For a long time I have been interested in the stories of those who operated in the top tier of history but weren’t themselves rulers. Many were diplomats whose careers, for all their brilliant efforts, ended in disappointment. One was Sergei Witte, the long-serving finance minister who spent six months as the first prime minister of Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II. Witte’s memoirs were published in America in 1921, five years after his death. They contain a brief but vivid portrait—at once sweet and grudging—of the America he encountered in August 1905.
And later in the article,
He visited “sky-scrapers,” taking an elevator up 37 floors in one such “monster.” “There was a light breeze blowing and I could feel the top room swaying.” America was expensive: “You cannot give the elevator boy a tip less than a dollar.” He couldn’t believe most of the waiters in hotels and restaurants were university students who were “not ashamed of the menial duties.” Russian youths would rather starve “than demean themselves by doing the work of a servant.” Young women, even from good families, went strolling with young men unaccompanied on the streets and in the parks. This left him “shocked.”
Barton Swaim’s Weekend Interview is with Beatrice de Graaf, professor of history at Utrecht University, and author of Putin’s Czarist Dream.
He had taken power on the last day of 1999, when Boris Yeltsin resigned. “Every year, one or two or three statues were erected. But they didn’t honor Lenin or Stalin. The statues were of Alexander I, of Peter the Great, of Catherine, of Nicholas I.”
Any time Mr. Putin would dedicate one of these statues, Ms. de Graaf recalls observing, “he would do it in the company of an Orthodox priest, and the priest would sprinkle holy water and make an address, and both the priest and Putin speak of the ‘holiness of the moment’ or some language like that. . . . To me, it became obvious this wasn’t only about history.”
And later,
“For him,” Ms. de Graaf says, “the war in Ukraine really is a holy war.” She also points out that while “in Western Christianity, St. Augustine formulated an influential theory of just war, nothing of the sort developed in Eastern Christianity. In the East, the emperor has the power to define what is evil and crush it.”
It’s a long and complicated interview. Churchill’s description of Russia’s intentions still seems valid – a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
D-Day.
The best job I ever had was working as senior editor and writer for the publishing arm of the Cantigny First Division Museum in Wheaton, IL. In that capacity I edited and wrote several books and articles on 1st Infantry Division history and related subjects. This was back when a great many WW2 Big Red One vets were still alive. Met and spoke with many of them, conducted oral history interviews, wrote about their experiences, etc.
One of my best memories was being party to (and recording and documenting) the friendly but ever-vigorous (and never-ending) debate on who exactly was first to make it to the top of the bluff at Omaha Beach. The two prime candidates were Finke and Dawson. But there were others, most of them unknown or known but to God — anonymous junior officers, sergeants, corporals, and privates who on their own initiative and acting without any orders or guidance formed small ad hoc groups and fought way to the top in the teeth of withering German machine-gun fire.
Those of you who have toured Omaha Beach will no doubt remember seeing “Dawson’s Draw,” the shallow pathway leading up the slope of the bluff to its summit. The draw is located adjacent to the American cemetery.
A special advanced private screening of “Saving Private Ryan” was held at the Cantigny Museum for a select group of Big Red One vets of the Omaha Beach assault. They were unanimous in their approval of the opening segment depicting the assault, even though the anti-boat boat obstacles were incorrectly positioned, facing the wrong way. They found this part of the film quite harrowing o watch, and not a few were moved to tears by it.
Their only significant complaint about the film was the scene in which Capt. Miller and his men are shown strolling casually and fairly closely bunched through the Normandy countryside (whose ownership was then still very much in dispute), chatting amiably as if without a care in the world.
I got to talk with Capt. Finke about Omaha Beach. He was very adamant, literally until his dying day, that he was “first to the top” of the bluff, beating Dawson.
RIP, men.
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Lots of great stuff in the WSJ this weekend, including this by Peggy Noonan. She really is at her best when she just lays off the politics altogether.
A Visit to America in 1905
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/a-visit-to-america-in-1905-f8af2328?st=eiscjW
And later in the article,
I believe the link above gets by the paywall.
Speaking of Russia,
Why U.S. Presidents Misjudge Putin
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/why-u-s-presidents-misjudge-putin-0ac5d9d9?st=yEtedc
Barton Swaim’s Weekend Interview is with Beatrice de Graaf, professor of history at Utrecht University, and author of Putin’s Czarist Dream.
And later,
It’s a long and complicated interview. Churchill’s description of Russia’s intentions still seems valid – a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
D-Day.
The best job I ever had was working as senior editor and writer for the publishing arm of the Cantigny First Division Museum in Wheaton, IL. In that capacity I edited and wrote several books and articles on 1st Infantry Division history and related subjects. This was back when a great many WW2 Big Red One vets were still alive. Met and spoke with many of them, conducted oral history interviews, wrote about their experiences, etc.
One of my best memories was being party to (and recording and documenting) the friendly but ever-vigorous (and never-ending) debate on who exactly was first to make it to the top of the bluff at Omaha Beach. The two prime candidates were Finke and Dawson. But there were others, most of them unknown or known but to God — anonymous junior officers, sergeants, corporals, and privates who on their own initiative and acting without any orders or guidance formed small ad hoc groups and fought way to the top in the teeth of withering German machine-gun fire.
Those of you who have toured Omaha Beach will no doubt remember seeing “Dawson’s Draw,” the shallow pathway leading up the slope of the bluff to its summit. The draw is located adjacent to the American cemetery.
A special advanced private screening of “Saving Private Ryan” was held at the Cantigny Museum for a select group of Big Red One vets of the Omaha Beach assault. They were unanimous in their approval of the opening segment depicting the assault, even though the anti-boat boat obstacles were incorrectly positioned, facing the wrong way. They found this part of the film quite harrowing o watch, and not a few were moved to tears by it.
Their only significant complaint about the film was the scene in which Capt. Miller and his men are shown strolling casually and fairly closely bunched through the Normandy countryside (whose ownership was then still very much in dispute), chatting amiably as if without a care in the world.
I got to talk with Capt. Finke about Omaha Beach. He was very adamant, literally until his dying day, that he was “first to the top” of the bluff, beating Dawson.
RIP, men.