I wonder how many people would still remember the feeling towards a king. A king in the time of monarchy was like “a father” to them who would comfort you and take care of you. Now, nobody would want a king back because they know how devastating despotism can be. However, during the time of the Russian Revolution, people were once feeling that way. It was, of course, the flow of the history (monarchy falling) that made such a tragedy.
The true, historical story begins with the last Romanov family having a wonderful time. The current czar actually didn’t intend to become a czar, but he had to become one because of the dying of his brother. Because of that, Nicholas II, the current czar, didn’t really care that much of making decisions. He would usually follow the steps of his father or listen to his officials. At this time, Nicholas II brings Russia into the World War. Everybody thought it was a great idea, but this was the nobilities’ perspective. The low class people on the other hand were having the crisis of their life time. The anger of the low class people grew as they watched people die and also as they starved to death. It was unbearable for the low classes. They finally revolted. This was the March Revolution, the beginning of the Russian Revolution. The czar abdicated his throne, and their family got executed the following year.
This is a very sad story for both the last Romanov and the low class people. The czar family got executed only because they were the ruling class, and the low class suffered from the war. I feel very sorry for the czars because they were having a peaceful time with their children and all of a sudden a revolution breaks out and everybody dies. Was this revolution a good revolution? It is inevitable that the monarchy needs to fall in order to change the system. However, it had caused many innocent deaths. The time period had made people very radical, especially from the fact that they were all starving. After the revolution, communism was in charge because of the Bolshevik revolution. People found out that it wasn’t the perfect world they were expecting. And I presume it led to the fact that they wanted to believe Anastasia was still alive.
In the animation movie Anastasia, it starts out with Rasputin cursing the Royal Family. Since it’s a movie, this brings the Russian Revolution (Kerensky, Lenin not included). In the real world, Rasputin is not the “evil” but just plays the part of trying to gain power. He was very kind to the royal family and did not use mystical powers. However, the story goes on as Anastasia stays alive from the revolution but becomes an orphan. The missing of Anastasia becomes a rumor, and people hoping that she was alive. Later, as she grows older, she starts out and tries to find her real family. Her name was known as Anna Anderson, and she meets a man named Dimitri (made up person). Dimitri tells her that he believes that she is the missing Anastasia. As they go to Paris where they knew the grandmother of Anastasia lived, they get attacked by the past curses from Rasputin. Rasputin actually died before drowned in the ice water trying to catch Anastasia, but he wasn’t completely disappeared. The company fortunately goes through the hardships. Dimitri tries to teach her about the Romanov family on his way to Paris. When they get there, they have some trouble proving that she was the missing princess, but as Anna talks about herself she realizes her past. Little by little, she believes that she is Anastasia. She finally meets her grandmother and goes through many difficulties. However, eventually, each other realizes they belong to the same blood by the memories and the presents the grandmother had given before. Rasputin dies, and she lives happily ever after with Dimitri (probably…).
As this animation was based upon the legend of Anastasia having survived the slaughter of the family, there are many fictional facts, and there have been researches that proves that Anna Anderson (a real person actually) was a fake Anastasia. It has been said even after the DNA test done in 1993 there was people who still believed that Anastasia had escaped from the tragedy. Despite the fact that there are many fictional facts, I enjoyed the fact that people actually wanted to believe that Anastasia was alive. These were real rumors that happened after the revolution. Even though they kicked the czar out and changed the regime, communism wasn’t the regime they wanted. Maybe they still had the good feelings toward the czar or missed the time that had more freedom than the time of communists.
Nowadays, most of the countries are capitalistic countries and some communist countries. Capitalistic countries have a president, and people have equal rights (almost). Nevertheless, the civilians judge their president by many aspects. Some people would praise the president. On the other hand, there are people who criticize the president severely. In communist countries, they have a leader that dictates the nation. The leader becomes superior as if he was a god. People think him as a father that takes care of them. This makes them to follow everything of what the leader says without knowing how it would lessen their freedom. During the czar period, people believed the czar as they’re father and followed under his dictatorship. There is no dictatorship in the country we live in right now. However, we have lost trust towards our leader. We would need to feel the leader or the leader’s family as a family of our own. Then, the country would become closer in relationship with each other. As I close my short essay of this big event of the past, I still wonder whether people would be sad if our president got killed or executed. Would it be like the reaction towards Anastasia, or would people just feel bad that their country’s president got killed? I hope the innocent look of Anastasia would deeply move the hearts of those who would choose the latter.
