Thank you

Sunday, 24 February 2660 - Cambridge, UK

I know I usually blog about things I’ve discovered in my travels, but this blog I would like to do something different. I would like to write about you.

As much as I love my work, it can get very lonely out in the Field. I’m really not allowed to get too close to anyone in the past least I influence them in some way. Think about it, how have your friends influenced you over the years? My impact on another human being could distort history in some way.

For nearly four years now I have been using TimeTweets to communicate with you folks back in the 27th century. You have given me someone to talk to, besides Samantha, my teapot, on those cold lonely nights. I treasure every tweet you send me, letting me know I’m not alone.

Unfortunately TimeTweets is still in the experimental stage, even after four years. The Institute of Time Travel is so conservative. It took them six years to decide what color to paint their walls. They went with grey again. It will be nice when they finally decide that TimeTweets is safe so other Temporal Anthropologists can use it. Maybe some day.

In the mean time I am the only one fortunate enough to be able to Tweet from the Field. I think it would be unbearably lonely were the Enforcers to pull the program from me. Let’s hope that day never comes.

In closing I would just like to say thank you to all of you for your continuing support and friendship. You have become a part of my life.

And always remember, tea is excellent for time paradoxes.

America's First Free Black Settlement

Wednesday, 9 March 1892 - St. Augustine, Florida

Lincolnville is the section of St. Augustine where the citizens of African descent reside. Since the end of the Civil War, segregation has slowly gotten stronger until personal prejudice is making it’s way into actual laws. These are dangerous times for people with dark complexions and they are only getting worse.

Lincolnville

The inhabitants of Lincolnville do their best to keep their neighborhood neat despite the lack of street paving or any other help from the city. There is a great sense of community here with the church serving as the heart. Preachers have a special respect here. Perhaps that is why in 1964 when another preacher named Martin Luther King came to town, folks listened.

The blacks of one of the most segregated cities in the country joined in the peaceful protest, daring to eat at white lunch counters and not fighting back as police dragged them away. Their non-violent civil disobedience in the face of violent opposition made the rest of the nation question the stupid inequality and the lack of fairness and side with the oppressed. St. Augustine was the turning point in the Civil Rights Movement and helped push the Civil Rights Act through Congress.

Demonstrators in the St. Augsutine Movement

Perhaps it isn’t surprising St. Augustine would be the final stage of the struggle. This was after all where the fight for freedom had started.

I had been recording Lincolnville a bit at a time, not wanting to make the locals nervous, wondering why this white chap was nosing about. I think they had finally concluded I was just a naïve tourist, an Englishman who didn’t share his Southern American cousins attitudes towards non-whites. Today I dared to ask about, “Can anyone tell me where Fort Mose is?” Most just looked at me quizzically.

Finally an elderly gentleman pulled me aside. “Are you talking about the Fort that had colored soldiers?” (“Colored” is the politically correct term of the day.)

We introduced ourselves. His name was Obadiah Watkins. He told me he had heard old folks talk of a Fort “Mossa” when he was a kid. They said escaped slaves went there and built a fort to keep their masters from coming after them. Lot of folks said that was just a fairy tale, but he believed it and had looked for it.

"Did you find Fort Mose?” I asked.

Obadiah shook his head. “There is one spot north of town that might have been it once. Nothing there now. How did you hear of Fort Mossa?”

“It’s a matter of historical record,” I assured him.

“If it is, it ain’t public record.” He shook his head.

“Yes, I imagine here it would be shoved into a desk drawer and locked away, if not outright burnt. Luckily the Spanish took the record with them when they left.”

“I‘ll show you the spot if you tell me what you know about Fort Mossa.” Obadiah’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

Never ask a historian a question like that. I regaled him as we walked two miles north of town. Obadiah would only interrupt with eager questions.

As early as 1687, slaves running away from the British colonies up north were offered asylum in Florida by the Spanish. Besides giving the struggling outpost much needed workers, it also helped undermine the British plantations. So in 1693 the Spanish Government made it official. All they required was that the refugees swear fealty to the Spanish Crown, convert to Catholicism and serve in the militia for four years. The last stipulation meant they would have to fight their former masters if they attacked--which the former slaves would have agreed to anyway.

Despite the dangers of wilderness and slave hunters, by 1738 so many runaways had come to St. Augustine, the town decided to build a fort just outside of town for the recruits. The land around it was given to them to farm and create a settlement. At least 38 families lived at Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mosé, better known as Fort Mose (pronounced Moh-say.) They were not segregated, but were always welcomed to come into St. Augustine, where they were viewed as the city’s first line of defense.

Fort Mose

In 1740, Georgia Governor James Oglethorpe brought 1,620 soldiers against the 100 settlers of Fort Mose. The inhabitants were able to escape to the main fort, Castillo de San Marcos in town and the British took over Fort Mose. Once their families were safe, the black militia came back with reinforcements and drove the British out. Just for spite, the Georgians burnt down Fort Mose on their way out.

Fort Mose was rebuilt, but in 1763 the fort was again abandoned. When Florida came into British hands, the inhabitants of Fort Mose, as well as the other Spanish citizens, all packed up and headed for Cuba.

Obadiah brought me to a copse of trees surrounded by marshy ground. There was no trace of the earthen bank that would have surrounded the fort. No surprise there, for earth to fill in swamps is a high commodity in this country. I do know that in 1986 archaeologists did find Fort Mose’s location. I will have to wait and see if Obadiah guessed right.

