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newstfionline · 1 year ago

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Saturday, September 9, 2023

Adams Says Migrant Crisis ‘Will Destroy New York City’ (NYT) In a sharp escalation over the migrant crisis, Mayor Eric Adams claimed in stark terms that New York City was being destroyed by an influx of 110,000 asylum seekers from the southern border and said that he did not see a way to fix the issue. Mr. Adams, a Democrat in his second year in office, has clashed with leading members of his party as New York City has struggled to provide housing and services to the migrants. The mayor pointed to new projections that the city’s budget gap could grow to nearly $12 billion. The surge of migrants crossing the southern border has overwhelmed the city, with nearly 60,000 occupying beds in traditional city shelters and in more than 200 emergency sites. Migrants who are living in the city said on Thursday that they did not want to be a burden, but that they also did not want to be vilified. Winder Donald, 53, who is from Nicaragua and has passed through a few different shelters, said he was looking for work and had only found temporary construction jobs. “I don’t know if we are going to be the ones to blame for ruining the city, but the truth is that I think many of us made a mistake coming to New York because we cannot work here,” Mr. Donald said. “Without work permits, we can’t contribute.”

King Charles’s first year (Washington Post) It’s no longer difficult or weird to say “King Charles” and not “Prince Charles” in the way it was in the first months after Queen Elizabeth II died. A year since Charles III ascended to the throne—on Sept. 8, 2022—a majority of Brits say he is doing a good job as monarch, though he’s not as popular as his mum was. Charles, 74, still has much to prove in terms of how successfully he can wield soft power and maintain the relevance of the monarchy in modern times. Expectations that he might “slim down” the institution—in terms of how many senior royals are involved, but also the costs—have yet to be met. And he doesn’t appear to have made much progress on what to do about his disgraced brother, Prince Andrew, or estranged son, Prince Harry. Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith credited Charles with being more open, connecting with the public and showing himself to be a “very good extemporaneous speaker, much better than his mother.” But a year in, “what we don’t know yet is what big picture Charles has in mind,” Bedell Smith said. Unlike his mother, he is known to have strong opinions—about climate change, architecture, hedgerows. He spent a lifetime advocating for his causes. And yet there’s an idea that political neutrality is essential for the survival of the monarchy in modern times.

Russia learned from mistakes to slow Ukraine’s counteroffensive (Washington Post) Three months into Ukraine’s inching counteroffensive, Russian occupying forces have largely been able to hold their positions, often by learning from past mistakes. They have reconstituted decimated units, swapped in new ones and turned from sweeping attacks to the defense of heavily fortified front lines, showing that despite heavy losses, Moscow is willing to dig in for the long haul and wait for the resolve of Ukraine’s Western backers to diminish. The relatively well-ordered defense marks a return to long-standing Russian military doctrine and a shift from the early days of the war, when Russia overextended its forces in lumbering advances into territory it could not hold, at great cost. “It is an example of adaptation,” said Ian Matveev, a Russian military analyst for the Anti-Corruption Foundation, founded by imprisoned Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. “They are using their experience of this war,” he said, to fight Ukrainian forces to a grinding standstill.

Proximity of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Danube ports stirs fear in NATO member Romania (AP) The discovery of drone debris on Romanian territory this week has left some local residents fearing that the war in neighboring Ukraine could spread into their country, as Russian forces bombard Ukrainian ports just across the Danube River from NATO-member Romania. Moscow aims to disrupt Ukraine’s ability to export grain to world markets with a sustained campaign of attacks targeting Ukrainian Danube ports, and has attacked the port of Izmail four times this week, Ukrainian officials say. Across from Izmail, pieces apparently from a drone were found near the Romanian village of Plauru, Romanian Defense Minister Angel Tilvar said Wednesday. It was unclear if Romanian authorities had determined when or from where the drone was launched, and Tilvar said the debris didn’t pose a threat, but the development has left citizens in the European Union nation feeling uneasy.

Teams Try to Rescue Sick American 3,000 Feet Down in Turkish Cave (NYT) Emergency teams are trying to rescue a 40-year-old American man who fell ill while more than 3,000 feet under ground during a cave expedition in southern Turkey, recovery crews said on Thursday. The European Cave Rescue Association said in a statement that it received an initial report of the illness on Saturday, and it soon became clear that the man, Mark Dickey, himself a cave expert and rescuer, had gastrointestinal bleeding and was unable to leave the cave on his own. The association said the rescue from the Morca Cave in southern Turkey would be challenging given how deep Mr. Dickey was. The Speleological Federation of Turkey, which is helping with the rescue, said Thursday that Mr. Dickey’s condition had improved and that he might be able to leave the cave with help. “Mark is getting better,” the federation wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Doctors will decide whether it is possible for him to come out without a stretcher.” The Morca Cave is the third-deepest in Turkey, with a depth of 4,186 feet, or 1,276 meters, according to the Turkish federation. It is more than 13,000 feet long.

Can India’s Global Ambitions Survive Its Deepening Chasms at Home? (NYT) Inside a sprawling golf resort south of New Delhi, diplomats were busy making final preparations for a fast-approaching global summit meeting. The road outside was freshly smoothed and dotted with police officers. Posters emblazoned with the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi bore the slogan he had chosen for the occasion: One Earth, One Family, One Future. Not far away, however, were the remnants of bitter division: grieving families, charred vehicles and the rubble of bulldozed shops and homes. Weeks before, deadly religious violence had erupted in the Nuh district, the site of the resort. The internet was shut down, and thousands of troops were rushed in. Clashes quickly spread to the gates of Gurugram, a tech start-up hub just outside New Delhi that India bills as a city of the future. These scenes sum up India’s contradictions as it basks in its moment this weekend as host of the Group of 20: Its momentum toward a bigger role in a chaotic world order is built on increasingly combustible and unequal ground at home. His party’s efforts to rally and elevate Hindus—both a lifelong ideological project and a potent lure for votes—have marginalized hundreds of millions of Muslims and other minorities as second-class citizens.

Powerful quake in Morocco kills more than 600 people (AP) A rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco late Friday night, killing hundreds of people and damaging buildings from villages in the Atlas Mountains to the historic city of Marrakech. Morocco’s Interior Ministry said Saturday morning that at least 632 people had died, mostly in Marrakech and five provinces near the quake’s epicenter. Another 329 people were injured. Casualty figures were expected to rise more as the search continues and as rescuers reach remote areas. Moroccan television showed scenes from the aftermath, as many stayed outside fearing aftershocks.

South Sudanese Flee War in Sudan (NYT) Nyamut Gai lost everything four years ago when armed militias stormed through her village in South Sudan, a landlocked African country tormented by civil war, famine and flooding. Desperate, she and her family fled almost 600 miles north across the border to Sudan, where she worked as a cleaner in the capital, Khartoum, and began to settle in. But then, a fierce war broke out in Sudan in mid-April between rival factions of the military, sending her packing yet again. As she and her family made the weekslong journey by foot and bus from Khartoum, her 1-month-old son began coughing and withering away from hunger, and soon died. When she finally crossed the border into South Sudan, any sense of relief she felt was shattered when her 3-year-old son succumbed to measles. “We are not safe anywhere,” Ms. Gai, 28, said on a recent morning at a muddy and congested aid center in Renk, a town in South Sudan. “People fled war here. There’s a war in Sudan now. There’s war everywhere,” she said. “It never ends.” The war in Sudan has set off a mass exodus of people who years ago fled a bloody civil war in South Sudan to seek safety in Sudan. But they are returning home to a country still in the grip of political instability, economic stagnation and a massive humanitarian crisis—many of them without actual homes to return to.

Something Past Its Expiration Date: the Expiration Date Itself (WSJ) Some numbers are bad because they mislead. Expiration dates on our food are worse: They’re downright destructive. Food experts broadly agree that the expiration dates on every box of crackers, can of beans and bag of apples waste money, squander perfectly good food, needlessly clog landfills, spew methane and contribute to climate change. Contrary to a common perception, “those dates are not about safety, that’s not why they’re there, that’s not what they’re doing” says Martin Wiedmann, a professor of food safety and food science at Cornell University. “For many foods, we could completely do away with it.” The dates originated as a coded system for manufacturers to communicate to retailers when to rotate stock. Consumers clamored for information on the freshness of food, and in the 1970s and 1980s consumer-facing dates became widespread, though never standardized. Food manufacturers have tried, largely in vain, to explain that these are mostly general indicators of when food is at its peak quality. Most foods, properly stored, remain edible and safe long after their peak.

Nearly every modern car shares or sells your data, according to Mozilla (Quartz) Forget snooping smartphones and spying smartwatches. Modern, connected cars are “the official worst category of products for privacy that we have ever reviewed,” Mozilla concluded after studying two dozen brands. Mozilla, the not-for-profit behind the open-source Firefox browser, revealed yesterday (Sep. 6) that “every car brand we looked at collects more personal data than necessary and uses that information for a reason other than to operate your vehicle and manage their relationship with you.” And 84% of the cars sold or shared the personal data they collected, Mozilla said. Cars are not just collecting car-related data like mileage and geolocation—they’re collecting, storing, and sharing information about passengers, pedestrians in the vicinity, and more. They also have access to several types of information, including connected devices (read: phones) and apps like Google Maps.

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cinema-tv-etc · 1 year ago

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The Making of Billy Wilder

By Noah Isenberg - April 5, 2021

Long before the award-winning Hollywood screenwriter and director Billy Wilder spelled his first name with a y, in faithful adherence to the ways of his adopted homeland, he was known—and widely published, in Berlin and Vienna—as Billie Wilder. At birth, on June 22, 1906, in a small Galician town called Sucha, less than twenty miles northwest of Kraków, he was given the name Samuel in memory of his maternal grandfather. His mother, Eugenia, however, preferred the name Billie. She had already taken to calling her first son, Wilhelm, two years Billie’s senior, Willie. As a young girl, Eugenia had crossed the Atlantic and lived in New York City for several years with a jeweler uncle in his Madison Avenue apartment. At some point during that formative stay, she caught a performance of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West touring show, and her affection for the exotic name stuck, even without the y, as did her intense, infectious love for all things American. “Billie was her American boy,” insists Ed Sikov in On Sunset Boulevard, his definitive biography of the internationally acclaimed writer and director.

Wilder spent the first years of his life in Kraków, where his father, the Galician-born Max (né Hersch Mendel), had started his career in the restaurant world as a waiter and then, after Billie’s birth, as the manager of a small chain of railway cafés along the Vienna-to-Lemberg line. When this gambit lost steam, Max opened a hotel and restaurant known as Hotel City in the heart of Kraków, not far from the Wawel Castle. A hyperactive child, known for flitting about with bursts of speed and energy, Billie was prone to troublemaking: he developed an early habit of swiping tips left on the tables at his father’s hotel restaurant and for snookering unsuspecting guests at the pool table. After all, he was the rightful bearer of a last name that conjures up, in both German and English, a devilish assortment of idiomatic expressions suggestive of a feral beast, a wild man, even a lunatic. “Long before Billy Wilder was Billy Wilder,” his second wife, Audrey, once remarked, “he behaved like Billy Wilder.”

