and the memory of the civilians perished during the Nazi occupation-serving Soviet power, members of their families. Their guilt was that they were shared by left-wing views.

I am always amazed with the position of Estonia when it ritually, at the State level, mourn the returnees and resettled forcibly returned home in 1940 and 1949 years, residents, but forgotten the tens of thousands of names of the persecuted and exterminated during the German occupation. During the Soviet period are remembered. Historians have written monographs, researchers-book. Of particular popularity was the book “Juniper will stand in aridity” writers Ülo Tuulika (Ülo Tuulik), surviving eviction of Islanders at the end of the war in Germany. Stores I humbly published rare objectivity brochure. It has long been given to me sitting in the courtroom for older Estonian. The book is a martyrology compiled by the small print MultiPage. Among the victims are even housewives, members of families of Estonians-Soviet and party workers. The book provides an awfully long list of civilians killed by Nazis and their local collaborators-Estonians. This chapter of the book and is entitled: “people come from Saaremaa, who lost their lives during the German occupation 1941-1944″. Authors-Utah Vessik (by Juta Vessik) and Peep Var′û (Peep Varju) from “combining Memento” Saareskogo County. And here is the Estonian political calendar, in which there are few official dates associated with the necessarily “criminal” actions of Soviet power, but no day in memory of the victims of the German occupation, which is a multiple of more than half a century of Soviet rule. That is, if not speculative policies, the game Barça?! This largely explains the underpinnings of the mock trial of the elderly, not having alleged “crimes”.

BakuToday: you think that you want to keep the memory of those who served, irrespective of their nationality after war duty in front of the Soviet Union?

Of Course. They not only unjustly demonized, but for them-a heroic deed. Here’s Vladimir Lukyanov, a Russian-speaking region of Estonia-Ida-Viru County. This is another matter, but it was the same story as the Stepan Nikeev. Lukyanov was unable to participate in trials, because it was clear that he would not survive. But while he was alive, it seemed to me important to invigorate it and I asked one of our prominent human rights defender, write a book, well at least a newspaper essay on the founder of the gerojstve, its not easy and dangerous postwar combat gangs nationalists in Pärnu County.

BakuToday: There is an analogy with the Northern Caucasus, where Russia honours its heroes, fighting with the separatists and bandits.

Of course, but not only. Recall of Victor Bout, a businessman, a citizen of RUSSIA, the Federal Court in New York a few days ago has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for alleged illegal arms trafficking. So RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY immediately issued a further statement on the case and promised that Russia will not leave in trouble of Victor Bout. My question is: why was not, and is not the same determination in respect of the same Lukyanova, Nikeeva, Sisask and other Russian citizens, have divided their plight? Continue on children and grandchildren Lukyanova, with whom I had to communicate. For them the vital protection of Russia would honour and dignity of their name, even after the death of their ancestor-hero. That’s just referred to its request to write about the book or essay to save in our collective memory of his heroism. So I refused, explaining that this theme is readership?! I am convinced that in this case the interest as commercial grade, it is the same manifestation civic indifference and cowardice. After all, the monuments are not only and not so much because of the philistine interest, but as a symbol of historical memory. The book is also a monument. That is, the problem is not that formal law and power did their thing, and you can forget about everything. No way. On the tragic fate of many of the hostages of the historical process must be everywhere and always remember. Then the current and new generations will know the truth and people like Lukyanov, Nikeev, Kononov … like all those who did not live to see the Court. Or the survived the humiliating for them-forum for retaliation and shameful for the Baltic ètnodemokratij. We owe it to these people, and for the fact that Russia has failed to protect them and their countries of origin took advantage of this to use for revenge for their very difficult the emergence of independence.

BakuToday: but what to do with public opinion, including in Russia, where increasingly recognize the Soviet period the Baltic “occupation”, on account of which x number of crimes? And is it not Russia publicly and officially brought in due time apologizing for “Stalin’s repressions”?

The apology, they sacrificed for effects of Stalin’s regime, and not specifically the same actions of Stepan Nikeeva, who was ordered to and strictly soblûdavšego law. I again note that the fault of the elderly is simply that they have lived up to their unjust Court. And, if somebody wants to erase one’s own guilt in this way before history, let them arrange the trial over the past. This is ridiculous, but it would be more honest. If Russia respects its past not in words, but in fact, that respect must be specifically and clearly expressed. And to the sons of the fatherland, to write off some historical “debts” for great-looking, but questionable compromises with countries that once were part of the USSR or the Russian Empire, and to please today’s “pragmatic” foreign policy of weakening Russia, it is absolutely immoral, so throwing a shadow and towards Russia.

BakuToday: but isn’t it had not taken a clear position against zasužennyh Riga Femida and the European Court of human rights in the Latvian partisan Vassily Kononov, and did not live to see the hero of the Soviet Union to Arnold Meri and assassinated in 2007, in particular “the bronze night” Dmytro Ganina, both from Estonia…

Be honest. These names when unconditional them deep respect, used for narrow political purposes, as an argument in the informational and psychological war of Russia with the West. This is and such. After the death of Arnold Meri media wrote that he died “the last living in Estonia, the Heroes of the Soviet Union”. But then was still alive and tallinec Alexey Denisov, called “Hero” for the forcing of Dnepr. And authors of books about heroes-èstonozemel′cah didn’t even mention his name. All this is immoral. And is it my care receiver, Stepan Nikeev, let me remind you again-a Russian citizen who deserves equal attention and protection of the Russian State, as you mentioned? But all the other way around. As Stepan Timofeyevich was in good health, he did not once applied for financial assistance to the Russian Embassy in Tallinn. At first he even promised to provide it, and subsequently no longer respond to his statement. Today, when the case is likely to be discontinued in a few months, this assistance will no longer be needed. And this is also an example of a real relationship to Russia.

BakuToday: in the judicial process on the Saaremaa Island not participate the representatives of embassies and consulates. So?

Alas. But I do remember the year 2003, when the head of the Consular Department of the Russian Embassy in RIYADH Leo A. Portnov came to the island along with the accused “elderly” and participated in a court session in a local House of culture. I remember how proud they were of that sits next to them, the representative of the Russian State! And when adjourn he literally attacked with accusations and even threats sitting in the Hall of the Islanders, he did not use his diplomatic immunity, he entered a dialogue with them, in particular, tactfully pointing out that Court unveiled the names of those inhabitants of Saaremaa, which “nastučali” to the list of displaced persons, following the rastaskivali property. The fracas ended unexpectedly. The one who became all attacked the Consul, invited him to a seaside farm, fish. Initially, the Embassy almost monthly I will report on what was being done and how to run processes don’t do I need as a lawyer, some help, in short, felt the genuine interest of diplomats, but today the official Russian representatives behave like a snail. The last five years, no one is interested, my players were no longer subjected to greater attention to Russian Government officials. Ignore the topic in the media and community-based organizations, often claim that “nobody is forgotten, nothing is forgotten”. Strikes and silence at the inter-State level. Though can attest: even today there are still people who need, above all, moral and psychological support of Russia. Financial assistance for them-is secondary.

BakuToday: can you explain the fact that Estonia is home to one hundred thousand Russian citizens and the Embassy physically could not cover everything and everyone?

And ten years ago, there were as many in Estonia of the Russian citizens. The answer is easy: If you do not care about them in the first place, then who? The impression that Russian politicians and officials of another historic birthright book chapter, having forgotten that between its pages were still living veterans and heroes. And agree, why do we need in the Baltics by the anti-fascist committees if their fight against manifestations of neo-Nazism leaves in trouble already quite helpless veterans who actually physically fought with the Nazis and their collaborators, have suffered from this, and now are somehow responsible for the story. My child is being tried for nearly 10 years! This is not a psychological genocide?

BakuToday: at the end of another “slippery” question: but in the Baltics Stepan Nikeeva and others have divided his fate, one way or another, thought criminals?

While courts have not made a final decision, they should not be considered as criminals. We are dealing with propaganda and political dejstvom. Politikanam, vulgarly vosstanavlivavšim 20 years ago, the independence of the Baltic States, required to justify their malevolent historical revenge for alleged massive wrongful acts, the crimes against humanity committed during the Soviet period the Estonian population as pritânutye facts behind the ears and in a favorable light to the demagogic interpretation of international law. But I am in this case, as a citizen of the Russian Federation living in Estonia, excites more reaction and Russia’s position rather than Estonia, which of course could sometimes remember (and repent) of their war criminals who had committed crimes against humanity-proved by the courts, as they interpret the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal. Estonian lawyers argue that such decisions are legally void, since they were accepted by the courts, acting in the Soviet “occupation”. In return I ask next question: why do you use certificates issued during the “Soviet occupation”? Then, and they are not valid. Therefore, it is important to understand the significance of Russia held in the capital of Saareskogo County town of Kuressaare blitz-sessions of the Court. It is not only and not so much in that it allows you to have real hope for ending the agony of Stepan Nikeeva. This trial represents an important stage in the history of Russian-Estonian relations, realization of which, but not so far in Russia or Estonia. Is justice! But it happened only in the home of Stepan prelomilos′ Nikeeva, his personal fate.