Obadiah's best guess as to the location of Fort Mose

I offered my guide some monetary compensation for his trouble but he refused it. He said my history lesson was payment enough. On the way back into town he told me how Lincolnville was founded. During the Civil War, while Florida joined the Confederacy, St. Augustine was occupied by Union troops. It was the only town in the south where the Emancipation Proclamation actually freed slaves--Obadiah being one of them. So in 1866 all those now ex-slaves started their own community and named it for the man who had freed them.

When we got back to St. Augustine I thanked Obadiah for his assistance. I wished him luck and tried to sound optimistic, for I knew the coming years will not be easy for him or his family. But they shall overcome someday.

Fort Mose Historic State Park

St. Augustine Movement

Showcase of the Gilded Age

Saturday, 27 February 1892 - St. Augustine, Florida

Perhaps the best way to beat the competition is to be your own competition! Right across the street from Henry Flagler’s Ponce de Leon Hotel is Flagler’s Alcazar Hotel. He construction on his second hotel as soon as the first was finished. I checked into the Alcazar yesterday so I could record the building as a guest.

The Alcazar Hotel as seen from the Ponce de Leon Hotel

I believe I told you last week of the Methodist Church Flagler built? That was to replace the one he bought and tore down to build this hotel. He gave the Methodists a much grander church for being such good sports.

Flagler also demolished a roller rink and filled in a creek. He bought a farm north of town so he could dig up dirt to fill in the Maria Sanchez Creek. The farm he dug up had been the site of the historic first Fort Mose, a community of free black settlers back in 1738. Flagler didn’t let expense, history or God get in his way of his schemes.

The Alcazar Hotel was opened in 1888, built with poured concrete and coquina stone just like the Ponce de Leon Hotel. It was designed by Carrère and Hastings, who also designed the Ponce de Leon. They will go on to design numerous other buildings including the New York Public Library. That famous building will not be as grand as this one.

Parlor of the Alcazar Hotel

The hotel has a three-story ballroom, steam room, massage parlor, sulfur baths, gymnasium, a casino and the world’s largest indoor pool. Just last year they added another 40 rooms as well as electricity. Edison installed two of his direct current dynamos to light the hotel.

Alcazar's indoor swimming pool

The Alcazar attracts many wealthy patrons, including former and future American president Grover Cleveland. He came here in 1889, between his two terms in office, to check out the casino. That same year Secretary of State Thomas Bayard took a few laps in the pool. At $3.50 a night, most people could never afford to stay here.

By 1932, those heady days will be gone. What with the Great Depression and the waning tourist trade moving further down the coast, the hotel had to be closed. In 1946 Chicago publisher Otto C. Lightner bought the Alcazar Hotel do house his vast collection of Victoriana. What better place than one of the former luxury hotels of the Gilded Age? The building itself would be part of his collection. He not only had art, furniture, and glassware from the period, but glass and polished wood museum cases full of stuffed animals, minerals and artifacts that Victorians loved to collect. Lightner would later donate his Museum to the City of St. Augustine.

Bridge across the fish pond in the courtyard

I will have to visit the museum when I get back to the future. For now I am enjoying the restaurant, the gardens, the swimming pool, the Turkish bath and a couple of massages. All in the name of historical research, of course.

The Lightner Museum

More photos of the Alcazar Hotel

 

The steam room - Turkish or Russian Bath

 

The Minorcans of St. Augsutine

Tuesday, 23 February 1892 - St. Augustine, Florida

Today I visited the Minorcan Quarter in the old section of St. Augustine. The Minorcans are one of the oldest ethnic groups here and have helped build this city.

Minorca in the light blue

If you have never heard of Minorcans, it is because they come from a small island in the Mediterranean. Minorca is only 29 miles long and 10 miles wide. It’s strategic location on the sea lanes has made it a target for larger nations (as well as pirates.) Too small to defend themselves against conquerors, Minorca has learned to roll with the punches.

The earliest settlements show Cretan influences. Carthaginian, Romans, Vandals, Moors, Turks, French and English have all owned Minorca at one time or another. It is now officially Spain’s. The population consists of people from all over the Mediterranean including a large number of refugee Jews. They have melted into their own culture with their own language, Menorqui. They also have their own cuisine. The French might claim mayonnaise as their own, but they stole it from Minorca.

Minorcans

In 1763 when Spain traded Great Britain Havana for Florida, the Brits found the peninsula sparsely populated. All of the Spanish settlers had left for Cuba leaving just the mosquitoes and alligators behind. When Andrew Turnball was given 20,000 acres of land along the coast, he decided to try to do something with it. He wanted to start a indigo plantation but needed workers. Doubting his fellow Scots could weather the heat, he looked to the warmer Mediterranean.

Turnball started with Minorca as his base. He knew Minorcans were hard workers, having had married one. He also recruited a small number of Greeks and Italians and loaded up eight ships. A total of 1,403 colonists sailing to Turnball’s “New Smyrna.” Each recruit was promised 50 acres after working 6 to 8 years, with another five acres added for each child born.

The promised land turned into a nightmare. Turnball and his overseers were hard taskmasters. The colonists were treated badly, fed poorly, clothed and housed inadequately. Add to the hardships of just living in an isolated swamp. Malaria was rampant. About 450 colonists died the first year. When they had served their time and tried to collect their payment, they were beaten and sent back to the fields. The ugly truth dawned on them. They weren’t indentured servants, they were in fact slaves!

In 1777, after nine years of this horror, a couple of the men managed to escape and made their way to St. Augustine to tell the Governor of Florida their plight. Governor Patrick Tonyn was horrified by their account and sent investigators. He liberated the colonists and invited them to come to St. Augustine. The 600 survivors and their children marched to the city. It’s estimated 964 of the colonists had died.

