The Troika Today, Putin, Medvedev, and Luzhkov?

 In Russian politics, there is always the “troika,” like three horses unevenly pulling the sleigh thorough the cold and rugged Russian countryside. I had wondered if or where was the third horse with Putin and Medvedev in their “tandem” harness. The third horse was evidently the mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov. I had overlooked that. I thought Luzhkov was some way permanent in that city. Maybe he still does assume that, even though President Medvedev has sacked him. After all, until, in 2005, when then President Putin eliminated direct gubernatorial elections, Luzhkov had won three elections with majorities of about 80%. Moscow, in many ways, operated as quasi –state.

The troika is a perfect metaphor for the predictable unpredictability of Russian politics, and the future of a man whose wife owns Moscow real estate valued at $2-9 billion in the capital city representing about a quarter of the GDP of the whole country clearly has claim to a seat on the unpredictable  troika. Or does he? Has Medvedev shown his power by pulling the sword on Luzhkov? Or has Putin shown his power by keep his sword sheathed in this affair, letting Medvedev take the action, and maybe the penalty if it “somehow” it was a mistake. We will have to wait and see.

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Viennese Coffee? Thank the Poles!

The defeat of the invading Ottoman Turks by the Polish Army at the gates of Vienna in 1683 left Europe free at last of three hundred years of Islamic expansionism. But the retreating Turks did leave the seeds of a cultural heritage. According to Stewart Lee Allen in his book The Devil’s Cup, the Turks, in their rush to leave the battlefield, left behind 25,000 camels with bags of mysterious green beans which the locals thought were camel food. The Polish spy Kolschitzky, who had lived in Turkey, knew exactly what they were and for his role is saving the city, asked for, and got, the coffee beans and opened the first Viennese coffeehouse, the Blue Bottle. That is the story, sometimes contested, but a good story none-the-less.

And what’s more. With the coffee a pastry naturally developed, in the shape of the crescent moon on the Ottoman flag. We know that pastry today as the croissant. We owe it all to the Turks, the Austrians, and the Poles.

It always amazes me how the small, unintended events in history, often leave longer lasting impacts, unimagined and in the end more important than anything the major players could have imagined.

Tell me what you think or similar stories you may have. See the Contact Page.

Typewriter Artist ~Incredible Paul Smith

A friend sent me this and I didn’t believe it at first.  I checked Snopes to see if it was a scam. It wasn’t. There is lots on the web about it. Such good art, sketches made with a typewriter by autistic Paul Smith. It has been around so many have seen this, but it was news to me. Incredible.  I had to share it! Check it out yourself and marvel at all the art of this man with cerebral palsy. It proves that art is a gift.

See Smith’s work on youtube, or on the website.

Behold the Cappuccino

In our book club we read “The Devil’s Cup” by Stewart Lee Allen. Very humorous and historically an interesting sip of world history as experienced via the origins of coffee.  I like the part about the evolution of cappuccino.

Around 1201, according to Allen, in the Italian village of Assisi, “that a fellow named Giovanni began to act a little odd,” wandering about naked and talking to birds. “If it had happened today, he would have been institutionalized,” Allen wrote.  “But it was the medieval period, so he was canonized. We know him today as St. Francis of Assisi.”  Coffee was mixed with milk in those days to get a color that matched the monk’s robe. Further, being an individualist that he was, St. Francis wore a pointed white hood, not a square one mandated by the Franciscan order.  An argument arose and the pope intervened and so was born the Capuchin order. Hence the “cap” of whipped cream on a proper cup of cappuccino.

You see what we can learn if we sit over a tasty cup of cappuccino, and read a book? Try it, you’ll like it.

The Rio Grande~Pathway of the Colonizers

The Rio Grande River is the border between Texas and Mexico, the fifth longest river in the United States, and many simply don’t know about it. But Don Juan de Onate and an army of soldiers and colonists knew about it and in 1598 crossed it and then followed through the mountain pass which became known as El Paso del Norte, today’s El Paso, Texas, my home town. The Rio Grande plays a role in the novel based on my father’s tale “Dos Gringos.”

As a kid and a Boy Scout, we used to splash in the river, known to be “a mile wide and an inch deep,” actually a muddy waterway about knee-deep. But, in Onate’s day it was crystal clear and a life-saver for his army. From there he marched north with his soldiers, horses, and mules, fighting Indians and eventually founding Santa Fe, now the oldest continual state capital in the United States. The Rio Grande flows out of the San Juan mountains of southern Colorado and streams straight south, splitting New Mexico, to El Paso where it forms the American border with Mexico and then on to the Gulf of Mexico, a total of about 1900 miles.

North of Santa Fe, near Taos, New Mexico, I recently visited this river of my youth, but there near its source, the river was a noisy rushing stream in a rocky deep canyon. Beautiful.  What a piece of history.

Buy a copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

Tchaikovsky’s Last Notes

This weekend will be the season opening of Orange County’s  Pacific Symphony Orchestra, considered one of the top regional orchestra’s in the country. On the program is Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, Jon Kimura Parker, soloist. Tchaikovsky was a genius and his music is immortal. A radio announcer said that “Russian music, like Russian literature, is always excited about something.”  That is true and Tchaikovsky’s music is often excited, but also it can be romantic and sweet. For all the excitement, he is also known for his love of the waltz tempo in his symphony and ballet music.