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Gateway to Moscow

Posted on 10th April 2012 in The monuments of world

By Howard Amos

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: April 11, 2012 (Issue # 1703)



HOWARD AMOS / SPT

A monument of Mikhail Yaroslavich, a prince of Tver in the 13th century, standing on Sovietskaya Ploshchad in the well-maintained city center.

TVER — Scattered across the world are three monuments to Afanasy Nikitin, one of the first-recorded Europeans to go to India — and a Tver native.

There is a black obelisk to the south of Mumbai where he purportedly stepped ashore and a statue in Ukraine’s Feodosiya where he documented his adventures. But the grandest memorial stands in his hometown.

The bronze figure shows the bearded explorer, who may have converted to Islam while in India, striding forward and full of purpose. It stands by the Volga River on the city’s long embankment, which is fringed on both sides by churches and the pastel-colored facades of 18th-century houses.  

Nikitin left the city known as the “gateway to Moscow” in the 15th century and traveled down the Volga, down to Baku and then across the Caspian Sea and through Persia to India.

Though he never made it back alive, his book “Journey Across Three Seas” became a famous travelogue. A movie of Nikitin’s life was made in both Hindi and Russian in 1958, and rock heartthrob Boris Grebenshchikov even wrote a song about the merchant with wanderlust.

But Tver’s link with India is not just something that belongs to history. One of the city’s poster boys today is Indian-born Harminder Chhatwal, owner of the region’s most successful supermarket chain, Tverskoi Kupets. Chhatwal came to the city as a student in 1991 and has lived there ever since. Now a Russian citizen, he even entered local politics on the United Russia ticket.

Chhatwal is not the only foreign presence in town. Japan’s Hitachi began the construction of a heavy-machinery factory with the support of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development last year. And there are joint ventures with Swedish and Swiss firms. Finnish coffee giant Paulig opened a roaster in 2011, which can process up to 6 million kilograms of coffee annually.      

The older of the two bridges that straddle the Volga as it meanders through Tver is a formidable cast-iron structure built by a Czech engineer in 1898 and partly financed by a French-Belgian carriage-making company.

The Volga is the heart of the city, which grew from the point where the 3,530-kilometer waterway joins with its more diminutive partner, the Tvertsa River. The city is the first big urban center of note on the Volga, which arises from a spring nearby in the Tver region.  

Tver is also located on the main railway lines and roads between the country’s two biggest cities — under the tsars the city was the 19th of 25 postal stations from the capital, St. Petersburg.

Though historians trace its origins back to the 12th century when Tver was founded by traders from Novgorod and recount its medieval struggle for supremacy with a young Moscow, there is little trace left of those times. A cataclysmic fire in 1763 means that the dominating architectural decor today is of Catherine the Great’s 18th century.

Much, of course, was reconstructed after World War II and the Nazi occupation. About 20,000 Soviet soldiers were killed in the 1941 battle for the city. Then Tver was known as Kalinin, after the Bolshevik revolutionary and official head of the Soviet Union between 1919 and 1946.      

In recent years, Tver has undergone a new cultural renaissance. As part of a state program called, Ver v Tver, or “Believe in Tver,” Moscow art entrepreneur Marat Gelman has launched a modern art gallery, TverCA, in the run-down Soviet river station at the confluence of the Volga and the Tvertsa. Following a similar project in Perm, Gelman is looking to replicate his success.      

But the well-maintained city center, redolent with neoclassical elegance, fades when you venture outside the city. The region as a whole has one of the highest levels of population decline in central Russia, losing 8 percent of its residents between 2002 and 2010, according to census figures.

More poetically, the region is also littered with the crumbling country estates of the imperial nobility that used to exit en masse from St. Petersburg in the summer months. A lack of funds and the sheer quantity of these sites mean that they are gradually being lost forever.

HOWARD AMOS / SPT

A bundled up woman selling fish caught in the Volga River, the heart of the city.

One modern son of Tver, the chanson superstar Mikhail Krug, had a particularly tragic end when he was killed by intruders in his city apartment in 2002 at the age of 50. His grave is still a point of pilgrimage for avid fans.

In a song about his home, “My Dear Town,” Krug’s opening verse goes: “My dear town of grief and tear/ The trusty foundation of Old Russia / You fall asleep to the whispers of the Volga and the Tvertsa / You fall asleep to the whispers of birches / Sleep my dear Mother Tver.”  

Krug is buried in the Dmitovo-Cherkassky Cemetery.   

What to see if you have two hours

Any visitor to Tver will be drawn inexorably to the city’s riverfront. But, never fear, this is where you should be. The city’s main sites, including onion-domed churches, monasteries, parks, monuments and the graceful 18th-century houses, line the flanks of the Volga. One can simply stroll up and down the two sides of the river, enjoying the view.

The most spectacular site to visit is Catherine the Great’s Travel Palace (3-3a Sovietskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-34-25-61; gallery.tversu.ru), where emperors would stay on their trips between Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Set slightly back from the river, Russia’s most famous historian, Mikhail Karamzin, once did a public reading in the building to an audience, which included Alexander I. Today, it is an art gallery housing works by local artists and some treasures from nearby archaeological excavations.

What to do if you have two days

Those with more time on their hands can drop by some of the city’s churches and museums, or even venture out into a hinterland famed for its thousands of freshwater lakes.

Some of the small museums worth a visit include the Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin House-Museum (11/37 Rybatskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-34-34-96), where the famous satirist lived while he was serving as a deputy governor, and if peasant tools and merchant trinkets are your thing, the Museum of Tver’s Way of Life (19/4 Ulitsa Gorkova; +7 4822-52-49-03) or the Tver Local History Museum (5 Sovietskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-34-47-15). Information about all of Tver’s museums — and those in nearby towns — can be found at Tvermuzeum.ru.

If you have time to leave the city, a pleasant day trip can be made 60 kilometers along the road to St. Petersburg to the old town of Torzhok that has its own Travel Palace built for Catherine the Great. Further to the east is the picturesque Seliger Lake — actually a system of lakes — set in the rolling Valdai Hills. In July, the area is inundated with tens of thousands of youthful supporters of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin taking part in their annual political forum.   

If you have time to head westward, you could aim for the small town of Kalyazin — also within striking distance of Sergiyev Posad and some of the northernmost towns of Moscow’s Golden Ring. On the Volga, Kalyazin is known for the haunting sight of the bell tower of the Makaryevsky Monastery that rises above the waters of the Uglich reservoir. The site was flooded during the construction of a hydroelectric station in 1940.

Nightlife

HOWARD AMOS / SPT

A street poster calling on local residents to be proud of their Tver heritage.

Classical music-lovers can visit the Tver Region Philharmonic (Teatralnaya Ploshad; +7 4822-34-64-34; tverfilarmonic.ru) that puts on regular concerts. Or you could see a movie at one of the only Soviet architectural intrusions on the city’s riverfront — the Zvezda Cinema (1 Naberezhnaya Stepana Razina; +7 4822-77-71-91; zvezda-kino.ru), which was built in 1937 as the constructivist movement was ending. The Tver Academic Drama Theater (16 Sovietskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-32-09-09; dramteatr-tver.ru) also puts on regular shows.

If you’re looking to lengthen your evening, however, then the Sunrise Club (50 Ulitsa Zhigareva; +7 4822-34-96-55; clubsunrise.ru) has one of the biggest dance floors in town — it also functions as a restaurant during the day. And for fans of the 1980s, there is the ‘80s Disco (5 Ulitsa Blagoyeva; +7 4822 50-33-22).  

Where to eat

The pedestrian mall Tryokhsvyatskaya Ulitsa — Tver’s version of Moscow’s Arbat — that runs through the center, part way between the railway station and the Volga is packed with fast-food outlets, coffee houses and restaurants. Western chains like Baskin-Robbins compete with Russian chains. Andy Warhol mock-ups of Saddam Hussein and Colonel Moammar Gadhafi make the Kalinin Bar (25/29 Tryokhsvyatskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-35-71-42) one of the most visible. It serves basic food as well as drinks. Another option is Fortuna (15 Tryokhsvyatskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-33-09-49; fortuna-tver.ru) that offers a wide variety of dishes in an old merchant house. Main courses start from about 500 rubles ($17).  

