I apologize for not posting for a long time. I was asked to prepare a “protection mandate” and a Will. I am told that it is ordinary business. However, if at all possible, I will take care of my cat until nature takes him away. He will be eleven in April. I will also take care of myself.
However, I’ve not been idle. I have been comparing the Western Church, Catholicism’s Virgin Mary in particular, and the Eastern Church’s Theotokos, the Birth-Giver of God.
This subject is a little more complicated than one would suspect. The two Churches are both united and different.
I will publish my post as soon as my cat lets me use the computer’s keyboard.
“It is generally believed that by depicting various reaction of young man’s household Repin tried to show diverse but mostly positive attitude of society toward revolutionary movements of that time. Actually, under strict censorship of Czarist Russia, it was a political declaration disguised as an everyday genre scene.” (Wikiart.org.)
In the second half of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century, Russia changed dramatically. The Emancipation of serfdom, in 1861, led to a major social upheaval. Ironically, several former serfs had to pay for the piece of land they had been cultivating for centuries, but more importantly, an agrarian society was industrialized. (See Industrialisation of Russia, Wiki2.org.) Many Serfs became factory workers whose working conditions were unacceptable.
Matters culminated in a massacre known as Bloody Sunday, 22 January 1905. From 3,000 to 50,000 factory workers marched towards Saint Petersburg’s Winter Palace to deliver a petition (←text) to Tsar Nicholas II. Some 4,000 demonstrators, an approximate number, were gunned down or injured by the Imperial Guard. Others were arrested.
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) had abdicated on 2 March 1917. He and his family were executed during the night of 17 – 18 July 1918.
The painting above is immensely foreboding.
But let us listen to another part of Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, its introduction.
—ooo—
Mussorgsky’s Dawn on the Moskva-River Introduction to Khovanshchina
Barge Haulers on the Volga by Ilya Repin, 1873 (Wikiart.org.)
I eliminated my post on the Emancipation Reform of 1861. Although the Emancipation Reform of 1861 had deleterious effects on many Russians, Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881) became an alcoholic because extreme behaviour was fashionable in his days. (See Modest Mussorgsky, Wiki2.org.)
However, those who turned to the “worship of Bacchus” did not necessarily become alcoholics. Mussorgsky did, and it led to his death.
Repin‘s portrait of Mussorgsky, the eyes in particular, is one of his finest paintings.
It was the saddest of days. I was in my office, but was told to come and see what was happening in New York. We were crying. All flights to the United States were redirected to Canada and in localities where there were no hotels, motels, inns, such as Gander, Newfoundland, local families took in bewildered passengers.
I worried. If they needed medication, did they have enough? Did they have their nightgowns or pyjamas. Little things. I think my concerns were of a motherly kind.
However, later that day, I received a telephone call from a person of considerable influence in Ottawa, Allan J. MacEachen. We discussed the attacks. He wanted to know what I would do under such circumstances. I answered that, personally, if I were the President of the United States, I would not do anything. I explained that, in my opinion, the terrorists had to be tracked down, but that the United States should not engage in a war.
And what would you do as a Canadian, he asked. I answered that, in my opinion, we were doing what we could and should do. Planes headed for the United States were landing in Canada. We had to be compassionate, hospitable, generous. We had to be good neighbours.
President Obama’s Campaign
As a Canadian, I cannot even imagine life without the social programs put into place about 50 years ago. The person I mentioned above, had lost his elections and was coming back to Antigonish, Nova Scotia. However, Lester B. Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972), an extraordinary Canadian, asked him to stay in Ottawa and design social programs: universal health care, students loans, the Canada Pension Plan, which he did. We are very fortunate. I have written a blog about this person, the Honourable Allan J. MacEachen.
Regarding yesterday’s posts, I have decided to feel flattered and let things be. I am not engaging in hostilities as it could harm some of my colleagues at WordPress. They could lose a sponsor.
[O.S. 24 July]: O. S. means Old Style. There is a discrepancy of twelve days between the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582. For instance, according to the Gregorian Calendar, Christmas occurs on the 25th of December, the date closest to the longest night, but in the Eastern Church the Nativity is celebrated on January 6th, twelve days later. On that day, the Western Church celebrates the rapidly disappearing Epiphany. So, when you see O. S., add twelve days to switch from the old style to the new style.
In my last blog, I noted the existence of a site containing Russian and Canadian art. I have since been exploring Russian Art. I have discovered a picture of rafts of wood in rivers. Does this mean there were Russian draveurs as in Félix-Antoine Savard‘sMenaud, Maître-Draveur, men who risked their lives driving rafts or cages of wood down rivers, like the Canadian raftsmen?
As for the Barge Haulers of the Volga, to a certain extent, they resemble the Canadiens voyageurs who were at times spared a painful portage by standing on the two sides of a waterway hauling canoes. But the boats the Volga River boatmen pulled were extremely heavy.
I have also seen villages and towns that are quite similar to Canadian and particularly Quebec villages and towns. A church stands at the centre, above other buildings, except that the pointed clochers (steeples) of Quebec villages are onion domes or steeples in Russia or pear-shaped domes, in the Ukraine. But these domes, sometimes swirly in shape, are also found in other countries, Bavaria for instance, and on various buildings, including the Vatican, the
But to return to our Russian villages and towns, the church dominates the landscape, because of its clocher, as it does in Quebec villages and small towns.
I am not including the news. But I have chosen to insert Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff‘s (18 May 1914 – 28 June 1993) interpretation of the Song of the Volga Boatmen.