Minorcan Quarter

The tough hard-working Minorcans proved a boon to the struggling community. St. Augustine treated them with far more respect than Turnbull ever did. United by culture and shared adversity, the Minorcans are still a close knit society after 100 years. They fight hard to keep their traditions alive, and I understand they are still proud of their heritage in the 27th century.

Americas First Cowboys

Thursday, 11 February 1892 - St. Augustine, Florida

Where did the first American cowboys come from? Texas? The Dakotas? Kansas?

No. Florida. Yes, Florida, although they are not called cowboys, but cowmen or more often just Crackers. Now Crackers will tell you they got their name because they use whips instead of lassoes and it was the cracking whips that gave them their moniker. More likely it comes from the Elizabethan term for a braggart and blowhard. Shakespeare uses the term in his 1595 play, King John: "What cracker is this ... that deafes our ears / With this abundance of superfluous breath?"

In 1763, when Great Britain gained control of Florida, many English American and Scots-Irish immigrated into the Florida back country as settlers. The more “civilized” folks in the port towns called them Crackers for their boasting. Only the toughest folk could survive the heat, mosquitoes and alligators, so maybe the Crackers had a reason to brag.

By the twentieth century “Cracker” will be used as a derogatory meaning “poor white folk.” Now here in Florida it has come to mean a cowboy. I noticed some of the "Crackers" out here are African-American or Seminole Ameridians.

Cracker Horse

The Cracker Cow and Cracker Horse were already here before the Crackers came in. When the English took over, the Spanish moved out leaving their livestock to roam wild. Descended from Spanish breeds, the Cracker cow and horse evolved into tough, hardy breeds that could survive the harsh conditions of Florida. They are also small so they can navigate the thick underbrush and marshes. In this age cows are allowed to range wild, and the Crackers go out to round them up, thus earning another current moniker, Cow Hunter.

Cow Hunters

I visited a ranch outside of St. Augustine today and watched the Crackers cracking their whips to herd their cattle. Already ranches are experimenting with crossing other breeds with Cracker Cattle, putting the pure breed in jeopardy. In the next century the Cracker Cow and Cracker Horse will be pushed close to extinction. In the 1930s cattle from Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas will be brought to Florida to escape the Dust Bowl drought. Quarter horses will be brought too, to better manage the larger cows. It was only by determination from devoted breeders that the smaller Cracker cows and horses did not disappear all together.

Good thing to. Both the Cracker horse and Cracker cow will be used by off-world homesteaders because of their durability in harsh conditions.

Cracker Cattle

The fight to save the Cracker Cow

The Real Discoverer of Florida

Tuesday, 2 February 1892 - St. Augustine, Florida

I have gone from winter in St. Petersburg Russia to winter in St. Augustine, Florida. No snow here. Temperature is in the 60s (Fahrenheit) today.

St. Augustine as it looks in 1892

St. Augustine brags it is the oldest city in the United States. There are some Pueblo in New Mexico that would argue with that. It is however the oldest port in the United States. Founded in 1565 by Pedro Menendez de Aviles of Spain, St. Augustine predates the first English colony, Jamestown by 42 years!

Old City Gates of St. Augustine

In 1763, Spain traded Great Britain Florida for Havana. In 1783, after the United States took over the colonies, they gave Florida back to Spain for their support in the Revolution. Spain thanked them politely, then ignored Florida which was nothing but a burden to them. They eagerly gave Florida back in 1821.

Florida has a high rainfall. It is also mostly flat. Since there are so few valleys or dells for rain to run off to, it just spreads out and forms swamps. Most of the state is now wetlands full of alligators, snakes and mosquitoes. Is it any wonder no one was too excited about colonizing it?

The swamps also created a haven for runaways. When the US government began rounding up the peaceful Amerindians of the southeast to cart off to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) many fled to the Everglades. They joined what was left of the native population here and created the Seminole tribes. Runaway African slaves also came into the swamps and set up settlements next to the Seminole towns, paying a small tribute for the tribe’s protection. Many intermarried and became full-fledged Seminoles themselves. When the tribes began raiding farms in Georgia, the US Army rounded the renegades up and sent them to Indian Territory. Well, the ones they could catch anyway. Deep in the Everglades the Seminoles are still living and thriving. The government pretends they aren’t there.

freedom-loving Seminoles

Towns in Florida of any size were only in the northern most part of the state. The peninsula had just small communities along the east and west coasts. Florida wasn’t even made a state until 1845, making it the 27th to be admitted. Settlers have come, experimenting with cattle farming and crops like oranges and pineapples. So far the thing that grows best is alligators.

Florida Pineapple Plantation

Until recently St. Augustine was just a quaint little colonial town. Then Henry Flagler showed up. John D. Rockefeller may have started Standard Oil Company, but it was Henry Flagler that turned it into the largest oil company in the world. It currently has a monopoly on the American oil industry. Needless to say Flagler is rich. And he has a good nose for opportunity.

Flagler came to Jacksonville, Florida, a bit to the north, on the advice of his wife’s doctor. It didn’t cure Mary, and she died in 1881. Two years later Flagler married her nurse and he returned to Florida for their honeymoon. This time Flagler came to St. Augustine. He was charmed by the town, but found the hotels and transportation lacking. Rather than warning his friends to avoid the place, Flagler came back in 1885 and started building hotels and bought the local railroad which he is expanding south. Soon he extend it all the way to the hamlet of Miami.

