Today we are
launching a new series of programs looking at the highlights of each and
every year of this outgoing century. The whole series is written for you
by Vladimir Zhamkin who is Editor-in-Chief of our English-language service.
The onset of the 20 century inspired high hopes and many of them came true
ushering in tremendous changes in all spheres of life compared to what
we had in the eighteen hundreds... The revolutionary strides made in scientific
and technological research had opened up man's inherent potential, but
the world was still unaware of the tragic trials and tribulations awaiting
it in the new century... In this program we'll give you short glimpses
of the century's highlights, its geniuses and villains... In 1901 there
were 1 billion and 656 million people living on Earth, most of them in
Asia and Africa, but Europe was still ruling supreme having the rest of
the world effectively divided among its member states. Britain led the
list with France, Germany and Portugal trailing closely behind. The European
predominance had turned the whole world into one single entity where the
national and civilizational seclusion of old had long become history...
Britain still
ruled over the waves, but the 1901 death of Queen Victoria wrote an end
to the 64 year-old Victorian era which had strengthened the moral authority
of the Crown and stabilized the monarchy as a whole. When a wave of social
revolutions swept across the continent in 1848, their impact was hardly
felt by the conservatively-minded people living across the English Channel.
Queen Victoria had nine children who bonded the British monarchy with many
royal courts in Europe. The German Emperor Wilhelm the Second was her grandson
and the Russian Emperor Nicholas the Second was married to her grand-daughter.
Monarchies were a dominant force in the turn-of-the-century Europe where
France, Switzerland and San Marino were the only republican exceptions
to the rule.
The year 1901
saw the pomp and circumstance that surrounded the centennial celebrations
of Georgia's voluntary merger with Russia. Throughout the 16th and 18th
centuries Georgia fell victim to recurrent invasions from Iran and Turkey.
The invasions triggered a series of national-liberation wars which brought
innumerable sufferings to the Georgian people. Despite the heroism and
strategic talent displayed by its leaders, the tiny Black Sea nation was
certainly no match for its mighty southern foes. Realizing this, Georgia
first accepted the Russian protectorate and, in 1801, joined the Russian
Empire altogether.
In 1901 the
world lost two of its greatest cultural celebrities. One was the larger-than-life
19th century composer Giuseppe Verdi whose brilliant operas Rigoletto,
Otello, Aida, Falstaff and others are still admired music lovers everywhere.
The other great loss was the outstanding French painter Toulouse Lotreq
who had immportalized his name with his masterful depictions of the Parisian
artistic life. His vibrantly fluid colors and the grotesquely distorted
figures are still extracting gasps of delighted admiration from his many
fans.
That's the
way life is and there is nothing we can do about it. People die and people
are born to this world. Geniuses go only to be replaced by no-less talented
new stars. The year 1901 saw, along with the dawn of the cinema, the birth
of two people who made such a formidable contribution to the then new art.
Marlene Dietrich the German-born American film star mesmerized the audience
with her majestic yet subtle performance. Until her death at age 91, she
remained one of the world's best-loved actresses.
Also born in
1901 was a founding father of the neorealism, the excellent actor and outstanding
film director Vittorio de Sica whose 1968 masterpiece, The Sunflowers,
I myself chanced to see being filmed and even rubbed shoulders with the
great master.
And we're wrapping
up this program with three events that happened in Russia in the year 1901.
In 1901, the
great Russian author, reformer and moral thinker Leo Tolstoy, was excommunicated,
nine years before he died on November 7th, 1910. A rabid critic of all
forms of red tape and hypocricy, Tolstoy consistently lambasted the state
and the Church and eventually fell out of favor.
Meanwhile,
they opened a number of shelters for homeless children in Petersburg, an
event whose humanitarian significance by far overshadowed its otherwise
routine meaning.
Simultaneously
they opened a string of free libraries for children and adults.
In 1901 Russia
was celebrating the 200th birthday of the Marine Cadets Corps which Emperor
Peter the Great founded in 1701 and whose graduates then glorified the
Russian Navy winning many sea battles and making great geographical discoveries.
This was a brief roundup of the main highlights of the year 1901 and in
our next program we'll see what happend in 1902..
