Serene Falcon

Gardener of Human Happiness

May 16th, 2007

Was not Children of the Revolution a great film ?

Having just been studying this page on Russian Anthems Museum through the ages ( it comes out as 1.27 GB in download weight ), in addition to their renowned page for The Internationale, I rather think the Welsh Guards version of God Save The Tsar is the stateliest, despite the fact that they play it as the hymn, ‘God, the Omnipotent ! King who Ordainest, Thunder thy Clarion, Lightning thy Throne !’ with a distinct Valleys type intonation…

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Simon Sebag Montefiore continues his excursions into Russian History with the hopefully ironic title Young Stalin, not omitting the tyrant’s better points:

Inspired by a hunger for learning and an instinct to teach, he feverishly studied novels and history, but his love of letters was always dominated by his drive to command and dominate, to vanquish enemies and avenge slights. Patient, calm and modest, he could also be vainglorious, pushy and thin-skinned, with outbursts of viciousness just a short fuse away… He cultivated the coarseness of a peasant, a trait that alienated comrades, but usefully concealed his subtle gifts from snobbish rivals.

A review relates a Bolshevik party prior to their seizure of power where each was asked the finest pleasure life offers — from recollection, I believe it was a hunting-party and Lenin was the cynosure of attention as always — after each had related their undoubtedly trite and tawdry aspirations, Koba gave his ideal:

“My greatest pleasure is to choose one’s victim, prepare one’s plans minutely, slake an implacable vengeance, and then go to bed. There’s nothing sweeter in the world.”

There’s good in every one of us.