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starry-sky-stuff · 3 years

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Historical Sortings

I've done a lot of reading about royalty in the 19th century and I decided to have some fun and try my hand at sorting historical figures.

I wonder if you can tell who my favs and unfavs are from my sortings.

Cut for length.

British Royals:

Queen Victoria: Snake/Lion. An unhealthy Snake Primary who expected that level of unhealthy devotion from everyone around her. Probably burned a bit after Albert died. Also an unhealthy Lion Secondary who strong-armed, controlled, and domineered others, particularly her children.

I don't know too much about her husband, but I think Albert might've been an Idealist.

Edward VII, aka Bertie: Lion/Badger. His charm strikes me as more of a Badger than a Snake. He seems to me to be the ‘I know a person’ guy. Just the vibes I get. He also really liked routine and wasn’t a particularly good conversationalist, just genuinely interested in others. Not too sure about his primary, but I didn't get Loyalist vibes so I went with Lion.

Alexandra of Denmark {wife of Bertie}: Snake/Badger. She usually gets characterised as the long-suffering wife so it’s not surprising she’s the love interest sorting. She was loyal to her husband despite all his infidelities, and her interests were confined to her children and pets

Princess Alice {daughter of Queen Victoria}: Bird/Badger. Experienced a crisis of faith in middle age which I interpret as a Fallen Bird trying to reconfigure their system. Her dedication to helping others makes me think Badger Secondary. Also, she died after contracting diphtheria from giving her sick son comfort which seems like a very tragic Badger.

Prince Alfred {son of Queen Victoria}: Lion/Lion. He was wilful and abrasive, and had a no-nonsense attitude, so probably Lion Secondary. I can’t really get a read on his primary but maybe also a Lion. That would mean he and his wife houseshare, which might’ve contributed to the breakdown of the marriage.

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna {wife of Alfred}: Lion/Lion. Very caustic and abrasive, I definitely wouldn’t want to be around her in real life but I admire her no-nonsense attitude and no tolerance for BS. Her marrying off her daughters young because she thought it was right makes me think Lion Primary.

Princess Beatrice {daughter of Queen Victoria}: Snake/Badger. She subjugated her entire life to fulfilling her mother’s needs and the only major conflict they had was over her wanting to get married (Snake on Snake loyalty conflict maybe). Very much a background character who worked behind the scenes, so Badger Secondary.

I don't know enough about Queen Victoria's other children to sort them.

George V: Badger/Badger. Dull, dutiful and dependable is how he tends to be described, which always makes my mind go to Badger (I swear, I love Badgers, they’re great but they’re not very flashy). Considering he refused to give sanctuary to his cousin Nicholas II because he was afraid he might threaten his own country and throne, I’m going with Badger Primary who put the good of his group over individual loyalty.

Mary of Teck {wife of George}: Badger/Badger. Duty and dignity defined her, so I think she was a Double Badger who was loyal to the institution of the British Monarchy and her family (above any individual member). Her and her husband houseshare, which might explain some of their parenting issues since neither could compensate for the other’s shortcomings.

Marie of Edinburgh, aka Missy {daughter of Alfred}: Snake/Snake. Charismatic and flamboyant, she started out as a young bride in a foreign country with no support and she ended her life as a beloved figure and the most popular member of the royal family. Part of this was her finding meaning in her life by working for the benefit of Romania, which makes me think she was a Snake whose loyalty came to include all of Romania. Also, she was disgusted with her son’s selfishness and his (initial) abdication of his rights.

Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, aka Ducky {daughter of Alfred}: Lion/Lion. Strong-willed, temperamental, and uncompromisingly honest, Ducky unabashedly followed her own course in life. She divorced her first husband despite family and social pressure, married her second husband despite protests from his family, and was no-one’s fool.

German Royals:

Victoria, Princess Royal, aka Vicky {daughter of Queen Victoria}: Lion/Lion. I read in her biography that someone was quoted as saying she was “always clever, never wise”, which I think just fits this sorting. You’ve really got to admire her steadfast belief in liberalism in the face of Prussian conservatism, but sometimes reading about her aggravates me because I’m like, can’t you chill for just a second. Like, stop doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome.

Frederick III, aka Fritz {husband of Vicky}: Lion/Badger. He and Vicky were really united in their shared Lion Primary and belief in liberalism, from which they never wavered. His indecision and constantly subjugating his beliefs to family loyalty make me think he of an unhappy Badger Secondary loyal to a group that doesn’t value him.

Wilhelm II {son of Vicky & Fritz}: Lion/Lion. Considering his fraught relationship with his mother I find him and Vicky having the same sorting to be kinda funny. But he was such a Glory Hound Lion, a total egomaniac, bombastic, and a bully. A deeply unhealthy Double Lion.

Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein {wife of Wilhelm}: Badger/Badger. Definitely an unhealthy Badger Primary, she exalted anything that was German and was prejudiced against anything that wasn’t. Probably a Badger Secondary too, who dedicated herself to her husband, children, and throne.

Otto von Bismarck: Lion/Snake. Also a Glory Hound Lion judging by his visceral reaction to the implication anyone but him was responsible for German unification. The ultimate politician and opportunist, his Snake Secondary allowed him to stay in power for decades and outmanoeuvre pretty much everyone until the system he created failed him. The irony of that is hilarious to me (Bismarck’s a figure I find interesting but utterly despicable)

Russian Royals:

Nicholas I: Badger/Lion. I’m going with Badger just on his dehumanisation of ethnic minorities, liberals, and anyone who opposed him. And he was known as the Iron Tsar, so definitely a Lion Secondary who crushed any dissent both large and small. Very ironic that he’s the Protagonist sorting, since he was someone who really wanted to do what was right for his country, but what he believed was right was the worst and he's generally considered one of the worst tsars.

Alexandra Feodorovna {wife of Nicholas I}: Snake/Badger. Similar to Alexandra of Denmark, she was defined as being the perfect wife, loyal to her husband and overlooking his infidelities, with few interests outside of her family.

Alexander II {son of Nicholas I}: Lion/Snake. Definitely not a Loyalist based on the way he treated his wife. Loyalists can commit adultery too, but if he’s a loyalist than he’s not one who valued his wife or their children. And he definitely gives me immature Lion Primary vibes, doing what makes him happy to the detriment of others, his family, and his country. He was known for his charm and congeniality, but his way of dealing with his ministers was to play each of them off each other which makes me think Snake.

Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich {son of Nicholas I}: Lion/Lion. A total firebrand and idealist, he pursued his goals relentlessly and often tactlessly. Burned later in his life after his brother took a conservative bent and then Konstantin was basically removed from power after his brother’s death, so he retreated to life with his mistress and second family.

Alexander III {son of Alexander II}: Badger/Lion. Very similar to his grandfather, Nicholas I. Dutiful and hardworking, but also a lot of dehumanisation and running roughshod over others. Treated his family better than his father, and family was very important to him which could also be Snake.