My photo above is of his desk in his home in Klin, north of Moscow. I visited once there and it was an experience. At this desk in 1893, he left the unfinished composition of his Third Piano Concerto, to go to Saint Petersburg to conduct the premier of his famous Sixth Symphony, It was a flop. Depressed about this, and some other things, he died a few days later from cholera, the records show. What a loss, but he was at his peak, and we have it all to enjoy today. Such a great man.

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Tolstoy in Long Beach

 Portrait by Ilya Repin, 1887

The great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy will be celebrated in October of this year, 2010, The Leo N. Tolstoy Centennial Festival will be held at California State University, Long Beach. It may seem a bit strange that a great Russian writer is celebrated in a California port city, but this event promises to be world class. On the campus of and sponsored by California State University,  Long Beach and in cooperation with the Long Beach/Sochi Sister City Committee, it has been organized by Professor Harold Schefski of CSULB.

On Friday, October 22, the focus is on the famous novel War and Peace set in the times of Napoleon’s futile invasion of Russia. On Saturday, October 23, the focus in on Tolstoy’s other famous novel, Anna Karenina. On that day, I am told, they will show one scene from the novel as interpreted by six different films form the past, including the 1935 production with Greta Garbo, and the 1948 film with Vivien Leigh.

On Sunday, October 24, the Long Beach/Sochi Sister City Committee will show the Oscar Nominee film “The Last Station.”

As a member of the Los Angeles/St. Petersburg Sister City Committee and long time Russophile, I can’t wait. For a complete program schedule for this great Tolstoy weekend see http://tolstoyfestival.com/

Jewish Lady breaks horses for Pancho Villa

Some years ago, at a summer camp in Maine, I heard a story I have never forgotten. A lady, hearing about my father’s story in the Mexican Revolution, now the published book  “Dos Gringos,” told me about her Jewish grandmother and Pancho Villa.

It seems the woman was a recognized horse-breaker during those hectic years, living in central Texas, maybe San Antonio. Determined to meet Pancho Villa, she drove her Cadillac sedan into Mexico to find the infamous revolutionary leader. She found him and, as you can imagine, he didn’t know what to do with this American. I understand he gave her his toughest horse, one which the men had failed to break. And she succeeded to break that horse. I don’t remember what the lady in Maine told me after that.

I would dearly like to know the whole story of this. If anyone reading this post has any ideas who this woman might be and reliable details of this really humorous story, I would really like to know. The Jews of Texas were historic and accomplished many things in those days. But a Jewish grandmother breaking a horse for Pancho Villa is indeed historic—and a bit unusual, don’t you think?

Buy a copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

“Pancho Villa’s Air Force”

It is amazing who you meet at the beach. Learning I had written “Dos Gringos,” a book set in The Mexican Revolution, a nice woman introduced me to her friend saying the friend’s father was involved with building an air force for Pancho Villa.  The father was Frank Wallace, one of those adventurous aviation pioneers during the wild days before, during, and after WW I. Wallace’s story is full of thrills and survival. His first flight was at the age of eleven when his foot caught in the rope of a hot-air balloon which hauled him up, ankle first over Bellingham, Washington. They pulled him into the basket, but the crowd thought it was part of the show and so he continued to do it, for money.

No, Pancho Villa never had an “air force” as badly as he wanted airplanes to bomb the Federáles. But, there was no shortage of money for this after all the banks were robbed.  It was Frank Wallace who was involved to get these planes, but it all fell through as much seemed to do for all sides, and the money into various pockets. Villa had an American or two flying reconnaissance for him at times, but neither the airplanes or the pilots lasted for long. That’s a bigger story. The photo above is of the famous Curtiss JN-4 “Jenney” used by the fledging American forces to chase Villa after he invaded New Mexico.

In his flying life Wallace knew them all– Glenn Curtiss, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, Howard Hughes, and Henry Ford and was a member of the esoteric Quiet Birdmen society. He soloed at Curtiss’ North Island School in March, 1911, then barnstormed and flew in Mexico, South America, Italy, Poland, and Costa Rica.  His story, and voluminous notes are compiled in a draft by his daughter JoAnne Rowan who shared the stories with me.

Buy a copy of “Dos Gringos”  here.

The Politics of Russian Business

One thing you have to understand is that Russia is a politi­cal country. You can’t do things alone.  Never mind about the Kremlin. That is another ocean you probably won’t have to challenge. But, even at the daily business level, it can be like crossing a big pond in a small boat. Or, as in the famous Repin painting above, like pulling the boat upstream. It is better to know you may need help on the oars and to prepare by choosing your crew yourself. In Russia they call it a “roof” which means political relationships that hopefully will be there to help when you need it. Also you hope they will leave you alone to manage your business and not interfere. In my company, we were fortunate to have trustworty and friendly connections which did just that. Some roofs leak in a storm; others are overwhelming and starve you of sun to grow in. Choose carefully.

It’s like getting married. Be careful to pick the right one as you may be with them a long time. So often I found Americans who had made some initial contacts, came to Moscow for a week and went home thinking they had made a deal. It doesn’t happen that way. Again, here is where patience pays. Patience is strength.

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