Flagler has turned the sleepy town of St. Augustine into a boom town and can be called the founder of what will become Florida’s biggest industry--tourism!. Flagler has remade St. Augustine. He will soon become the founder of Palm Beach and one of the founding fathers of Miami. Flagler’s “discovery” of Florida is more crucial to the people here than Ponce de Leon’s! I heard someone quip they should rename St. Augustine St. Flagler.

I have come to witness the beginning of Florida’s tourist trade. Right now winter is the busiest time as wealthy folks from up north come to escape the snow. Summer is hot and humid and June to November marks both the rainy season and hurricane season. It will take Disney World in the late 20th century to lure tourists down to Florida in the sweltering months.

While other temporal anthropologists are working in factories or living in bronze-age mud hovels, I get to stay at a posh resort. I almost feel guilty.

The Ponce de Leon, Flagler's first hotel, built in 1888
I'm staying here, 2nd floor on the right

The Ponce de Leon Hotel's lobby

Empress of Russia

9th January 2660 - St. Petersburg, Russia

The University of St. Petersburg had asked me to record as much of Marie Feodorovna as I could. A sticky wicket since Maria is the Empress of the Russian Empire. Her husband Tsar Alexander III is very protective of her, so getting anywhere near her is next to impossible. All the vid I could capture was from a distance, using the zoom on my camera glasses. Even those are fleeting images. The University was happy with what I could bring back--Maria at the high point of a life wrought with triumph and tragedy.

Marie Sophie Frederikke Dagmar was born in 1847, the daughter of Christian, the fourth son of Duke Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg. Never heard of it? That’s because it will be swallowed up by the Prussian Empire. As the second daughter of the fourth son of a doomed dukedom, Maria would be lucky to bag a count or a wealthy industrialist.

However the King Frederick VII of Denmark was childless and his closest relative was his cousin, Louise of Hesse-Cassel. She is married to the above Christian. When Marie was five her father was made Prince of Denmark, and eventually became King Christian IX in 1863. Marie was elevated to Princess Dagmar of Denmark, although her family called her Minnie.

Her oldest brother, Christian, would become King of Denmark. Her next eldest brother, George, would become King of Greece. (Very long story. Apparently they didn‘t like the king they had and went shopping.) Her older sister, Alexandria, married Edward, Prince of Wales and would become Queen of the United Kingdom. Princess Dagmar become engaged to the heir of the next biggest empire, Russia.

Princess Dagmar and Prince Nicholas

Dagmar and Prince Nicholas really seemed to like each other. Tsar Alexander II and the rest of the family liked her, too. Then came the first great tragedy of Dagmar’s life--Nicholas died of meningitis before they were wed. Nicholas’s last wish was that Dagmar still be wed to the heir to the Russian throne, his little brother, Alexander. Dagmar returned to Denmark broken-hearted. The Imperial family tried to console her. She and Alexander became closer in their shared grief and she accepted his proposal.

Maria and Tsar Alexander III

In 1866 Dagmar converted from Lutheran to Russian Orthodox and took the name Princess Maria. In 1881 she would become Empress Maria. Her husband Tsar Alexander III was on the throne while I was there in 1890. Traumatized by his father’s assassination, he is not the soft-hearted ruler Alexander II was. He is gruff, ruthless and as conservative as his father was liberal. And yet he is tender and devoted to Maria. While most Tsars had mistresses, there is no evidence Alexander III ever did. Every Easter he has the House of Faberge make her a jeweled egg.

Maria looked happy the few times I glimpsed her in carriages sitting next to her husband. She has no idea that in 1894 Alexander will die of kidney disease at the age of 49. Maria will be so devastated her brother-in-law, Edward, Price of Wales, will plan the funeral. She will then become the Dowager Empress of Russia as her son Nicholas II becomes Tsar. She will devote her life to helping him anyway she can.

Back, left to right: Michael, Maria,
Nicholas, Xenia and George.
In front: Tsar Alexander with Olga

Maria already lost her second son, Alexander, to meningitis in 1870. He was only 11 months old. Her third son, George, died in 1899 to lung disease at the age of 28. Her youngest son Michael and her eldest son, Tsar Nicholas II and his family will die in 1917, murdered by the Bolsheviks during the Revolution. Her two daughters, Xenia and Olga will escape. They at least will both outlive their mother by 32 years.

The Bolsheviks never came for Maria. Perhaps because she was so loved by the public, or perhaps because she was 70 and no threat. She refused to leave Russia, waiting for her sons she refused to believe were dead. Only in 1919 did her sister, Dowager Queen Alexander, get her to accept an invitation to England. While she loved her sister, Maria couldn’t bear to live in her shadow. She returned to Denmark, where many Russian nobility had fled. There she was treated as their Empress. She died in 1928 at the age of 80, still waiting for her sons, Michael and Nicholas. She was entombed in Roskilde Cathedral in Copenhagen.

In 2005 the governments of Denmark and Russia decided to carry out Empress Maria’s final wish. She was interred in Peter and Paul Cathedral next to her beloved husband, Alexander III with a funeral attended by dignitaries from both countries. Nearby is the tiny tomb holding what remains of her son Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alix and their five children and four loyal servants.

Tomb of Nicholas II and family

I visited Maria’s tomb at Peter and Paul Cathedral and left a bouquet of white lilies. In the Victorian language of flowers they symbolize purity, elegance, sweetness and beauty.

Tsar Nicholas II and his cousin King George V
(or is that George on the left? No that's Nicholas)
 

Still Life by Marie Feodorovna
If she hadn't been an Empress she could
easily have made a living as an artist

Tribute to Princess Dagmar/Empress Maria

Honorary Cossack For a Day

Sunday, 9 March 1890 - St. Petersburg, Russia

Church of the Exaltation of the Cross

Today I attended the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, near the Obvodny Canal. This is the site of one of the oldest churches and cemeteries in the city, although it was originally a wooden church named Church of the Birth of John the Baptist. Built in 1719, it served as a parish church for the Coachmen’s Settlement that was here then.