Maria Feodorovna {wife of Alexander III}: Lion/Badger. She was vivacious and friendly and flourished in court life, which makes me think either Courtier Badger or Snake. I think Badger because she really understood the institutional power of the role of empress and was also really suspicious of anyone outside of the family. Nothing about her suggests Loyalist to me, but she was very firm in believing in the correctness of her own opinions. Her conflict with her daughter-in-law definitely makes sense when viewed through the lens of a Lion/Badger vs Lion/Lion

Nicholas II {son of Alexander III}: Badger/Badger. He garnered a reputation for duplicity because, since he hated conflict, he would agree with a minister during a meeting and then fire them via note the next day, so definitely not a Lion. Probably a Badger since he was obsessive over doing every single aspect of his job, including even sending letters and he refused a secretary. His attachment to autocracy derived at least partly from duty and he was very attached to his family, so maybe Badger Primary. He was also very close to his cousin George V and they houseshare.

Alexandra Feodorovna {wife of Nicholas II}: Lion/Lion. A deeply unhealthy Lion, she was obstinate, imperious, and completely inflexible. Wholeheartedly believed that she was entirely correct in her opinions, often based on little evidence, and objectivity was completely beyond her.

#sortinghatchats #it's certainly interesting to view this through the lens of family dynamics #and how your family's sorting affects your own #so many female snake/badgers #I wonder if that's their real sorting or just gender roles

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commonsensewizard · 6 years

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PRIMARY SOURCE ANALYSIS: Konstantin Pobedonostsev

In Konstantin Pobedonostsev’s book, Reflections of a Russian Statesman (1898), there is an excerpt denouncing the alleged virtues of a parliamentary democracy. The clarity of this historical perspective holds true, not only in the known facts of what transpired in revolutionary Russia, but also in what is presently occurring in western, modern day democracies throughout Europe and the United States. The influx of progressive liberalism, unbridled migration intent on multiculturalism, increasing taxation that is destroying the middle class, and the effect of long-term professional politicians, have successfully induced the erosion of individual rights and liberties to an ever-increasing dependency on the state and its oppressive dictates.

Historically, grievances of a populace against the ruling powers have merit. Shortages of food, lack of common necessities, high taxes, unemployment and poor economies can by themselves, or in combination of two or more, often result in unrest that has reached massive scale. Current events in France, with the ‘Yellow Vest’ protests, are just one case in point. Division and disillusion in the United Kingdom are evident after the parliamentary government there is slow-walking the decisive vote of its citizens to leave the European Union. In the United States, disgust over professional and long-term politicians who seem to the masses as having no clue about the needs of its citizens outside of the national capitol, led to the election of the political outsider and billionaire, Donald Trump, as president. The angst from both parties against him has seriously divided the country into camps that are putting rights of free speech and self-expression in danger. The economic catastrophes in Greece and Italy have fomented unrest among the populaces, who have seen their state-granted entitlements and retirement programs disappear as their governments sink under mountains of debt. These are but a few examples of what appears to be a prophetic account by Pobedonostsev.

In the excerpt in question, Pobedonostsev declares that freedom is “the right to participate in the government of the State.” In the United States, it has been proven over time the republican form of government set up by the founders is the most effective in this regard. The election of 2016 is a partial proof, given that Donald Trump was assessed no more than a two percent chance of winning against his challenger, Hillary Clinton, the preferred candidate of America’s elite. It was what the west and east coast elitists refer to as the ‘fly over’ states that catapulted Trump to victory and has resulted in a firestorm of controversy ever since. The election of Trump and the resistance against him, and his supporters, has exposed the truth and clarity of Pobedonostsev’s claim the representatives of the people are not that at all, but rulers such as “any despot or military dictator”. The bureaucracy is in power and cannot be removed by peaceful or electoral means. Those who comprise it are firmly entrenched and, as the gentry prior to the Russian revolution, will fight with dedicated ferocity to maintain their position as overlords of society. The same holds true for those in the House and Senate, with many members having held their seats for decades, enriching themselves with every opportunity at the expense of the people. Pobedonostsev rightly predicted representatives of a democratic government would be “dexterous manipulators of votes”. It is a known fact that an incumbent is difficult to root out of office, for they have set up political machines to cater to their base and place fear among their constituency upon any challengers who arise to oppose them. They claim their tenure gives them more power to affect positive benefits in their districts and states, or provinces, and a newcomer would damage any progress made in the past.

A parliamentary style government, such as is seen in most, if not all, other western democracies, decreases the citizen’s power of the vote even more. Prime Ministers are not elected by the people, but by their party and the coalitions of other parties they can manage to politically gather under their wing. In the United States, a person does not have to be a member of government to be elected president. However, in a parliamentary style government, no one can be Prime Minister who is not already a Minister of Parliament, as the Prime Minister position is not open to national, public selection. Ministers of Parliament, just as republican Congressmen and Senators, must be loyal to their party and its platforms if they are to be assigned to the prime committees of importance. By this reality, it can be argued that Pobedonostsev revealed the future of the lie of democracy, which is “the principle of the sovereignty of the people”.

It must be remembered that Konstantin Pobedonostsev was an elitist insider, having intimate access to two Russian emperors. It can be argued he was not an objective, independent observer of events. However, it can also be argued that history has proven his analysis to be correct. Over time, western democracies, both republican and parliamentary, have seemed to shift from being representative of citizens they were elected to serve, to being wealthy power-hungry rulers over a populace of subjects to be gleaned and herded like cattle.

In the case of Russia’s revolution, Pobedonostsev was also proven correct. Power, privilege and wealth was ensconced among the few, and the Marxist ideals of a utopian communistic state that ushered in the Soviet Union were never realized. The same occurred in China under Mao Tse Tung and in most other countries that adopted socialistic and communistic formulas. Arguably, it has only taken a few more decades for Pobedonostsev’s credentials as a prophet to come to light where capitalistic democracies are concerned.

In the prophet Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of the image, he declared the Babylonian king was the head of gold. After him, all other leaders and forms of government would decrease in strength and effectiveness. Finally, it would be iron mixed with clay, a combination that is impossible when exposed to the light of physics. It is this depiction of democracy that is most telling when it comes to Pobedonostsev’s view. The people do not mix with power, and government by the people, of the people, and for the people, was always a bridge too far.

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biointernet · 4 years

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Bio-Well - model of GDVCAMERA

Bio-Well by Natalja Romanova, Steve Grantowitz and "Dr." Orlov

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Bio-Well - model of GDVCAMERA

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Bio-Well Reviews here

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courtneytincher · 5 years

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80 Years Ago This Week, Hitler and Stalin Cut the Deal That Triggered WWII