The Wilder family soon moved to Vienna, where assimilated Jews of their ilk could better pursue their dreams of upward mobility. They lived in an apartment in the city’s First District, the hub of culture and commerce, just across the Danube from the Leopoldstadt, the neighborhood known for its unusually high concentration of recently arrived Jews from Galicia and other regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When the monarchy collapsed, after World War I, the Wilders were considered to be subjects of Poland and, despite repeated efforts, were unable to attain Austrian citizenship. Billie attended secondary school in the city’s Eighth District, in the so-called Josefstadt, but his focus was often elsewhere. Across the street from his school was a tawdry “hotel by the hour” called the Stadion; he liked to watch for hours on end as patrons went in and out, trying to imagine the kinds of human transactions taking place inside. He also spent long hours in the dark catching matinees at the Urania, the Rotenturm Kino, and other cherished Viennese movie houses. Any chance to take in a picture show, to watch a boxing match, or to land a seat in a card game was a welcome chance for young Billie.

Although Wilder père had other plans for his son—a respectable, stable career in the law, an exalted path for good Jewish boys of interwar Vienna—Billie was drawn, almost habitually, to the seductive world of urban and popular culture and to the stories generated and told from within it. “I just fought with my father to become a lawyer,” he recounted for the filmmaker Cameron Crowe in Conversations with Wilder: “That I didn’t want to do, and I saved myself, by having become a newspaperman, a reporter, very badly paid.” As he explains a bit further in the same interview, “I started out with crossword puzzles, and I signed them.” (Toward the end of his life, after having racked up six Academy Awards, Wilder told his German biographer that it wasn’t so much the awards he was most proud of, but rather that his name had appeared twice in the New York Times crossword puzzle: “once 17 across and once 21 down.”)

In the weeks leading up to Christmas 1924, at a mere eighteen years of age and fresh out of gymnasium (high school), with diploma in hand, Billie wrote to the editorial staff at Die Bühne, one of the two local tabloids that were part of the media empire belonging to a shifty Hungarian émigré named Imre Békessy, to ask how he might go about becoming a journalist, maybe even a foreign correspondent. Somewhat naively, he thought this could be his ticket to America. He received an answer, not the one he was hoping for, explaining that without complete command of English he wouldn’t stand a chance.

Never one to give up, Billie paid a visit to the office one day early in the new year and, exploiting his outsize gift of gab, managed to talk his way in. In subsequent interviews, he liked to tell of how he landed his first job at Die Bühne by walking in on the paper’s chief theater critic, a certain Herr Doktor Liebstöckl, having sex with his secretary one Saturday afternoon. “You’re lucky I was working overtime today,” he purportedly told Billie. (It’s hard not to think of the cast of characters that emerge from the pages of his later screenplays—the sex-starved men in his American directorial debut, The Major and the Minor [1942], or in Love in the Afternoon [1957] or The Apartment [1960]—who bear a strong family resemblance to Herr Liebstöckl.) Soon he was schmoozing with journalists, poets, actors, the theater people who trained with Max Reinhardt, and the coffeehouse wits who gathered at Vienna’s Café Herrenhof. There he met the writers Alfred Polgar and Joseph Roth, a young Hungarian stage actor named László Löwenstein (later known to the world as Peter Lorre), and the critic and aphorist Anton Kuh. “Billie is by profession a keeper of alibis,” observed Kuh with a good bit of sarcasm. “Wherever something is going on, he has an alibi. He was born into the world with an alibi, according to which Billie wasn’t even present when it occurred.”

The Viennese journalistic scene at the time was anything but dull, and Billie bore witness, alibi or no alibi, to the contemporary debates, sex, and violence that occurred in his midst. He carried with him a visiting card with his name (“Billie S. Wilder”) emblazoned upon it, and underneath it the name of the other Békessy tabloid, Die Stunde, to which he contributed crossword puzzles, short features, movie reviews, and profiles. Around the time he was filing his freelance pieces at a rapid clip, a fiery feud was taking place between Békessy and Karl Kraus, the acid-tongued don of Viennese letters, editor and founder of Die Fackel (The Torch), who was determined to drive the Hungarian “scoundrel” out of the city and banish him once and for all from the world of journalism. To add to this volatile climate, just months after Billie began working for the tabloid, one of Die Stunde’s most famous writers, the Viennese novelist Hugo Bettauer, author of the best-selling novel Die Stadt ohne Juden (The City without Jews, 1922), was gunned down by a proto-Nazi thug.

“I was brash, bursting with assertiveness, had a talent for exaggeration,” Wilder told his German biographer Hellmuth Karasek, “and was convinced that in the shortest span of time I’d learn to ask shameless questions without restraint.” He was right, and soon gained precious access to everyone from international movie stars like Asta Nielsen and Adolphe Menjou to the royal celebrity Prince of Wales (Edward VIII)—to whom he devoted two separate pieces—and the American heir and newspaper magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt IV. “In a single morning,” he boasted in a 1963 interview with Playboy’s Richard Gehman, speaking of his earliest days as a journalist in Vienna, “I interviewed Sigmund Freud, his colleague Alfred Adler, the playwright and novelist Arthur Schnitzler, and the composer Richard Strauss. In one morning.” And while there may not be any extant articles to corroborate such audacious claims, he did manage to interview the world-famous British female dance troupe the Tiller Girls, whose arrival at Vienna’s Westbahnhof station in April 1926 the nineteen-year-old Billie happily chronicled for Die Bühne. A mere two months later he got his big break, when the American jazz orchestra leader Paul Whiteman paid a visit to Vienna. There’s a wonderful photograph of Billie in a snap-brim hat, hands resting casually in his suit-jacket pockets, a cocksure grin on his face, standing just behind Whiteman, as if to ingratiate himself as deeply as possible; after publishing a successful interview and profile in Die Stunde, he was invited to tag along for the Berlin leg of the tour.

📷Billie Wilder, second from right, with Paul Whiteman and his band, 1926.

In his conversations with Cameron Crowe, Wilder describes visiting Whiteman at his hotel in Vienna after the interview he conducted with him. “In my broken English, I told him that I was anxious to see him perform. And Whiteman told me, ‘If you’re eager to hear me, to hear the big band, you can come with me to Berlin.’ He paid for my trip, for a week there or something. And I accepted it. And I packed up my things, and I never went back to Vienna. I wrote the piece about Whiteman for the paper in Vienna. And then I was a newspaperman for a paper in Berlin.” Serving as something of a press agent and tour guide—a role he’d play once more when the American filmmaker Allan Dwan would spend his honeymoon in Berlin and, among other things, would introduce Billie to the joys of the dry martini—Wilder reviewed Whiteman’s German premiere at the Grosses Schauspielhaus, which took place before an audience of thousands. “The ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ a composition that created quite a stir over in the States,” he writes, “is an experiment in exploiting the rhythms of American folk music. When Whiteman plays it, it is a great piece of artistry. He has to do encores again and again. The normally standoffish people of Berlin are singing his praises. People stay on in the theater half an hour after the concert.”

Often referred to as Chicago on the Spree, as Mark Twain once dubbed it, Berlin in the mid-1920s had a certain New World waft to it. A cresting wave of Amerikanismus—a seemingly bottomless love of dancing the Charleston, of cocktail bars and race cars, and a world-renowned nightlife that glimmered amid a sea of neon advertisements—had swept across the city and pervaded its urban air. It proved to be a perfect training ground for Billie’s ultimate migration to America, and a place that afforded him a freedom that he hadn’t felt in Vienna. As the film scholar Gerd Gemünden has remarked in his illuminating study of Wilder’s American career, “the American-influenced metropolis of Berlin gave Wilder the chance to reinvent himself.”

During his time in Berlin, Wilder had a number of mentors who helped guide his career. First among them was the Prague-born writer and critic Egon Erwin Kisch, one of the leading newspapermen of continental Europe, who was known to hold court at his table—the “Tisch von Kisch,” as it was called—at the Romanisches Café on Kurfürstendamm, a favorite haunt among Weimar-era writers, artists, and entertainers. (Wilder would hatch the idea for the film Menschen am Sonntag [People on Sunday, 1930]—on café napkins, the story goes—at the Romanisches a handful of years later.) Kisch not only read drafts of Wilder’s early freelance assignments in Berlin, offering line edits and friendly encouragement, but helped him procure a furnished apartment just underneath him in the Wilmersdorf section of the city. A well-traveled veteran journalist, Kisch had long fashioned himself as Der rasende Reporter (The Racing Reporter), the title he gave to the collection of journalistic writings he published in Berlin in 1925, serving as an inspiration and role model for Billie (a caricature of Wilder from the period encapsulates that very spirit).

“His reporting was built like a good movie script,” Wilder later remarked of Kisch. “It was classically organized in three acts and was never boring for the reader.” In an article on the German book market, published in 1930 in the literary magazine Der Querschnitt, he makes special reference to Kisch’s Paradies Amerika (Paradise America, 1929), perhaps a conscious nod to the nascent Americanophilia that was already blossoming inside him.

Among the best-known dispatches of the dozens that Billie published during his extended stint as a freelance reporter was his four-part series for the Berliner Zeitung am Mittag (B. Z.), later reprinted in Die Bühne, on his experiences working as a dancer for hire at the posh Eden Hotel. The piece bore an epigraph from yet another of his Berlin mentors, the writer Alfred Henschke, who published under the nom de plume Klabund and was married to the prominent cabaret and theater actress Carola Neher. In it, Klabund advises young writers, gesturing toward the contemporary aesthetic trend of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), to write about events as they really occurred: “The only thing that still interests us today about literature is the raw materials it’s made of: life, actuality, reality.” Since it’s Wilder, of course, the truth is mixed with a healthy dose of droll, martini-dry humor and a touch of unavoidable poetic license as he recounts the gritty details of his trade: the wealthy ladies of leisure who seek his services, the jealous husbands who glare at him, and the grueling hours of labor on the dance floor. “I wasn’t the best dancer,” he later said of this period, “but I had the best dialogue.”

Early on in the same piece, he includes a review of his performance attributed to the hotel management that in many way serves as an apt summation of his whole career: “Herr Wilder knew how to adapt to the fussiest audiences in every way in his capacity as a dancer. He achieved success in his position and always adhered to the interests of the establishment.” He put the skills he acquired on the dance floor to continued use on the page and on the screen, always pleasing his audience and ensuring his path to success. “I say to myself: I’m a fool,” he writes in a moment of intense self-awareness. “Sleepless nights, misgivings, doubts? The revolving door has thrust me into despair, that’s for sure. Outside it is winter, friends from the Romanisches Café, all with colds, are debating sympathy and poverty, and, just like me, yesterday, have no idea where to spend the night. I, however, am a dancer. The big wide world will wrap its arms around me.”

📷Title page of the four-part article “Herr Ober, bitte einen Tänzer!”—in which Wilder describes his days as a hotel dancer for hire—from its reprint in Die Bühne (June 2, 1927).

An ideal match for Billie arrived when, in 1928, the Ullstein publishing house, publisher of the Berliner Zeitung am Mittag, introduced a new afternoon Boulevard-Zeitung, an illustrated paper aimed at a young readership and bearing a title that would speak directly to them and to Wilder: Tempo. “It was a tabloid,” remarked the historian Peter Gay in his early study of the “German-Jewish Spirit” of the city, “racy in tone, visual in appeal, designed to please the Berliner who ran as he read.” The Berliners, however, quickly adopted another name for it: they called it Die jüdische Hast, or “Jewish Haste.” Billie, an inveterate pacer and man on the move, was a good fit for Tempo and vice versa (it was in its pages that he introduced Berliners to the short-lived independent production company Filmstudio 1929 and the young cineastes, including Wilder himself, behind its creation).