History; the never ending story of humans, seems to be a story of heroes, conquerors, and authorities. We simply see the trees, not the forest. Remember, Rome was not built in a day. Those heroes, conquerors, and authorities were never alone. Where ever they went, there were uncountable numbers of victims, soldiers, and secretaries who devoted their lives to them.
With that having in mind, let’s think of World History as a long movie. At the turn of the 20th century, as the tensions escalates in Balkans, you will see the assassination of the heir of Austro-Hungarian throne by a Serbian. Then you will watch the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente creating a world war, devastating the whole European continent. More than 9,000,000 people died, but what was the result? Creating World War ?. Were the soldiers and innocent citizens some kind of ghosts? Danger passed, God forgotten. Nations forget them, only focusing on their last benefit with blood in their eyes. Too busy mourn, too trifle to consider. No one remembers and no one records their stories.
In the trench warfare in early 1915, numerous soldiers died in trenches defending their nations. It was a bloody stalemate both on the Western Front and the Eastern Front. Within few minutes, the countries like Germany, France and Russia were able to kill a large numbers of people faster ever. Why? A new weapon was introduced called Poison Gas, thanks to the development of chemistry. This new weapon could cause blinding, severe blisters even death by choking. Another bloody weapon was the machine gun. This was very different from the past years because it fired ammunition automatically which means it could just wipe out waves of attackers less than a minute. Other weapons like tanks, airplanes and submarines emerged, and so the war caused more death. Imagine with these weapons that you were one of the soldiers in a trench. I bet you will be the first one to run off. As you read history, have you really thought of the soldiers? Just seeing some pictures and memorials is not what I mean here. Even, I didn’t before my teacher mentioned about them. We just read through because every history contains deaths of millions but we always memorize the ‘titans’ that our textbook author has emphasized, from the date he was born to the date he died. I think we need a change here. The allies, would they have won the war if the soldiers weren’t there? What about the Treaty of Versailles? Our history may not have gone that far. Yes, it is true that the war may not have ended without the intellectuals that suddenly emerged from nowhere and negotiate with their fantastic diplomatic skills. But the people we really need to see are the ones that stood behind those people, the people who paved the roads for the intellectuals.
History is not like an old myth. It’s a real story that humans have been through. We cannot simply judge an event or a country by the words that we read in our textbooks. Who do you think are the real ‘titans’ in history that we need to mention here?
<Questions From A Worker Who Reads> By Bertolt Brecht
Who built the seven towers of Thebes?
The books are filled with names of kings.
Was it kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone?
And Babylon, so many times destroyed,
Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima’s houses,
That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it?
In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished
Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome
Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song,
Were all her dwellings palaces? and even in Atlantis of the legend
The night the sea rushed in,
The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves.
Young Alexander plundered India.
He alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Was there not even a cook in his army?
Philip of Spain wept as his fleet
Was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears?
Frederick the Great triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who
Triumphed with him?
Each page a victory,
At whose expense the victory ball?
Every ten years a great man, Who paid the piper?
So many particulars.
So many questions. ?link
About 1450~1700 in Europe, there was a time when everybody was in fear. During these days if you say anything strange, the next day you’d be up on trial, and whatever you do and whatever you say, you’d likely be tortured to death including burning, hanging, and drowning. The reason for this nonsense was simple. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Exodus 22:18. Witches were said to be followers of Satan. There were rumors that witches ate children, and many of these superstitions made people feel horror and detest of witches. In A History of Torture, George Ryley Scott says: “The peculiar beliefs and superstitions attached to or associated with witchcraft caused those who were suspected of practicing the craft to be extremely likely to be subjected to tortures of greater degree than any ordinary heretic or criminal. More, certain specific torments were invented for use against them.”
About 12,000 people are known for certain to be killed at this time. However, people are still not sure of the exact reason why witch hunt was practiced. Some say it’s because of the churches who tried to conceal religious weakness by the crusades. Others say it’s because of the counter-reformation. There are many theories, but the important thing is that the witch hunt is still continuing to this day. Witch hunt does not only represent the incident after the Middle Ages. It could also be stated as things like the Holocaust or Stalin’s Great Purge because all of these include innocent hundreds and millions of deaths.
At the time of World War II, Germany was led by Adolf Hitler who was also the leader of the Nazis. He claimed that the Aryans were the master race in the world. The other races were dirty to him compared to Aryans, so he hated anyone who was not of the “Aryan race.” Among those races, Jews were also included. Hitler claimed later on that the Jews were seeking for world domination. He eventually ordered people to kill all Jews (also included other races). This killing of approximate 6 million innocent Jews was called the Holocaust.