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyBy the spring of 1939 Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich and Joseph Stalin’s USSR had been “pouring buckets of shit on each other’s heads” for decades, as Stalin later said.During the 1920s and 1930s they vied for power in Europe, blaming each other for all economic and social ills, and battling through proxies in the Spanish Civil War. Their diametrically opposed far-left and far-right philosophies and economic strategies culminated in the German-led Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936-37 creating an alliance between the Third Reich, Imperial Japan and eventually Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Italy against the spread of Communism, and more specifically the threat of a Soviet invasion.D-Day Did Not Turn the Tide in WWII. That Happened in 1941.Early on, Hitler had feared that the USSR and the Western democracies would make an anti-Nazi alliance to curtail German expansion. He gave them three chances to do so, and they flubbed them all. In 1936 when Hitler “remilitarized” the Rhineland, an extant Russia-France pact could have been called into play and both countries could have invaded Germany. France did not insist on doing so, and its similar reluctance to pincer the Third Reich allowed Hitler’s Anschluss with Austria in early 1938 and the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland part of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Accord in October 1938. Stalin was irate at being excluded from the Munich talks. His absence allowed Britain’s Neville Chamberlain and France’s Edouard Daladier, urged on by Mussolini, to hand the Sudetenland to Hitler without Russian objections. Stalin blamed Soviet Foreign Secretary Maxim Litvinov, a Jew born Meir Henoch Wallach of Bialystok, for being boxed out of Munich. Until then, Litvinov had done very well by the USSR and by Stalin. An old-line Communist who prior to the Revolution had spent time in jail and in exile in the party’s service, in 1921 he had been appointed by Vladimir Lenin as deputy commissar for foreign affairs, and after Lenin died, in 1930 Stalin had elevated Litvinov to the top position. He then succeeded in getting formal recognition of the USSR by the United States of America and acceptance into the League of Nations; he also birthed the non-aggression alliances with Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, and Turkey that provided the USSR with a border of buffer states against a German invasion.But as the Nazis continued to expand the Third Reich, Stalin became convinced that the buffer states were not enough protection for the USSR at just the moment when it could not sustain a war because his purge of the Soviet military had left it too weak for large-scale combat. Hitler, for his part, had been vocally anti-Soviet until he began listening to former Champagne salesman Joachim von Ribbentrop. Married to a wealthy woman and known for lavish spending, pretensions, and incompetence, von Ribbentrop joined the Nazi Party in 1932. He steadily gained traction in the foreign ministry by loudly opposing the foreign minister, Konstantin von Neurath, with the aid of the Schutzstaffel, better known by the initials SS—Ribbentrop liked to wear his SS general’s uniform for diplomatic occasions, even as ambassador to Great Britain. Hitler had steadily become disenchanted with von Neurath and a foreign ministry that slow-walked every bold stroke he attempted. So after shaking up the German military, in early 1938 Hitler upended the foreign ministry and appointed von Ribbentrop as top dog. The salesman had already begun selling Hitler hard on the attractiveness of a pact with the USSR: in case of war it could prevent the Third Reich from having to fight on two fronts, and could assure continued access to raw materials—grains, soybeans, oil, and phosphates—in the likely event of a British and French naval blockade of Germany.Hitler’s hatred for Jews was well-known, and for some time his minions had been complaining to Stalin’s about their chief negotiator, the Jew whom they referred to as “Litvinov-Finkelstein,” implying that great progress could be made between the two countries if he was removed. Stalin sacked Litvinov on May 3. He was arrested by the NKVD, his phones cut, his office locked, his aides interrogated. Too prominent in the West to be summarily executed, he was dispatched to Washington, D.C., as ambassador, and Stalin replaced him as foreign secretary with his most loyal protégé, Vyacheslav Molotov. As with the name ‘Litvinov,’ ‘Molotov’ was a Revolutionary moniker. In Russian it meant “the hammer,” and he functioned as the hammer to Stalin’s sickle. When informed that his Party colleagues called him Comrade Stone-ass for his ability to sit through interminable meetings, Molotov corrected them by saying that Lenin himself had dubbed him Comrade Iron-ass.The switch of Molotov for Litvinov was an unmistakable signal that collective security via the USSR’s alliances with buffer states and Western democracies was dead. And Hitler had already sent another unmistakable signal: that his next target was the German-speaking area of Poland known as the Danzig Corridor. Did the Western democracies miss these signals and the potential for a Hitler-Stalin alliance? No, but fear of confrontation, based on the terrible experience of the Great War, and the lack of bloodshed so far in Hitler’s take-overs had lulled them into complacency.But the dictators were ready to act. On May 17, a Russian attaché in Berlin told his German counterpart that there were no foreign policy conflicts between the two countries. As von Ribbentrop would shortly put it in a missive to Moscow, “There is no question between the Baltic and the Black Sea which cannot be settled to the complete satisfaction of both [Soviet and German] parties.”London and Paris did not react as quickly. As though there were no urgency, their first delegation did not arrive in Moscow until June 15, and it was half-hearted: military officials only authorized to make tentative commitments, subject to ratification at home. They conveyed that Great Britain and France would indeed give the USSR a free hand in the Baltic States and Finland, and the right to enter Poland and Rumania—but only if Germany invaded Poland or Rumania. Hitler could offer the USSR the same territorial conquests, and without having to fight Nazi Germany to obtain them. Those territory grabs were the essence of the “secret protocol” of the eventual Nazi-Soviet pact, a few paragraphs whose existence would not be acknowledged until the Nuremberg Trials of 1945, that Molotov would continue to deny until his dying day, and that Vladimir Putin shrugged off as fake news. It gave the Soviets carte blanche in the Baltic states and the eastern half of Poland. After three months of incremental progress produced a draft document that both sides liked, on Aug. 21 a Stalin telegram arrived in Berlin authorizing von Ribbentrop to fly to Moscow on Aug. 23. As von Ribbentrop’s motorcade was making its way from the airport to the Kremlin, he was astonished to pass through streets lined with cheering Russians waving swastika flags and other Nazi banners. The flags and banners had been confiscated from a nearby film studio that had been making an anti-Nazi propaganda film. The film was never completed. Negotiations went so well that von Ribbentrop was stunned. He had to phone for instructions regarding a hitch over who would gobble up what portions of Latvia. Hitler consulted a map and phoned back with a concession to Stalin. Once von Ribbentrop and Molotov had signed the pact, the German phoned again to Obersalzberg, Hitler’s mountain retreat, where he was readying the Poland invasion plans with the senior military staff. It was three in the morning. Architect Albert Speer was in the room as Hitler took the call: “Hitler stared into space for a moment, flushed deeply, then banged on the table so hard that the glasses rattled, and exclaimed in a voice breaking with excitement, ‘I have them! I have them!’” In the next moments, he green-lit the invasion of Poland for September 1, having earlier postponed it so that the pact with the USSR could be signed. And he assured his generals that once they had occupied Poland and taken over France and the Low Countries, the Nazi juggernaut would overrun the USSR.Stalin, in the Kremlin, was ecstatic, breaking out the Champagne and caviar, and toasting Hitler. Stalin had reason to gloat, for with a single stroke he had reassembled almost the entire Romanov Empire at the start of the Great War. Within months, 50 million more people in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and parts of Finland would be under his control.On Aug. 24, the public part of the non-aggression pact was publicized around the world. A few days later, Stalin managed not to mention the secret protocol part to a group of top aides when he told them that a war was about to begin “between two groups of capitalist countries for the redivision of the world, for the domination of the world! We see nothing wrong in their having a good hard fight and weakening each other. It would be fine if, at the hands of Germany, the position of the richest capitalist countries (especially England) were shaken.”Even before von Ribbentrop returned to Berlin, an aide, Hans von Herwarth, quite upset over the secret protocol, gave a copy to his friend Chip Bohlen, then serving in the American embassy in Moscow. Bohlen reported this quickly to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the U.S. did not share the information with Great Britain or France prior to Sept. 1, 1939. On that date, Hitler’s forces invaded Poland, their supreme commander secure in the knowledge that Soviet forces would not oppose them. France and Britain, although already mobilized, were nonetheless underprepared for the swiftness and ferocity of the German blitzkrieg. Other than declaring war they made rather minimal responses to the invasion of Poland, a country they had pledged to defend. Some French troops advanced east of the Maginot Line to the German border, but did not cross into Germany. British air raids did little damage. The naval blockade was begun, but did nothing to halt the advance of German troops. In mid-September, after German troops reached the Polish capital, Warsaw, Stalin gave the go-ahead for Russian troops to enter Poland. Later he said that he was worried that the Germans would simply take the remainder of Poland if Russian troops did not claim that territory. The Russian Army’s entrance prevented 200,000 to 300,000 Polish troops from escaping to the south, where they might have survived in exile and served with the forces of the democracies. When the American Press Bent the Rules to Fight HitlerWhen Britain and France learned of the Russian invasion, they pulled back the French troops from the German border to behind the Maginot Line, and ceased the air raids. By Sept. 28, 1939 Poland no longer existed. The first phase of World War II was over; the next phase would be dubbed “the phony war” because the belligerents appeared not to be engaging in active combat. That phase would end in May 1940 with Hitler’s invasion of France and the Low Countries.When von Ribbentrop had gone to Moscow, Hitler had sent along his personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffman, to record the event and to bring back a photographic record of Stalin’s earlobes—if they hung loose from his head, then he was Aryan, but if they were attached, Stalin must be a Jew. Hoffman returned with close-ups that assured Hitler that Stalin’s earlobes were unattached—and that therefore, in Hitler’s eyes Stalin was a worthy partner, at least for the time being. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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baan-ajarn-farang · 6 years