In 1928, after serving as an uncredited ghostwriter on a number of screenplays, Billie earned a solo writing credit for a picture that had more than a slight autobiographical bearing on its author. It was called Der Teufelsreporter (Hell of a Reporter), though it also bore the subtitle Im Nebel der Großstadt (In the Fog of the Metropolis), and was directed by Ernst Laemmle, nephew of Universal boss Carl Laemmle. Set in contemporary Berlin, it tells the story of the titular character, a frenetic newspaperman played by the American actor Eddie Polo, a former circus star, who works at a city tabloid—called Rapid, in explicit homage—and whose chief attributes are immediately traceable to Wilder himself. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, young Billie even has a brief appearance in the film, dressed just like the other reporters in his midst. “He performs this cameo,” write the German film scholars Rolf Aurich and Wolfgang Jacobsen, “as if to prove who the true Teufelsreporter is.” In addition to asserting a deeper connection to the city and to American-style tabloid journalism, Der Teufelsreporter lays a foundation for other hard-boiled newspapermen in Wilder’s Hollywood repertoire, from Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) in Ace in the Hole (1951) to Walter Burns (Walter Matthau) in The Front Page (1974).

Further affinities between Wilder’s Weimar-era writings and his later film work abound. For example, in “Berlin Rendezvous,” an article he published in the Berliner Börsen Courier in early 1927, he writes about the favored meeting spots within the city, including the oversize clock, called the Normaluhr, at the Berlin Zoo railway station. Two years later, when writing his script for Menschen am Sonntag, he located the pivotal rendezvous between two of his amateur protagonists, Wolfgang von Waltershausen and Christl Ehlers, at precisely the same spot. For the same script, he crafted the character of Wolfgang, a traveling wine salesman and playboy, as a seeming wish-fulfillment fantasy of his own exploits as a dancer for hire. Likewise, in his early account of the Tiller Girls arriving by train in Vienna, there’s more than a mere germ of Sweet Sue and Her Society Syncopators, the all-girl band in Some Like It Hot (1959); there’s even a Miss Harvey (“the shepherdess of these little sheep”), anticipating the character of Sweet Sue herself. In a short comic piece on casting, Billie pays tribute to the director Ernst Lubitsch, a future mentor in Hollywood (many years later, Wilder’s office in Beverly Hills featured a mounted plaque designed by Saul Bass with the words HOW WOULD LUBITSCH DO IT? emblazoned on it). Finally, in his 1929 profile of Erich von Stroheim, in Der Querschnitt, among the many things young Billie highlights is Gloria Swanson’s performance in Stroheim’s late silent, Queen Kelly (1929). It was the first flicker of the inspired idea to cast Swanson and Stroheim as a pair of crusty, vaguely twisted emissaries from the lost world of silent cinema in Sunset Boulevard (1950).

By the time Wilder boarded a British ocean liner, the SS Aquitania, bound for America in January 1934, he’d managed to acquire a few more screen credits and a little more experience in show business, but very little of the English language (he purportedly packed secondhand copies of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, Sinclair Lewis’s Babbit, and Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel in his suitcase). He had gone from a salaried screenwriter at UFA in Berlin to an unemployed refugee in Paris to an American transplant with twenty dollars and a hundred English words in his possession. “He paced his way across the Atlantic,” remarks Sikov. And soon he’d pace his way onto the lots of MGM, Paramount, and other major film studios, joining an illustrious group of Middle European refugees who would forever change the face of Hollywood.

Wilder’s acclaimed work in Hollywood, as a screenwriter and director, is in many ways an outgrowth of his stint as a reporter in interwar Vienna and Weimar Berlin. His is a raconteur’s cinema, long on smart, snappy dialogue, short on visual acrobatics. “For Wilder the former journalist, words have a special, almost material quality,” comments the German critic Claudius Seidl. “Words are what give his films their buoyancy, elegance, and their characteristic shape, since words can fly faster, glide more elegantly, can spin more than any camera.” Wilder’s deep-seated attachment to the principal tools of his trade as a writer is recognizable throughout his filmic career. He even provided an apt coda, uttered by none other than fading silent screen star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Sunset Boulevard, when she learns that Joe Gillis (William Holden) is a writer: “words, words, more words!”

📷Wilder, at center, with Peter Lorre and other Middle European refugees in Hollywood.

Noah Isenberg is the George Christian Centennial Professor and chair of the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin. The author, most recently, of We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie (W. W. Norton, 2017), he is currently completing a book on Some Like It Hot. His writing has appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, Bookforum, The New York Review Daily, and The New York Times Book Review, among other outlets.

Excerpted from Billy Wilder on Assignment: Dispatches for Weimar Berlin and Interwar Vienna, edited by Noah Isenberg and translated by Shelley Frisch, published later this month by Princeton University Press. Copyright © 2021 by Noah Isenberg.

Read Billy Wilder’s Art of Screenwriting interview.

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2021/04/05/the-making-of-billy-wilder/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

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dirizabl · 2 years ago

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Споменик културе Кућа у улици Цара Душана бр. 10

Кућа Елијаса Флајшмана, занатлије ременара, подигну��а је између 1724. и 1727. године као један од првих објеката који су изграђени у време аустријске окупације Београда (1717-1739) према регулационом плану пуковника Николе Доксата де Мореза. Кућа има подрум, приземље и спрат. Грађена је као једна од седам истих зграда у низу. Њена првобитна фасада била је рашчлањена једноставним хоризонталним венцем над приземљем, бочним пиластрима на угловима и, вероватно, профилисаним кровним венцем. Портали су били уоквирени профилисаним каменим оквирима. Типичан је пример стамбено-пословне градске куће, уобичајене на подручју подунавских земаља Хабзбуршке монархије током XVIII века. Једини је стамбени објекат из прве половине XVIII века који је сачуван у урбаном ткиву Београда, изван комплекса Тврђаве. То је данас најстарија зграда Београда која је својим трајањем надживела све промене у архитектонском наслеђу.

Cultural monument House at 10, Cara Du��ana Street

The house of Elijas Flajšman, saddler, was built between 1724 and 1727 as one of the first buildings erected during the Austrian occupation of Belgrade (1717-1739) according to the street regulation plan of colonel Nikola Doksat de Morez. The house has a cellar, ground floor and upper floor. It was built as one of seven houses in the row. Its original façade was divided by a simple horizontal cornice above the ground floor, by side pilasters on the corners and, probably, a profiled roof cornice. The portals were framed in profiled stone frames. It is a typical example of a residential-business urban house, common in the area of the Habsburg monarchy in the Danube region in the eighteenth century. It is the only residential house from the first half of the eighteenth century preserved in the urban structure of Belgrade outside the complex of the Fortress. Today, it is the oldest building of Belgrade which has outlived all changes in architectural legacy.

#Belgrade #Serbia #Architecture #legacy #Srbija #beograd

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thisdayinwwi · 3 years ago

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Daily Telegraph OTD July 6, 1914 covers murdered Archduke’ funeral

Funeral of the Murdered Archduke Burial in a Storm Extraordinary Scenes Angry Aristocrats

The Emperor Francis Joseph issued an autograph letter to-day, in which he thanked his people for their sympathy in connection with the tragedy of Sarajevo. His Majesty first refers to the loss of the Archduke and the Duchess, and then continues:

A murderous hand has robbed me of my relative and true helper; has inflicted indescribable sorrow on children of the tenderest age, who need the care and protection of all that was dear to them in the world; and has heaped woe on their innocent heads. The madness of a small band of misguided men will, however, not shake those bonds which bind me to my peoples. It does not touch the feelings of innermost love, which has again been manifested in such a touching manner to me and all the members of the Ruling House from all parts of the Monarchy. For six and a half decades I have shared sorrows and joys with my people, and even in my heaviest hours I have always thought of my duty, that I was answerable for the fate of millions to the Almighty. The fresh, painful trial that God, in His inscrutable Providence, has sent to me and mine, will strengthen my determination to continue on my recognized path, acting for the welfare of my peoples until my last breath.

This autograph letter is very moving, and the last phrase is very much remarked, as it distinctly contradicts all reports spread during the last few days that the Emperor intends to abdicate.

The Emperor has also issued an order to the army and the fleet. The Monarch expresses his feeling that the death of the Archduke ill be a great loss to the army, but concludes with the words:

I do not, however, give up hope of a worthy future, for I am convinced that in all the trouble that many visit us, Austria-Hungary may firmly trust in the capacity of sacrifice until death shown by her army and navy, which are unshakable in devotion to duty.

Unpleasant Incidents

The arrangements for the funeral of the Archduke and his wife led to a severe conflict between the Austrian and Hungarian nobility and the Master of the Ceremonies, Prince Montenuovo, and brought about a remarkable demonstration on the part of the aristocracy. The plans for the mourning ceremonies were extremely simple, the reason given for this being that full burial honours due to the heir to the Throne could not be accorded to him because he was buried with his wife, the Duchess of Hobenberg, who was not of Royal birth. The members of the high aristocracy who had received no invitations to the funeral were most indignant, as the Duchess of Hobenberg, as Countess Chotek, belonged to the very old nobility, and on Friday evening, when the funeral procession left the Vienna Hofburg for the Western Railway to proceed to Artstetten over a hundred members of the Austrian and Hungarian aristocracy awaited its passage in the streets and joined it in a body. The gentlemen were in military uniform or in official Privy Councilors' costumes, and they followed the coffins as far as the railway station. This deputation was naturally much noticed by the public.

In military circles also the arrangements made by the Master of the Ceremonies were much objected to, as they had no possibility of paying their last respects to the Archduke. The Emperor, however, decided at the last moment that the entire Vienna garrison should turn out and accompany the funeral cortege to the Western Railway. The position of the Prince Montenuovo, who bases his action on the strict Spanish ceremonial which is observed at the Austrian Court, is shaken, as the new heir to the Throne, the Archduke Karl Franz Josef, also showed his displeasure and was present at the arrival of the corpses in Vienna, although this was not provided for in the plan drawn up by the Master of the Ceremonies.

The termination of the disastrous week which has passed over Austria-Hungary was marked by the funeral of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife at the castle of Artstetten, on the Danube, which the Archduke in his lifetime had chosen as the last resting-place for himself and the members of his family. The Imperial Master of the Ceremonies had arranged that the bodies should be taken over the ferry at Poechlarn immediately on their arrival there, but this programme was not carried out on account of a storm, and the conveyance of the corpses was attended by scenes of great confusion.

#archduke franz ferdinand #assassination of franz ferdinand #assassination

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authorajalexander · 5 months ago

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Happy Swiss National Holiday 2024!

