Tea at Trianon: Life in the Gulag

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Life in the Gulag

A reader sent me this link to pictures of one of the many prison camps used by the Communists to torment thousands of people. It reminds me of the biography I read about the Lithuanian nun Nijole Sadunaite called A Radiance in the Gulag. Sr. Nijole was interned in a concentration camp for being a "dissident." Amid the horror she nourished a vibrant faith. We really have no concept what many have suffered during our own life times. Share

6 comments:

Anonymous said...: Elena Filatova, the young Ukrainian woman whose website hosts the chilling gulag photos, has a fascinating collection of other subjects on her website, http://elenafilatova.com/

Her photos of the city of Chernobyl, abandoned in 1986, after the nuclear catastrophe there, are surreal and spiritually insightful. Apparently, she rides there alone [sic] periodically on her motorcycle, takes photos and video, and leaves none (too much ) the worse for wear.

Her photos and journal notes are a deep -- and deeply disturbing -- mediation on human hubris and the fleeting nature of earthly happiness.; July 28, 2007 at 3:03:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Those are really amazing photos. It shows the high price in human life that has been paid in the former Soviet Union.; July 28, 2007 at 4:33:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: thank you Elena for this post. I will link it.; July 28, 2007 at 4:38:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: God help us to never put issues or politics before human rights.; July 28, 2007 at 8:04:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: If this horrifies us so...think how Our Lady and Christ must weep at this....; July 29, 2007 at 3:50:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I thought you would find it interesting, Paula!

So true, alaughland!

Yes, Margaret, heaven must have wept at the site of such suffering....; July 29, 2007 at 9:10:00 AM EDT