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Konstantin Sterkhov

Graduated from Repin Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg

Member of Saint-Petersburg Water-color Society

Member of Watercolor Society of Finland

Participant of local and international exhibitions

Teaching art courses in Russia and abroad

International exhibitions judging

Author of a book series on watercolor

Co-founder of the magazine “The Planet Of Watercolor”

Art works in museum, private and corporative collections in Russia, Europe, Asia, US and Australia.

Born in 1968, Izhevsk

An active participant in international competitions and fundraisers, curator and member of the jury of exhibition projects and festivals, co-founder of the "Masters of watercolors", the initiator of the international competition of watercolors as part of the Biennale Art Bridge, the exhibitor of 6 solo and about 30 collective Russian and international exhibitions in the venues of private, urban and museum institutions, in particular: “Manezh”, “Exhibition Hall of the Artists Association”, museum of Gallen Kalela (Finland), city center Sanomatalo (Finland), gallery “Akvart, Art museum of Shenzhen (China), national Library in Nanjing (China), Museum of the Contemporary Art in Qingdao (China), Ratchamdanoen Center of Contemporary Art in Bangkok (Thailand), Watercolor Gallery in San-Diego (USA) and many more.

The award of an independent jury of the Hermitage at the watercolor Biennale Art Bridge in the genre Seascape in 2005, Diploma 1st grade in cityscape at Art Bridge Biennial, 2015.

Member of the Artists Association

Member of Saint-Petersburg Watercolor Society

Member of the Finnish Watercolor Society

His works are in collections of local museums, private and corporative collections in Europe, Asia and America.

Publishing projects, an author:

Book "Masters Of Watercolor. Elements Of Water" – “Music Planet”, 2013

Book "Masters Of Watercolor. From Classic To Contemporary" – “Music Planet “, 2014

Book “Masters Of Watercolor. From East to West” – Music Planet”, 2015

Watercolor instructional video series on landscape, marine, portrait, flowers - “Music Planet “, 2012-2015

Co-founder and art director of the magazine "Planet Of Watercolor" - 2015

Charity Projects:

The author of a series of works for the charity of the International Organization for the Protection of Children's Rights USWRC, 1996-1997.

Introduction

I do not remember a time when I was not drawing or painting. My uncle was a professional painter and he always gave me artistic inspiration. He was my first teacher. After school, I studied graphics at University. During those four years I received a solid foundation in professional graphics. However, I was aware that this was only a step to something greater. Actually the choice was made already during the first year of university - I knew I wanted to attend the oldest traditional artistic school in Russia – Repin Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.

After 4 years of foundation work, I felt confident enough to apply to this honorable Academy. The Repin Academy is a place where even the walls can teach - students have the opportunity to bathe in the rich traditions and artistic atmosphere. The environment stimulates the desire for artistic exchange and learning, enhanced by the large number of unique art museums in St. Petersburg. The professors see it as one of their duties to pass on the traditions and deep artistic knowledge from past alumni to present day and future generations of students.

The Academy leaves a deep impression on the life of every graduate that passes through its gates. The influence of the Academy's teachings can be witnessed through different works of art whatever the genre or medium.

On graduation, I focused more on design, showing my work at exhibitions and selling pieces from time to time. Also I started teaching Art Basics and giving some short art courses in Europe. The country which influenced my painting the most was Finland. Its nature is very similar to the place where I was born. I spent my childhood in a place surrounded by forests and lakes. Finland, with its blue and green mosaics and bountiful waters and accompanying reflections, reminds me of my childhood impressions...

My favorite technique is water-color. It gives me the opportunity to express myself. I like the spontaneity of water. One has to be really flexible to operate with it. It has the ability to flow. The artist has to let it flow when he works with water-colors. These reflections of lakes and rivers, harbors and boats appear to be created for water-color painting. Water and reflections, wind, sky, clouds and boats have become the objects for my painting.

My work and travel made it possible for me to discover China – a previous unknown to me. That country lies behind a Great Wall. We know very little about it in Europe. I was lucky to be sent to a beautiful place where traditions and modern life blend together. I was invited to teach art basics in a college for designers and stylists. The management of the college has a great vision and taste for beauty and art. All the interiors and environment of that place reminds one of the old China. The brand new buildings contain many antique features, some of which are over 100 years old. Some of the architecture displays styles prevalent during the previous centuries.

Certainly these aesthetics have a great influence on the students and faculty of the college, not to mention a profound effect on my interest in China. I have started learning more about Chinese art, looking at old paintings, and asking people about their history. In this mood I have painted a series of works symbolizing my impressions of China. They are based on nature because I have been impressed by my new surroundings. My environment is filled with new objects of interest – sufficient enough to keep me inspired. It is a new kind of beauty – new faces, new patterns, new textures. All the works have been painted in one building. I would call the series "Windows and Doors". The whole building is filled with beautifully ornate wooden carvings on the doors and windows. The day light shining through the windows casts the shadows on the walls and the floor. The inner yard has no roof but it gives such an isolated feeling as if you were in a different world – no future, no past, only the present.

Konstantin Sterkhov in Finland

It`s past 16 years since Konstantin Sterkhov first time came to Finland. Since then more than 800 students attended his demonstrations, he had several exhibition in group and solo, there were a few articles about him in Finnish media, his illustrations where published in Kodin Kuvalehti and Hyva Terveys, and he issued 9 DVDs with tutorial videos representing watercolor to all art lovers.