733 years ago, on August 1, 1291, in a top-secret conference, Fuerst, from Uri, Stauffacher from Schwyz, and von Melchtal, representing Unterwalden held up their left hands for an oath, their right hands were placed on their hearts. “… We swear, in good faith, to…” This oath, ever since, has been known as the ‘Ruetli Oath’ and formed the Confoederatio Helvetica,, the ‘Helvetic Confederation’, or…

#Battles #celebration #Confoederatio Helvetica #country #Danube Monarchy #Habsburg #happy birthday #Helvetic Confederations #History #Independence #Independence Day #Switzerland

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bookingvacation · 3 years ago

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Bulgarians and Albanians

The measures necessary to Verbize the regions were undertaken through the schools and churches; “ disaffected ” Bulgarians and Albanians were driven out by thousands, their land being occupied by Serbs. This firm policy in domestic matters was paralleled by a vigorous policy in foreign affairs, directed toward strengthening Serbia against the enemy across the Danube who by the erection of the independent state of Albania had prevented the realization of Serbian hopes of access to the sea. The fine statesmanship of the premier, M. Pashitch, secured the passage by the Skupshtina of a bill authorizing the government to conclude a treaty with Montenegro forming a military, diplomatic, and customs union between the two countries. He strengthened the cordial understanding with Greece by the support he gave in her controversy with Turkey, and secured a commercial treaty which gave Serbian commerce considerable advantages in using the port of Saloniki. He concluded an agreement with Rumania for the building of a great bridge across the Danube better to improve communication and commerce between the two countries. In preparation for the struggle with Austria-Hungary which he was anxious to avoid but which seemed inevitable, he leaned more and more upon Russia. Serbia was justly regarded as the point of Russian influence in the Balkans.

Narodna Obrana

The constructive work of M. Pashitch was much impeded by the military clique whose prestige and arrogance had been largely increased by the success of the army in the Balkan wars. Army officers were most influential in the Narodna Obrana (National Union) which conducted Pan-Serbian conspiracies in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the aim of uniting them to “ Mother ” Serbia. This agitation was particularly obnoxious to the Austro-Hungarian heir-apparent, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was a real friend of the Slavs of the Dual Monarchy. He was known to favor the organization of the Haps- burg dominions into a federal empire instead of a dual monarchy in order to place the Slavs upon an equal footing with the Germans and the Magyars. Hence his very efforts to conciliate the discontented Slavs within the empire made him a dangerous enemy to the Pan-Serbian cause. Moreover, he was hated by the Serbians as the instigator of the coup of 1908, whereby Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed to Austria- Hungary, and he was known to favor for the Dual Monarchy a vigorous foreign policy which included spreading Austro- Hungarian influence in the Balkans.

#Bulgarians and Albanians

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wineschool-blog · 3 years ago

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Austrian Wine

https://j.mp/3joaM3C Austria is well known for Mozart, Schnitzel, Sacher torte, and The Sound of Music, but are you aware of its viticulture? During the 19th century, Austria’s wine industry boomed, but many setbacks in the 20th century almost eradicated it. But, like the phoenix from the ashes, it has reemerged riding on the back of its unique and popular grape: Gruner Veltliner. Over the last decade, wines produced from Zweigelt and Blaufrankisch have started to make waves in the United States, bolstering Austria’s place in viticulture. But, to take a closer look, we need to start at the beginning: a perfect place to start. Table of ContentsHistory of Austrian WinePhylloxeraEthylene GlycolRenewalWine todayWine RegionsNiederosterreichBurgenlandSteiermarkViennaVarietalsGruner VeltlinerWiener Gemischter SatzZweigeltBlaufrankischSt. LaurentAustrian Wine Regions History of Austrian Wine Wine came to Austria via the Celts in 700 BCE. The Romans further advanced winemaking in the first century BCE by improving production techniques. After the fall of the Roman Empire, however, winemaking stagnated. In the 9th century, Charlemagne encouraged winemaking and instituted new guidelines. Cistercian Monks further advanced wine production by introducing Burgundian methods in the dark ages, and by the 15th century, vineyards covered most regions of Austria. Phylloxera Austrian winemaking continued to thrive until the late 1800’s when mildew and phylloxera devastated the vines throughout the country. The further decline occurred after World War I and the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy when 30% of Austrian vines were lost when portions of Austria were annexed to other countries. The Soviets further plundered winemaking with the collapse of Nazi Germany after World War II. As a result, the wine industry started making low-quality, mass-produced wine after WW2. Ethylene Glycol The greatest embarrassment to Austrian wine culture occurred in the mid-1980s when it was found that some winemakers added ethylene glycol to their wines to increase their complexity. As a result, the Austrian industry fell into shambles, and exports dropped substantially. Renewal So, how do you solve a problem like a bad reputation? In 1986, the Austrian Wine Marketing Board was established. After that, strict wine laws were increasingly put in place, culminating in 2009 with the passage of the Austrian Wine Act. The government-guaranteed wine regulation and quality, and Austrian wines were well on their way back. Let’s take a closer look at Austrian wine today. Wine today Austrian wine is now synonymous with Gruner Veltliner, their native grape. This grape represents their most planted and exported wine. It remains the anchor of Austrian wine; however, sales of Gruner have grown stagnant. New and interesting red wines made from Zweigelt and Blaufrankisch receive rave reviews and may indicate the start of the second wave of exports from Austria. Let’s dive further into this beautiful country and the grapes they use. Wine Regions The land of Austria involves thoughts of the Alps and great skiing (primarily in the western part of the country). Austria’s east and south regions are perfect for Vitis vinifera and are where most of the country’s wine is produced. Niederosterreich Austria’s largest wine region is Niederosterreich, located in the northeast part of the country. This area lies along the Danube and contains the capital city, Vienna. It is the heart of white wine production, mainly Gruner Veltliner comprising 44% of the planted grapes. Eight specific DAC (Districtus Austriae Controllatus) are located in this region. Six of the 8 DAC focus on white wine: Wagram, Traisental, Wachau, Kremstal, Kamptal, and Weinviertel. These regions focus not only on the outstanding Gruner Veltliner but other white grapes, including Riesling, Pinot Blanc, and Chardonnay. In addition, reds rule in the southern regions of Carnuntum and Thermenregion. Burgenland South of Niederosterreich is Burgenland, where the red wines from Blaufrankisch, St. Laurent, and Zweigelt reign supreme. Five DAC exists in this region. The DAC of Mittelburgenland leads to full bodied dark fruit driven reds while the DAC of Neusiedlersee, Leithaberg, and Eisenberg produce more minerally and tannic wines. Within Neusiedlersee lies the special region of Seewinkel. This region has a unique humid microclimate due to its proximity to Lake Neusiedle, which leads to the development of botrytis on the grapes in the region. Called noble rot, grapes affected develop high sugar levels and give rise to the production of quality dessert wines called Ausbruch. The 5th DAC called Rosalia is aptly named given its production of rose wines. Steiermark Located just southwest of Burgenland is Steiermark (Styria) which contains 3 DAC. Vulkanland Steirmark makes spicy white wines due to its volcanic soils. (May this region live long and prosper)! Sudsteiermark is known for its Sauvignon Blanc production and Weststeiermark makes red wines from Blauer Wildbacher. Vienna As the only country capital in the world that makes high-quality wines, Vienna is known for its table wine called Wiener Gemischter Satz: a field blend of white grapes. Now that we discussed the regions let’s take a closer look into the unique grapes from Austria. Varietals Gruner Veltliner Gruner Veltliner makes the most important wine in Austria and accounts for 31% of all grapes planted in the country. This grape is believed to come from a crossing between Traminer and another unconfirmed 2nd grape. The grape is easily grown throughout the Niederosterreich and is regulated by the Austrian government to limit production and maintain quality. The Gruner grown in the region of Weinviertel are the most well-known and are of the highest quality. These wines are the spiciest and peppery, along with higher acidity than other Gruners. Gruner made in the rest of the Niederosterreich is generally riper with stone fruit notes and a bigger body. Wiener Gemischter Satz Wiener Gemischter Satz is a field blend grown in Vienna and is served in every tavern across the city as a table wine. It is made from many varietals, including Gruner Veltliner, Riesling, Traminer, and other whites. Recently, this blend has been produced for exportation, and this wine may be found in the US in the future. Other white wine varietals planted throughout Austria but mainly in the Niederosterreich and Steiermark are the international grapes Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay. Zweigelt Red grapes are mainly grown in the lower Niederosterreich, throughout the Burgenland, and in the Steiermark. The Zweigelt grape was created in the 1920s by Professor Fritz Zweigelt when he crossed Blaufrankisch and St. Laurent. Zweigelt is the most widespread red grape in Austria, accounting for 14% of grapes planted. It is mainly grown in Burgenland. Wines produced from this grape are usually well structured and balanced with dark fruit notes. Consequently, these wines are sometimes compared to pinot noir. Blaufrankisch Blaufrankisch is a traditional Austrian grape mainly grown in Burgenland and southern Niederosterreich. This grape accounts for 6.5% of all vines in the country. It was first known to be produced in the 1700s and tends to make wines with high acidity and tannins characterized with cherry or berry notes. St. Laurent The additional red grape, St. Laurent, was named for St. Lawrence day, the day that grapes begin to change color. Wines made from this grape are usually dark and big-bodied with cherry notes. The final red grape, Blauer Wildbacher, is closely related to Blaufrankisch and usually made into rose wines called Schilcher-the signature wine in the Weststeiermark. Austrian Wine Regions As you can see, outstanding wines are being made in Austria from unique grapes that grow very well throughout the country. Furthermore, Austria’s wine industry is well-regulated and guarantees that wines made here are of high quality. As always, it is also important for the wines to be delicious, and as you explore them, you will agree that they truly are! So before I say so long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye, you should get your Schnitzel, play a little night music, and enjoy some truly fantastic Austrian wines. Imagine finishing your night with a Sacher torte, watching the sound of music, and enjoying amazing Ausbruch. You will agree with me that the Austrian hills are truly alive with the sound of viticulture! Wine Courses L1 Online Wine Certification Core (L2/L3) wine Courses Advanced (L4) wine Programs Wine Region Articles Major Wine Regions Wine Regions of the World Italian Wine Regions Spanish Wine Regions Portuguese Wine Regions East Coast Wine Regions The Best East Coast Wineries Terroir of East Coast Wines Best Wineries Near Philadelphia International Wine Regions Austrian Wine REgions Israeli Wine Regions Beaujolais Turkish Wine Regions Swiss Wine Regions Texas Hill Country Vinho Verde The Story of Champagne By Keith Wallace https://j.mp/3joaM3C

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aliciacluggs · 4 years ago

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5 Interesting Things To See And Do About A Copenhagen Boat Tour

To get a day of fun-filled enthusiasm, there's nothing like this Copenhagen Boat Tour. The most popular destination for tourists, this tour takes visitors to the capital of Denmark. Here, you will experience firsthand the beauty of Copenhagen. From its picturesque haven, you'll find a view of the nation and coastline. Some of the stops include the Olympic Park, the Central Station, Old Town and the Royal Castle.

The next boat tour to try out is the shortest among them all, the shortest of the tours offered is the shortest boat tour of all of them around, the Copenhagen Archipelago Cruise. This ship tour will let you go through the lovely Denmark countryside. You may travel to the islands of Djurgarden and Velses. The archipelago is situated off the southwest tip of Copenhagen, near the island of Djurgarden. You will go by ferry and also will see why these islands are so well-known throughout Europe.

The third of the three Danish ship tours that you might wish to think about is the Copenhagen Archipelago Cruise. This will provide you a summary of the rich history of the Danish monarchy. During your cruise you will travel to the towns and villages across the edges of the archipelago. You will observe how the Danish individuals have made it their business to preserve their legacy. A bonus to you with this tour is that you get to visit the Nyhavn Botanical Gardens and the Museum of Culture and History.