Before this terrible incident happened, there were many changes happening in Russia. It was the time during the World War I when the tired, hungered Russians revolted against the monarchy. The Bolsheviks came into power, and Russia became a communist country. During Lenin’s time, things looked OK (not that bad). However, as Stalin, a man of steel, came into power, the union (now Soviet Union) became a living nightmare. Nobody was able to talk freely, and there was nothing such as freedom. Everybody was being watched by the secret police, and every property that the people had was taken away by the government. This terrible political structure is called the totalitarianism. You could feel the tense and fear in the novel “1984” by George Orwell. This novel shows a world that is dominated by the communists. Everywhere, you could see the poster of “Big Brother” and the caption “Big Brother is Watching You.” It’s also terrible that the Oceania, one of the three totalitarian superstates, practiced the three slogans: war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength. As you can see even in the first slogan, war is peace, that world is just the opposite of Utopia. This meant that, in order to maintain the three social classes, war had to happen, so there was no ending in the war. This was a brief view of the life in the novel, but the same thing was happening in the Soviet Union. Everybody was under the Great Purge. Like the witch hunt, people who were suspected as anticommunists were disappeared or evaporated.
These are two examples of witch hunt after the Middle Ages witch hunt. This may only seem as a history of the past, but the witches are still on its hunt. In the present day, witches are not only a person like a dictator. It’s all the people who ostracize (to exclude from society) a person. Interestingly, as the technology improves, people start to use it as a weapon. The best weapon for these modernized people would be medias like the Internet. A good example of social ostracism is the case of Prof. Hwang. As people found out that Prof. Hwang Woo Suk was a fraud, many of them rebuked him. Eventually, not knowing the full truth and believing the press fully, people ostracized the professor through the Internet. It was later said that there were few people who were jealous of him and tried to make him lose credit, so they passed all the blame to Prof. Hwang even thought he wasn’t responsible for the full blame. Now, Prof. Hwang works in his laboratory he founded in Jang-heung.
I sometimes wonder whether it would’ve been this bad if everybody didn’t blame him so badly. We may become overwhelmed by the atmosphere and criticize somebody. However, this small thing (we think) we do, criticize somebody this may lead to something much more critical. Various examples have been given of witch hunts through history. What we have to do is to understand the past and not let it happen again. This small understanding and knowledge of the past would prevent a tragedy of millions.
74,187—the number of Indian soldiers that died in World War I.
India was far off from the battle sites of WW1. What reason, what incentives did they have to get involved in such a bloody war?
The British government promised self-government to the Indians, if they fought in the British army in WW1. If I wanted freedom, I’d have enlisted. If we have self-rule, I wouldn’t be degraded. It may cost my life, but my people can have freedom. As we all know, the idea of a self-governing government was still a dream, even after WW1. Independence, self-rule, was still out of reach, even though over a million Indian soldiers fought for it, and 74,187 people died for it. The British government brought terrible injustice to the India, to the Indian soldiers that fought in World War I.
Giving false hope is one of the most cruel things people tend to do. The British government did just that after WW1. The British were giving a false promise that cost thousands of lives. We’ll give your country self-rule. How would you feel if someone offered you candy, you broke your leg trying to get it, then not receive it in the end? Betrayed, frustrated, disappointed–is how I’d feel. Knowing that the consequences in this story were much more dire, these emotions would boil within us.
If the British were to have given them self-rule, there would have probably been less prison-bursting, rioting, beating for the next two decades following WW1. In the end, the Indians were granted self-rule. It was an unfair price, though.The Indians payed lives to the British. But the British didn’t give them self-rule until they themselves were desperate. Shouldn’t the British pay more reparations to the families that lost their relatives and to the Indian nation?
The British built a monument (picture above) to honor the soldiers, but if this event had caused me to lose someone, I’d look at that monument in disgust. What would it stand for? A broken promise?
At the beginning of WWI, Russia was advancing on their borders and
preparing war with Germany. Germany felt threatened and declared war on
Russia. Because Russia believed that they needed their allies to win the
war, they wanted to ask France to join them, but before the France could
respond, Germany declared war on France too. Germany was in a bad position
because it was rite in between two enemies. Fighting on just one side could
result in loss of land on the other side of the country. Splitting the army
could make the army weaker and maybe lose both sides of the country. The
Schlieffen Plan was thought up.
The Schlieffen plan was a brilliant plan that stood a chance against both
enemies. Its plan was to finish France quickly with the whole army and come
back to Russia to fight them off. Because they knew that the French borders
were blocked, they attacked through the Belgium side of France and fought
there.
The Schlieffen plan had a minor problem that later changed the war. If they
could not finish the French quickly, the plan could fail. The battle with
France took longer than expected. Germany was being attacked from both
sides. The plan failed and there was a stalemate in the western front.
