Dzerzhinsk, the dirtiest Russian city - From Moscow to Murmansk
Dzerzhinsk is one of the 10 most dirty cities in the world. Jelle speaks with the inhabitants that claim they can guess at which tram stop they are just by smelling it.
Original title: The heritage
In the first series: From Moscow to Magadan, Jelle Brandt Corstius traveled from West to East, focusing on the endless Russian countryside and the villages. In this second series: From Moscow to Murmansk, he travels from North to South along the largest river of Russia: the Volga River. A trip along the relatively unknown cities like Murmansk, Volgograd, Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, but also to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Through topics like women in Russia, new censorship, the environmental problem from Russian perspective and the ideological vacuum, a relatively unknown side of Russia is once again exposed.
Presented by: Jelle Brandt Corstius
Final editor: Gert-Jan Hox
Directed by: Hans Pool
© VPRO August 2012
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LENINGRAD 1991 - The Last Soviet Winter - ROGER GEORGE CLARK photos
In Feb 1991 the English photographer and broadcaster ROGER GEORGE CLARK spent a week in snowbound Leningrad.
'It was the last Soviet winter,' he says. 'In September the city changed its name back to St Petersburg and at the end of the year the Soviet Union ceased to exist. That last winter the city looked beautiful under its coating of snow. Outside the Kazan cathedral film extras gathered for a period movie along with conscripts dressed in tsarist uniforms.
'Another intriguing sight was the snow-covered Cathedral of the Transfiguration. 102 Bronze cannon, captured during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, ring the building. As a child the poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky used to swing on the cast-iron chains linking these upside-down guns.
'I had the good fortune to photograph the Leningrad Philharmonic orchestra rehearsing. A sign of the times - they were playing Sibelius, whose Finnish nationalist music incurred Russia's suspicions even in tsarist times, let alone Soviet. Now they were playing Finlandia and Sibelius's Violin Concerto. Serge Kalagin conducted while Maxim Fedotov played the violin.
'Another sign of the times - a huge demonstration in Palace Square supporting the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. A few months before Hussein had invaded and looted Kuwait, sparking the first Gulf War. Many Russians were annoyed because the West had attacked and were freeing Kuwait. Here in Leningrad demonstrators appeared with large portraits of the dictator and posters accusing President Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev of supporting Zionism. The war aroused strong anti-Semitic sentiments, scuffles broke out in the crowd and the police hustled protesters away.
'The statue in silhouette depicts that sinister Communist revolutionary Felix Dzerzhinsky. He is better known by his nickname Iron Felix, or Bloody Felix. It was Dzerzhinsky who set up the Soviet State Security forces under their original name of the Cheka, later the KGB. Dzerzhinsky was Lenin's Himmler. The Cheka became notorious for torture and mass executions, especially during the Red Terror and Russian Civil War. This statue was torn down after Communism fell.
'Meanwhile, Leningrad's children played happily in the snow. As you can see those I photographed were well wrapped up to keep out the cold. Some looked surprisingly fashionable, as if dressed in designer clothes. In 1991, when the Soviets were still in power? Yes, I'm surprised, too, as I look at these photos now. The Soviets had a reputation for appalling clothes. But many parents took care of their children. Some of my pictures look as if they were taken for a Western fashion catalogue, but I assure these were just ordinary children I encountered while walking round the city.
'In addition you can see the fabulous Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo under snow and the Cameron Gallery, plus the house where Anna Vyrubova lived. She was a confidant of the last empress and - fatally - introduced the royal family to Rasputin. Nicholas II and his family often met the mad monk in Anna's house, as well as the nearby Alexander Palace.
'The neo-gothic house is also something special - a miniature tsarist palace. The Cottage Palace, as it's called, can be found in the Peterhof Park. It was designed - like the Cameron Gallery - by a Scottish architect for Tsar Nicholas I.
'Down by the shore I discovered the snow-covered ruins of the Lower Palace - a favourite summer retreat of Nicholas II. Historic events happened here. In his study in the Lower Palace Nicholas II signed the 1905 October Manifesto granting a Duma (parliament) and civil liberties. And in 1914 he signed the order mobilising the Russian armies - a decision that plunged Europe into WWI and wrecked Russia. In 1917 the country collapsed and Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power. The Lower Palace was destroyed by the Germans in WWII.