The fourth and last in line are the Copenhagen International Piano Competition. This competition is a great opportunity for you to enhance your abilities. Not only are you going to get to play unique types of music, but you will also have to meet other competitions also. This competition occurs during the month of August and you have to reserve your ticket ahead of time. The concert begins in the evening and continues until midnight, so you may want to schedule your holiday during the identical time.

The fifth and last option that you have is the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. This festival features world class musicians playing traditional jazz songs in areas such as the Nyhavn Square. This really is an excellent choice for individuals who are interested in music and the art of dance. You will have the ability to view a large number of performers including the world famous jazz band Jazz Cats.

If you haven't been on a Denmark cruise ahead, then you should really look at getting one because this will surely come to be the highlight of your holiday. This is because those ships will take you through a number of the most beautiful canals in the city. The canals include the Danube, Skagerrak and the Skoleum canals.

There are several other interesting things to see and do at this region of the world. As an example, you will have the ability to go horseback riding, mountain biking, river cruising, cycling and swimming. There's even a chance to stop by the old part of the town called the Old Town. This area was built centuries ago and you'll discover many intricacies and structure here that remind one of yesteryear. Moreover, if you become tired of studying each of the historic monuments and the buildings which you pass , it is possible to simply take a boat trip to the northern area of the town called the Central Station. For more information about city sightseeing boat tours visit https://www.tripindicator.com/cruise-boat-tours.html.

By accepting one of those Copenhagen vessel tours, you'll have the ability to experience a new culture. Specifically, this city has a big importance for Christians since it is where the Danish heritage has been born. To top it all, the weather in this region is ideal throughout the year. Thus, when you decide to go for a tour in this region, you don't have to await the summer months. It is possible to begin whenever it's warm enough.

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histoireettralala · 5 years ago

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Strategy & tactics (1/2)

“The Grand Larousse Universel defines strategy as the "Art of combining the action of military forces in order to achieve a war goal determined by political power." The second meaning is the "Art of coordinating the action of military, economic and moral forces involved in the conduct of a war or the preparation of the defense of a nation or a coalition."

The tactics implemented in 1792-1793 were soon to be coupled with a strategy. It was indeed necessary to give an overall direction to the eleven armies of the Convention, including eight on the external borders, which were then opposing the concentric attacks of the Coalition. This new phase corresponds to the second period of Carnot's activity, that of his passage to the Directoire exécutif, from November 1795 to September 1797. In the first period, in the Comité de Salut Public, under the Convention, he had been above all the Organizer of Victory by setting up a million soldiers and choosing their leaders. Dumouriez, passed to the enemy, had been replaced. Other chiefs took center stage: Bonaparte, Hoche, Kléber, Jourdan, Moreau, Pichegru; all newcomers also succeeding the survivors of the Ancien Régime, the Biron, Custine, La Fayette. Of all the survivors, only one left the schools, the last to come, destined, it is true, to prove to be the greatest of all, Napoleone de Buonaparte. And we will see that he will be the best executor of Carnot's strategy.

The main objective on the Continent, after the peace of Basel with the Empire, Prussia, Holland and Spain, was to bring down the protagonist of all coalitions and the regular defender of the Old Regime in Europe, the Austrian monarchy. But no longer bordering with us since we had taken the Netherlands, it is only - neutral Switzerland being temporarily set aside- by Germany down the Danube and by Italy by crossing the Alps, that we could reach it. Carnot's famous Cabinet Topographique found and brought to light the plan drawn up under Louis XIV and dating from a century comprising a converging march of our armies on Vienna from the north and the south.

A grandiose and attractive enterprise, but difficult, because it was necessary to make not two, but three armies separated by a hundred leagues, march in concert, and that of Germany startied from two very distant points and under two different leaders. We know that Jourdan, for having walked too fast, and Moreau, too slowly, instead of crushing Archduke Charles by their junction, were beaten separately or thrown back on their bases. And the army on which one counted the least, that of Italy, won on the contrary, under its young chief, brilliant victories which, in 1797, made almost useless the new offensive through Germany under, this time, Hoche's unique leadership. A genius of war had just been revealed, both strategist and tactician, but at first rather tactician, the incomparable and later the Unique. Lodi's Little Corporal had become in a few months the greatest general of all time.”

Alain Pigeard, Histoire de la Grande Armée, Editions de la Bisquine, P. 61-62

(Sorry, I couldn’t find a clearer version of that map. The elongated blue circle facing the Channel is the Armée des Côtes de l’Océan, 15000 men under Hoche, charged to face the Chouans & Vendéens as well as eventually the English; Jourdan is the closest blue circle, which represents the Armée de Sambre-et-Meuse, 78000 men; a bit South is Moreau’s Armée de Rhin-et-Moselle, 79500 men; then the Armée des Alpes under Kellermann, gathering 18000 men against the Sardes; and finally Bonaparte’s 50000 men of the Armée d’Italie)

#guerres de la révolution #strategy and tactics #napoléon bonaparte #lazare carnot #1796-1797 #alain pigeard #histoire de la grande armée

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blognhungdongkhongaulove · 4 years ago

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“Những Dòng Không Đâu” is the real and full name of my blog.

I’m posting today something about my home town, Hue, Vietnam. The ancient royal capital is well known and watered by The Perfume River (Sông Hương). The Perfume River

by tôn thất tuệ Around the world, many rivers become the embodiment of their hosts: Thames of London, Seine of Paris, Danube of Vienna, Moldau of Prague, to mention a few…and Beethoven never forgot his 'father' Rhine. In my case, the Perfume River incarnates the City of Huế, ancient royal capital of Vietnam. She is, herself, nourishing the mind of generations after generations; she is spelling the term of endearment. In 1802, after pacifying the whole country to become the first king of the Nguyễn House, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh settled down in Huế and sped up the construction of the royal citadel. Why did he choose a narrow strip of land pushed to the sea by the Annamite Chain, the like of La Sierra, USA? Historians provided with many convincing theories. But for the Hueist who wish to claim the famous emperor to their camp, the prime reason dwelt in his love of the Perfume River. To compare with the Mekong in the South where Nguyễn Phúc Ánh emerged as a prevailing warlord, the Perfume represents just a piece of gossamer, having no commercial or strategic interests. Her values are embedded in her peacefulness and her romanticism. They are attributed not only to her geographical disposition, but also in her witnessing a flow of historical events with more vicissitudes than splendors. In 1876, the great grandson of the dynasty founder was outnumbered by the French expeditionary legion that fusilladed the capital. This marked the total colonization of Vietnam. While the resistance was smoldering, spot by spot in the whole country, the Perfume received a young and dynamic king in a getaway sampan on her water. Duy Tân, disguised as a commoner, left the Forbidden Palace, crossed the river toward the mountain to raise the banner of the national recuperation. His dream was annihilated by betrayal. He was arrested, and banished to the Reunion Island, North Africa; many of his followers were beheaded. Then came the immolation of the ailing monarchy. In 1945, the last king abdicated in favor of the new authority. In a stone throw from the Perfume, Bảo Đại surrendered the tokens of the royalty: the seal and the sword. The worst scare to the water body was carved in 1968. On the Monkey Lunar New Year, the Communist forces invaded the whole city. The South government took it back in fierce battles. The usurpers ran away after committing a mass murder. They killed in a hurry or buried alive those they detained during their one month long occupation. Of the new millennium just ushered, the maiden year of 2003 chronicled a large toll in the river but the Perfume was not guilty, not the villain. The Annamite Chain, as a vertical cliff, retained all the moisture from the Pacific Ocean then unleashed torrential rains into her and her sisters in the Center of VN. The whole City of Huế was engulfed in a yellowish lagoon. If Hue dwellers suffered quite a bit from this catastrophic flood, it seemed that they enjoyed around August and September mild chronic inundations that made the river closer to them by her swollen bosom. Once the murky water siphoned off into the sea, the Perfume repossessed her perennial limpid mirror reflecting the old royal wall punctuated with watchtowers. The sandy bed and marine plants are noticeable like in a giant aquarium endowed by the nature. A Western tourist, a century ago, wrote home that he roamed a boat in the Perfume smoothly as in a small lake. Wooden sampans moved slowly on the silver fluvial artery as if unfolding music scores celebrating the sauntering crepuscule. Up to the 1970 there were almost no motorized canoes, which helped boost the stillness. But at times, roaring nautical ski boats infringed the holy pastoral reverie. That kind of sport, province of the rich and privileged, revealed the other aspect of the city which she reflected too as she reflected the royal complex. Right at the beginning of the domination, the French started to urbanize the undeveloped Right Bank. Administrative service, hospital, treasury, school … swallowed rice paddies, as hungry lions dealt with innocent gazelles. They built a river front sport club as well as churches for themselves and for indigenous adherents to the new religion. Sumptuous villas in European architecture, house to Gallic rulers, appeared in sub tropical gardens. The entire national power was shifted from the Left Bank with a toy king to the Right Bank of His Excellence the Omnipotent Envoy. At the wake of the political downfall, a poet referred to the Perfume as a stream of tears mourning the defunct national sovereignty. I share this collective infliction, but I grew up when its acuteness has been somewhat alleviated by the latent healing effects of the time. Hue became introvert, kept silent the most possible.I used to wander along the river, mainly when the sky was somber, adrift like an autumnal dead leaf. One time I wondered what if I had to leave the town and this river, and I said to myself I should die. Ironically, after high school, I went down to the South for higher studies, was assigned to government jobs, then got married, I never came back to see the river, and I never die. (Actually I did come back but in many one day long official missions which kept me in meetings and formal dinners). If someone asks me which is the most speaking feature of the Perfume, I would pick the swans crossing the river in school days; swans in quotation marks. I would elaborate as follows:On the Right Bank, there were two famous and adjacent schools, one for boys and one for girls. (Forget, please, the one for boys, I’m boy). The girls’ uniform was white; conical leaf hats, white too, are not mandatory but all of them donned these. The campuses were situated right in between two bridges. It was too far for a walk, that’s why young ladies in white residing in the Left Bank decided to make a short cut. Roofless sampans helped them. Each student played part of a feather of the colossal swans skating smoothly on the undisturbed water.This must have been the most immaculate image since the time when time was created. I��ve just returned to the ancient royal city, after five decades, to discover that the beloved swans had been butchered. A bridge was built right at the place where female students boarded the sampans. The white uniform was crossed out from the school handbook. Walking then crossing the river was not practical. Motorcycles replaced sampans instead. I walk onto the new bridge. Watching the mountain in the river, I got a chill. An old mystical revelation surged back to my mind. A long time ago, shortly before the twilight, I was on the old bridge. I watched the indigo mountains, and uttered these words: “the real master of my life is the chain of mountain that plunges into the river, tainting dark the river to be embraced by the river”*. I’ve kept trying to decipher the enigma. I hope that I could fathom it, not analytically but intuitively and that the Perfume River retains this mysticism Now the drifter me, back as a tourist, as an outsider, still was not immune from the sacred attachment to something unreal but real. The prodigal son came back to enliven the remembrances of the time lost. May his last visit, shorter than a blink of the eye, be transcended into eternity; may the Perfume embalm the rest of his life, shower him with tranquility. But, helas, wisdom has it that the devouring nostalgia stays incurable, incurable forever.===

#Hue

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griffinrampant · 4 years ago

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St. Stephen’s Day

Today is the feast day of St. Stephen of Hungary, the very first King of Hungary, canonized in 1083. (In addition to Hungary, he is also the patron saint of kings, masons, bricklayers, and severely ill children.) In honor of him and the nation he founded, I figured we’d take a look at their arms.