By the time the first stone church was built in 1794, the neighborhood had changed. The population was mostly Cossacks serving in the Imperial Regiments. It is still mostly Cossacks here, which is why this church is more often called the Cossack’s Church. The current building dates back to 1851 and is really a cathedral, with a complex of churches and chapels.

If you ask someone outside this part of the world what a “Cossack” is, and they will tell you it is a “Russian soldier.” That is a bit like saying “Scottish Highlanders” are just “British soldiers.” The Cossacks are in fact an ethnic group from the southern Russian Empire. Their origins are shrouded in mystery and have been the subject of much debate and arm wrestling among historians for centuries.

I have mentioned back in the 13th century, the Golden Horde (the Northwestern portion of the Mongol Empire) had Russia under it’s thumb. The Horde had settled primarily in what is now the Ukraine and southern Russia. The native Cuman were driven west into Hungary and Bulgaria. The Cuman were tough, but the Horde was also tough and outnumbered them.

By the beginning of the 15th century, the Horde began to fall apart, losing political power. Into this vacuum came serfs from Russia and Eastern Europe, running away from their masters. They settled in the Caucasus Mountains, the Islands of the lower Dnieper and Don River basins left uninhabited by the retreating Horde. It is believed they probably met the remaining Cuman tribes who had been too isolated and too ornery for the Mongols to want to tangle with. The Cuman lived on their cattle herds and were famous as horsemen and warriors. They welcomed the refugees who wished to join them, no doubt seeing them as added man-power. However they had to prove they were tough enough. The Slavic serfs in turn taught the Cumans farming and these new amalgamated tribes evolved into the Cossacks.

Cossack warrior

“Cossack” is from the Turkic word “Kazakh” which means “nomad.” Kazakh is also the name of the nomadic peoples of the steppes in what will one day be Kazakhstan and are apparently no relation. (Bit like the word “Native American” which can mean someone descended from the pre-Columbian Amerindians or just someone born in the United States.)

So the Cossacks are descended from the Cuman tough enough to outlast the Mongols and serfs brave enough to risk their lives to flee to a desolate land just so they could be free. They may not be powerful enough to keep a neighboring empire from putting their lands on their own maps, but they are hardheaded enough to push back any ruler stupid enough to try to push them around.

They especially don’t like people trying to convert them. The Polish Kings tried to make them Catholic and the Ottoman Sultans have tried to make them Muslim--and lived to regret it. Because the Cossacks are Orthodox Christians, they were more favorable to an alliance with the Russians. The Tsars have, for the most part, been wise enough to know Cossacks make better allies than enemies. They have allowed them semi-autonomy and actively recruited them into their military. Rather than fighting the Cossacks, they let the Cossacks fight for them. The Cossacks helped Russia conquer Siberia, Poland and other surrounding countries, creating the Russian Empire.

Cossack Calvary

Unfortunately the Tsars have also let the Cossacks regiments do all their dirtiest jobs, giving them a bad reputation they are all too aware of. It was probably why all eyes turned on me when I entered the church. The church was not only full of men in uniforms, but women, children and the elderly. This was a full-fledge community.

One elderly gentleman walked up to me, and spoke in broken French. “You French-man?” He pointed at my top hat.

“No, sir. I am English.” I replied in French. This is the language of the Imperial Court.

“Englishman come to watch us eat babies?” he grinned at me like a snarling tiger. He was shorter than me, but I think he could have easily taken me on. In fact I think his wife could, too.

“No.” I shook my head. “You are Christian, are you not?”

“Orthodox. Don’t forget that. Why you here?”

“I came to Russia to study the people, so I can tell the folks back home the real truth--that you are just people. I think I should show them all the people in the Russian Empire, including your people, the Cossacks.” I pointed to a soldier holding a toddler. “It appears to me you are too busy loving your babies to eat them.” I gave a slight bow. “If I am too disruptive, I shall leave you in peace. But if you don’t mind, I would like to sit in the back and watch the service, if that is all right?”

The old man rubbed his chin, studying me a moment. “No, you not sit in back. You sit in front.” He grabbed my arm and led me off. He introduced himself as Mykola Perevernykruchenko. After the service he took me to his home with a large extended family, and insisted I stay for dinner. We had boiled potatoes, sausages, millet grits and bread--very simple but hearty faire.

Perevernykruchenko told me about his life. He had learned to ride a horse at three and by five was playing war on horseback with reed arrows and wooden sabers, like all the other little boys. His father taught him how to fight with real bows and arrows. He told me how he had served the Tsar for twenty years, as had his father. Now his sons and grandsons were following the family tradition.

I hope none of his sons and grandsons will run foul of the Soviets. Some joined the Red Army, but most joined the White in defense of their Tsar. Between 1919 to 1920 it is estimated a half-a-million Cossacks were either executed or hauled away to Siberia to work camps. They did not get along with the Communists who wanted to convert them to atheism. But they will survive. And someday their homeland the Ukraine will be an independent country.

After dinner they played music and danced. The Cossacks are the one who invented the Hopak dance Russia is famous for. They squat and kick their feet out without losing their balance. They offered to teach me how, but once I squatted and kicked, I fell back on my posterior. They all had a good laugh over that. The older men tried to teach me a less strenuous dance, but even that was too much for me. It reminded me of an Irish jig.

