Russia

Russia, the great transcontinental land, taking up all of northern Asia and 40 percent of Europe. The once-was powerhouse, which I first became aware of watching news reports of Russians lining up to buy whatever might be in the perpetually empty supermarkets. I also remember, as a child in the 80s, hearing a lot about Gorbachev, and the word glasnost appeared in my vocabulary before many English words. Probably, after the United States, the country from which people are most likely to be able to name a large number of 20th century leaders—be it dictators or presidents. Today is Russia Day.

In the classical era, the Pontic Steppe was known as Scythia; but the history of the country really begins with the East Slavs, who emerged as a group sometime between the 3rd and the 8th century. (Yes, I realise that’s not very exact.) The first East Slavic state—which was founded by Vikings—was Kievan Rus’, which arose in the 9th century, adopting Christianity in 988, and—in the 10th and 11th centuries—becoming the largest and most prosperous state in Europe. Kievan Rus’ ultimately disintegrated, as the lands were divided into small feudal states, and was succeeded by Moscow. (Invasion by the Mongols didn’t help.) Over time, Moscow reunified the surrounding Russian principalities until, by the 18th century, it had become the vast Russian Empire.

Then we have the dynasties, the Tsars. The Russian Empire was founded by Peter I (or Peter the Great) in the 17th century, and the rule of the Tsars ended with the Russian Revolution which overthrew the monarchy and eventually led to the Communism that became the bogeyman to the US in much of the 20th century. Nor was it a picnic—Stalin’s rule is the one everyone remembers, and with famine, extreme political repression and the possibility of execution or exile to Siberian gulags, the history often reads like a horror story.

In 1991, the USSR broke up, dissolving in December of that year. Also officially at an end by this time: Communism.

You know what? Russia is not just the place for caviar. Russia also has the world’s largest forest reserves which absorb a huge amount of carbon dioxide (second only the Amazon rainforest) and provides a similarly huge amount of oxygen. Thank god it’s so big, with huge swathes of land barely populated!

Russia has so, so many great writers—from the novelists (Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy head any list, but we shouldn’t forget Turgenev and Gogol) to Chekhov’s short stories and plays to the many, many great poets, how is one to choose? I suppose, in the end, by choosing something I love. So I’m choosing Anna Akhmatova—and have trouble, even, in choosing a single poem by her. (Perhaps this is the hardest of all.) I found this poem online here.



‘I don’t know if you’re alive or dead –’

I don’t know if you’re alive or dead –
Can you be found on earth, though,
or only in twilit thoughts instead
be mourned for, in that peaceful glow.

All for you: the prayer daily,
the hot sleeplessness at night,
the white flock of poetry,
and the blue fire of my eyes.

No one was cherished more,
or tormented me so, no not
him, who betrayed me to torture,
nor him, who caressed and forgot.

—Anna Akhmatova
translated by A. S. Kline.