The nation of Hungary bears per pale barry of gules and argent and of the first, a cross patriarchal paté of the second issuant from a crown upon three mounts in base all proper. I appreciate that it’s a union of old and new(er) arms, and the repeated gules and argent help give the arms a visual unity.

The dexter arms, barry of eight gules and argent, were used by the Árpáds dating back to 1202. Supposedly, the four white stripes represent the four major rivers - the Danube, Tisza, Dráva, and Száva, which is just boring enough to be plausible. The explanation could just as easily be a post hoc rationalization, though. Depending on the particular ruler and who was drawing the arms, sometimes the red stripes were charged with lions of various positions (passant, respectant, etc.). There are also a few depictions that add linden leaves, such as the Golden Bull of 1222 displaying the seal of Andrew II.

The use of the patriarchal cross is only slightly younger than the bars; Béla IV used it on a royal seal around 1235. However, the mount doesn’t show up for another 35 years or so until the reign of Stephen V. The patriarchal cross was in fairly consistent use until the Catholic House of Anjou came to power in 1308. They impaled the arms of Hungary ancien with the azure semé de lis or of France. With the exception of Louis the Great, the patriarchal cross didn’t reappear in the royal arms until Władysław III in the 1440s. After that, Hungary ancien and Hungary moderne were both in fairly common use in various royal arms (please don’t make me talk about the Habsburgs, please don’t make me talk about the Habsburgs, you thought Liechtenstein was bad, have you seen some of the Habsburg arms?). The combination was popular enough that it was also used by republican governments, and it was reestablished as official in 1990. (From 1957 to 1990, the arms were tierced per fess gules, argent, and vert, which just seems like a cheap knockoff of Italy to me.)

Interestingly, what’s going on around the base of the cross in any particular version can tell you a lot about what was going on with the political situation of Hungary at the time. Louis the Great seems to have been the first to add the crown to the patriarchal cross, and it stuck around until the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. At that point, the crown was removed from the arms as a symbolic rejection of the monarchy, and replaced with a laurel wreath instead. Similarly, the First Hungarian Republic used the ancient-and-moderne combo, but without any crown at all. The crown didn’t really come back until the current version of the arms, and it sounds like it was a minor point of contention, but they obviously ended up going with the crown.

#Heraldry #coat of arms #Hungary

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elija-oc-art · 5 years ago

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The brothers have a long story with Erzsébet

The historical contact between Hungary and Serbia is centuries-old which can date back to Medieval. Helena, daughter of the Serbian Grand Prince Uroš I from around 1112-1145 married Béla II, King of Hungary. After the death of Béla II, Helena with her brother Beloš, who was a was a palatine of Hungary, together served as the regent from 1141 to 1146, until the young king Géza II was old enough.

Since the 14th century significant number of Serbs fled before the Ottomans northward across the Danube. The Serbian despots in the 15th century held tracts of lands under the Hungarian kings and they encouraged Serb settlers. Then after the complete fall of Serbia to the Ottoman Empire in 1459, more Serb immigrants arrived from the south.

By the 16th century southern Pannonian Plain had a very considerable Serb population also these Serbs played a great part in the defense of Hungary against the Ottomans. Immigrant population were still growing in the 17th century to 18th century as the war between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. Many historical sources and maps, which were written and drawn between 15th and 18th centuries, mention the territory under the names of Rascia (Raška, Serbia) and Little Rascia (Mala Raška, Little Serbia).

(For more details about the early background of the formation of Vojvodina, check out this post)

On the other hand, the relationship between Hungary and Serbia was rather strained in the 19th century and 20th century. During the revolution of 1848, The May Assembly was held in Sremski Karlovci, their claims (for example sought the recognition of a national territorial unit, consisting of Banat, Bačka, Baranja, and a part of Srem, known collectively as Vojvodina) were completely unacceptable to the Hungarian revolutionary leaders then clashes had begun. In 1849 the Serbian Voivodeship had founded, governed directly from Vienna however abolished in 1860.

Meanwhile Serbia itself was recognized as formally independent at Congress of Berlin of 1878. The tension of irredentism towards the lands that had noteworthy Serbian population in the Habsburg Empire (thus included Vojvodina) was existing, however the Habsburgs also had a major influence in Serbia until May Coup in 1903 then Peter Karađorđević came to the throne, relation between the Habsburg Empire and Serbia got worse in the following decade. During World War Ⅰ and World War Ⅱ Hungary took part in the invasion on Serbia (Yugoslavia in the latter case). Deteriorate was continuing in the decades from 1990s to 2000s.

The 2010s saw the turning point of the relation between Hungary and Serbia as several historical reconciliations was made. Today the relationships between these two countries are characterized by an intensive political dialogue and frequent visits exchanged at all levels. Today Hungarians constituted 2.60 ％ population of Serbia, the majority them living in Vojvjodina which account for 13% of the population of the province. There are also a small number of Serbs in Hungary account for 0.1% of the population.

(xxxxxxxx)

#serbia oc #aph serbia #vojvodina oc #aph vojvodina #aph hungary #art tag #queued update

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interregnum-intermarium · 6 years ago

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Olena Semenyaka on the Ukrainian Crisis Part II for Guide to Kulchur podcast

Olena Semenyaka, international secretary of National Corps, researcher of Conservative Revolution, Ernst Jünger’s legacy and his dialogue with Martin Heidegger on the prospects of a new metaphysics of the West in particular, whose “academic and geopolitical activities coincide” (meaning the paneuropeanism of the Third Way, which is another title for Conservative Revolution), summarized in a written form the main points of her conversation with Fróði Midjord on the Ukrainian Crisis Part II, which followed the discussion of the same topics from a Russian perspective with Prof. Alexander Dugin, for the Guide to Kulchur podcast: https://www.counter-currents.com/2019/01/understanding-the-ukrainian-crisis-part-ii/

Ukrainian history and identity in relation to Russia

- (proto-)Ukrainian ethnogenesis and the statist tradition: apart from the Slavic populus, it is worth mentioning Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians (the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language tree), Gothic Kingdom (for the first time uniting the Ukrainian mainland with the Crimea), Kyivan Rus, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Polish Commonwealth, Cossack State and Hetmanate, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ukrainian People's Republic, Soviet Union, independent Ukraine, Maidan Revolution and the rebirth of the third geopolitical way in the form of Intermarium (Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea Union);

- Kyivan Rus as the "cradle" of three modern peoples: Belarusian (the closest one to the Ukrainian linguistically), Ukrainian and Russian; the Moscow Kingdom (emerged much later than Kyivan Rus) as one of competing centers striving for power in Eastern Europe and Eurasia (several historical examples devoid of any specifically "anti-Russian" impulse: destruction of the Volga route by Kniaz Sviatoslav in favor of the trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" passing through Kyiv, defeat of the Moscow Kingdom's army by joint Lithuanian-Ruthenian forces at the battle of Orsha in 1514, destruction of Moscow in 1618 by Ukrainian Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi, the creator of the Zaporozhian Host and the patron of Ukrainian culture well-known for his successful campaigns against Turks and Tatars), different ethnic influences / admixtures and geopolitical tendencies of Ukraine and Russia also due to purely geographic reasons;

- a decent status of the proto-Ukrainian (Ruthenian) elite within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the rebirth of Ukraine's statist ambitions during the Cossack uprisings against Poland in XVI-XVIII centuries (the first national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian nation (against the Polish Commonwealth) according to the Ukrainian nationalist historiography). Ukrainian tensions with Catholic Polish magnates, in turn, were exploited by the Orthodox Russian side in an attempt to gain control over the Cossack State;

- the blessing and the curse of any central continental state at the intersection of transit routes and the challenge to the Ukrainian Cossack State caught between the Polish Commonwealth, the Ottoman Empire and Crimean Khanate and the Russian Empire; the military alliance with the Russian tsar signed at the Pereyaslav Council in 1654 by the great Ukrainian statesman, Hetman and the leader of the anti-Polish uprising Bohdan Khmelnytsky which ended with the liquidation of the military center of the Cossack State, Zaporozhian Sich, and the autonomy of Hetmanate.

Although there has never been a mass uprising against the Russian Empire as it was the case with regard to Poland, already in 1709 Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Mazepa sided with the Swedish King Charles XII and was defeated at the Battle of Poltava by Tsar Peter the Great (who renamed Muscovy as the Russian Empire), thus becoming the symbol of Ukrainian anti-Russian "treason" for centuries.

Appr. 30 years later Peter I invited Cossacks to resettle in the lands of Central and Southern Ukraine which thus officially belonged to the Lower Zaporozhian Cossack Host and were named "Novorossiya" by the Russian Tsardom just like the British Empire created New England or New Scotia in the newly colonized lands; already in 1775 Zaporozhian Sich was destroyed by the Russian Empress Catherine II "in response" to the Cossack contribution to the reconquer of Crimea by the Russian Empire during the Russo-Turkish wars and their centuries-long defense of the southern borders of Europe; parts of the Cossack Host resettled in the Kuban, currently, completely russified lands where previously dominated the Ukrainian ethnos, another part established the Trans-Danube Sich;

- differences of the Ukrainian and Russian statist and political traditions: in Russia, the political rule was far more autocratic and absolutist, the main role belonged to tsar, and both aristocracy (boyars) and peasantry mostly were completely satisfied with their positions, whereas in Ukraine the Hetmanate was a kind of electoral monarchy providing strong democratic rights to Cossacks who elected their military leaders; besides, the vertical mobility in the Ukrainian society has always been very high, and the main social lift for the natural aristocracy was the participation in constant wars;

- the second Ukrainian national liberation struggle took place in 1917-1921 after the collapse of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires, when the newly created Ukrainian People's Republic had to counter the Bolshevik invasion: presicely due to the failure of this struggle, Ukrainians have to face now the third national liberation struggle against the quasi-Soviet Russian Federation after the 25 years of fake "independence";

- the borders of the modern Ukrainian state (Bessarabia and Bukovyna were adjoined in 1940-s by Stalin, but aforementioned Bohdan Khmelnytsky conducted active geopolitical expansion in the directions of Moldova and Romania) in no way were "artificial": they were determined by the Ukrainian People's Republic due to the objective prevalence of the Ukrainian population in these territories and were accepted by the Bolsheviks; moreover, initially, the Kuban region and parts of modern Belarus were also included in the territory of Ukraine; Ukrainian colonel Petro Bolbochan liberated the Crimea from the Bolsheviks in 1918, and the Ukrainians (including my grandparents) completely rebuilt the infrastructure of Crimea after the Second World War, not mentioning the huge contribution of the Cossacks to the struggle against the Turks and Tatars, so, to say the very least, historically, this territory cannot be considered unequivocally "Russian."