'I've reproduced some of these winter photos in earlier Leningrad/St Petersburg videos, but I thought I would put all the best winter shots in one video as I discovered I'd taken more snow photos than I thought I had. You may also be interested in my You/Tube videos - Soviet Sailors in Leningrad and Kronstadt - the Soviet Naval Base.'
12/12/1408 Order of the Dragon created by Barbara of Celje, Vlad Dracula and Sigismund of Luxemburg
Operation Societas Draconistrarum - NATO's Secret Armies | On December 12, 1408, following the Battle of Dobor against the Manichaean heretics called Bogomils in which he slaughtered two hundred Bosnian noblemen, many of whom had fought the Turks; Sigismund and his queen, Barbara of Celje, founded the league known today as the Order of the Dragon. Its statutes, written in Latin, call it a society (societas) whose members carry the signum draconis (see below), but assign no name to it. Contemporary records, however, refer to it by a variety of similar if unofficial names, such as Gesellschaft mit dem Trakchen, Divisa seu Societate Draconica, Societate Draconica seu Draconistrarum and Fraternitas Draconum. It was to some extent modelled after the earlier Hungarian monarchical order, the Order of St. George (Societas militae Sancti Georgii), founded by King Carol Robert of Anjou in 1318. It likewise adopted St. George as its patron saint, whose legendary defeat of a dragon was used as a symbol for the military and religious ethos of the order.
Operation Gladio (Italian: Operazione Gladio) is the codename for a clandestine NATO stay-behind operation in Europe during the Cold War. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a Soviet invasion and conquest. Although Gladio specifically refers to the Italian branch of the NATO stay-behind organizations, Operation Gladio is used as an informal name for all stay-behind organizations, sometimes called Super NATO.
NATO Psychological Operations Coordinating. Committee
Jens Christian Hauge (15 May 1915 - 30 October 2006), often written Jens Chr. Hauge, was a Norwegian World War II resistance figure and politician who was the leader of the secret military organization Milorg during WWII.
Kongens tause ankermenn
Her spiser og drikker forsvarstoppene med direktører som tjener gode penger på Forsvaret. Hva de snakker om er strengt hemmelig.
Henrik Jørgen Huitfeldt, direktør
Henrik Jørgen Huitfeldt (f 1936) (OLSEN DAUGHTER CAPITAL AS)
KGB-trained Hungarian heads Nato committee
06 Feb 2008
The appointment of Hungary's KGB-trained secret service chief to a senior Nato intelligence committee has alarmed diplomats amid new fears over the security of the alliance's military secrets.
Sandor Laborc, 49, who trained with the Russian secret service's elite at Dzerzhinsky Academy, in Moscow, from 1983 to 1989, is the new chairman of a special Nato committee that analyses and shares intelligence from the 26 member countries.
Eva Rausing (born Eva Louise Kemeny) contacted police over 1986 assassination of Swedish PM -- Eva Rausing, the late wife of the Tetra Pak billionaire Hans Kristian Rausing, handed information on the unsolved assassination of the Swedish Prime Minister to the country's prosecutors before she died, officials said last night.
FROM THE ORDER OF THE DRAGON TO DRACULA
In a battle with the anarchical Hungarian nobles and in the background of the other battles for the possession of Bosnia, Sigismund of Luxembourg and the queen Barbara Cilli created the Order of the Dragon on December 12, 1408, mainly meant to protect the king and his family, with the help of a big part of the Hungarian nobility, led by the families of Gara and Cilli.
The members who founded the order were 24 nobles of the kingdom, led by the despot Stefan Lazarevici, the leader of Serbia, among whom were Nicolae of Gara, the Hungarian prince, Stibor of Stibericz, the prince of Transylvania, Pipo of Ozora, the Ban (local ruler) of Severin etc, in general great local noblemen.
Into this prestigious European chivalic institution, which was symbolized by the dragon, was admitted the aspirant to the Wallachian throne, Vlad (Dracul) in February 1431, in his position of vassal of Sigismund of Luxemburg, according to the statute of the Order.
The spreading of the image of the dragon by Vlad Dracul through the large circulation of seal, small coins and heraldic stone carving had a powerful impression on its Romanian subjects. This was increased by the Order of the Dragon necklace, which no other Romanian ruler had worn, and even more so the ceremonial costume of the Order of the Dragon knights - red garments and green mantle. Thus, Vlad Dracul, the father of Vlad Tepes, has forever remained in a bond with both versions of his nickname. This paradox has been interpreted incorrectly.