Many of Tver’s pricier restaurants are to be found attached to its hotels. One is Birch Groves (14 Moskovskoye Shosse; +7 4822-49-77-80; parkhotel.ru/restaurant), a part of the Tver Park Hotel, where meat dishes cost about 1,000 rubles.  

Where to stay

The 159-room Volga Hotel (1 Ulitsa Zhelyabova; +7 4822 34-81-23; volga-tver.ru) is an unlovely building near the center of town — but rooms can be had from 2,500 rubles ($83) a night and apartments from upward of 5,000 rubles ($166). An even more budget option is the Tourist Hotel (47/102 Ulitsa Kominterna; +7 4822-34-61-78; hotel-tourist.ru), a stone’s throw from the railroad and bus stations. A one-person room starts at 1,300 rubles ($44) a night.

With a restaurant, spa room and conference facilities, the Osnabruk Hotel (20 Ulitsa Saltykova-Shchedrina; +7 4822-35-84-33; hotel.tver.ru) in the center of town offers a more upmarket stay. A one-person bedroom begins at 3,200 rubles ($110) while the top-range luxury rooms will set you back between 4,900 rubles and 5,900 rubles ($165-200). Nearer the edge of town but overlooking the Volga River is the smaller Tver Park Hotel (14 Moskovskoye Shosse; +7 4822-53-77-22; parkhotel.ru). A deluxe suite with a Volga view costs 4,600 rubles per night.

Conversation starters

If you want to get a reaction out of somebody from Tver — possibly a smile, possibly not — call them by their nickname — kozyol (for a man) or kozla (for a woman), which means goat. The apocryphal reason behind the (affectionate) term is that once, arriving in Tver after long delay, Catherine the Great found only a stray goat waiting where she was supposed to have been met by cheering crowds.

Or you could bring up former Tver Governor Dmitry Zelenin who stepped down in 2011, shortly after he used Twitter to post a photo of a worm he purportedly found in his food at a presidential reception. The Kremlin cast doubt on the veracity of his claim.  

HOWARD AMOS / SPT

One of the numerous ancient churches scattered throughout the city.

How to get there

The easiest way to reach Tver from St. Petersburg is by train. There are dozens of daily trains from the city’s Moscow Railway Station. The journey takes at least six hours and tickets cost 870 rubles ($30) for a platzkart ticket and 2,070 rubles ($70) for a coupe ticket each way.

On the main line between St. Petersburg and the capital, the express Sapsan service is the quickest option — it stops in Tver 2 hours and 40 minutes after leaving St. Petersburg. Ticket prices vary depending on the day and time, but can cost between 2,200 and 6,000 rubles ($74 to $200).

Tver is not served by a civilian airport, although there are plans to build one.

Tver

Population: 404,150

Main industries: Machine-building and chemicals

Mayor: Vladimir Babichev

Founded in 1135

Interesting fact: Empress Catherine the Great said Tver was Russia’s second most beautiful city after St. Petersburg.

Helpful contacts: • Mayor Vladimir Babichev (+7 4822-35-57-88; tverduma.ru), • head of the Tver Chamber of Commerce Leonid Musin (+7 4822-35-98-43; tverregion.ru)

Sister cities: Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria; Yingkou, China; Hämeenlinna, Finland; Besancon, France; Kaspovar, Hungary; Bergamo, Italy; Khmelnitsky, Ukraine.

Major Businesses

• Tver Wagon Factory (45B Peterburgskoye Shosse; +7 4822-55-91-00; tvz.ru). One of the oldest factories in town, it has been churning out railway cars since its opening under Tsar Nicholas II in 1898. The biggest factory of its type in the country, it is 42.5 percent state-controlled.

• Tvershyolk (1 Dvor Proletarki;

+7 4822-42-24-97). Built in 1954 on the ruins of a cotton factory destroyed during World War II, Tver’s silk factory actually works with a variety of fabrics, including flax, and fulfills uniform contracts for the Defense Ministry and other security agencies.

• Tverstekloplastik (45 Ulitsa P. Savelevoi; +7 4822-55-33-11; steklonit.com) is one of two factories owned by Steklonit, part of the Ruskompozit group, the country’s biggest producer of synthetic materials and fiberglass. The plant produces glass fibers used for everything from small boats to ice hockey protection pads.

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tver: The Gateway to Moscow

Posted on 4th April 2012 in The monuments of world

Howard Amos / MT

A monument of Mikhail Yaroslavich, a prince of Tver in the 13th century, standing on Sovietskaya Ploshchad opposite regional administration buildings in the well-maintained city center.

Tver

Population: 404,150

Main industries: Machine-building and chemicals

Mayor: Vladimir Babichev

Founded in 1135

Interesting fact: Empress Catherine the Great said Tver was Russia’s second most beautiful city after St. Petersburg.

Helpful contacts:
Mayor Vladimir Babichev (+7 4822-35-57-88; tverduma.ru),
head of the Tver Chamber of Commerce Leonid Musin (+7 4822-35-98-43; tverregion.ru)

Sister cities: Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria; Yingkou, China; Hämeenlinna, Finland; Besancon, France; Kaspovar, Hungary; Bergamo, Italy; Khmelnitsky, Ukraine.

TVER — Scattered across the world are three monuments to Afanasy Nikitin, one of the first-recorded Europeans to go to India — and a native of Tver.

There is a black obelisk to the south of Mumbai where he purportedly stepped ashore and a statue in Ukraine’s Feodosiya where he documented his adventures. But the grandest memorial stands in his hometown.

The bronze figure shows the bearded explorer, who may have converted to Islam while in India, striding forward and full of purpose. It stands by the Volga River on the city’s long embankment, which is fringed on both sides by churches and the pastel-colored facades of 18th-century houses.  

Nikitin left the city known as the ”gateway to Moscow” in the 15th century and traveled down the Volga, down to Baku and then across the Caspian Sea and through Persia to India.

Major Businesses

Tver Wagon Factory (45B Peterburgskoye Shosse; +7 4822-55-91-00; tvz.ru). One of the oldest factories in town, it has been churning out railway cars since its opening under Tsar Nicholas II in 1898. The biggest factory of its type in the country, it is 42.5 percent state-controlled.

Tvershyolk (1 Dvor Proletarki; +7 4822-42-24-97). Built in 1954 on the ruins of a cotton factory destroyed during World War II, Tver’s silk factory actually works with a variety of fabrics, including flax, and fulfills uniform contracts for the Defense Ministry and other security agencies.

Tverstekloplastik (45 Ulitsa P. Savelevoi; +7 4822-55-33-11; steklonit.com) is one of two factories owned by Steklonit, part of the Ruskompozit group, the country’s biggest producer of synthetic materials and fiberglass. The plant produces glass fibers used for everything from small boats to ice hockey protection pads.

Though he never made it back alive, his book “Journey Across Three Seas” became a famous travelogue. A movie of Nikitin’s life was made in both Hindi and Russian in 1958, and rock heartthrob Boris Grebenshchikov even wrote a song about the merchant with wanderlust.

But Tver’s link with India is not just something that belongs to history. One of the city’s poster boys today is Indian-born Harminder Chhatwal, owner of the region’s most successful supermarket chain, Tverskoi Kupets. Chhatwal came to the city as a student in 1991 and has lived there ever since. Now a Russian citizen, he even entered local politics on the United Russia ticket.

Chhatwal is not the only foreign presence in town. Japan’s Hitachi began the construction of a heavy-machinery factory with the support of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development last year. And there are joint ventures with Swedish and Swiss firms. Finnish coffee giant Paulig opened a roaster in 2011, which can process up to 6 million kilograms of coffee annually.      

The older of the two bridges that straddle the Volga as it meanders through Tver is a formidable cast-iron structure built by a Czech engineer in 1898 and partly financed by a French-Belgian carriage-making company.

The Volga is the heart of the city, which grew from the point where the 3,530-kilometer waterway joins with its more diminutive partner, the Tvertsa River. The city is the first big urban center of note on the Volga, which arises from a spring nearby in the Tver region.  

For MT

Anton Stamplevsky,
Director of the Tver Fund for the Support of Small Business;
Head of Yabloko’s local branch.
He has lived in the city since 1997.

Q: What is the current state of small- and medium-sized businesses in Tver?
A: There has been a negative dynamic over the last few years — the number of small businesses is decreasing. The reasons are the usual ones, and they include the changes that have been made to the tax regime and a type of politics that is directed toward the squeezing of small businesses. And there is the old problem of administrative barriers and the politics of tariff monopolies. We have, for example, two big local power companies, but our small businesses pay electricity prices that are comparable with Europe.

