To sum it up:
"Mr Lavryonov, the official behind the controversial new project, said he wanted to give Russians a place where they could come and remember 1812.
"Finding the remains will really be complicated because two hundred years have gone by. <...> But I think if we want we can find them. <...> There is now no place where people can come and bow down and lay wreathes," he said."
You know, I just got this vision of all these Russians who've been all torn up inside because they haven't anywhere to put a wreath in commemoration of the War of 1812...
C'mon guys, just re-read your favorite passages from War and Peace while listening to Overture to 1812 and snacking on some Borodinsky bread (it's quite good, I promise).
Jokes aside, I am all for remembering history. Really. I've spent many days and nights writing unsuccessful verses about the dangers of collective amnesia, neglect of history, and misunderstanding of memory and its powers.
But scrounging up some remains, taking them from the place they've been, however messily, buried for 200 years and moving them in an attempt to ape the French... that's not remembering history, that's making things up. Not to mention that it is also a great expense, and most of the country lives far below the poverty line.
Borodino, the place where the incredibly long and bloody battle happened and from where the remains are to be transported, is about 75 miles from Moscow. That is where all those soldiers fell. That is the place that everyone should know about. You can't just decide that it's inconveniently located, and move some bones over to Moscow, so everyone can come tip their hats. I mean, one can do all that. Maybe that's the whole point: it's a yet another bout of "look what I can do," except now nobody's really looking.
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| location: Butler library, 8th floor |
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