Της Αγίας Κατιούσας

Κατιούσα είναι το υποκοριστικό του Κάτια που με τη σειρά του είναι το υποκοριστικό του Γιεκαταρίνα.

("Κατιούσα" επίσης είναι και οι φημισμένοι Σοβιετικοί εκτοξευτές ρουκετών που οι Γερμανοί στον 2ο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο είχαν ονομάσει "το Εκκλησιαστικό Όργανο του Στάλιν" αλλά αυτό είναι άλλη ιστορία - ή, μάλλον, Ιστορία) :

ΒΜ - 13 "Κατιούσα"

25 Νοεμβρίου σήμερα,και για τις Κατερίνες :

την "Άφρικα Μπαμπάτα" Κάτια που τσακίζει τα Tsakiris Mallas Ερμού και Γλυφάδας με κάθε ευκαιρία που της δίνεται

την Κατρίνα Βρυξελλών - σαν τα λαχανάκια (περιμένω πολλές πραλίνες τα χριστούγεννα...)

την ζωγράφο Κατ (I'm a vampire, you're a vampire too)

την Κατερίνα (Λουίζα) φον, creative and writer (ultra) extraordinaire

την Καίτη, την μητέρα ενός αγγέλου

Χρόνια πολλά!

( και ένα τραγούδι: )

Η Λυντίια Ρουσλάνοβα τραγουδά την Κατιούσα για πρώτη φορά σε στημένη φωτογραφία απο το "μέτωπο".

Η ντίβα της Ρωσσικής ποπ, Ιρίνα Μπίλυκ τραγουδά την "Κατιούσα", το τραγούδι που κέρδισε τον 2ο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο σε ένα κλιπ εποχής που μιμείται το ύφος των εμφανίσεων της μεγάλης Λυντίια Ρουσλάνοβα, για τα 60 χρόνια απο την Ημέρα της Νίκης (8 Μαΐου 2005) :

Катюша

(Μουσική : Ματβέι Μπλαντέρ / Στίχοι : Μιχαΐλ Ισακόβσκι, 1938)

Οι μηλιές και οι αχλαδιές είχαν ανθίσει
Το ποτάμι σκέπαζε η Ομίχλη
Η Κατιούσα φάνηκε στην όχθη
την απότομη και ψηλή όχθη

Περπατούσε κι έλεγε ένα τραγούδι
Για έναν γκρίζο της στέππας αετό
Για την πραγματική της αγαπή
Που τα γράμματά του κρατούσε φυλακτό

Ω τραγούδι, τραγουδάκι κοριτσιού
Στον λαμπρό ήλιο πέτα
Και φτάσε στον φαντάρο σε σύνορα μακρινά
μαζί με της Κατιούσα τα χαιρετίσματα

Κάντον να θυμάται το απλό κορίτσι
και να ακούει πως τραγουδάει
Κάντον να φυλάξει τη Μητέρα Πατρίδα
όπως η Κατιούσα την αγάπη τους φυλάει...

Να σας χαιρόμαστε!

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Verlorene Siege: Barbarossa!

On 22 June 1941, Germany launched Barbarossa, the greatest offensive up to that moment in History, in a fatal but unavoidable attempt to deal with the USSR before the Soviets were fully prepared for war.

Despite many warnings, including detailed reports by the greatest spy of all times, Richard Sorge, who worked for the Soviets, surprise was complete.

The German Army at that point was far superior in training and material concentration than the Soviet Army.

"Artillerie am Front" (Artillery to the Front) by Eduard von Handel-Mazzetti, 1942

However, the vastness of the Soviet land made the timeline for the objectives wildly optimistic and the doggedness of the Soviet defenders (despite the huge initial collapse) wore the Wehrmacht down with irreplaceable loss of life and material (during the first week of Barbarossa the Germans lost more than they had lost during the whole two years of war before).

The offensive bogged down, neither Lerningrad nor Moscow were captured and by winter instead of a great victory the German Army faced a huge front, ill-supplied troops unprepared for the Great General Winter and a Soviet counteroffensive by the Siberian divisions that were relocated to the West when Richard Sorge affirmed that the Japanese would not attack from the East.

The Great Patriotic War had just began and would end with the utter defeat of the Germans.

"I swear to defeat the enemy!"

____________________________________________________________________

Two videos. The first is colour footage from the early stages of the invasion (with rather lame music: the Last of the Mohicans theme) and the second one is pictures of the Soviets with the great patriotic song Svyashennaya Voina (Holy War) by Alaksandr Aleksandrov.

Священная война

For the Motherland!

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Waterloo!