Q: How would you characterize the investment climate?
A: The investment climate is not very good — and that’s connected with subjective reasons concerning the authorities. We came across this in joint research that we did with Delovaya Rossia, the national business-lobbying group.

Q: What is the most pressing political issue in town?
A: The most serious political problem is the complete absence of public politics — it just doesn’t exist. After the Dec. 4 [State Duma vote], this appeared in Moscow, but this has not yet appeared in Tver. 

Q: What would you recommend a visitor see?
A: There is Marat Gelman’s Center of Modern Art, TverCA, which holds exhibitions in the old river station and tries to reanimate the area, but it doesn’t always have a 100 percent connection to art. It’s for curiosity. If you are interested in old architecture, then you should go to Torzhok.

— Howard Amos

Tver is also located on the main railway lines and roads between the country’s two biggest cities — under the tsars the city was the 19th of 25 postal stations from the capital, St. Petersburg.

Though historians trace its origins back to the 12th century when Tver was founded by traders from Novgorod and recount its medieval struggle for supremacy with a young Moscow, there is little trace left of those times. A cataclysmic fire in 1763 means that the dominating architectural decor today is of Catherine the Great’s 18th century.

Much, of course, was reconstructed after World War II and the Nazi occupation. About 20,000 Soviet soldiers were killed in the 1941 battle for the city. Then Tver was known as Kalinin, after the Bolshevik revolutionary and official head of the Soviet Union between 1919 and 1946.      

In recent years, Tver has undergone a new cultural renaissance. As part of a state program called, Ver v Tver, or “Believe in Tver,” Moscow art entrepreneur Marat Gelman has launched a modern art gallery, TverCA, in the run-down Soviet river station at the confluence of the Volga and the Tvertsa. Following a similar project in Perm, Gelman is looking to replicate his success.      

But the well-maintained city center, redolent with neoclassical elegance, fades when you venture outside the city. The region as a whole has one of the highest levels of population decline in central Russia, losing 8 percent of its residents between 2002 and 2010, according to census figures.

More poetically, the region is also littered with the crumbling country estates of the imperial nobility that used to exit en masse from St. Petersburg in the summer months. A lack of funds and the sheer quantity of these sites mean that they are gradually being lost forever.

One modern son of Tver, the chanson superstar Mikhail Krug, had a particularly tragic end when he was killed by intruders in his city apartment in 2002 at the age of 50. His grave is still a point of pilgrimage for avid fans.

In a song about his home, “My Dear Town,” Krug’s opening verse goes: “My dear town of grief and tears/The trusty foundation of Old Russia/You fall asleep to the whispers of the Volga and the Tvertsa/You fall asleep to the whispers of birches/Sleep my dear Mother Tver.”  

What to see if you have two hours

Any visitor to Tver will be drawn inexorably to the city’s riverfront. But, never fear, this is where you should be. The city’s main sites, including onion-domed churches, monasteries, parks, monuments and the graceful 18th-century houses, line the flanks of the Volga. One can simply stroll up and down the two sides of the river, enjoying the view.

The most spectacular site to visit is Catherine the Great’s Travel Palace (3-3a Sovietskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-34-25-61; gallery.tversu.ru), where emperors would stay on their trips between Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Set slightly back from the river, Russia’s most famous historian, Mikhail Karamzin, once did a public reading in the building to an audience, which included Alexander I. Today, it is an art gallery with the works of local artists and some treasures from nearby archaeological excavations.

What to do if you have two days

After seeing action as a parachutist during the Afghan war, Babichev returned to Tver, where he entered politics more than a decade ago. A member of United Russia, he became mayor in 2009.

Q: Why is Tver interesting for investors?
A: The most important factor in our town’s attractiveness for investors is its geographical position. Tver is situated between two megalopolises — Moscow and St. Petersburg. Tver is in a transport corridor along which cargo and passengers from Scandinavian and Baltic countries travel to the center of Russia and further toward the Urals and the country’s south.
We have a system of interaction with investors designed to create favorable conditions for foreign companies. We use the “one window” principle — providing financial, informational and administrative support.
We are not only realizing specific projects, but we are also developing whole industrial zones that are to be found in the city and its surrounding area. These industrial parks include Borovlyovo, Raslovo and Dve Bashni.

Q: What is Tver particularly proud of?
A: Our history, and history is people. The annals of Tver go back some nine centuries. The names of the people of Tver who lived in this city in different periods are the glory of our country. They are the merchant Afanasy Nikitin, the writer Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, the general Iosif Gurko, the pilot Mikhail Gromov, the champion Olympic cyclist Viktor Kapitonov and the hockey world champion Ilya Kovalchuk. Tver is the first capital of the Russian state and its citizens have played a huge role in its formation and preservation.

Q: What’s your favorite place in Tver?
A: I love quiet, green streets where — even today — you can find wooden houses built in the 19th century with mezzanines and hand-crafted fretwork. We have places like this practically in the very center of the city, next to old churches and chapels.

— Howard Amos

Those with more time on their hands can drop by some of the city’s churches and museums, or even venture out into a hinterland famed for its thousands of freshwater lakes.

Some of the small museums worth a visit include the Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin House-Museum (11/37 Rybatskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-34-34-96), where the famous satirist lived while he was serving as a deputy governor, and if peasant tools and merchant trinkets are your thing, the Museum of Tver’s Way of Life (19/4 Ulitsa Gorkova; +7 4822-52-49-03) or the Tver Local History Museum (5 Sovietskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-34-47-15). Information about all of Tver’s museums — and those in nearby towns — can be found here: Tvermuzeum.ru. Crooner Mikhail Krug is buried in the Dmitovo-Cherkassky Cemetery.   

If you have time to leave the city, a pleasant day trip can be made 60 kilometers along the road to St. Petersburg to the old town of Torzhok that has its own Travel Palace built for Catherine the Great. Further to the east is the picturesque Seliger Lake — actually a system of lakes — set in the rolling Valdai Hills. In July, the area is inundated with tens of thousands of youthful supporters of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin taking part in their annual political forum.   

If you have time to head westward, you could aim for the small town of Kalyazin — also within striking distance of Sergiyev Posad and some of the northernmost towns of Moscow’s Golden Ring. On the Volga, Kalyazin is known for the haunting sight of the bell tower of the Makaryevsky Monastery that rises above the waters of the Uglich reservoir. The site was flooded during the construction of a hydroelectric station in 1940.

Nightlife

Classical music-lovers can visit the Tver Region Philharmonic (Teatralnaya Ploshad; +7 4822-34-64-34; tverfilarmonic.ru) that puts on regular concerts. Or you could see a movie at one of the only Soviet architectural intrusions on the city’s riverfront — the Zvezda Cinema (1 Naberezhnaya Stepana Razina; +7 4822-77-71-91; zvezda-kino.ru), which was built in 1937 as the constructivist movement was ending. The Tver Academic Drama Theater (16 Sovietskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-32-09-09; dramteatr-tver.ru) also puts on regular shows.

If you’re looking to lengthen your evening, however, then the Sunrise Club (50 Ulitsa Zhigareva; +7 4822-34-96-55; clubsunrise.ru) has one of the biggest dance floors in town — it also functions as a restaurant during the day. And for fans of the 1980s, there is the ’80s Disco (5 Ulitsa Blagoyeva; +7 4822 50-33-22).  

Where to eat

The pedestrian mall Tryokhsvyatskaya Ulitsa — Tver’s version of Moscow’s Arbat — that runs through the center, part way between the railway station and the Volga is packed with fast-food outlets, coffee houses and restaurants. Western chains like Baskin-Robbins compete with Russian chains. Andy Warhol mock-ups of Saddam Hussein and Colonel Moammar Gadhafi make the Kalinin Bar (25/29 Tryokhsvyatskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-35-71-42) one of the most visible. It serves basic food as well as drinks. Another option is Fortuna (15 Tryokhsvyatskaya Ulitsa; +7 4822-33-09-49; fortuna-tver.ru) that offers a wide variety of dishes in an old merchant house. Main courses start from about 500 rubles ($17).  

Many of Tver’s pricier restaurants are to be found attached to its hotels. One is Birch Groves (14 Moskovskoye Shosse; +7 4822-49-77-80; parkhotel.ru/restaurant), a part of the Tver Park Hotel, where meat dishes cost about 1,000 rubles.  

