(The sprawling Soviet Military Cemetery in Treptow Park, in the former East Berlin).
Now that I have some discretionary time on my hands I find myself busier than ever. Paradox, I know, but I have heard that from folks not much older than I am. There are the little odds and ends that go along with the move, of course, but way too much time to accomplish anything.
A paradox.
The other thing is current affairs. There are some things happening that are just so wrong that it is impossible to read about them without feeling my level of bile
Rise.
I don’t want to drift off into diatribes against the decline of society- you know well enough the things that I view with repugnance without beating us both over the head with it. We will just have to do our best and keep moving.
So let’s not do rants this morning, OK?
There are some cool things happening. I am just back from brunch with my college roommate, his wife, his son and daughter-in-law, and their two kids- an infant and a precocious two-year-old who is a delight.
We were at the Silver Diner over in Clarendon, across the street from O’Sullivan’s Pub where LTJG Socotra threw his farewell party before shipping out overseas in a couple weeks. The thing started at nine in the evening, which is just about my bed time these days. But with some creative napping, I managed to make it and be polite for a couple hours, returning by cab just before midnight.
That was a feat, and I was proud of myself. It was another tectonic shift, seeing all the kids I met way back, when some of them were still in elementary school. Now they are almost thirty, some of them Moms and Dads, and thoroughly grown. Amazing and impressive to see how the years have passed. I am going to miss having my son around.
So, along with the decline of the West, and the affirmation that something is going to continue through the evidence of my eyes, how about something this morning that is neutral in topic?
Like the USSR? That is ancient evil, not like what is going on now.
When I was in Berlin a couple years ago I made a point of touring some of the inconvenient memorials with my German-speaking associate. We did STASI HQ, of course, very surreal, and then I suggested a visit to the Soviet Military Cemetery not far away.
As you can imagine, there are not a lot of Germans who frequent the place, which memorializes the exploits of their conquerors. That the place is maintained and not vandalized is a mark of maturity, or maybe even nostalgia for the days of the old GDR.
The buses of Russians still come, and there are those former Ossies who are nostalgic for the old satellite, but if you want a place to be alone in Berlin most of the time, the cemetery is the place. The centerpiece of the central vista is an enormous statue of a Soviet trooper, tenderly holding a young German girl in his strong arms. Style is Socialist Realist, of course, and the whole thing is so bizarre in theme, considering what happened to the women and girls of the former Reich when the Red Army took the German capital.
(Centerpiece of the Soviet cemetery in Treptow Park, East Berlin. It is impressive).
(Detail of the Soviet trooper comforting the German girl).
According to British historian Antony Beevor, at least 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in Berlin alone with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath. Beevor concluded that a million and a half women were sexually assaulted in the former East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone, and that the episode was the “greatest phenomenon of mass rape in history.”
Goodness, I was going to get somewhere else in this story. Sorry. It was an ugly conclusion to the most devastating conflict in history. So, the forbearance of the Germans to the permanent presence of the fallen enemy in their midst is sort of impressive. Perhaps they remember the crimes of their own too well to retaliate.
That isn’t true elsewhere. There have been tremendous rows over the relocation or removal of some Soviet memorials, like the one in Tallinn, Estonia that resulted in two days of rioting.
(The Soviet Monument in Budapest, near Parliament and aeross the square from the US Embassy).
In Budapest, the Hungarian government says the hammer-and-sickle-adorned monument downtown is protected by a treaty with Russia and isn’t going anywhere. Anti-government rioters attacked the memorial last year, scratching off a carving of Russian troops. Since then, it has been surrounded by two layers of iron fencing and patrolled by police.
Statues honoring Russian soldiers still stand in Belgrade, Vienna and Sofia.
The last has been subject to the most colorful protests. Last Wednesday, it was painted a bright and shocking pink in apparent anonymous commemoration of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, which crushed the Prague Spring of 1968. The captions are the words: “Bulgaria Apologizes” and “Prague ’68.”
This isn’t the first time the monument has been given a new paint job, and it is my personal favorite. In 2011, unknown artists turned the soldiers into American pop culture icons including Captain America and Ronald McDonald. The monument is a permanent source of contention in Bulgaria, as it is elsewhere.
(The Joker, Santa Claus, Superman, Ronald McDonald, Captain America and Wonder Woman lead the charge in this 2011 op-art vandalism of the Soviet monument in Sophia.)
The Russian Government has expressed its displeasure with the latest disfacement, and the Bulgarian authorities have taken measures to scrub down the memorials and protect it with fences and increased security patrols as they have the monument in Budapest.
Monuments are funny things, when empires go away, aren’t they? I wonder how ours are going to do?
Ah, that felt better. Not a single polemic this morning. I think I will go for a swim.
Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303