On 18 June 1815 the armies of the Seventh Coalition (Great Britain, Prussia, the United Netherlands, Nassau, Hanover and Brunswick) under the command of Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington ("the Iron Duke" - "Whoever soils a Wellington puts his foot in it") and of Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht Graf von Blücher ( "Marschall Vorwärts" ) met and defeated the army of Napoleon Bonaparte in the famous Battle of Waterloo, in "a damn close-run thing".

For now two things:

First, the ABBA song "Waterloo" from the 1974 Eurovision song contest (notice the orchestra conductor Sven Olaf Walldoff with his Napoleon costume)

and a witty poem by some Thomas Gaspey about Lord Uxbrige's (Henry Paget's) leg that had become a tourist attraction in Waterloo when it was lost to grapeshot from the French artillery (with the famous anecdotal dialogue between Uxbridge and the Iron Duke: "By God, sir, I've lost my leg!" - "By God, sir, so you have!" ) :

Here rests, and let no saucy knave
Presume to sneer and laugh,
To learn that mouldering in the grave
Is laid a British calf.

For he who writes these lines is sure
That those who read the whole
Will find such laugh were premature,
For here, too, lies a sole.

And here five little ones repose,
Twin-born with other five;
Unheeded by their brother toes,
Who now are all alive.

A leg and foot to speak more plain
Lie here, of one commanding;
Who, though his wits he might retain,
Lost half his understanding.

And when the guns, with thunder fraught,
Pour'd bullets thick as hail,
Could only in this way be taught
To give his foe leg-bail.

And now in England, just as gay -
As in the battle brave -
Goes to the rout, review, or play,
With one foot in the grave.

Fortune in vain here showed her spite,
For he will still be found,
Should England's sons engage in fight,
Resolved to stand his ground.

But fortune's pardon I must beg,
She meant not to disarm;
And when she lopped the hero's leg
By no means sought his h-arm,

And but indulged a harmless whim,
Since he could walk with one,
She saw two legs were lost on him
Who never meant to run.

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The Sack of Rome

The Emperor, Charles V, by Titian

One of the most notable dates in my historical calendar is the Sack of Rome by renegade troops of the Holy Roman Empire on May 6, 1527.

Charles V, invictissimus imperator, caesar augustus romanorum cuius maiestas etc., etc.... was the only Holy Roman Emperor to have truly reigned over an Empire. Through the manipulations of the great Habsburg,his grandfather Maximilian, the Holy Roman Empire had come to include the lands of the Electors but also the Spanish Empire (with its overseas colonies and their gold) and Burgundy (with much of what today is BE-NE-LUX).

It is a shame that these were times of dreadful turmoil. The Reformation was gaining momentum and on top of that the Empire had to fight wars on many fronts as many of its enemies joined in impossible alliances to attack its might.

One of these unthinkable alliances was the League of Cognac, between France, Venice, Milan and Florence. (How on earth would Milan ever ally with Venice and both of them with the Papal States...)

In any case the italians have always been woefully pathetic in war since the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Their condottieri (mercenary war leaders) did not so much as fight as put up a nice show of manoeuvre and nice uniforms. And although France traditionally fielded the heaviest, better equipped and noblest cavalry in the world, as Agincourt had shown, it was not enough.

Against them, the Emperor had the Landsknechte. An exceptional mercenary fighting force, the ruthless Landskechte had been organised by Maximilian under the command of the tirolean Georg von Frundsberg.

Georg von Frundsberg, lord of Mindelheim

The armies met in 1525 at Pavia, near Milan, where the alliance troops were decimated by the imperial forces that employed arquebus handguns in what was considered the first modern battle.

The Imperial victory was so complete that the french king himself was taken prisoner.

However the batlle was followed by 2 years of inconclusive campaigning during which the army drew closer to Rome (popular belief has it that during that time Frundsberg carried a golden rope to hang the Pope with).

Delays in payment, harassment from the Bande Nere, the only effective italian fighting force, under the command of Giovanni de' Medici (Giovanni delle Bande Nere) without a conclusive battle (even though Giovanni was eventually killed by a serpentine - or falconet - cannonball ) and a stroke that forced Frundsberg to retire undermined discipline in the Imperial army to the point of mutiny. They forced their commander, Charles III (Duke of Bourbon and Constable of France - how he fought against the french king? Well, it's the Rennaisance... duh...) to lead them to Rome.

The city's pathetic defences held a bit more than the lifetime of an exceptionally unstable nucleus under heavy neutron bombardment.

However, the Swiss Guard ( Cohors Pedestris Helvetiorum a Sacra Custodia Pontificis ) of the Pope (Clemens VII) gave their life to ensure that the Pope has enough time to flee to the Castello Sant' Angelo through a secret corridor (the now famous Passetto di Borgo).

