TO RUSSIA WITH GREATNESS

From Russia with Brains (see my previously posted entry under this title) was never a one-way street. To Russia with Greatness has always been the other side of it. The following several entries are devoted to the subject of how great foreigners were always welcome to Russia and treated as Russia's own.

 It is a crucial point for understanding that the Russians have never stood in awe of foreigners. Only those of them have been welcome who would come with benign intentions, or those who were duly invited. But woe to those great ones who, like Napoleon, would come without an invitation. No matter how greatly the French Emperor had been admired by the Russian liberally-minded nobility, and even by the Emperor  Alexander I himself, once Napoleon had forcefully invaded Russia, he was immediately doomed to meet the fate of all Russia’s enemies, later shared by Hitler.

The history of Russia ostensibly starts in the year 862 AD, with the rule of a complete foreigner, invited by the nation’s wise men to establish law and order in the lawless and orderless land, and, in the process of so doing, to bring out its colossal potential for greatness. It is truly a mark of the nation’s inherent greatness to encourage great foreigners to come into its fold bringing their greatness with them, and to appreciate them in the highest possible degree by treating them as her own natural-born offspring.
Starting with Rurik and the dynasty which he established, we must note that the last royal Romanov dynasty (1613-1917), despite its Russian-sounding name, was also of a foreign origin, descending from one German nobleman Andrei Kobyla, who had come to Russia from Prussia in the fourteenth century, and settled there. There was a later effort to disprove the German connection by claiming that Kobyla was a perfectly Russian name, meaning horse, and therefore, it could not possibly be German. This is, however, a lame argument, as it was quite possible to change an original German name into a similarly sounding Russian name or to make up a Russian nickname, which would then become the person’s proper name. (When in Russia, sound like a Russian!-- or something like that.)

There is little point, however, in pursuing this “national origin” argument. Heavily Germanized, to the point that it is often difficult to trace any Russian blood in it, the Romanov dynasty was still a legitimate Russian family, although only a few of their lot were destined to exhibit a decent level of personal greatness. Ironically, the two Romanov Greats, Peter and Catherine (who became a Romanov by marriage) were conspicuous for opening Russia's doors to foreigners.  Well, Catherine the Great was, of course, a complete and undeniable foreigner,--- with no blood ties of any sort to anybody or anything Russian. (Curiously, all Russian monarchs after her have been (at least officially!)  descendants of the 100% German Catherine and her husband Peter III, who was none other than Karl Peter Ulrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, a grandson of Peter the Great on his mother’s side, but with the other three-fourths of blood connections all complete foreigners to Russia.

The issue of Peter III and Catherine the Great, Emperor Paul I, was married to a German Princess, and so were all the subsequent Romanovs, reducing the chance of Emperor Nicholas II having any Russian blood in his genetic composition to a virtual zero.

But, perhaps, enough of Russia's German-blooded Emperors and Empresses, who are not exactly at issue here. Going through the litany of foreigners who came to Russia with greatness, we see a steady flow of skill and talent, which became a deluge in the 18th century, under Peter and Catherine, but had started well before them. For instance, there is nothing more Russian in general perception than the great Kremlin of Moscow, yet it, too, was originally built and decorated mostly by invited foreigners. The beautiful city of St. Petersburg too, had opened the gate to Western creative influence to a magnificent effect.

As I said before, there is nothing demeaning or humiliating in Russia’s fondness for great foreigners, as the Russian nation has never suffered from an inferiority complex. Russian nobility spoke French and German like their own native tongues, often at the expense of the Russian language, and saw nothing wrong with it. Russian nationalism has never been petty, but, rather, represents the epitome of an eclectic great-nation chauvinism. The Third Rome mentality has turned Russia, in her mind and in reality, into the ultimate repository of the treasures of Western Civilization, and thus, everything great, such as the best of world literature, philosophy and art, is being internalized and accepted as her own.

Most great foreigners who came to Russia, stayed and died in Russia, like, say, the eventually Russified Rastrelli family, of Italian origin. There were others, however, like the earlier mentioned Étienne Maurice Falconet (1716-1791), the French sculptor of genius, who came to Russia just for a few years, to work on a project, after which he went back to France, never to return. In the process of his Russian visit he, however, immortalized himself as a perennial Russian treasure through his extraordinary masterpiece, the Bronze Horseman monument to Peter the Great in St. Petersburg, commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great. So what if these two  foreigners, Catherine and Falconet, were thus involved in constructing this unforgettable and absolutely unique 45-foot-tall equestrian statue, perfectly balanced  on the horse's two hind hoofs and a cleverly trampled serpent, upon a 1500-ton single piece of rock, the largest ever moved by man, which has become a national legend and a breathtaking  symbol of Russian greatness? There is nothing in this fact that could in any way diminish the monument's endless projection--- to the Russian people and to the rest of the world--- of Russia’s national pride and glory.