I thought it was interesting that Germany would bravely declare war on
countries that were on 2 sides of the country. They didn’t really have any
other choice though. I also thought that it was amazing that one country
could fight off surrounding countries and even almost win the war. The
Schlieffen Plan was amazing because it allowed the country to use its whole
army without ignoring one side of the country.
World War I itself is a huge irony.
The War to end all the War, but caused even more wars, and end up as a war of despair and deep wound.
Everything that happens during the World War I shows the irony of the wars.
We do not know, and can not say for sure, that the intention of every event was truly for what they have meant. But we can infer by looking at the causes and effects for every case, and most of them didn’t turn out the way it supposed to be. For example, the Trench Warfare, one of the most sorrowful event that happened in 1915 shows how absurd it was, and ironic it seems. The armies in Western Front have dug miles of parallel trenches for “protection.” However, this was not protection, but simply they were just getting closer to each other for the fight (since they fought from the trenches).
If you were to step on the “No Man’s Land,” it wouldn’t take you even a second to die. It was the “mine field.”
Even though the narrator narrates as if it was not a big deal, this video shows how soldier worked out there.
They used mustard gas which caused them sore, painfulness and also the Trench Foot, which was an infection that many of the soldiers have got back then due to the frigid, cold weather (yet staying out there all-day-long).
As tension grew upon themselves, they could not think about anything else, but to concentrate 100% on the other side. The soldiers couldn’t let go of their strain–always stay nervous and paranoid–which gave them nothing but took their lives away. So I think the Trench Warfare could be called as the “No Man’s Land”, but also “The Life Takers.” How could they live there, eat there, sleep there, wash there? As one soldier have said, “The men slept in mud, washed in mud, ate mud, and dreamed mud.”
This plan was meant to “protect” themselves, yet it turned out to be another war that only cost a huge lost. Not only did it kill huge number of soldiers, but also gave them mental pain.
So it is worthy to question, “was it really for protection, or was it actually to start another war?”
I’m not sure why my blogs are not getting posted, or is it only me who can’t find it.. I’ll just post it again.
By Lindsay Lee.
The world is ticking, the countries are ticking, and the clock never stops. Even though your neighbor has gone down, you will never wait for them to keep up the pace with you. Unless you are holding their hands. Or actually, even though you are holding their hands, you won’t pull them up in hand, but will simply just tell them to get up and keep going. It seems quite lame explaining this way nevertheless, reality is lame as the situation above. War starts with your own personal feelings whether that will be jealousy or hatred. It all ends up the same way, but let’s back up and see how the stage is set for Europe to enter.
The World War I was actually a war to “end” all the war and bring “peace”–which now it seems quite ironic–it was just another start of a great turmoil. For what led to the European nations into the war, there were three main reasons/factors: nationalism, militarism and imperialism. First, nationalism was what made created the rivalries in the first place. When nationalism starts to rise, it gets hard to control, so the power of nationalism is quite strong; it cannot be restrained by others. For example, Britain and Germany had a conflict, they wanted to be better than each other (which is what we call “nationalism.”) In addition, imperialism
was what made the countries actually clash and encounter the other since they wanted more countries/lands than others do. We saw this when all the European nations were interested in Africa simultaneously, and so they carved up Africa at the end.
Last but not least, militarism was some kind of belief that nations thought having a strong military will make them a stronger nation. At this point, Britain was on the lead as a strong army country. Other European nations tried to catch up on them, and Britain, sometimes feared that they will get caught up, so they impeded others from growing (for example, Britain blocked Germany from doing anything).
With all the clinging and clanging within the European nations, every time one nation joins, the situation aggravates (i thought). In addition, looking at one of the most great wars, (even though i know how serious it would have been back then) I found some parts lame; yet more interesting i found it to be. Such feelings rising within oneself, could power the war or trigger such movements, which leads to the war. For example, as Bismarck got afraid of France’s counter-attack or revenge after the Franco-Prussian War, he allied with Austria-Hungary and Italy: to isolate France.
So, World War I propels starting with the three main factors (we could say) and, ironic to say, but it was the war to close the stages, yet, it rather started the catastrophe in Europe.
Anne Frank was one of World War’s victims. As she was a Jew, she had suffered greatly from the Germans. During the days of Anne, Adolf Hitler was capturing every Jewish alive and putting them into gas rooms where they would be killed. Anne and her family flew to a secret place where they wouldn’t be seen by the police. They were able to hide for a long time, but alas, they got caught only a few weeks behind until the end of the war. All of the family including the other friends who were hiding or helping with them went to cells. Sadly, Anne died following her sister in her cell.