The end of the passetto entering the Castello Sant' Angelo

The head of the defenders of the Castello Sant' Angelo was none other than the flamboyant jeweller and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (whose statue Perseus is one of the greatest masterpieces of sculpture). Cellini, in his autobiography does more credit to himself than he (or any other italian) deserves for his role in the defence of the city and even claims responsibility for the death of Charles III.

Cellini's statue at the Galleria degli Uffizi ( in Florence...)

In any case, a fearful sack ensued. Villas and churches were plundered, women raped, works of art destroyed and even though the Emperor was shamed by the conduct of his troops, he would never again get any lip from the Pope whose obedience after his ransom was ensured, to the point of causing the schism with the English Church, because of his denial to annull Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn (because Catherine was the Emperor's aunt).

And then you ask me why I love the Rennaisance and the italians.... :-)

PS I: In a notable twist of fate, Martin Luther wrote: "Christ reigns in such a way that the Emperor who persecutes Luther for the Pope is forced to destroy the Pope for Luther" (Luther Werke 49:169)

PS II: Anathema sit on the Colonna family which sided with the Imperials to sack the Holy City, anathema, anathema, anathema...

PS III: If you have a piece of golden rope, well, now you know what to do with it: Go to Rome and hang the Pope!!!



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The capitulation of Sveaborg

Today it is exactly 200 years since the shameful surrender of the Sveaborg naval fortress garrison to the besieging Russian forces, during the 1808-1809 Finnish war.

The grave of Augustin Ehrensvärd, the Swedish officer who oversaw the construction of the fortress (too bad I did not notice the cement pump at the background when I was taking the picture...)

The reasons that made the garrison commander capitulate are still a matter of debate. The garrison was 7000 men strong - about a third of the besieging force, which is an excellent ratio.

In any case, the surrender of the Sveaborg meant the effective end of any swedish hopes to successfully defend the province of Finland (north and eastern Finland was inaccessible because of its dense woods that a swedish officer had called "Adam's exile" - the key to Finland's defense lay in the south).

Indeed, at the end of the war, Sweden lost Finland which became a Grand Duchy in Imperial Russia.

When Finland succesfully gained its independence after the October Revolution and the Finnish Civil War the great leader of the Finns, Field Marshall Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim inaugurated the birth of the Finnish State by addressing Sveaborg (meaning swedish fortress) as Suomenlinna (Finnish Castle).

Nowadays, the fortress is a museum and the complex of islands upon which it is built a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A few minutes by boat from Helsinki, it is a very pleasant excursion that is well recommended to anyone who visits the Finnish capital.

I will forgo the more cliche pictures I took when I visited Sveaborg in 2005 (with the exception of Augustin Ehrensvärd's grave) :

Shield from the prow of a Russian ship, with Czarist insignia (from the Suomenlinna museum)


The romantic gun: Young couple above one of the better preserved pieces of coastal artillery from the latter days of Suomenlinna's use as a naval fortress.



The real treat: The only "surviving" finnish submarine, the Vesikko, and one of the very few surviving U-boats (this one is a Type-II).


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When humanity broke the first barrier: Yuri Gagarin's Flight

On April 12, 1961 cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin launched from a site near the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Vostok 3KA spacecraft, for the Vostok 1 mission. It was the first manned space flight in human history, which placed the first human into orbit as the craft separated from the boosters ten minutes after take-off, at 06:17 GMT.

Less than two hours later, Yuri Gagarin had safely landed, completing the first journey in our efforts to free humankind from its terran shackles and reach for the stars.

A true pioneer of humanity, Gagarin showed us the way. It is up to us to leave our bitter and petty disputes and seek the path that leads us to the skies.
It is our only duty and one that we should remember each time we turn our gaze to the night skies.



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Last Post of the Year:Supermodels in lingerie and Prussian Generals

About two years ago I was walking in Kifissia with a beautiful and very elegant friend of mine. At some point we stopped to admire a shop window that had Victoria's Secret lingerie on display. To be quite honest, I didn't hear her comments because I had performed a complete shut-down, picturing her in Victoria's Secret undergarments (and later, off them).

(Karolina Kurkova at the 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show,©MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved)

I do remember making a clumsy attempt at a compliment along the lines of "Let's go now, if I saw anyone escorting a lady as beautiful as you checking out Victoria's Secret lingerie, I would kill him out of pure jealousy".

(Marisa Miler at 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Photoshoot, ©MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved)

Anyway, the fact is that as each year reaches its end there are two things that I am particularly looking forward to: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at the beginning of December and the Neujahrskonzert of the Musikverein at the beginning of the following year.

(The Body II: Heidi Klum, at 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Photoshoot, ©MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved)

The thing that makes lingerie modelling so special is that, although perfect measurements may be enough for a modelling career, they are not nearly enough for lingerie.

You see, a lingerie top model embodies perfection itself (in a very literal sense, if I may say so).