Sterkhov brings the traditions of old Russian school of painting as a graduate of Repin Art Academy. His art is based on good drawing skills and noble color harmony. Old masters had only natural colors, and it remains an approach that Sterkhov tries to keep alive. The advantage of limited and noble palette is one of the sign of the St.Petersburg Art tradition. There are two other important things one can see in Sterkhov`s works. He is very particular about tonal contrast and composition. The play of light and shadow is one of the topic of his painting. The composition is very classical. Some of his exterior portraits have very personal intimate and inviting quality. The light penetrating into the darkness of the room is like the light illuminating the darker corners of our souls.

There is a great deal of impressionistic approach despite the classical way of thinking. Sterkhov has chosen the watercolor medium as his priority. He has been painting with aquarelle for over 30 years and he achieved an impressive cooperation with water as a basis of watercolor medium. His works demonstrate a lot of spontaneity, a well planned spontaneity that is so appreciated in aquarelle. He has a gift to see the beauty and transform it into the washes, splashes, drops-in, glazing and other techniques of watercolor.

Short after graduating from Repin Academy Sterkhov started sharing his art knowledge with those who wanted to learn painting. First coincidentally during his visits to Germany and Austria, then on more regular terms in Finland and Sweden. Actually after his first teaching experience in Finland he kept teaching there every year. Sterkhov finds it very inspiring to share art experience with students. He says he learns himself a lot from them. Many ideas come while giving critiques and correcting students` works. When Konstantin came to Finland in the late 1990-s he discovered in his students a great thirst for basic academic knowledge. By his practical teaching he invented a simple way of explaining the basics in a series of watercolor lessons, which do not require drawing skills from students but let them create quite good works already after 1 or 2 days of practicing. Many of his students keep coming to his master-classes, again and again.

The very new practice that Konstantin includes in his courses is meditation. After getting to know each other with his students Konstantin offers an easy way for relaxation, which is very important for his way of painting. It takes a few minutes a day and helps to “reload” the students, to drop all their worries and problems behind and use creative energy from the “clean page”. He has been practicing Sahaja Yoga for over 20 years and he applies his spiritual experience to teaching practice.

The last year has been very busy for Konstantin Sterkhov. He had been teaching his courses in YLE art club, Gallen-Calela museum, Espoo arbis, Espoo taideseura, R. Steiner school, in Akvart gallery and in Joutsenon and Ita-hameen opisto. His work represented Finnish watercolor society in International watercolor festival, Antwerpen, Belgium, he participated in some group exhibition in Ferrin gallery and Akvart gallery in Helsinki, several exhibitions and master-classes in galleries in Saint-Petersburg. The most interesting project for the Konstantin Sterkhov now is completing the video collection of watercolor lessons in DVD. He combines his experience of “easy teaching” in more than 40 lessons issued in 9 DVDs which is a very new experience for both Russia and Finland. Now any art lover can learn his method right at home!

Sterkhov`s works are represented in private collections in Russia, Europe, Asia, USA and Australia. He tries to bring the message to the art collectors that the watercolor painting is a better investment than oil. The paint itself has the same pigments only it is water based. It is more natural than oil paints and it doesn`t change its color after many years, even after 100 years it may look as when it was only painted.

Sterkhov Konstantin is a member of Saint-Petersburg Watercolor society which was found in the end of XIX-th century and restored in 90-s of of XX. It is the only watercolor society in Russia and it has its goal to keep the traditions of transparent aquarelle going. Sterkhov takes a lot of efforts to spread the message of watercolor medium to watercolor lovers through internet. He runs the blog sterkhovart.blogspot.com where he share a lot of information about the medium worldwide, takes interviews of international top watercolor artists, writes art reviews and publish free watercolor lessons. He believes that the interest to watercolor is in the process of development and this wonderful medium will have its highest blooming. He is doing his best for it.

The Sons of the Dragon

The idea started from a simple pencil sketch. I came to China for the second time and was eager to learn about Chinese characters and faces. I had had no experience of drawing these types of faces before. While I was looking for models a friend of mine told me the story about the Dragon. He said Chinese people believe they all come from this fantastic creature. It gave me the feeling that my models should be very special.

I tried to find out more about the Dragon myth. The next discovery was that the Dragon had 9 sons each of different appearance and character. Their bodies were made up of parts from different creatures and some parts from their Father. They all had different personalities.

The idea was clear. My models would be the modern embodiment of the Dragon's sons. I saw them as young, strong and full of hidden power. They should look up to date. They all should have an expressive element which would be different and uniting at the same time. I was teaching Art at the Hair Stylist College. I saw many students everywhere I looked. The element which lent itself to the most freedom of expression was hair styles. Many young people were trying to express their individual identity with extraordinary hair styles. I thought, "That's it! It's a spot light".

This is how my series emerged. I found the models - my Chinese friends helped me with the calligraphic writing of the Series name. This piece of writing together with the Dragon's images puts the project into a historical perspective. The young faces are the past, present and the future of the Chinese people, as I see it.

youtube

Konstantin Sterkhov: Artist

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becauseimsensational · 6 years

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Killing Eve rewatch: "I'll Deal With Him Later"

Of course, Eve remains as tangentially relatable as ever during her meeting with Carolyn: from the five seconds of awkward stuttering that seem to last five minutes because secondhand embarrassment is a REAL problem, to the point at which she explodes in her learned polite, British manner, Eve's frustration leaps off the screen and demands attention. I have to wonder how many times she's tried explaining this theory of hers to Niko, or to Bill and Elena, and how many times they'd tell her she was insane and grasping at straws. For once, someone is listening to her, believes her, and isn't calling her crazy. The line, "It's like I've stepped into my brain!" is massively important for both Eve and the audience. It shows Eve's intelligence and tenacity with these cases, but it also gives her a sense of agency and validates the extra secret work she'd put in at MI-5 that's now paying off. (Side note: God bless Phoebe Waller-Bridge for casting Fiona Shaw as Carolyn, because that line about the rat drinking from the can of Coke is so absurdly funny due to her deadpan delivery of it, and I'm not sure any other actress would've been able to do that line justice.) That whole scene is also a massive turning point, because Eve is finally allowed to investigate what she wants to, and she's got no boundaries or dickswab superiors telling her she can't.

I think one of the most endearing things about Villanelle is her sense of humor and the deadpan delivery of some of her answers. The exchange with Konstantin about the bruise on her eye is undeniably funny, but it's interesting that a hardened assassin uses humor to deflect any possible kernel of truth, even with someone she's so familiar with. The assessment scene is wickedly funny, too, in true Villanelle fashion. The line about the photo of the hanged man having "good legs" should not be funny, but somehow it is. Villanelle subverts all expectations, laughing at and making light of things that "ordinary" people should not—but don't we all know someone like that, who laughs at awfully morbid things? Who uses humor as a mask for their true feelings? (I personally use dark humor constantly to cover the trauma I experienced in the past, which may be informing my feelings toward the assessment scene, but I digress.) The appeal of using dark humor in stressful situations is a sense of control that I think most of us crave. It's a control that Villanelle certainly has—until Konstantin makes Jerome ask her about Anna and shows her the sketch of the woman. For me, there are two possibilities here: either she's lying and the woman is Anna, or she's lying and it is actually her mother.