Cossack Dancers

It is said the Cossacks adopt others into their culture if they can prove themselves Cossack material. That is why you can find some German, Polish and even a few Jewish names among them. Some names may even be Scottish in origin! I don’t think I made the grade, but Perevernykruchenko proclaimed me an “honorary” Cossack for the day. I may not be a warrior, but I apparently make good guest material.

As I took my leave, Perevernykruchenko admonished me, “You tell England we don’t eat babies. We good Christians.”

“Yes, I will.” I promised. What I had really come for was to record the Cossacks of this period so their descendants in the 27th century could see them. I had scanned everyone’s DNA, so Perevernykruchenko’s great, great, etc. grandchildren could “meet“ him. On a whim I turned back to him, “Excuse me, but if you could speak to your children’s children’s children’s children, what would you say to them?”

Perevernykruchenko frowned a moment, then smiled. “May you always be brave and free as your ancestors. You are a Cossack. Never forget that.”

Cossacks survived the Soviet era and retained their customs.

The more “sedate” traditional Cossack dance they tried to teach me (note these are old men)

In the 22nd century, the Ukraine finally got the Olympic Committee to accept Cossack dancing as an Olympic sport.

Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV
of the Ottoman Empire by Ilya Repin (1880-91)

Perhaps the most famous of the stories of the Cossacks is the one of the Ukrainian Cossacks reply to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire in 1676. One of the most powerful men in the world, he was getting tired of their raids and demanded they surrender to his rule.

Sultan Mahmud IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks:

As the Sultan; son of Muhammad; brother of the sun and moon; grandson and viceroy of God; ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Upper and Lower Egypt; emperor of emperors; sovereign of sovereigns; extraordinary knight, never defeated; steadfast guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ; trustee chosen by God himself; the hope and comfort of Muslims; confounder and great defender of Christians -- I command you, the Zaporogian Cossacks, to submit to me voluntarily and without any resistance, and to desist from troubling me with your attacks.

--Turkish Sultan Mahmud IV

The reply was a stream of insulting and vulgar rhymes, parodying the Sultan's titles:

The Kozaks of the Dnieper to the Sultan of Turkey:

Thou Turkish Satan, brother and companion to the accursed Devil, and companion to Lucifer himself, Greetings!

What the blazes kind of noble knight art thou? The Devil voids, and thy army devours. Never wilt thou be fit to have the sons of Christ under thee: thy army we fear not, and by land and on sea we will do battle against thee.

Thou scullion of Babylon, thou wheelwright of Macedonia, thou beer-brewer of Jerusalem, thou goat-flayer of Alexandria, thou swineherd of Egypt, both the Greater and the Lesser, thou sow of Armenia, thou goat of Tartary, thou hangman of Kamenetz, thou evildoer of Podoliansk, thou grandson of the Devil himself, thou great silly oaf of all the world and of the netherworld and, before our God, a blockhead, a swine's snout, a mare's behind, a butcher's cur, an unbaptized brow, May the Devil take thee! That is what the Kozaks have to say to thee, thou basest-born of runts! Unfit art thou to lord it over true Christians!

The date we write not for no calendar have we got; the moon is in the sky, the year is in a book, and the day is the same with us here as with thee over there, and thou canst kiss us thou knowest where!

-- Koshovyi Otaman Ivan Sirko, with the whole Zaporozhian Host.

And this is the Victorian translation! A more literal translation would make me blush for a month. By the way, they never did surrender.

The Oscar-Winning 19th-Century Russian Poet

Tuesday, 18 February 1890 - St. Petersburg, Russia

Today we had a snowstorm outside, so I decided to stay inside curled up with a good book. And who better to read than Alexander Pushkin, the father of modern Russian literature. He was the first to use everyday speech in his writing. Considered Russia’s greatest poet, he also wrote plays, novels, short stories and even fairy tales. He would not only inspire Russian writers, but also composers and artists as they tried to bring his works to life.

Alexander Pushkin

Pushkin’s life was as romantic a tale as any he invented. Born in 1799 of Russian nobility, he was also descended from German and Swedish nobles on his mother’s side and an African prince on his father’s. Alexander Pushin was the great grandson of the great General Abram Gannibal. (Yes, the same Gannibal that spoke to Alexander Suvorov in my last blog.)

Abram Gannibal was a captured African prince held hostage by the Ottoman Sultan. He was made a gift to Peter the Great. Rather than treating Gannibal as a slave, Peter raised him with his own children. He would grow up to become Peter’s daughter, Empress Elizabeth’s Major-General and head military engineer. She made him a nobleman in his own right for his service to Russia. A yet despite all his achievements, Gannibal is probably most famous for being the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin.

Pushkin was publishing poetry at fifteen. By the time he graduated from the Imperial Lyceum, he was already a popular writer. He became part of the rebellious youth culture of St. Petersburg and became a crusader for social reform. His outspoken views so upset the government, he often had to leave St. Petersburg and lie low. Pushkin was too popular to be sent off to Siberia, so the authorities tried to control him with strict censorship. Indeed his one play, Boris Godunov, will not be performed in it’s original uncensored form until 2007!

His most famous poem, The Bronze Horseman, shows Peter the Great as a demonic figure. A young man loses his true love in a flood, all too common in St. Petersburg history. He stands before Peter’s famous equestrian statue and curses the Tsar for building his capital in this dangerous spot. The statue comes to life, hunts the poor man down and kills him. Peter the Great’s great-great-grandson, Tsar Nicholas I, would not be amused. The poem was not allowed to be published until after Pushkin’s death.