Maidan Revolution: Nationalists vs. “Euromaidan” I can fully agree with the portrait of the overthrown president Victor Yanukovych as described by Alexander Dugin in the preceding Guide to Kulchur podcast: just like all the other presidents of "independent" Ukraine, he was not particularly pro-Russian, he simply served those who paid the most. It was him who initiated the EU association agreement. Under his rule was held the first secret gay pride parade, which was protected by the special riot police "Berkut" (disbanded after the revolution). However, he repressed Ukrainian nationalists (among others, Yanukovych imprisoned the leader of the future National Corps movement Andriy Biletsky, as well as fabricated the case against the members of his organization, The Patriot of Ukraine, who were detained for plotting the explosion of the monument to Lenin) and suppressed Ukrainian small and medium business. Yet, when Putin forced Yanukovych to freeze the EU association negotiations (after all, not so beneficial for Ukraine even purely economically) and start integration into the Eurasian Customs Union, we did not pay any attention to the protests of the middle class which considered the EU an economic paradise.

But, when the students were violently beaten by Berkut, Ukrainian patriots perceived it as a chance to transform the peaceful pro-EU protests into the anti-governmental national revolution, and succeeded in it. When the phase of violent clashes between the police and hired thugs, on the one side, and nationalists, on the other, began in the streets, the liberal pro-EU opposition played zero political role. One could say that it was a backup for the nationalists who were throwing molotovs at the police and were capturing administrative buildings, but, on the other hand, by "supporting" the protesters, the West tried to hijack the revolution and, in fact, has always disapproved of the national-revolutionary methods. So the rivalry between the "Euromaidan" and the national-revolutionary Maidan is obvious enough to understand what side is worthy of and requires your support, especially if you wish to weaken the other side.

As a result, the overthrow of the regime was successful, however, the national revolution is far from complete. Just like the socialist revolution, which failed in 1905 and succeeded only in 1917, the Ukrainian national revolution might take decades. Right Sector, as a broad national-revolutionary movement, failed to produce a new political class that would be ready to take power after the fall of Yanukovych's regime; consequently, the power vacuum was filled by liberals, oligarchs from the previous political era like Petro Poroshenko and even rebranded members of Yanukovych's Party of Regions.

This drawback is currently being corrected by the National Corps / Azov Movement as the fastest developing nationalist movement in Ukraine: it has a parliamentary wing, the National Corps party which is represented in every region of Ukraine and counts in its ranks over 10,000 activists, a paramilitary structure, National Militia, often described by the globalist media as the modern "SA," over 30 social and cultural projects as independent NGOs which allow National Corps to practice entryism in all social fields, and, last but not least, the military wing unseen since the times of WW2: the Azov Regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine (subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs), the only volunteer battalion that was expanded to the level of the regiment and the most combat-ready unit of the entire Ukrainian armed forces. A special attention is paid to the educational programs: military ones aimed at the modernization of the Ukrainian army, political ones preparing the future political leaders and metapolitical structures closely cooperating with the international department; the clash between the liberal and the nationalist flank will continue on a larger scale as we are striving for power and are ready to implement different scenarios.

The conflict in Eastern Ukraine

At the same time, the cultural difference between Eastern and Western Ukraine is much exaggerated. I say it as a bilingual person and a member of the Azov Movement which was born in the Eastern Ukrainian industrial city of Kharkiv and is dominated by mostly Russian speaking activists from Eastern Ukraine. Moreover, there are many ethnic Russians in the ranks of our movement. Furthermore, even my parents have a kind of cultural nostalgia for Soviet times and would never believe that the war with Russia is possible, but they would never enter the streets to oppose the Ukrainian government and soldiers either. As a matter of fact, the local residents have never played an active political role in Eastern Ukraine. People who were taking down the Ukrainian flags from the administrative buildings were the crew of saboteurs brought from Russia. One of such crews, which included the leader of the Kremlin-backed forces Givi, attacked the office of The Patriot of Ukraine at Rymarska Street in Kharkiv, but was repelled and retreated. The biggest Eastern Ukrainian cities (Kharkiv, Odessa, Mariupol) remained Ukrainian precisely thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian nationalists and ultras who expelled relatively small groups of "professional separatists." That's why we never use the expressions like "the civil war in Ukraine." Activists of our movement from Donetsk and Luhansk observed the developments since the very beginning and could tell the difference between the local newborn "separatists" who did not know how to handle weapons and single out the political enemies and silent Russian military who supervised them. It was the latter’s idea to place the firing points in the residential areas…

The so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, as well as the entire project of “Novorossiya,” as of now, is a complete failure. Above all, it has nothing to do with the defense of the Russian national identity and language. Just like the occupied Crimea, it is full of revanchist Soviet motives, ideas and rhetoric. The only difference is that LDPR are dominated by bandit clans who often kill each other without any interference of the Ukrainian secret services (it was the fate of the most famous “rebels” Givi and Motorola) or, when the leaders of these “republics” happen to know too much or their political ambitions grow, they are simply being eliminated by their Russian supervisors. You can find there Italian and Spanish leftists, crazy Latvian / Ugandan National Bolshevik Benes Ayo, commies from Texas, Chechen battalions and Buryats from remote Eurasian republics of the Russian Federation.

There was only one reportedly right-wing battalion “Rusich” which withdrew itself from the territory of Donbas due to a loss of understanding “what they were fighting for.” Another conservative icon of “Novorossiya,” colonel of FSB and the former “Defense Minister” of DPR Igor “Strelkov” Girkin, could be recently seen on a solitary picket line against the intent of the Russian authorities to return the Kuril Islands to Japan. Devoid of any popular support, he called it a state treason. This and many other facts prove that the project of “Novorossiya,” supposedly driven by the “civil war” in Ukraine, since the very beginning has been orchestrated “from above” by Putin. When the Russian authorities decide to stop the artificial conflict in the Donbas region, Girkin will be probably protesting alone, too;

Not that there was no Ukrainian contribution to the collapse of “Novorossiya.” MPs of the Russian Duma admitted that regaining control over Mariupol by the Ukrainian side put an end to the military expansion of the Russian Federation in Southern Ukraine. Mariupol, the biggest after occupied Donetsk (half a million) city in the Donetsk region, was liberated in 2014 by the Azov battalion, which prevented Russia from paving a continental corridor from the Rostov region to the Russia-controlled grey zone in Moldova, Transnistria. Actually, the Azov battalion reached the suburbs of Donetsk and was ready to storm the city (by the way, the first fallen volunteer at that point was Russian). Likewise, the only successful counter-offensive of the Ukrainian armed forces, which ended with the Shyrokyne operation, was conducted by the Azov regiment. Since the initiation of the peace Minsk agreements in September of 2014 as a result of the first open attack of the Russian army during the Ilovaisk trap, which required the ceasefire, the Azov regiment got the chance to launch this counter-attack only in 2015 when the forces of DPR shelled the residential area in Mariupol, which took lives of 30 civilians.

The role of the West in the Maidan Revolution and War with Russia

One can often hear the idea that the West started the revolution in Ukraine to separate Ukraine from Russia by integrating Ukraine into the euroatlantic structures (the EU, NATO) and unleash the war on Russia. Although it is hard to deny that the West exercises geopolitical soft power in Eastern Europe and Ukraine willing to keep this area in its zone of influence, the latter is still limited as compared to the Russian factor both in the Ukrainian and Belarusian political systems which have never been truly “independent.” Moreover, those who believe that the EU and NATO membership is the worst that could happen to Ukraine in this turbulent period of its history, can relax and go home: according to the well-known statement by Jean Claude Juncker that was made in 2016 and was confirmed on many occasions by the EU and NATO leaderships, Ukraine will not become a member state neither of the EU, nor NATO in the next 20-25 years, to say the least. And it goes without saying that within this period of time both international structures may cease to exist. Indeed, given the crisis tendencies in the EU (economic problems in Greece, inability to sustain even small Central European EU member states, terror attacks, migrant crisis, Brexit and now mass protests in France), Ukraine, the biggest European country, is hardly welcome in the collapsing EU. Also, everyone remembers the words of Donald Trump about the possible withdrawal of the United States from NATO.

In other words, if the US wanted to “unleash the war on Russia,” Ukraine would be accepted in NATO as a member state which the US would thus be obliged to defend. But the reality is opposite: Barack Obama turned the blind eye to the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Donbas by Russia, and Donald Trump avoids open confrontation with Russia outside of Syria and especially in Ukraine. Unwillingness to “irritate” Russia is the main strategy of the West in this conflict. Actually, the West gave the green light to the neo-Soviet ambitions of Russia back in 2008 when Georgia, which was denied a NATO membership, was invaded by Russia. The creation of “independent republics” of the South Ossetia and Abkhazia has become a rehearsal for the creation of the “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” in Ukraine.

Furthermore, if the US wanted to clash with Russia on the front lines, there was no need to welcome Ukraine in NATO; it would be enough to fulfill its obligations according to the Budapest memorandum signed by the US, UK and Russian Federation (later also supported by China and France) in 1994. Under the Budapest memorandum, Ukraine renounced its third largest in the world nuclear potential in exchange for the “security assurances” and the recognition of its political sovereignty and territorial integrity by the signatory countries. However, when one of the main signatory countries, the Russian Federation, invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea, the West did nothing. And Russian officials did threaten Ukraine with nuclear strikes.

Likewise, Kremlin media spread fantasies about the massive military and financial aid of the US to the Ukrainian army, which is completely false. Only Lithuania, as a NATO member state, provided Ukraine with the lethal aid. As for the rest, due to the pressure of the pro-Russian and simply leftist lobbies, even American “hawks” were very hesitant to “fund” the war in Ukraine. Financial aid that does not reach the ruined post-Soviet Ukrainian army and a modest number of the Javelin anti-tank systems, which Ukraine will not be able even to repair due to the absence of the required technologies and facilities, are the only “military assistance” to Ukraine, in fact, left to its own devices in the confrontation with Russia.

As a result, most regional countries, in spite of being the NATO member states, are highly interested in the Intermarium defense union, especially the Baltics. Lithuanian allies, who shared with us their experience in the development of the territorial defense forces, told us many eloquent stories about pro-Russian lobbies proving in the 90-s that Lithuania “did not need the armed forces anymore.” After Georgia and Ukraine, Latvia, which has provinces and separate cities where the Russian minority already comprises the majority of voters (and in the Latvian case, as opposed to Ukraine, the conflict of the Latvian and Russian languages is really sharp as the Russian minority there is completely artificial), has all reasons to believe that NATO will not interfere if Russia starts another undeclared hybrid warfare in the Baltic States.

Also, we often hear that if Ukraine remained on friendly terms with Russia, we would preserve Crimea and would not suffer any economic problems. However, take a look at the recent developments in Belarus which is 80 % dependent economically on the mercy of Russian “Gazprom.” In December 2018, Russian Prime Minster Dmitry Medvedev announced that Russia is ready to “deepen integration” with Belarus, including the establishment of a single emission center, a single customs service, a court and a chamber in accordance with the agreement on the creation of the Union State of December 8, 1999. This announcement, as always, emerged right after Russia has outlined a new tax system which will make Belarus lose billions of money.