Either would make sense, honestly. It's very easy to lie and bite out the first denial that comes to mind, even if it's just a direct reversal of what the other person said. At this point, the audience doesn't know who Anna is, but we can assume she was someone important to Villanelle, or she wouldn't have had such a hard time getting back to using humor to control the situation. I personally think Villanelle was, for once, being genuine when she said the woman was supposed to be her mother. It could make sense, given the fact that she keeps staring at older women with dark hair. It could be an unfulfilled maternal fantasy, or I could just be talking out of my ass and she was actually joking about it being her mom. Also, we don't know how long Konstantin had that sketch in his possession for, so it's unlikely the woman in the sketch is Eve. On the off-chance it is actually Eve (or Random London Hospital Woman, from Villanelle's pov), maybe Villanelle sketched it because her hair reminded her of Anna's. But who knows? That scene is still kind of ambiguous to me.

After the assessment when she hugs Konstantin, I sensed a bit of a disconnect. The hug looked inorganic, forced, and like it was a spur-of-the-moment thing she remembered that people do sometimes. This is definitely coming from beyond the constraints of just this episode, but I'd be willing to bet she's never hugged anyone without an ulterior motive. Ever. Call me crazy but Villanelle just doesn't seem like a hugger. Someone pointed out to me that Villanelle is very similar to an AI, a comparison I hate (because robots terrify me lol) but one that makes sense. She has no moral compass or ethical code, she's an efficient killing machine and, most interestingly, she mimics other people's behavior to fit in. I truly think she has no idea how to be a "normal" human, which explains the smiling battle with the little girl on the ice cream shop from episode one, the awkward way she hugs Konstantin, and then mimicking the laughter she hears on the radio when she's out with Sebastian.

Oh, Sebastian. Adorable, sweet, sensitive Sebastian. I actually was rooting for him to stay alive, but…well, we see how long that lasted. While the sex scene didn't come as a shock to me at all, the logistics of it were weirdly refreshing. For once, the woman was on top, in total control, and the man was begging for mercy. For once, the man was being used as a sexual object for the woman's gratification. I found myself audibly "aww-ing" for the fifth fucking time because I'm a sap when Sebastian assured Villanelle he'd never hurt her, while her hand was around his throat. Never one for sentimentality, Villanelle's cold, vacant eyes and flat affect tacitly told us all we needed to know: "This was fun, but I don't believe you. And I'm not going to let you get close enough to find out if you're lying."

The subtle recognition in Eve's eyes in the bathroom speaks to the nuance of Sandra Oh's acting. It's clearly just a passing remembrance, because I'm fairly certain the traumatic memory of walking into witness the carnage in that hospital room would outweigh a nurse in a bathroom, but for some reason the encounter stood out to Eve. She's almost constantly fiddling with her luxurious mane, and probably spends most of her time trying to keep it out of her face. And then a random beautiful young woman stares at her for a little too long, then tells her to "Wear it down," which may have been the first time anyone's ever told her that.

THE KILL: It might sound demented, but I think this one is my favorite. Villanelle is a master manipulator and knows exactly what to say to get Carla to smell her perfume. Not to mention all the preparation that went into that kill? Mixing that toxic perfume, having the correct outfit and wig, the "three weeks of catering training" she supposedly did, and the tampon in her pocket as an excuse to get to her target? She really thinks of everything when it comes to her job, and that's a determination I can support! (Well, mostly, I mean she is killing people…) But then there's the utter fascination in her eyes as she watches Madame De Mann die, slowly and excruciatingly. And then, of course, Villanelle makes it laugh-out-loud funny by grabbing the woman's hand and waving goodbye with it, once again using dark humor even though she's had control of the situation the whole time.

Yet again, Sebastian's the sweetest guy who didn't deserve what happened to him. He's not an idiot, of course he didn't believe that Konstantin was her brother. Not to mention he literally walked in on him choking her against the wall? His willingness to protect Villanelle (AKA "Julie") is adorable and noble, but it was his curiosity and desire to support her in her perfume business that got him in the end, poor guy. Also, Konstantin's lazy, half-assed "I'm her brother" never fails to crack me up, along with Villanelle's "Dealt with" when they find Sebastian's body. PWB's writing and Jodie Comer's delivery are the perfect match, I swear.

The final scene of both leading ladies trying to research the other has to be one of my favorites of the series. In a way, it's a little like the moment in You've Got Mail when Tom Hanks realizes the perpetual thorn in his side is the woman he's in love with—but Meg Ryan's still in the dark for the rest of the movie. The instant oh shit look on Villanelle's face is priceless. She's relaxing in bed after a glass of champagne, googling Eve's name to see what comes up, and then…it's her. She probably never thought she'd see Hospital Bathroom Woman again, but there she is! On her screen, and leading a department just for her; the cocky grin she had when Konstantin first told her is nowhere to be found. On Eve's end, she's poring over every photo of every nurse at that hospital; it's late, she should be home in bed, but she can't sleep until she finds a photo of the woman. When she doesn't, it finally connects: "I think I've met her."

Random observations:

-During the assessment, Villanelle speaks of her mother in the present tense: "I'm joking. My mother has really thin, shitty hair." To me, that line indicated that her mother's alive. (Because I've seen this show in its entirety four times already, this will definitely come up again later but for now it's just something to keep in mind)

-Frank's still a dickswab. God I can't wait until I get to watch him get murdered again

-Why national anthems? Of all the genres of music she could have thrown out, why that one? She was born in a post-Soviet Russia, so the anthem's been toned down a bit; also, Konstantin told Jerome that she doesn't speak Russian anymore, indicating a disconnect from her homeland. But the French national anthem? That makes a little more sense for Villanelle to like. It's defiant, it's triumphant, and damn it's violent. But just because you like one country's national anthem doesn't mean you like them all, and most of the rest of them are boring "I love my country" rhetoric that are sorely lacking the mentions of bloodshed that the French have. She's just a constant surprise, I guess lol

-Sebastian's got a dressform in his apartment, which I think is cool because hey, he did actually make his trousers like he said.

-Villanelle eats on screen, which is so refreshing for a female character. And they're not like important meals, it's snacking and eating junk food like real people do. (Yeah, the bar for women acting like humans on screen is that low)

-Who would I be if I didn't mention that infamous champagne cork pop?! The placement of the bottle right between Jodie's legs, and the fact that it explodes right after Villanelle says Eve's name? Iconic. There had to have been some deity that blessed that take because…wow, it was perfect. And totally unexpected and unscripted, as Jodie confirmed on twitter.

-Even in the photo Villanelle finds of her, Eve's got her hand in her hair, messing with it as usual. Maybe it's a manifestation of Eve's insecurities, either about her appearance (for which there is no reason, have you seen Sandra Oh?) or about herself generally.

-If you pause the screen while Villanelle's googling, some of the search results are hilarious!

The first one (from the not at all made up website 'powbangsmash.tv') advertises "Horrific Wrestling Accidents" featuring Polastri Pulverizer, which is just so random, even for a fake google search.

The second is about Niko who, apparently, tutors people in the world's most boring card game AND was the national champion in 1998, because of course Niko's really really good at really really mundane things.