The Bronze Horseman

Besides being at odds with the powers-that-be, Pushkin was very touchy about any real or perceived slights. Pushkin fought 29 duels to protect his honor. Dueling was popular in the early nineteenth century among gentleman (and fools.) In 1837 Pushkin was shot through the spleen at his last duel and died a few days later. Russia lost it’s greatest literary figure at the age of 37.

Pushkin is popular among the Victorians for his romantic views. The communists will love him for the thumbing his nose at Imperial Russia. Although his work is hard to translate into other languages, he will still have a great influence outside his country.

The 1984 film Amadeus not only won the Academy Award for "Best Picture," it also won Peter Shaffer the award for "Best Adapted Screenplay." Amadeus was in fact based on a play Pushkin wrote back in 1830 called Mozart and Salieri. Pity Pushkin won’t be there to collect his Oscar.

The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
A fairytale by Alexander Pushkin - Russia (1950) with English subtitles

Wondrous Moment - a poem by Alexander Pushkin

A Collection of Alexander Pushkin’s Poems

The Science of Victory

Tuesday, 11 February 1890 - St. Petersburg, Russia

The Field of Mars at St. Petersburg

Today I visited the Fields of Mars here in St. Petersburg. It was originally just called Grand Meadow when the city was first founded. Peter the Great set it aside as a park called Pleasure Field. His daughter Empress Elizabeth turned it into a garden with flowers and walkways.

By the late 1700s the Pleasure Field became a military drilling ground. It seemed the perfect spot for a monument to the great Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov. Erected in 1801, just one year after his death, it shows Suvorov as a young Mars, god of war. It’s a very impressive figure...and looks nothing like Suvorov.

Suvorov as Mars

Suvorov from
Catherine Monument

There is also a figure of Suvorov on the Catherine the Great Monument showing the prominent figures of her reign just below her. It shows a small skinny man that looks like a professor or accountant. This is what Suvorov actually looked like. He did not have the physique of a warrior or the good looks needed be a leader. All Suvorov had was a keen mind and fierce spirit. And that is what made him one of the greatest military minds that ever lived! 68 battles and not one defeat. I don’t know off-hand of any other general who can make that claim.

Alexander Suvorov was born in Moscow in 1730 to a noble family. His father, Vasiliy Suvorov, was a General-In-Chief. Young Alexander wanted to be a soldier like his daddy. He read every military writer he could find, and played soldier, trying to toughen his frail body. Vasiliy knew the boy was smart, but he was too sickly to be on a battlefield.

Vasiliy talked a neighbor, Abram Gannibal, into speaking to the boy. Maybe he would listen to the famous Major-General. So Gannibal sat down and had a heart-to-heart with the lad. He later told his father, “Let the boy do what he wants.” Apparently Gannibal had been quite impressed with Alexander’s knowledge of military strategy.

At the age of seventeen Alexander Suvorov went into the Russian army as a private. He didn’t see combat until he was 26 but he so impressed his superiors that by the age of 33 he was a colonel. By 38 he was a major-general.

Suvorov had his own ideas on military training and strategy and wrote books on the subject, the most famous being The Science of Victory. He wrote them in such a manner that even poorly educated privates could understand. For Suvorov discipline didn’t mean making your men more afraid of you than of the enemy. Discipline meant turning your men into confident soldiers. Marching in formation was fine, but served little purpose in battle. He had his men go through maneuvers that most mimicked actual fighting, so they would react instinctively in war. “Train hard and the fighting will be easy; train easy and the fighting will be hard.” He also encouraged his men to think on their feet and work in teams. In the chaos of battle, an officer could not always be there to give orders. Other generals had pawns, Suvorov had warriors.

Alexander Suvorov

Suvorov also believed that a leader should lead by example. While most generals controlled armies behind the lines, Suvorov led them into battle. Rather than a cushy tent, Suvorov slept on straw like the privates and ate what they ate. This made his men love him. I think it also made them endure much, since they did not want to be shown up by this wisp of a man.

Catherine the Great loved him, too. They were probably never lovers, but she admired his brains and courage. Suvorov was outspoken and was not above giving a clever gibe to someone at court. He did not suffer fools. I sometimes wonder if Catherine invited him to court dinners because he could say what she dared not. She was after all a foreigner and could not afford to insult powerful nobles. Catherine knew how to pick her battles. And I doubt Suvorov was afraid to speak his mind to the Empress when he felt her in error, which she also appreciated.

I think the friendship of Suvorov and Catherine is best summed up by the story of his promotion. In the war with the Poles, after capturing Warsaw, he sent her the short message: “Hurrah! Warsaw is ours.” Catherine sent back an even shorter note: “Hurrah Field Marshall.” Suvorov was not a field marshal--until he got this message.

Catherine heaped medals and honors on Suvorov. She made him Count Suvorov of Rymnik (for the Battle of Rymnik). She was not the only one. Prussia would make him a count and Italy would make him a prince for his services as an ally. He had been given so many medals I doubt he could wear them all at once without falling over.

Unfortunately Paul I, Catherine’s son, inherited his father’s brains and not his mother’s. When he was crowned in 1796 he decided to make changes. His generals would be chivalrous. His idea of chivalry was pretty high for he dismissed 333 generals and 7 field marshals. Suvorov was one of them. No doubt Tsar Paul was irritated by Suvorov’s sharp if honest tongue. He had criticized the Tsar’s dressing the soldiers in impractical Prussian uniforms. Suvorov retired disgraced at 66.

Then Napoleon began to move east in 1799. Now Paul needed the man he had sent away. He summoned Suvorov to lead the Russian army against the French. The 69-year-old man drove Napoleon’s forces out of Italy (which was a collection of independent states at that time). The King of Sardinia made Suvorov a Prince of the House of Savoy.