Where to stay

The 159-room Volga Hotel (1 Ulitsa Zhelyabova; +7 4822 34-81-23; volga-tver.ru) is an unlovely building near the center of town — but rooms can be had from 2,500 rubles ($83) a night and apartments from upward of 5,000 rubles ($166). An even more budget option is the Tourist Hotel (47/102 Ulitsa Kominterna; +7 4822-34-61-78; hotel-tourist.ru), a stone’s throw from the railroad and bus stations. A one-person room starts at 1,300 rubles a night.

With a restaurant, spa room and conference facilities, the Osnabruk Hotel (20 Ulitsa Saltykova-Shchedrina; +7 4822-35-84-33; hotel.tver.ru) in the center of town offers a more upmarket stay. A one-person bedroom begins at 3,200 rubles while the top-range luxury rooms will set you back between 4,900 rubles and 5,900 rubles. Nearer the edge of town but overlooking the Volga River is the smaller Tver Park Hotel (14 Moskovskoye Shosse; +7 4822-53-77-22; parkhotel.ru). A deluxe suite with a Volga view costs 4,600 rubles per night.

Conversation starters

If you want to get a reaction out of somebody from Tver — possibly a smile, possibly not — call them by their nickname — kozyol (for a man) or kozla (for a woman), which means goat. The apocryphal reason behind the (affectionate) term is that once, arriving in Tver after long delay, Catherine the Great found only a stray goat waiting where she was supposed to have been met by cheering crowds.

Or you could bring up former Tver Governor Dmitry Zelenin who stepped down in 2011, shortly after he used Twitter to post a photo of a worm he purportedly found in his food at a presidential reception. The Kremlin cast doubt on the veracity of his claim.  

How to get there

The easiest way to reach Tver from Moscow is by train. Departing from Moscow’s Leningradsky or Kursky stations, there are dozens of daily trains, which take up to three hours and cost from about 400 rubles ($13) each way.

On the main line between the capital and St. Petersburg, the express Sapsan service is the quickest option — it stops in Tver just an hour after leaving Moscow.

Buses to Tver depart from Kalancheskaya Ulitsa near Leningrad station in Moscow every two hours, or when the vehicle is full. The 160-kilometer journey by road takes about two hours depending on traffic.

Tver is not served by a civilian airport, although there are plans to build one.

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nazi Art Theft Material Discovered

Posted on 27th March 2012 in The monuments of world

During World War ll, Adolf Hitler commanded agents to raid and loot European countries, looking for precious metals, currency, jewelry, and artwork. While most of the items were recovered by the Allies after the war ended, some of them were never seen again.

The Monument Mens Foundation For The Preservation Of Art–which was formed by Robert M. Edsel to help Allied forces protect cultural artifacts during the war–has donated several mysterious items to the U.S. National Archives which until now have been privately held and are related to the art thefts made by Hitler’s men.

Not wanting to comment too much on the unveiling, Archivist David S. Ferriero says the National Archives will announce “a significant discovery which will allow for a more complete view of Hitler’s premeditated theft of art and other cultural treasures,” this morning in a press conference, which will be attended by Edsel.

The art thefts committed during the war have long been a topic of fascination to many, partly because of the idea that there are treasures hidden out there somewhere, waiting to be found. Actor George Clooney is writing and will star in a film about the events called “Monuments Men“, which is only in the beginning stages, is based on a book called “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History,” by Robert M. Edsel.

In 2007, the National Archives announced they had in their possession two leather-bound photo albums which documented several items of artwork stolen by Hitler.

Once word spread that new items have been found, the social media world is abuzz.

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Art, cultural treasures once stolen by Nazis to be unveiled tomorrow at SMU's Meadows Museum

Posted on 26th March 2012 in The monuments of world

In the years during World War II, Nazis stole, destroyed and scattered hundreds of thousands of European artistic treasures around the world — and prompted a decades-long, worldwide search to find them.

A Dallas foundation has played a leading role in helping to track down the missing works of art. The Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art will unveil its latest discovery and present it to the National Archive on Tuesday at the Meadows Museum.

Dallas businessman and Southern Methodist University graduate Robert M. Edsel took up the cause after living in Florence, Italy with his family and being drawn to European art. He founded the nonprofit organization in Dallas in 2007 and went on to receive the National Medal of Humanities from President Bush that year.

He co-authored a book about the hundreds of men and women, known as the Monuments Men, who searched for the artwork following the war. His book, The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, is now bound for the silver screen. The movie will be directed by George Clooney.

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Too much success? With eye on global stage, Istanbul strains with ambition _ and chaos

Posted on 11th March 2012 in The monuments of world

ISTANBUL (AP) — On a moonlit night in the backstreets of Beyoglu, one of Istanbul’s oldest districts, the worn facades and sharp-angled shadows recall the mournful character of the city that Nobel-prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk described in a memoir.But really, it’s just a glimpse.New, brash Istanbul charges ahead, and it’s harder to uncover those pockets of dark ruin that epitomize “huzun,” the dense, communal melancholy that permeated the former imperial capital in Pamuk’s work. As Turkey strives for global status, its leading city strains to channel expansion that threatens its heritage, environment and even its identity.An ambler can step out of the alleyways and zoom up an elevator to a hotel roofdeck for a panoramic view of the mouth of the Bosporus Strait, where an armada of cargo ships lies, and the towers of a bustling financial district. Fireworks burst by the shores of the Golden Horn inlet, so far below and so far away that the sound does not carry.Once a backwater aching with memories of a glorious past, Istanbul today is hectically, perhaps blindly, hustling to create a vibrant future.Istanbul, whose name derives from the Greek for “to the city,” is home to nearly 20 percent of the 75 million people in Turkey, compressing and magnifying the swirl of a democracy in progress with a Muslim identity and a Western outlook. It is the engine and the envoy for a country that wants to be a force in the world after generations on the sidelines.At the national level, rhetoric sometimes eclipses real economic and diplomatic achievements. Turkey is a “beacon for the world,” says one Cabinet minister. Istanbul barrels ahead with the same kind of ebullience.A documentary called “Ekumenopolis: City Without Limits” suggests congestion, real estate speculation and big projects such as a plan to build a third bridge over the Bosporus are creating a class-bound sprawl lorded over by politically connected barons of the construction industry.Director Imre Azem said audiences at foreign film festivals were surprised at what they saw on the screen.”It shatters their image of Istanbul. They have this nostalgic kind of image of Istanbul, with its mosques and all this tourist stuff,” Azem said. “For Turkish people, it’s kind of saying things that they already know because they live in this city and they know its problems.”Azem, 36, grew up in Istanbul and went to the United States to study, but returned often to find a frenzy of change.”One time I come here, there’s a park. And then the next time, six months later, the park has become a building,” Azem said. “I really just started questioning where this is heading.”He said Istanbul was so vast that he had met some poor residents who had never seen the Bosporus Strait even though they had lived in the city for years. A common Turkish term is “gecekondu,” or “built overnight,” a reference to the shoddy apartment buildings that authorities in Istanbul condoned over decades, but now talk about replacing.Istanbul also lives on a latent edge, wary that a catastrophic earthquake might strike tomorrow, in a decade, or not in anyone’s lifetime. Turkey lies in an active seismic zone.An international athletics event was held this weekend in a stadium built in line with safety codes imposed after 1999 quakes in northwest Turkey killed 18,000, including some on the outskirts of Istanbul. The old building at the site housed a swimming pool, but was demolished after experts found cracks from those temblors.The jewel of the city’s ambitions is the Olympics. Istanbul bid for the right to host the games four previous times, but Turkey’s economic growth over the last decade and its political assertiveness make it a strong candidate. Rivals are Tokyo; Doha, Qatar; Madrid; and Baku, Azerbaijan. The decision will be announced next year.Istanbul’s rapid transformation began in the early 1980s, when Turkey, then in the grip of the military, opened the economy. Development was unleashed; urban immigration, too. Many of those swamping the cities were poor, ethnic Kurds who fled conflict between the army and Kurdish rebels in the rural southeast.David Cuthell, whose father was the American consul general in Istanbul around 1960, remembers a city of perhaps 2 million that was steeped in deprivation and traditional values.”It was where people handed down their shoes to their younger siblings and the girls didn’t go to school after about sixth grade. It was something out of the American 19th century, and the British 19th century,” said Cuthell, an associate professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University in New York City.Now travelers remark on Istanbul’s ferment, which contrasts with the economic torpor in Europe. Even longtime residents might see a new office building off a main highway and do a double-take, wondering how it popped up so fast.Split between the European and Asian continents, the city flaunts a rich menu of museums and palaces from a past that was derided by Turkey’s secular founders. A massive aquarium opened last year. A Rembrandt exhibit is showing now; Ottoman-style calligraphy is gaining popularity. A film festival starts at the end of March.This month, the city hosts forums on bipolar disorder, wind and solar power and, according to the Turkish president, countries seeking to press Syria to stop its bloody crackdown on opponents. In April, meetings on contemporary art, investment, dentistry, superconductivity, and more.Teeming Beyoglu, where Turks and foreigners dine and shop, was once a shell, abandoned by Greek, Armenian and Jewish minorities who fled discrimination and persecution.In his translated memoir “Istanbul,” Pamuk remarks how the Turkish desire to modernize and turn to the West after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire “amounted mostly to the erasure of the past,” producing a void. He examines different accounts and points of view of the city, and suggests that looking at Istanbul is looking at oneself:”Is this the secret of Istanbul — that beneath its grand history, its living poverty, its outward-looking monuments, and its sublime landscapes, its poor hide the city’s soul inside a fragile web? But here we have come full circle, for anything we say about the city’s essence says more about our own lives and our own states of mind. The city has no center other than ourselves.”


comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The art of an unusual guru

Posted on 10th March 2012 in The monuments of world

The work of veteran Egyptian artist Taha Hussein, on show at a new exhibition in Zamalek, provides a visual answer to east-west relations, writes Nagwa El-Ashri

On 14 February, the sculptor and painter Taha Hussein celebrated his 83rd birthday at a small gathering of family and friends. He was getting ready for yet another adventure: an exhibition in Gallery Al-Masar in Zamalek, which opened on 4 March.

The exhibition, entitled “East and West”, is Hussein’s visual answer to Goethe’s mesmerising work The West-Eastern Diwan. Hussein, who spent years of his early life in Germany, is an avid reader of German authors and has spent much of his career exploring east-west relations.

Having graduated from the Royal College for Applied Arts in 1951, Hussein went to Germany where he studied art history and earned a doctoral degree in 1963 with a thesis on Mamluke silk and its influence on European art.

The Mamluke perspective comes naturally to Hussein, who grew up in the Al-Azhar neighbourhood of Cairo, which is full of monuments dating to the Mamluke period, before his family moved to Manyal, a more modern part of town.

Since the 1960s, Hussein’s work has been shown to critical acclaim both at home and abroad, and he has exhibited at the Goethe Institute in Cairo, the Egyptian Cultural Centre in Paris, and the French Cultural Centre. Hussein’s work also featured in a ceramics exhibition in West Germany in 1960, the Five Thousand Years of Pottery exhibition held in East Germany in 1964, the International Exhibition of Art and Industry in Munich in 1966, and the Contemporary Egyptian Art exhibition in Brussels in 1968.

By the early 1970s, Hussein was a familiar figure on Egypt’s art scene, acquiring a reputation for refinement and intellectual gravitas. Since then, his work has also been displayed in Japan, the UAE, India, Iraq, the USA, France, and Italy.

He has spent a significant part of his career pondering the influence of Islamic art on the Renaissance in Europe. Intrigued by the complex rapport among various cultures and artistic manifestations, he is now examining the impact of globalisation on contemporary art.

Though hard to pin down, there are traces of expressionism in Hussein’s style, along with a move towards abstraction in his later work. He has worked in various media, including painting, engraving, ceramics, photography, sculpture, printing, and weaving. There is also a Sufi component in Hussein’s work — a certain asceticism that delights in the simplicity of nature and yet is willing to recognise the complexity of humanity.

In his work as a whole, Hussein offers a poetic counterpoint to the dialogue of civilisations, as seen in a wider context through the assimilation of ancient Egyptian, Islamic and European art. Himself a tireless student of mediaeval art, he often resorts to metaphor in his iconography, producing a personal vocabulary that challenges conventional thinking but embraces an all-encompassing humanism.

In one painting after another in his current exhibition, Hussein shows his audience how East and West can stand as equals, conversing and converging, and yet remaining distinct. For him, contemporary globalisation is an opportunity for cultural equality and the chance to prove that a sense of belonging does not need to negate the richness of different lives.

While he has been active on the Egyptian art scene for nearly half a century, Hussein continues to explore new forms of expression with the mastery of taste and style that has always marked his work. His extensive knowledge of history imparts depth to his art as well as broad cultural views. In 1959, for example, Hussein wrote one of the earliest introductions to art in Arabic with co-author Maher Raef, and in 1964 he introduced the coloured gravure technique to Egypt.

Hussein offers unusual glimpses into the symbiosis of nature and art in his work, never failing to introduce an element of surprise into his compositions. There is always a new angle, new shores waiting to be visited, the promise of a journey yet to come.

He does not think of himself as creating art, however. Rather, he thinks of himself as creating ideas, since for him the secret of art lies in its use as a vehicle for the understanding. “Thinking through art,” is his motto. Hussein believes that the world can be better understood through the process of selection that artists offer.

What imagery should we look for in his work? Perhaps the blend of perception and intuition that he seems to be able to offer almost without thinking, or perhaps the scholarship that comes across without a hint of didacticism. Perhaps one should stress the perspective of a man who stands on the edge and sees life through the filter of compassion.

Hussein has created a world that should be approached deliberately and with a sense of adventure. What is seen in the foreground of his work may not be what truly matters. The viewer should not miss the subtle hints and mercurial allegories that lie packed underneath.

The craftsmanship, of course, is superb. A man who is a master in such disparate fields of art, from painting to fabric design, is not easily compartmentalised. There is magic in his work, myth in constant motion, gateways to forgotten history and the depths of the human soul.

Yet, while Hussein’s work points towards the transcendental, its message wrapped in fresh manifestations of tone and texture, there are few easily identifiable references to mythology. History is distilled with unusual insight to reveal the psyche of the region, the blend of visions it contains, and the universalism that lies underneath the surface.

Visitors to the current exhibition of Hussein’s work will notice riotous lines reminiscent of Arabic calligraphy. However, they should look again. These lines, which at first seem like simple calligraphy, turn into something like geological formations, with nature becoming culture and revealing itself as something deeper, something shared and private, something universal and personal.

Such is the enigmatic power of this most unusual guru.

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , , , ,

Czech Bauhaus gem reopens after detailed renovation

Posted on 7th March 2012 in The monuments of world

The Tugendhat villa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Bauhaus gem which suffered Nazi occupation and even a stint as a stable, has reopened its doors in the southern Czech city of Brno after a meticulous renovation.

Leading the early 20th-century “Modernist” revolution which ushered in simple clean lines in European architecture, the three-storey, flat-roofed villa is the work of legendary German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969).

A guru of the celebrated Bauhaus school, Mies like his famous contemporaries in the United States or France, sought above all to accentuate architecture as an art.

“Tugendhat ranks among iconic residences, along with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House in Chicago and Le Corbusier’s Savoy villa in Poissy (France),” said Iveta Cerna, director of the UNESCO-listed monument.

The doors of Tugendhat, built in 1929-30, opened to visitors last week after a two-year, $9.2 million (6.8 million euro) revamp supervised by an international commission of 17 experts from six countries.

“The renovation was carried out by a Czech company but under the supervision of the whole world,” said Brno mayor Roman Onderka.

Using materials like glass, steel and concrete, Mies eschewed the traditional concept of separate rooms for an airy, open-plan design which replaced walls with floor-to-ceiling windows, offering breathtaking views of the sprawling sloping garden and Brno’s historical monuments.

Rohe’s design principle of “less is more” saw him use the revolutionary iron framework allowing him to dispense with supporting walls.

He also designed all the furniture, including two types of armchairs crafted specially for the house: the Tugendhat and Brno chairs which are still in production, as well as switches, washbasins, bathtubs and taps.

The villa was shorn of paintings and decorations but was by no means austere due to the extensive use of exotic materials like a captivating honey-coloured onyx wall which is partly translucent and changes colour at dusk, and rare tropical woods.

“My parents absolutely identified themselves with this type of architecture, they loved the house,” said Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat, the daughter of the villa’s original owners.

“My father was convinced that the beauty and transparency of the architecture could shape the ethics of its residents, including the children raised here,” she added.

Fritz Tugendhat was a Jewish industrialist who owned several factories in Brno, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) southeast of Prague.

The city, known as the “Moravian Manchester” owing to its numerous textile plants prior to World War II, also boasted a large Jewish community at the time.

But Tugendhat and his wife Grete only enjoyed living in the villa for a brief period before being forced to flee Nazi German occupation in 1938. They moved first to Switzerland and then to Venezuela, where Hammer-Tugendhat was born.

“My parents lost not only their house, but also the closest family members murdered by the Nazis,” Hammer-Tugendhat told AFP.