The third mentions the origins of the Polastri family line which: "BEGAN IN THE 1880S WITH ERIC POLASTRI, WHO HAD THREE WIVES EACH NAMED JANE" which is just bizarre

The fourth one, my favorite, is a One Direction Fan Fiction called "A Hallow's Eve in the wrong direction" from the site 'fanfictionsandhomemadetales.org' which, sadly, doesn't actually exist. (Yes I did look that one up)

The last one is about a house fire and how the dad saved the family's puppy, named Eve. Pets with human names will never not be funny to me, and Eve is just so odd-sounding for an animal.

#yay time for more rambling!#welcome to the inside of my brain for the past hour and a half #yea i know the episodes are only 45 minutes tops but i have a LOT of thoughts to weed through and edit lmao #Killing Eve s1e2 #lmfao i know that literally no one else is going to read this unfounded and completely unhinged psychoanalysis but like…#idgaf really i just want somewhere to vent about how spectacular this show is #phoebe waller bridge is a goddamn genius and id compromise whatever morals i might still be clinging to just to be on the same continent #its so hard not to draw parallels from later episodes since ive seen it already lol

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newstfionline · 8 years

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Russia’s City of Rebels

By Christian Neef in St. Petersburg, Der Spiegel, Feb. 3, 2017

The address is Prospect of the Five-Year Plan, House 1, a name reminiscent of the Soviet era, when this city was called Leningrad. Even the metro station across the street is still called Prospekt Bolshevikov.

Otherwise, however, the building has no connection to the past: It looks like a large glass bowl sandwiched between grey apartment blocks. The arena was built for the 2000 Ice Hockey World Championships, but today a sold-out concert is being held here, with 15,000 people in the audience.

By 8 p.m., the crowd starts getting excited. Sergey Shnurov--nicknamed “Shnur,” or “Cord”--and his band, Leningrad, are about to perform. Shnurov, 43, rock singer, actor and composer, is Russia’s biggest star. The upscale print magazine Snob has written that he is like the poet Sergey Yesenin, singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysovtsky and musical performer Alla Pugacheva all in one. “One day they will study the Putin era on the basis of songs and clips by Leningrad.” Perhaps the only Russian to eclipse Shnurov’s popularity today is President Vladimir Putin.

The fans are jumping up and down in the arena to stay warm, and the stage in the center is surrounded by Shnurov fans. “No Shnur, No Party,” some T-shirts read.

And then he finally appears, wearing a white shirt and cutoff blue jeans, a gold chain around his neck and a three-day beard. He starts strumming his guitar and kicks off the concert with the song his St. Petersburg audience wants to hear: “Totshka.ru.” It essentially means dot.com and is the theme song for St. Petersburg: “I forgot when I moved here. I must have been drunk at the time. I have no registration and no street address. My address is www.leningrad.saintpetersburg.totshka.ru.”

St. Petersburg, the brainchild of Peter the Great, was the capital of Russia for 200 years, and it was renamed three times in the last century. The czars ruled from St. Petersburg. It was also where Lenin overthrew the Kerensky cabinet and launched his bloody revolution. But when the government moved to Moscow in 1918, St. Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad descended into provincialism.

Even though it was given back its old name of St. Petersburg in 1991, the city is still stuck in that provincial mold. But it is a place of superlatives: the world’s northernmost city with a population of more than a million and Russia’s most important Baltic Sea port. It is as glistening a place as Venice: The city has 342 bridges, nine of which are opened for ships every night, and the virtually untouched historic center contains 2,300 palaces, castles and other magnificent buildings. The World Travel Award jury has just recognized St. Petersburg as the world tourist capital with the most interesting cultural destinations. The city saw 6.9 million visitors in 2016.

St. Petersburg is still a government focal point. The president and prime minister are native sons of St. Petersburg, and President Vladimir Putin began his career at the KGB in the Leningrad of the 1970s. Today he receives state guests at Konstantin Palace in St. Petersburg, takes them on tours of the art collection at the Hermitage and to premieres at the Mariinsky Theater. Many of the men in his entourage were also born there.

Otherwise, there is little that connects St. Petersburg with official Russia. It lives in its own cosmos. Architecturally speaking, it began as an alternative to Moscow, which expanded into the Russian landscape like a large village. But St. Petersburg is also more aristocratic and educated. In Moscow, people address one another informally and kiss when they greet each other, but in St. Petersburg this is seen as a sign of poor taste. St. Petersburgers use completely different Russian words for common objects. And they know how to create hipness--Rubinshteyna Street, for instance, whose pubs and bars have turned it into a nightly hot spot for all of St. Petersburg.

As a city, St. Petersburg is the incarnation of an attitude toward life that can be found all over the country, exuding indifference to what happens in Moscow. Its unofficial motto: Leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone. While Moscow is at the top of the power pyramid, St. Petersburg symbolizes the disconnection of the people from power.

Rock singer Shnurov expresses this feeling better than anyone else. “All the absurdity, the pointlessness and the boundless cynicism of our time are hidden in Shnurov’s melodies,” the Snob article states. Shnurov sings in the Russian vulgar language known as “Mat.” “What could be more absurd than that? Mat was banned under Putin and there is a penalty for using it,” writes Snob. “But half the country is singing Shnurov’s songs, with their obscene lyrics.”

And so they sing along in the St. Petersburg ice arena. In a song about the funeral bells over Moscow, Shnurov sings: “Yesterday I dreamed, in a wonderful dream, that Moscow had burned down completely. The fire raged across Red Square, and it consumed the former election commission. Everyone burned: Putin and Navalny. The police and Ostankino.”

Russia’s TV headquarters is located in Ostankino. “If you watch our television, you think you’re living in a land of idiots,” a perspiring Shnurov says backstage, during the intermission. “Politicians are concealing what is happening here. But everyone tries to preach some sort of moral to us. We, on the other hand, are engaged in carnival. Carnival is when the top and the bottom trade places. We sing about things that everyone understands, things that bring people together. If something is s--t, then we call it by its name. I am this city’s singer.”

Voter turnout alone shows that St. Petersburg is the place where people rebel against the despotism of Moscow’s policies. In September, when there was a vote on the new Russian parliament, less than a third of St. Petersburg residents cast ballots. And only 13 percent of eligible voters in the city voted for Putin’s government party. In Chechnya, 91 percent voted for the party.

In contrast, 15,000 St. Petersburgers took to the streets after the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov in Moscow to protest against the harassment of liberals in Russia. In today’s Russia, 15,000 protestors is a huge number.

Finally, there is no other place where governors are under as much public pressure as in St. Petersburg. The current governor is already the fifth head of the city government since the end of the Soviet Union. Putin was forced to remove his predecessor from office and bring her to Moscow in response to massive protests.

Lev Lurye, St. Petersburg’s most well-known historian, journalist and screenwriter, knows all about the city’s latent subversive nature. “Putin’s military intervention in Syria or the arrest of the Russian economics minister? That’s their business, it happened in their city--that’s what we say in St. Petersburg, and we are referring to Moscow. It doesn’t concern us.”

Lurye, an economist who later worked as a tour guide in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where most of the czars are buried, runs the Lew Lurye Culture Center with a number of like-minded people. It is an unusual venue for debates, a “place of enlightenment,” as he puts it. “We talk about the things that others never talk about.” About the commonalities between Putin and the oligarchs, about why the victory in the Great Patriotic War was both a triumph and a tragedy, and--as they are discussing this evening--about the question: “Did Rasputin have to be murdered?”