The diary of Anne Frank was left behind and shown to the world. It had touched many people’s hearts, and it was sold more than 25 million copies. It was a story of a young girl’s short life of her growth. This story of her makes you feel inspired again by the quote “Life is a drama.” It contains sadness, happiness, hope, fear, and love. I always feel very bad for her because she really wanted to be free of the endless hiding and had a dream to become a writer one day. However, the war, the dreadful war that caused the death of the innocent led her to death instead.
When we think of the Holocaust, most of us would just say “wow.” There wouldn’t be any strong feeling towards it, especially to this generation who didn’t face the horrible war. As you read the diary, your thoughts would change because you would soon find out it is more than an exclamation point. Anne and other people with her couldn’t even dare to breathe when someone came into the office building. They would quietly listen to the radio whether the war would be ending. We read the feelings of Anne, and we could see everyday she prays for freedom. She is terribly frightened by the Germans and the concentration camp. She knows what would happen when the German soldiers break in and take them to away. She knows that all of them would be sent to the gas rooms and grabbing their neck painfully die. This is unimaginable to us living in this comfortable place compared to Anne who lived in that small building with eight people sharing small amount of food. Through this book, we now know a real story of a girl who never gave up even from the threats of the world.
When the Qing Dynasty fell, it seems like a new world for the people in China. Because the Qing Dynasty was really long, longer than their life, when it ended, it was hard for them to get use to it. When it fell, Sun Yat Sen became the president, he said he did not want people to think him as a king which he didn’t want them to. He became the leader of the Kuomintang, or the nationalist party. When the people start to realize what was happened, he tried to make the people as one, which can help the country. It was successful in my opinion.
Six weeks later, he gave his position to Yuan Shikai, who is a general who helped Sun to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and help him to get power. Because Yuan wasn’t a good leader, Sun became the president again, and fixed many things that Yuan had ruined in a way.
Other event that really made me think was the Treaty of Versailles and what it brought to happen. The students at some place got really angry that Japan took their country’s land, East part of China, and tried to fight against the Japanese army, which wasn’t successful, but had influenced a lot in a way. It was called the May Fourth Movement.
The WWI had influenced so many things: politically, economically, socially, etc. It had also influenced literature greatly. Among the writers that were influenced by the war, I would like to introduce J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” is so famous that almost everybody knows this book. He is known as the father of Fantasy because of his wonderful new world he had created. When you first think of Fantasy, you would think of books that are made only for entertainment like exciting scenes of wars, love stories, etc. On the contrary, if you have read this book, it is totally different from those light written stories. It contains a whole history in it, and I would rather call it a great novel like Shakespeare’s or George Orwell’s novels. This amazing story, however, contains the bitterness of war.
Tolkien started his series with “The Hobbit.” He abhorred the kind of love stories of D. H. Lawrence. Instead, he wanted to write a book that he could read it to children. Because of this background, the ring in “The Hobbit” is not described as that dangerous. However, things have changed when he started write “The Lord of the Rings” in an adult version. The World War 1 broke out, and he had to go and fight also. He went with his three friends (Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Smith and Christopher Wiseman) in T.C.B.S. (stands for Tea Club and Barrovian Society). They had promised one another that anyone who survives should continue their writing for the others’ sake. They fought in the Battle of Somme, and two of them died in the battle. For Tolkien, this was a great shock. When he came back to Britain, he continued writing “The Lord of the Rings.” The terrible war changed the atmosphere of his writings, and the atmosphere worsens as the tale goes on.
As Sauron conquers the Middle Earth little by little like the totalitarianism of Germany or Stalin, he wants to control the whole Middle Earth with his “one ring.” However, Frodo destroys the ring by throwing it in the hot lava. It is like the World War ending when the devastating atomic bomb drops in Hiroshima. His story flows like the history of the war at that time. It is a story of elves, dwarves, hobbits, orcs, and men, but it is also a sad story of men who do not repeat it again.
References
- http://windshoes.new21.org/novel-tolkien.htm (a lot of
info. & pictures)
- http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/
isbninquiry.asp?isbn=0618343997&z=y
(the quote: “The father of Fantasy”)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien (made
me recollect the fact T.C.B.S)
- http://www.isd77.k12.mn.us/schools/garfield/
staffhomepage/studentwebpages/helling/hwebpm/
JRR%20Tolkien%20Portrait.jpg(picture)
- http://www.germannotes.com/hist_ww1_trench2.jpg
(picture)
- “The Lord of the Rings” Extension Version DVD
(The Making of the Film part)
- My Brain
Jessica Y E Block
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