As the war broke out, the villa’s fate was sealed. The Nazis confiscated it, converting it into a studio for the Messerschmitt aviation factory, while the Soviet Army later used it as a stable during the liberation of Czechoslovalia in 1948.

Under communism in 1955, the villa became the property of the Czechoslovak state, and it was converted into a rehabilitation centre for children, before another revamp in the 1980s.

The villa was the setting for key talks between the Czech and Slovak prime ministers, Vaclav Klaus and Vladimir Meciar, in 1992 in the run-up to the peaceful split of the former Czechoslovakia into two countries a year later.

UNESCO put the villa on its world heritage list in December 2001.

“The villa is also famous for exotic materials such as Moroccan onyx, Italian travertine, or palisander and Macassar ebony from the island of Celebes,” said Petr Dvorak, a guide at the villa.

Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat does not like the fact that the villa’s original furniture has been replaced with replicas, with original items owned by the family being put in storage.

“Time left marks on the original furniture. After everything that happened here, it’s strange for visitors to feel like nothing did,” she said.

But some of the original features were found nearby by chance like a curved wall fashioned out of Macassar ebony which was discovered in the dining hall of Brno’s law school, where it had been taken by the Nazis.

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Occupy! NY April Fools' Day Parade Marches to Washington Square Park in Support of 1st Amendment

Posted on 7th March 2012 in The monuments of world

For 27 years, New York City‘s Annual April Fools’ Day Parade has offered the public an opportunity to express, in a comical way, its outrage against the foolishness of mankind. Thousands of participants in look-alike costumes with satirical floats creatively mock the thoughtless, corrupt and selfish acts of the past year. Kicking off at noon on Sunday, April 1, the parade will march down 5th Avenue from 59th Street to Washington Square Park where revelers will party to demonstrate against new rules that restrict the First Amendment rights of performing artists in the park. It will conclude with the annual crowning of the King of Fools.

New York, New York (PRWEB) March 07, 2012

The 27th Annual April Fools’ Day Parade will begin at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street at 12 noon, Sunday, April 1, 2012. Rain or shine, the parade will march down Fifth Avenue to Washington Square Park for the climactic selection of the King or Queen of Fools from the costumed marching look-alikes.

The New York April Fools’ Day Parade was created in 1986 to remedy a glaring omission in the long list of New York’s ethnic and holiday parades. These events fail to recognize the importance of April 1st, the day designated to commemorate the folly of mankind. In an attempt to bridge this gap and bring people back in touch with their inherent foolishness, the parade annually crowns a King or Queen of Fools from parading look-alikes. The King of Fools from the 2011 parade was Speaker of the House John Boehner.

“Every year the parade gets bigger and more outrageous. There’s never a shortage of fools,” Says parade organizer, Joey Skaggs.

The theme for this year’s parade is “Occupy Washington Square Park” as we are defiantly protesting the Manhattan Parks and Recreation Department’s new policies that have, in essence, militarized the park. Park police are fining musicians and performing artists for soliciting donations near public monuments or park benches, disallowing the creative expression and pursuit of livelihood that has always been the hallmark of this great Greenwich Village landmark. So this year, the April Fools’ Day Parade Committee encourages all citizens who support the quest for truth, transparency and accountability to join us as we defiantly show solidarity in defense of the First Amendment in Washington Square Park.

This year’s parade will kick off with President Obama and His Celebrity Pick-up Band singing the 1955 Tennessee Ernie Ford hit “Sixteen Tons”: “You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt…”. Floats will be led by Grand Marshall Donald Trump, who has insisted on riding an elephant pulling the GOP Presidential Candidate Reunion float, where GOP candidate look-a-likes Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and John Huntsman are playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Next will be the European Union Bailout float competing with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank float to see who can spew more of their currencies at the crowd. Then comes the Super Committee Marching Brigade, with Congressional committee members sweeping up the currency, followed by Senator Mitch McConnell sweeping up the elephant poop. Next is the TEPCO Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant float chased by Godzilla. Then, the Sinking Costa Concordia float followed by Captain Francesco Schettino in a row boat. Next will be the Air Jordan Sneaker float chased and trampled by zealous shoppers. Kim Kardashian follows with the Kardashian Wedding Procession float, which is only expected to last as long as the parade.

The marching celebrity look-alikes will include M.I.A. and Adele flipping the bird; Rush Limbaugh yelling “You slut!”; Arizona Governor Jan Brewer wagging her finger; Sara Palin citing Paul Revere revisionist history; Florida Family Association leader David Caton protesting anything Muslem; Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour bound to his pardoned prisoners as he sings Sam Cook’s “Chain Gang.” Following the parade down to Washington Square Park will be a brigade of New York City’s Finest led by Officer Anthony Bologna, pepper spraying the crowd.

As the parade enters Washington Square Park, the festivities begin, featuring live music, food, concessions & entertainment. Featured are: Michele and Marcus Bachmann hosting a Reparative Therapy booth for gays; an ATF booth offering untraceable weapons for the Mexican drug cartels; a booth offering Phone-Tapping Apps sponsored by Rupert Murdoch. The child daycare center will be staffed by Fired Teachers from Miramonte Elementary School featuring taste-testing games and funny photo ops. There will be free tacos at the Anti-Latino Bias Taco booth served by East Haven Conneticutt Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr.. There will also be a Cruise Line Industry booth offering deep discounts as well as free samples of antibiotics and pills to stop vomiting and diarrhea, and a Who’s-the-Biggest-Dick Contest, sponsored by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Anthony Weiner, Jerry Sandusky and Bernie Fine. For groups in need of support for their platforms, there will be a Rent-an-Agitator booth. Back by popular demand will be the Carney Dunking Tank, this year featuring Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, Adrian Benepe.

The public is encouraged to participate, in or out of costume, with or without floats, and may join the procession at any point along the parade route. Floats can be no wider than 10’ and no longer than 30’. They can be self-propelled, towed, pushed or pulled. Customized bicycles, tricycles, baby carriages and aerial balloons are welcome. All participants are costumed look-alikes, and the Parade Committee assumes no liability for damages caused by satire. Parade floats and marchers must be at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue no later than 11:30 a.m.

We are grateful for generous contributions from the Stephen Colbert SuperPAC, the Koch Brothers, Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, and the NY State Council on the Arts. Confetti made of shredded mortgage documents is graciously provided courtesy of Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae.

The King of Fools will be chosen based on the loudest cheers at Washington Square Park. The winner will reign through March 31, 2013, however, this may be the last April Fools’ Day Parade if, as predicted by the Mayan calendar, the world ends on December 21.

Committee chair and organizer for New York’s Annual April Fools’ Day Parade is artist Joey Skaggs.

Joey Skaggs
joey@joeyskaggs.com
(212) 254-7878
Email Information

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mailbox 3.3.2012

Posted on 3rd March 2012 in The monuments of world

Today in Mailbox: Radio Prague’s Czech language programmes, personal memories of the former Czech President Václav Havel, the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling on the case of František Oldřich Kinský. Listeners/readers quoted: Stephen Hrebenach, Harold Yeglin, Frank Miata, Carrie Paterson, Deborah Floyd, Colin Law, Jaroslaw Jedrzejczak, Miguel Angel Lahera Rivero, Charles Konecny, Hans Verner Lollike, Alan Roe.

Hello and welcome to Mailbox, Radio Prague’s regular feedback programme.

Our longtime listener Stephen Hrebenach from the United States asked the following question:

“After hearing the latest Mailbox, I did manage to find text of ABC of Czech on your website. I had to go waaaaay back to see it. I thought that since it was being rebroadcast, it might rotate forward with a more current date, similar to the labels on the rebroadcast of From the Archives. I had tried using the search function on your web page with several variations of ‘ABC of Czech’ with no success, which was why I had first inquired.

“So now I wonder if you will go even further back in the archives and broadcast ‘Living Czech’ after ABC of Czech has run its course. I still have the print outs of the Living Czech broadcasts that your station sent me many years ago. That was before the Internet access became a part of everyday life.”

Living Czech with Nick Carey was broadcast more than ten years ago and it was a very popular programme. But I’m afraid we are not planning to rerun it as we no longer have the recordings of the complete series.

Harold Yeglin from the USA shared his personal memory of President Václav Havel who passed away in December last year.

“I am American veteran of World War II, now age 86, who is adding a word, as a citizen of the world, in regard to the passing of President Václav Havel.

Václav HavelVáclav Havel “I had the privilege of meeting Václav Havel, in 1990 in Pilsen and again in 1995 at a special ceremony in Prague Castle. Both events, 1995′s in particular, will forever be highlights of my life.