It’s a timely question, because the Russian itinerant preacher--who, as a pseudo-psychotherapist, gained fatal influence over the czar and his family--was murdered in a particularly barbaric way 100 years ago. His assassination heralded the February revolution, and Nicholas II was overthrown three months later.

Lurye and a historian who published Rasputin’s diaries are sitting on the podium, arguing about how much damage Rasputin did in Russia at the time. But their dispute is riddled with contemporary messages: that Nicholas’s Russia was divided between the elites and the people, like the country today; that there was also a state party at the time that could be compared to Putin’s United Russia; and that the church was as ultranationalist as it is today.

And doesn’t the patriotic rejoicing on the palace square in St. Petersburg in the summer of 1914, when Czar Nicholas called for war against Germany and Austria-Hungary, remind us of today, Lurye asks the audience? “Isn’t that jubilation the same as the euphoria with which Crimea was brought home to Russia in 2014?”

About 100 St. Petersburg residents are sitting in the room. They’ve paid the equivalent of €12 a ticket, which is a lot of money in Russia. But they like this kind of discussion, and they also participate by occasionally shouting out corrections of certain details. It would be difficult to imagine such an audience in coarse, business-obsessed Moscow.

The nationalists used Rasputin to manipulate the czar, say the men on the stage, noting that politics was extremely non-transparent at the time. But, they add, Russia’s autocracy would also not work under the conditions of an open society, and in this respect today’s Russia resembles the country in Rasputin’s time.

The spirit of contradiction is deeply entrenched in St. Petersburg. The city was forced to bleed during the communist era, when Moscow perceived it as an intellectual and political threat. Stalin had large numbers of people executed there in the 1930s, and the repression continued after World War II. In the course of the “Leningrad affair” in 1950, the city’s entire leadership was shot to death, because it was allegedly about to launch a second communist party. Moscow reintroduced the death penalty, which had been abolished in 1947, specifically for this case. As late as the 1970s, the Kremlin was still hunting down underground groups in Leningrad that were distributing banned literature.

“We have always been different,” says Lurye. “We have relatively progressive media in the city, and there is still an opposition party in our parliament. And, of course, after the annexation of Crimea there were fewer black and orange ribbons of St. George cross--a symbol of Russian patriots--to be seen in St. Petersburg than in the rest of the country.” Perhaps, says Lurye, this is because St. Petersburg, unlike Moscow, still looks the way it did in the days of the czars, and “people here were constantly aware of the contrast between bourgeois and Soviet elements.”

Rock singer Shnurov, too, has always been part of the St. Petersburg underground. He has worked as a truck driver, a security guard in a kindergarten, a carpenter and a blacksmith, and he also studied philosophy at the theological seminary. Shnurov says there are many taboos in Russia, but that you can overcome them if you keep a sufficient distance from politics and seek a common language with the people. He also says that Russians live “pretty gruesome everyday lives.” He has even written a song on the subject, called “V Pitere pit,” or “Drinking in Petersburg.” Some condemn it as trash while others call it a hit. The video has been viewed more than 30 million times on YouTube.

His fans scream with enthusiasm when Shnurov performs the song for the 15,000 people in the ice arena. Many are familiar with the music video, which depicts five St. Petersburgers--a fired bank employee, a store clerk, a police officer, a museum guide and a taxi driver from the Caucasus who speaks broken Russian--as they roam the city, drinking vodka. There are no social barriers for us, and together we are strong--that’s the message of the song.

Shnurov jumps down from the stage and mingles with his fans, who all know the lyrics of his songs by heart. One is “Na labutenach,” his biggest hit, which he now sings. The song is about a girl and a pair of shoes by designer Christian Louboutin, which she borrows from her girlfriend for a date. The song has been viewed 100 million times.

Boris Vishnevsky’s view of St. Petersburg isn’t as playful. A mathematician, he and his colleague Mikhail Amossov, a geographer, represent the opposition Yabloko Party in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly. Yabloko means “Apple,” and the liberal party once had its own parliamentary group in the Russian Duma. But that was long ago, and today the liberals aren’t even represented in the Moscow city parliament, but they certainly are in St. Petersburg.

And yet this is remarkable because, even in St. Petersburg, opponents are using many tricks in efforts to drive Yabloko out of office. Vishnevsky experienced this only last summer, during elections to the Legislative Assembly.

He’s standing in his office in Mariinsky Palace, where he has a magnificent view of the gold dome of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. He says no advertising company was willing to put up his election posters in downtown St. Petersburg. At the same time, he says, posters appeared with his photo and the words: “I am the opposition candidate. To support me, please deposit 1,000 rubles into the following account ...”

Vishnevsky says the fake posters were made by Putin’s party, United Russia. “Doctors, teachers, customs officials, members of the military--all those who receive a government salary--were mobilized against Yabloko,” he says. Vishnevsky was denied access to schools and hospitals. Even the head of the central Russian election commission spoke of a “defiantly cynical use of government leverage” in St. Petersburg to give preference to certain candidates.

Vishnevsky’s main rival is the governor of St. Petersburg, the representative of the government’s power. He is the first governor who, like Putin, rose through the ranks of the KGB, and he purports to be deeply religious. The red flags that were once displayed at his office have now been replaced with icons. And instead of party meetings, there are now prayer breaks.

Vishnevsky says that the governor is rarely seen in public and that he’s cautious. His predecessor was brought down by St. Petersburgers after two harsh winters in which six people died. The homeless should be used to shovel snow, she had said, triggering angry protests.

St. Petersburgers are not very willing to put up with things they don’t like. They are patriotic, but mostly when it comes to their city. Thousands took to the streets when they planned to tear down the historic Hotel Angleterre, where lyrical poet Yasenin hung himself in 1925, and the plan was stopped. Such protests haven’t occurred in a long time in Moscow, where dozens of historic buildings have been leveled.

But St. Petersburg residents achieved their greatest victory in the battle against Putin’s government-owned company, Gazprom. Executives there wanted to build a business center with a 400-meter (1,312-foot) skyscraper on the edge of the old city, paid for using city funds--even though such tall buildings are banned in downtown St. Petersburg.

Boris Vishnevsky led the protest movement against the skyscraper. He wrote more than 400 articles to mobilize the public against Gazprom, and the matter was even argued before the country’s Supreme Court. After four years, there was so much pressure that Gazprom finally backed down, and the tower will now be built much farther out. Vishnevsky’s efforts prove that it is possible “to take a stand against a government that forgets all sense of proportionality,” St. Petersburg actor Alexey Devotchenko wrote.

There is no other place in Russia where activists are so successful at limiting the latitude of those in power as in St. Petersburg. This is also attributable to an achievement from the early days of democratic Russia: St. Petersburg has a professional parliament, one of only two still left in the country. The members receive a salary and are not allowed to perform any secondary jobs. This enables them to keep an eye on Putin’s governors. “In every other place, they have abolished the troublesome professional parliaments again,” says Vishnevsky. “But it isn’t possible to maintain checks and balances on the people in power in Russia in the capacity of a volunteer job.”

#Russia #St. Petersburg #Shnurov

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