Tea at Trianon: Soviet Waifs of the 1920's

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

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Soviet Waifs of the 1920's

The Revolution triumphs in Russia. From English Russia:

The former Museum of the Revolution opens its archives to show portraits of children who had to suffer two wars, hunger and poverty. The collection has been forming since the 1920s and now it has at least 180 thousand photos and 160 thousand negatives.Moscow, 1920. The strongest children of their time. According to different sources, in the early 1920s Russia had from 4 to 7 million kids deprived of homes and parents. (Read more.)

julygirl said...: The 20th Century, the Century of hope when all war would cease, turned out to be 100 years of turmoil, strife, death and destruction of cultures, traditions and many sacred things.; March 1, 2020 at 11:03:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, it was a hundred years of destruction.; March 1, 2020 at 5:26:00 PM EST