Similarly, Kremlin media often write about Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” being backed and funded by “Americans and Jewish oligarchs,” including the Azov regiment. However, it is enough to visit the site of the US State Department to find out that the Azov regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine is the only Ukrainian unit which cannot get any form of the US aid for ideological reasons. In times of the Maidan revolution, pro-Putin media associated Ukrainian volunteer battalions with the Jewish oligarch Igor Kolomoisky who supposedly funded them. In reality, he was a governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, which was the last Ukraine-controlled central region bordering on the so-called zone of ATO (anti-terror operation), which means that the city administration provided transportation to units on their way to the front and nothing else. Although Kolomoisky is currently a protégé of a technical presidential candidate Zelensky, he is no longer a governor of the Dnipro region, and the biggest bank service of Ukraine, Privat Bank, which previously belonged to Kolomoisky, has been nationalized by Poroshenko. Not so long ago, pro-Kremlin platforms started spreading rumors about Israeli weapons of the Azov regiment soldiers. Again, the reality is different: way before the Maidan revolution, Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs acquired an Israeli license on Tavor Assault Rifle-21, which has been produced in Ukraine since 2009 as a modified Ukrainian assault rifle Fort-221.

I could go on endlessly refuting similar examples of anti-Ukrainian propaganda, but the main point is that the Maidan Revolution did not bring to power new oligarchs of non-Ukrainian origin, and the situation in this respect is the same as in Russia. The second main point is that the West tries to hijack the results of the Ukrainian Revolution in the media sphere but is afraid to confront Russia and has never orchestrated anything in the Ukrainian streets. The West can be hardly called even a diplomatic ally of Ukraine, as the EU continues trading with Russia in spite of the economic sanctions, and only the Intermarium countries supported new sanctions against Russia after the attack on the Ukrainian military ships in the Sea of Azov. As opposed to Intermarium countries, Germany supports the Russian project of Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline which will bypass the territory of Ukraine. Peace Minsk agreements, pushed forward by the EU, are extremely harmful to the Ukrainian statehood, and only interference of National Corps in 2016 prevented the Ukrainian authorities from adopting the so-called Morel’s Plan which was advocated by Victoria Nuland. This plan allowed holding elections in the occupied zones of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions without the restoration of the Ukrainian-Russian border, which meant the continuation of the Crimean scenario as the illusion of a democratic referendum on joining Russia. Luckily, in contrast with Girkin’s solitary protests against the state treason, National Corps could afford gathering 10,000 activists who came to the Ukrainian Parliament and threatened the MPs to take them out of the building by force if they dare to vote in favor of Morel’s plan (which, of course, was not accepted).

Intermarium as the Third Geopolitical Way on Brzezinski’s Grand Chessboard. Assessment of Putin’s Russia

This naturally leads us to the geopolitical program of National Corps as a vanguard of the Ukrainian nationalism of the new generation which offers the alternative both to the West and Putin’s Russian Federation, basically, two forms of globalism which relate to each other as the late Roman Empire would have related to Carthage unless the latter had been ruined by that time.

While many understand why non-critical Westernization is not good to Ukraine, our rejection of Putin’s Russia requires additional explanations. Practically, it is hard for Ukrainians and Eastern Europeans in general to idealize Russia simply because the Intermarium region is comprised of monoethnic countries each of which has preserved its national identities and has a titular nation, whereas the Russian Federation is a multi-ethnic state with huge migration tendencies from the non-Russian parts of the Russian Federation and neighboring Eurasian countries. As opposed to Intermarium countries, including Ukraine, the Russian Federation signed the UN global migration pact, having underlined a positive role of migration for its state building.

Late Soviet Union was much wiser than the modern Russian Federation which ruined the Slavic unity: it has managed to control the Muslim population and the Caucasus in particular, and it is impossible to imagine that the Russians would become the main victim of the modern Russian anti-extremist legislation, Article #282 of the Criminal Code punishing hate speech and incitement of the interracial, interethnic and religious hatred. At the moment, all Russian nationalist organizations and individual nationalists are repressed under this article, as well as for their stance against the war with Ukraine. Most of them fled to Ukraine, and, just like for Belarusian volunteers, it was a one-way ticket for them. The last Russian nationalist organization, “Russians” led by Dmitry Diomushkin, was banned in 2015. Currently, only pro-Putin bikers, Night Wolves, crazy Orthodox fundamentalists and ultras helping to disperse rallies of liberal opposition remained in Russia “on the Right.” There are no opportunities for the organized nationalist movements in Russia. If Western nationalists do not believe it, they may come to Russia and try promoting Russian ethnonationalist or simply ethnonationalist ideas. Also, they should not feel offended by the fact that Putin organizes meetings of the communist youth from all over the world as it was the case in Sochi.

Likewise, it is important to understand that the notion “rossiyskiy” means all-inclusive civic nationalism. Again, if the Soviet Union tried to be friendly with Ukraine and transferred Crimea to Ukraine on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Council (1654-1954), when Bohdan Khmelnytsky accepted the Russian protectorate, Putin made his biggest friend Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov who, quite probably, may be the next Russian president. Purely statist might is the only thing that matters to Putin and, unfortunately, many Russians blinded by Russian “gas dollars.” Besides, historically, Russia has one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Muslim minority in Europe, and the biggest in Europe mosque was opened precisely in Moscow. The opening ceremony was attended by Turkish president Erdogan.

Quite often Western European nationalists argue that Putin banned LGBT marches, whereas Ukraine embraces all kinds of Cultural Marxism after the revolution. It is not true: as I said above, the first gay parade was held by Yanukovych, and the authorities still need 6 rows of police officers to make such parades happen. “Trans-persons” admit that after the revolution their status in Ukraine worsened, that they receive proper medical treatment but face complete hostility in a social life. A month ago, the head of the Council on National Security and Defense Olexandr Turchynov, who was an acting president of Ukraine in times of Maidan and was labeled by Russian media as a Bloody Pastor (he is a Protestant), issued a statement in which he criticized “Neo-Marxism,” claimed that the position of a person in charge of gender policies in Ukraine should be liquidated, that we should respect the decisions of regional administrations that reject such changes in the Ukrainian educational system, expressed his support for Trump and underlined that Ukrainian natural conservative mentality has nothing to do with “Putinism.” In other words, under conditions of the right-populist turn in the world, such sentiments become normal all over the world. At the same time, Russians who hate “Gayropa” are mostly simply “domestic misanthropes” who need an external enemy but envy Ukraine’s visa-free regime with Western Europe and, of course, would be happy to spend holidays in Western European countries.

As opposed to Ukraine, which undergoes the de-communization process, the victory of the Soviet Union over the Third Reich (which is merged in the media and popular consciousness with modern “Merkelreich” and the EU) in WW2 is the basis of the modern Russian collective identity. While the veterans of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, who had been fighting against the Soviets and the NKVD till 1955, are equalized with the veterans of Red Army in Ukraine, and Stepan Bandera, who at first supported the Third Reich, but soon enough was imprisoned in a German concentration camp due to his untimely demands to establish the independent Ukrainian state, is currently considered a hero of Ukraine, Russia puts a ban on the “revisionism of the outcomes of the WW2 and glorification of Nazism and the collaborationists with the Third Reich,” as well as officially calls Ukraine a “Neo-Nazi” country. The way Russian Federal TV sees the international activities of National Corps is shown below.

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Therefore, at the moment, the Russian Federation in no way may be seen a hope for Europe, and even Alexander Dugin admitted in the latest issues of his TV program “Expertise of Dugin” (Экспертиза Дугина) that the foreign political triumph of Russia in Ukraine and Syria is useless, for the liberals only strengthened their positions in Russia, and the best thing Russians can do now to preserve themselves in the history is to retreat into the inner emigration and develop the narrative for the future, when the conditions for the patriotic activities will be more favorable.

In contrast with his verdict, there are unique conditions since the times of WW2 in the post-revolutionary Ukraine. The Ukrainian national-revolutionary movement can be compared to the Freikorps movement after WW1 that had to counter the Bolshevik threat in the Baltics and inside Germany and at the same time oppose the treacherous Weimar government. However, we do not complain, for the war gave us the opportunities unseen before, both on the Ukrainian and all-European level. While the West and Russia are too busy fighting each other and dividing Ukraine into their zones of influence, we strive to restore the geopolitical sovereignty of Europe starting with the modernization of Ukrainian army and the creation of the Intermarium defense union, which demands the rearmament of Europe and the rebirth of its security system instead of the search for the dubious Russian protectorate. The collapse of the euroatlantic solidarity and abandonment of Ukraine by the “world community” are very helpful in this respect.

Thus our program is Intermarium (the Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea union) as a platform, or a springboard, for the alternative (with regard to the EU) paneuropean integration, or simply Paneuropa, which should be disassociated with the infamous Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan. The National Corps movement has already held three Intermarium and two Paneuropa conferences, among others, attended by high-ranking officials of the Croatian Armed Forces and representatives of the Polish Ministry of National Defense. Currently, we plan the further international meetings in Croatia and Poland.

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It is true that the West, just like the Entente in the former century, would like to see Intermarium as a buffer zone or a sanitary border separating it from Russia; however, our goal is clear: it is the creation of the sovereign military and political Paneuropean bloc (confederation) which continues the classic tradition of the European third geopolitical way. That’s why Prof. Dugin is wrong by pretending by means of his Fourth Political Theory that the third geopolitical way is no longer possible and that all attempts to restore the European superpower, geopolitical subjectivity and the leading positions in the “unipolar” world are “anti-Russian” encroachments in the service of American imperialism, as he labeled the Intermarium union. Russia, which sided with sea powers (the Entente and the Allies) in both world wars, has never been a proper continental state, and the very division between Atlanticism and Neo-Eurasianism, thalassocracy and tellurocracy under conditions of described by Ernst Jünger technical planetary state is extremely outdated. Intermarium, etymologically, “the land between seas,” will help to transcend old oppositions towards newer heuristic definitions.

In the recent history of Europe, both world wars were not only harbingers of harder times and tragedies of European "civil war" in terms of Ernst Nolte. Assuming the perspective of Ernst Jünger who sympathetically yet firmly rejected the prospects for the monarchist revival in modern times in "Rivarol," we are also recipients of the grandiose energy released out of the social and national collisions that gained momentum since the age of Romanticism. Just like for the German war generation of the former century, the ongoing struggle of Ukrainian patriots for the restoration of the territorial integrity of their country is not only another national liberation war in the Ukrainian history. It is also a chance to make a revolutionary breakthrough which will not only prevent the re-emergence of conditions posing threat to the Ukrainian state's very existence. To be honest, the conflict with Russia is a logical outcome of 25 years of Ukraine's spineless "independence" and century-long attempts to eliminate Ukrainian national elite in lasting wars with neighbors. So the deterioration in the East of Ukraine heralded by the Maidan revolution, in fact, awakened and reinforced the Ukrainian national spirit and the Ukrainian true elite's will to resistance and creation.

The rebirth of the Third Way in the revolutionary Maidan, the third geopolitical way in particular, and undertaking by Ukrainian nationalists of such ambitious projects as Intermarium and Paneuropa, accordingly, was not only a result of understanding that only global changes might provide a satisfactory for us solution of the Ukrainian national question. This is the evidence of all-consuming flame of the awakened national-revolutionary spirit which, having born out of the patriotic needs of a particular nation, can never remain in narrow national limits and always strives for the alternative world order. Whether this is also a sign of metaphysical shifts that promise a better future for the West, is a question to us. But it is important to keep in mind that every time when you hear the patriotic national-liberation rhetoric on the part of Ukrainian nationalists, it is both sincere and incomplete since the planetary and metahistorical changes they crave for remain unspoken.

#Ukraine #Russia #National Corps #Third Way #Guide to Kulchur #Olena Semenyaka #Intermarium #Fróði Midjord #Alexander Dugin

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