Dis-Enchantment Va Media “Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth into battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended in the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames in summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimmage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.” In 1905, during the US war on the Philippines, Mark Twain attempted to publish this piece in “Harper’s Bazaar,” but it was rejected. In fact, it was not published until 1916 (6 years after his death) when the US was preparing to enter WWI.Twain presents a good starting point for discussing media, particularly American media, and Russia. In 1906 Russia’s most influential prose writer of the 20th century (and not necessarily because of the quality of his writings), Maxim Gorky, came to America to conduct a fundraiser for the Bolshevik cause. He was lionized among America’s literati, among whom were Twain, Jack London, Upton Sinclair, and William Dean Howells. Twain gave a stirring speech how it was hoped that the revolution would overthrow the Tsarist government and create a republic. The Russian Embassy, not being fools, and not wanting Gorky to succeed at his financial goals (the plan was to get contributions and a major loan to support the revolution—the latter possibility was particularly attractive, since Wall Street had in 1905 financed the Japanese in their war on Russia). let it be known that Gorky was traveling with his mistress, and not his legal wife. New York’s Police Commissioner and his minions of morality literally rousted the couple in the middle of the night, from their room in Hotel Pierre, and deposited them and their stuff in the streets of New York. American newspapers and Gorky’s former new-found friends went on a rampage of condemnation. Gorky retreated to a friend’s place in the Adirondacks and wrote, among other works, “The City of the Yellow Devil,” an unabashed attack on American capitalism of the day. The book subsequently became a favorite among Kremlinologists because by periodically examining the lists of planned publications by the Soviet publishers it was easy to predict that within 6 months’ time a downturn in Soviet /US relations would eventuate.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 00:42:56 +0000
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