VIENNA - Russian President Vladimir Putin is repeating history by acting in Crimea much like Adolf Hitler did in central and eastern Europe in the late 1930s, a former Czech foreign minister said in an interview Monday. Whats happening in Ukraine is history repeating itself, Karel Schwarzenberg said in an interview with Austrian daily Osterreich. Putin is acting along the same principle as Adolf Hitler did during his invasions of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1938 and 1939, he said. Putin asked Russias parliament on Saturday to allow him to send troops to Ukraine to protect ethnic Russians in Crimea and elsewhere in southeastern regions of the ex-Soviet country, which has ancient historical and cultural ties to Moscow. Since he wanted to invade Crimea, he needed a pretext and said that his compatriots were oppressed, the 76-year-old Schwarzenberg said, adding that Russians in Crimea, where they are a majority, were not facing any discrimination. The last of the old Czech legends, that of the Knights of Blanik, was first told to the Czech King and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV by a young blind man who was travelling through the realm. Neither he nor anybody else has been able to explain where the Knights of Blanik originally came from. However, stories of similar hibernating knights from places as far apart as France, the Czech Republic and the Arab world have led some experts to believe that all of these slumbering warriors were originally members of armies of holy crusaders who travelled to Palestine in the early part of the second millennium and somehow, while there, came to be bewitched to this – their current fate. These points, however, were not addressed by the blind youth. He just described their current condition, which is this: Beneath Mount Blanik, at the place where the natural spring waters bubble up from the earth, there is an opening in the rock face which looks just like a Gothic portal. This is the entrance to a massive underground cavern, consisting of a large chamber – also Gothic in style, like the great hall of a castle with heavy, arched ceilings and thick pillars. The columns are hung about with all manner of medieval weaponry, and hundreds of horses stand along one wall of the hall. Eerily, not one horsey tail in the bunch switches to discourage the absent flies, nary a whinny is heard from any of the many pairs of horsey lips, and no hooves stomp the stony ground, impatient to be off on a run. All of the horses stand stock-still in enchanted sleep. The main part of the chamber is filled with stone tables, around which stone chairs are arranged. In these stone chairs around these stone tables slumber the owners of the horses, the Knights of Blanik, slowly nod away the centuries, waiting for the day they will be summoned into action. This is the sleeping army of St Wenceslas, and their day will come when things in the Czech lands are at their very worst – when the nation is beset by enemies too numerous to count. According to the report the blind youth gave the emperor, the Czechs will be outnumbered and facing some pretty tough odds in general. In all, the country will be in the worst straits it ever has been (or ever will be). Only then will St Wenceslas rise from the dead and, stopping along the way to pick up Bruncvik’s sword, he will come to Mount Blanik to awaken and to summon forth his warriors. There are a few signs by which we shall know when this hour nears, according to the far-seeing blind man. First, the tops of the trees in Blanik forest will dry up. Next, a dry old beech tree at Pusty fish pond will sprout back to life. Finally, the rock face at the entrance to the underground chamber at Mount Blanik will break in two. The battle around Blanik will rage so thick that Pusty pond will turn red with the blood of the soldiers fallen in battle. Only after many tears are shed and many acts of courage are entered into by soldiers of both armies will St Wenceslas arrive to save the day. He will do so astride his white steed, wielding the sword of Bruncvik and leading the Knights of Blanik. The enemy will turn tail in fear, attempting an escape to Prague – to which place the newly-awakened Czech warriors will give their enemy chase, then engage and defeat them in glorious battle, despatching the enemies of the Czech lands with such verve that the blood of the stricken armies will reportedly run in streams fromStrahov hill to the very stones of the Charles Bridge itself When it is all over, the blind man said, the Czech people will experience their last Golden Age – finally living together in total peace and harmony, never again to bicker among themselves or disagree about a single thing — let alone everything under the sun, as they do now — for the Czechs will be unified in every way, Well, we’ll have to wait until the big day arrives to see about that. In the meanwhile, there are still a few more things to tell about those wacky Knights of Blanik. Once a month, by the light of the moon, the troops and their horses come out of the mountain for exercise. They make such a terrible racket that it’s heard for miles around – and by the light of the next day, you can see the hoofprints in the fields and meadows around the mountain. But despite that it must be a marvellous spectacle, none of the locals ever go to see these nighttime maneuvers, for they know how dangerous contact with the Knights can be.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 21:15:28 +0000
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