Later that year however Suvorov was betrayed by Austria and had to make a tactical retreat over the Alps. This was the closest thing he had ever had to a defeat, yet even if the mountain crossing was a triumph in itself. No one had crossed the Alps since Hannibal. Hannibal lost more than half of his army. Suvorov lost only a few men.

March of Suvorov through the Alps
by Vasily Surikov.

Suvorov returned to St. Petersburg where he had been promised a heroes welcome. Tsar Paul reneged, deciding he didn’t need the old man anymore. Worn-out and humiliated, Suvorov died a few days later at the age of 70. A year later Paul I was assassinated and his son Alexander I became Tsar. He erected the statue to Suvorov that same year.

Suvorov greatest dream was to meet Napoleon on the battlefield. He never got the opportunity. However when the French tried to invade Russia in 1812, it was General Mikhail Kutuzov, Suvorov’s protégé, who drove him back. Kutuzov credited Suvorov for teaching him how best to lead an army. Indeed Suvorov’s “protégé” will be born after his death. His books will teach many officers in Russia and elsewhere the Science of Victory.

More on Alexander Suvorov’s many battles

Quotes by Suvorov

A video Tribute to Suvorov

Suvorov in Action
This is a clip from a film in Russian. The actor however has captured Suvorov so well it doesn’t need translation.

The Folklorist Who Reawakened a Nation

Sunday, 2 February 1890 - St. Petersburg, Russia

Today I visited St. John’s Church here in St. Petersburg at 54 Ulitsa Dekabristov, near the Mariinsky Theater. It is a rather modest brick building, but it has great historical significance to the people of Estonia.

Estonia in 1890

This is a map of Estonia as it looks in 1890. What you don’t see it? It’s the area circled. I know the map doesn’t show it, but it’s a German map. The German’s feel it still belongs to them since a band of crusading Teutonic Knights conquered it back in the 13th century, bringing Christianity and serfdom to the poor pagans. The knights also made themselves the ruling class. Then the Swedes took it away (or was it Poland, then the Swedes? It’s all very complicated. Denmark was in there somewhere, too.) The problem is Estonia is on a very strategic spot, and surrounding countries all fought over it for centuries. Finally Peter the Great grabbed it in 1710 and absorbed it into Russia.

Now all this time, there was an Estonian people with their own language and culture that managed to survive under all this turmoil. Sadly the natives were now all serfs. Luckily these serfs were freed in 1819, beating the rest of Russia by 42 years. I believe the serfs may have been freed first in Estonia because the nobles were all Germans and not Russian and thus were little political threat to the Tsar.

Many of the freed serfs decided to thumb their noses at their German overlords and came to St. Petersburg to seek their fortune. It was after all an international city, with ethnic groups from all over. By 1859 the Estonian community had enough members and money to build this fine church, with the help of Tsar Alexander II, who was kind enough to donate 50,000 rubles to the cause.

St. John's Church

My last blog I mentioned how Tsar Alexander II was assassinated, and his son Alexander III became very paranoid and xenophobic. He wants everyone to be Russians. They should speak Russian and belong to the Russian Christian Orthodox Church. Estonians speak German and Estonian and belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Estonia. Perhaps the Tsar hasn’t singled out the Estonians yet because they are mostly poor peasants and his father did help build the church.

It s doesn’t help that the present minister, Jakob Hurt, only two years ago, challenged his parishioners to resist the Tsar’s Russification Policy. Hurt isn’t really a terrorist or anything violent. He is a folklorist and linguist--a fellow anthropologist! He started a campaign to collect Estonian folktales, organizing 1400 volunteers he accumulated from a newspaper campaign to help him, and has collected hundreds of tales into six volumes. He will be known as the “King of Estonian Folklore.” He is also a theologian, which doesn’t pay much, but pays more than being a folklorist.

Jacob Hurt

Jakob Hurt gave the sermon in Estonian. I kept glancing about for the Tsar’s secret police. I think some members had eyed me earlier until they figured out I was just a curious Englishman. Britain is one country that has never tried to conquer Estonia.

I know giving a sermon in Estonian and collecting folktales, may not seem like much, but Hurt is reminding these people they have a culture and a country, even if the rest of Europe denies it. This National Reawakening will eventually lead to 40,000 Estonians marching on the Tauride Palace and the Russian Government in 1917 to demand national autonomy. The Estonian Revolution that followed will force Russia to sign a peace agreement in 1920, making Estonia a free country for the first time in 700 years.

Unfortunately the Soviets reneged on the deal, and occupied Estonia in 1940. Stalin executed thousands and sent tens of thousands of Estonians to labor camps in Siberia. Most will die. Even the dead were not left in peace as Stalin had their cemeteries destroyed. Then between 1941 and 1944 Germany once more ruled Estonia. As soon as they left, Estonia met Russia returning and once more fought for independence. Estonia lost.

As for this church, it did not fare well under the Communists who hated religion of any kind. The belfry and portal were demolished and the building, like many churches in St. Petersburg, was used as a warehouse.

Then in the late 1980s as the USSR dissolved, Estonia took advantage of the situation to grab back their independence. They are still independent and proud of their heritage in the 27th century and still reading Jakob Hurt’s Monumenta Estoniae Antiquae in their native Estonian.

The St. John Church will be returned to the Estonian community in St. Petersburg. The Republic of Estonia could not let the church Jakob Hurt taught at be demolished. After a four million pound renovation, the Archbishop reconsecrated the church in 2011 with the president of Estonia as a guest of honor. I think Jakob Hurt was there too, in spirit.