“On May 5, 1995, President Havel hosted 12 American war veterans. He presented each of us with a special medallion minted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Three members each from four divisions of the war’s 3rd U.S. Army, commanded by General George Patton, were hosted at this special ceremony in Prague Castle.

“We were part of a larger group of American veterans assembled in Pilsen to attend the West Bohemian city’s 50th anniversary celebration of the liberation from German rule by the U.S. Army. We were transported that morning of May 5 from our Pilsen hotels to the elegant Prague Castle in U.S. Embassy autos.

“Dignitaries attending that ceremony included Madeleine Albright, then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and later the U.S. Secretary of State.

“One of my prized possessions is a photograph of myself talking to President Havel at a reception following the formal ceremony.

“Five years earlier, in May 1990, just brief months following the Havel-led Velvet Revolution: Pilsen was able for the first time since May 1945 to honor Americans who had liberated it – never allowed by Communist rulers in the previous four decades.

“A large number of veterans, including myself, came to Pilsen from the United States for that grand event. President Havel and U.S. Ambassador Shirley Temple Black came from Prague and were honored at a ceremony in Pilsen City Hall. It was a joyous several days for visitors and citizens alike.

The liberation of Pilsen in 1945The liberation of Pilsen in 1945 “Memorable highlights of May 1990 in Pilsen, in addition to the presence of President Havel and Ambassador Shirley Temple Black, were performances by singers Karl Gott and the incomparable Marta Kubišová. The memories of Václav Havel are lasting.”

Frank Miata from New York City responded to a recent report on the European Court of Human Rights ruling that the Czech state had denied a fair trial to the late Austrian aristocrat František Oldřich Kinský who had sued the country over his property claims.

“The official government response to the European Court on Human Rights is a classic for its cold blooded [denial] to be treated fairly and lawless sensibility to the fate of the man and his right by the Czech state. This is the same mentality that existed under the Soviet era regime and characterizes all lawless bureaucratic systems.

“That the government can actually talk about its victory on the issues of property, while it was shown to be in violation of Mr. Kinsky’s legal rights to a fair and impartial hearing before the court should be cause for real concern for all Czechs who care about liberty and human rights. After all, your country has paid a terrible price to rid itself of state thuggery under communism; to have that mindset displayed by a government official is appalling.”

Thank you for your comments and now onto our monthly competition. Carrie Paterson from Los Angeles wrote:

“In answer to your monthly Czech quiz question, the author to coin the term was Karel Čapek. However, he admitted in a newspaper that it was actually his brother Josef who came up with the idea. I learned this in a marvelous book, ‘Reflections of Prague: Journeys through the 20th Century’ by Ivan Margolius.”

Karel ČapekKarel Čapek Deborah Floyd also from California writes:

“My husband & I, who are fans of his work, visit his grave in Vyšehrad cemetery each time we are in Praha. There has been for some time now a little tin robot on his grave someone left as a tribute to this work.”

Colin Law from New Zealand sent us this answer:

“Karel Čapek was born 9 January, 1890 in Malé Svatoňovice, some 40km north of Hradec Králové in eastern Bohemia. He died aged 48, from double pneumonia, on 25 December, 1938.

“Karel was the youngest son of a doctor, Antonín Čapek, and Božena Čapková. Karel’s brother Josef was 3 years older and sister Helena was 4 years older than Karel. It was Josef, an author, artist and poet, who thought up the word ‘robot’. The brothers lived together and shared their writing experiences.

“The word ‘robot’ was used in Karel Čapek’s play entitled R.U.R., which was about a factory making artificial people and about the issue of whether the artificial people were being exploited. Karel was considering what to call these workers and after he discarded both dělňas (worker) and laboř (work) as unsuitable, his brother Josef suggested roboti from which Karel took robot as the name for his artificial people. The word came into popular use and if it had been possible to patent a word Karel, Čapek could surely have made his fortune, had he lived.

“On 26 August, 1935, Karel Čapek married actress Olga Scheinpflugová, whom he had known for almost 15 years. Olga was 32 and Karel 45. Throughout the 1930s Čapek wrote about the dangers of national socialist and fascist dictatorships. He tried to warn the Western powers about the rising threat from Nazi Germany. Because of his writings, the Nazi Gestapo named him ‘public enemy number two.” Nevertheless, Karel refused to leave Czechoslovakia when, in November 1938, he was offered the chance to go to exile in England.

“In December 1938 Karel suffered from influenza and developed pneumonia. He died in the evening of December 25th. His wife Olga was interrogated by the Gestapo and lived in fear during the Nazi occupation. During the war she began writing ‘The Czech Novel” in which she describes her relationship with Karel. She survived him by 30 years and died in 1968 after a heart attack on stage at The Vinohrady Theatre where she was playing the main character in Čapek’s play ‘The Mother’.

“Josef Čapek, who shared Karel’s views on national socialism and Adolf Hitler, was arrested in 1939 and sent to Bergen-Belsen Concentration camp. He died there in 1945 shortly before the camp was liberated by the British 11th Armoured Division. He wrote ‘Poems from a Concentration Camp’ while in Belsen.

“The grave of Karel Čapek and his wife Olga Scheinpflugová is in the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague and carries the inscription ‘Here would have been buried Josef Čapek, painter and poet. Grave far away.’ A memorial to the Čapek brothers stands on the square, Námĕstí Míru in Prague.”

Olga Scheinpflugová, Karel ČapekOlga Scheinpflugová, Karel Čapek Jaroslaw Jedrzejczak from Poland listens to the Russian and English broadcasts but has been a Radio Prague listener since 1980 when Interprogramme Radio Prague broadcast in the Polish language.

“I have a personal remark regarding Karel Čapek and me and my wife. We got married 13 years ago. The invitations to our wedding guests included the following words by your famous writer Karel Čapek:

‘Jesteśmy dwoje – dwoje na wszystko, na miłość, na ból i na godzinę szczęścia, na wygrane i przegrane, na życie i na śmierć – dwoje.”

‘We are two – two for everything, for love, life, fight and pain, for hours of happiness. Two for victories and losses, for life and death. Two.’”

Miguel Angel Lahera Rivero writes from Cuba:

“I listen on shortwave via Radio Miami International because here in Cuba since the Internet is still expensive. My answer is: The Czech author who first used the word ‘robot’ was Karel Čapek.”

Charles Konecny from the USA wrote:

“Čapek had a very solid family up-bringing and was especially close to his brother Josef. He went on to become a talented writer (sometimes working together with Josef) of novels, articles, poems, and plays. His writings often reflected his concern for the Czech nation and his work would lead him to socialize with President Masaryk and the Czech elite. And of course, one of his best known works was his science-fiction play R. U. R., where he coined a new word ‘robot’, which was actually suggested by brother Josef. Čapek’s robots looked like real people but were actually artificial people made by machines. It is an intriguing idea and scary thought if it could actually be done. So I tip my hat to Karel Čapek. Not only was he one of the foremost Czech writers, he was a true patriot of the Czech people. Artificial people……hmmm.”

Josef and Karel ČapekJosef and Karel Čapek Hans Verner Lollike from Denmark writes:

“It is too bad that now only English is contributing new words to the common vocabulary. In Denmark we are still very proud that we at least have contributed with one word: OMBUDSMAND. I am sure you have given us more words. As for ROBOT, the word was used by Karel Čapek in 1920 his play ROSSUM’s UNIVERSAL ROBOTS, but the word was proposed by his brother Josef Čapek, a famous artist, whom he had asked for advice. It is very interesting that an artist created a word that is used for a highly advanced technical device.”

Alan Roe from the United Kingdom wrote:

“It was his brother, the painter and writer Josef Čapek, who actually originated the word. Karel introduced the word robot in his 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). On research, I discovered that this play begins in a factory that makes artificial people called robots who, whilst they can think for themselves, seem happy to serve. At issue is whether the robots are being exploited and the consequences of their treatment. It sounds like an interesting play, and would be as relevant a theme today as it was over 90 years ago. These days we mostly associate Isaac Asimov with Robots and Robotics, and in particular the ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ which recur throughout his books and have since been used by many other writers.”

Thank you so much for your answers and this time our prize goes to Aarti Jawale from India … Congratulations!

This month’s mystery man was suggested by Brack Brown from the US.

Our mystery person was born in 1834 in what is now the Czech Republic. Twenty years later he left for the United States to become a renowned sculptor best known for his Civil War monuments.

Please send us your answers by the end of March to english@radio.cz. All your comments, questions and, of course, reception reports are also welcome. Until next time, take care.

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Next »