My sisters and I sit together on a pair of suitcases. If we've forgotten anything, it's already too late -- our rooms have all been sealed and photographed. Anyway, Tatiana would say it's bad luck to return for something you've forgotten.
Sarah MillerTag: war russia exile russian-revolution traveling anastasia otma romanovs tsar-nicholas-ii
I'll pretend, I tell myself. Pretending is safer than believing.
Sarah MillerTag: war russia believing russian-revolution pretending anastasia otma romanovs tsar-nicholas-ii
Maria cries unashamedly on my shoulder while I whisper and pet her cheek, but Anastasia grips my other hand and stares fiercely back at our Alexander Palace with her wet blue eyes until it is no more than a lemon-colored speck against the sunrise.
Sarah MillerTag: sadness home russia russian-revolution anastasia otma tsar-nicholas-ii the-romanovs
We should be used to it," Tatiana reasons. "There have always been lines separating us from the rest of the world, whether they were satin ribbons or iron rails.
Sarah MillerTag: russia royalty russian-revolution otma romanovs tsar-nicholas
I wish I wasn't an imperial highness or an ex-grand duchess. I'm sick of people doing things to me because of what I am. Girl-in-white-dress. Short-one-with-fringe. Daughter-of-the-tsar. Child-of-the-ex-tyrant. I want people to look and see me, Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, not the caboose on a train of grand duchesses. Someday, I promise myself, no one will be able to hear my name or look at my picture and suppose they know all about me. Someday I will do something bigger than what I am.
Sarah MillerTag: life inspirational self russia royalty russian-revolution anastasia otma romanovs tsar-nicholas
It is truth, in the old saying, that is 'the daughter of time,' and the lapse of half a century has not left us many of our illusions. Churchill tried and failed to preserve one empire. He failed to preserve his own empire, but succeeded in aggrandizing two much larger ones. He seems to have used crisis after crisis as an excuse to extend his own power. His petulant refusal to relinquish the leadership was the despair of postwar British Conservatives; in my opinion this refusal had to do with his yearning to accomplish something that 'history' had so far denied him—the winning of a democratic election.
Christopher HitchensTag: truth power history democracy time united-states crisis elections imperialism russia soviet-union britain cold-war british-empire winston-churchill american-imperialism conservative-party-uk
The fervor and single-mindedness of this deification probably have no precedent in history. It's not like Duvalier or Assad passing the torch to the son and heir. It surpasses anything I have read about the Roman or Babylonian or even Pharaonic excesses. An estimated $2.68 billion was spent on ceremonies and monuments in the aftermath of Kim Il Sung's death. The concept is not that his son is his successor, but that his son is his reincarnation. North Korea has an equivalent of Mount Fuji—a mountain sacred to all Koreans. It's called Mount Paekdu, a beautiful peak with a deep blue lake, on the Chinese border. Here, according to the new mythology, Kim Jong Il was born on February 16, 1942. His birth was attended by a double rainbow and by songs of praise (in human voice) uttered by the local birds. In fact, in February 1942 his father and mother were hiding under Stalin's protection in the dank Russian city of Khabarovsk, but as with all miraculous births it's considered best not to allow the facts to get in the way of a good story.
Christopher HitchensTag: 1942 religion atheism rome china ancient-rome haiti mythology russia babylon reincarnation egypt north-korea joseph-stalin syria kim-jong-il francois-duvalier kim-il-sung ancient-egypt baekdu-mountain bashar-al-assad dynasties hafez-al-assad jean-claude-duvalier khabarovsk kim-jong-suk miraculous-births mount-fuji
Tag: novel thriller russia iran cia dagestan nuclear-threat caucasus-region espionage-thriller
All we can know is that we know nothing. And that's the height of human wisdom.
Leo TolstoyTag: russia war-and-peace leo-tolstoy pierre
I do not know how it is elsewhere, but here, in this country, poetry is a healing, life-giving thing, and people have not lost the gift of being able to drink of its inner strength. People can be killed for poetry herea sign of unparalleled respectbecause they are still capable of living by it.
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