(Alessandra Ambrosio at 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, ©MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved)

She has to be very pretty (forget about Gaultier's aliens on the catwalk) and she has to have a KILLER body (not a flat ironing board).
And since Victoria's Secret employs the best of the best, well...they see to it that each year has a more than magnificent sendoff.

(An angel on Earth, Adriana Lima at 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, ©MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved)

Since this is the last post for this year, let me just wish that the next year brings Lots of Sex, Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men.

Until then let's just be glad that they did not use a nuclear warhead on Benazir Bhutto, right after they shot and blasted her, just to make sure...

PS: On 30 December 1812,Generalleutnant Hans David Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg, commander of the Prussian expeditionary force angainst the Russians and General Hans Karl von Diebitsh of the Imperial Russian Army signed a truce, known as the Convention of Tauroggen. It was a political gamble by Yorck, based on the strong anti-french sentiment. This effectively ended the Prussian alliance (enforced by the Treaty of Tilsit) with that bastard Napoleon, opening the way for Prussia to ally with the Brittish and kick some french butt.

(Graf Yorck von Wartenburg)

Women, pt. I : Lotta Svärd and the Winter War

At last, the weather is cold enough to be called wintry. And speaking of winter, it is time to bring back some memories.
Bear with me for a short course of History.

On 30 November 1939, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics opened a massive offensive against the young Finnish republic. This would be the Winter War (SWE: Vinterkriget).

2 weeks later, on 14 December, exactly 68 years ago, this illegal invasion caused the Soviet Union to be expelled from the League of Nations which once more proved "as effective as a catflap in an elephant house".

Using ponderous and outdated human-wave tactics, the Soviet generals led their men to a fearful slaughter (in the time-honoured fashion of the First World War, men were expected to "march very slowly towards the enemy machine-guns", as Captain Blackadder would put it).

The Finnish forces, holding the Karelian Isthmus Fortifications according to the Grand Plan of Field Marshall Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, decimated whole divisions of Soviet troops using superior tactics and the excellent knowledge of terrain by their skijaeger, machine-gun and sniper troops.

The brave stance of the Finns and the many foreign volunteers (including, for a very brief period, Christofer Lee) led to a relatively mild peace treaty that ceded only 10% of Finnish ground to the Soviets (since victory would be impossible in the end, against the greatest army of the world).

Now who was Lotta Svärd ?

Förrn den ädle kungen i Finland stred,
Hon blivit en krigsmans brud;
Och då trumman rördes och Svärd drog med,
Så följde hon samma ljud.

(Ere the noble king to Finland's shore,
She'd become a warrior's bride.
When the drums beat, and Svard went off to the war,
She followed him stride for stride.)

(Poetic English translation by C.W. Stark, C.B. Shaw and C.D. Broad)

Lotta Svärd is one of the most important characters in Johan Ludvig Runeberg's epic poem Fänrik Ståls sägner (Ensign Stal's Tales, Vänrikki Stoolin tarinat in Finnish). It speaks of the bravery of the men who tried to defend the Finnish lands during Russia's war with Sweden after the Treaty of Tilsit (The Finnish War, 1808-09), even though the whole affair was poorly planned and the cause was doomed (the Fortress of Sveaborg capitulated in 1809 and Russia took possession of Finland).

During this war, Lotta Svärd followed her husband faithfully, carrying supplies for the men in the army, like a noble version of Mutter Courage...

Following her example, after the bitter civil war of 1917-18 and the Indipendence of Finland from Imperial Russia, Finnish women organised in paramilitary groups of volunteers to help the nation in that time of dire need.(Lotta Svärd logo, with heraldic roses and crux gammata. Designed in the early 20's, it has nothing to do with the nazi swastika and ideology. National Socialism had practically no followers in Finland, and with the rise of the nazis in power, Finnish-German relations deteriorated).

The organization grew and along with it grew its contribution.
By 1923 the Lottas had collected more than 500000 finnish marks to help refit the M91/24 7,62 mm rifles of the army with new barrells (hence the rifle was named "Lotta-rifle").


When the Winter War broke up the Lottas volunteered for every auxilliary post imaginable, freeing as many men as possible to join the Army for the brave defence of their country against bolshevism and Stalinist oppression.

It was, however, at field paramedical service that the Lottas excelled.



In their blue-gray uniforms, their hair drawn back tightly , they were radiant angels of light and hope for every wounded and sick man. They worked tirelessly to alleviate the pain of those unfortunate enough to have seen the real face and cruelty of that desperate war.

Their selfless contribution was the definition of the nursing ideal and of the sense of duty and faith to their men and their country.

Thus, I choose to start with these volunteers, ideal after that legenderay figure of Lotta Svärd, for my series of posts about women.

Faith and duty. Courage, compassion and love. That's who Lotta Svärd was.