 Comrade Trotsky, this
German pupil here of classical-humanistic
up-bringing did pen down his perceptions
from that fateful rail-journey only when
he had turned into an elderly man of
letters … By then, the wings of
Ikarus were already singed, weren’t
they? …
Emiljewitsch, please stay with us, we are
eager to listen still to one or the other
rattle from your rendezvous with history
on the „Drive to Revolution”
…
At that time, of course, you couldn’t
have guessed that this train would take
on board some forty million Goldmark
— as the story goes, during its
stop-over in Berlin — but, perhaps
already at your Rastatt siding? Handed
down from this ominous special train of
some Crown Prince? Perhaps, that was the
reason why the compartments were not
sealed yet? And their occupants were
waiting for a money-shipment within the
Grand Duke‘s railway-system, not for
an adventuresome pupil of the Grand Duke’s
grammar school …
Historians claim the money came out of
the German Empire’s cash-box. It was
supposed to grease the wheels of the
Bolshevist Revolution hoping to reach a
separate peace-treaty after an upheaval
in Russia … Not in question, at all,
is the fact that Lenin’s return to
Russia was only made possible by clever
switching of points along German rails.
„But, it was not Lenin who was
responsible for the bloody slaughter of
peasants in Russia — it was this
gentleman here! And what about the cadets
of Kronstadt? … In 1921, you were in
charge of the Highest Command; you gave
the order to put an end to their
uprising, although, from the castle of
Konstadt, you had brought them as your
elite troops when the success of the
October Revolution in Petersburg had to
be secured!”
„Petrograd, Mr. Rockefeller ... we
called it Petrograd! ... However, I’m
impressed, you are well acquainted with
those events! …
In a moment, I shall answer questions
with regard to my responsibilities during
the revolutionary years in the emerging
Soviet Union, also with regard to the
suppression of peasants’ and sailors’
riots. But before that, I would like to
narrate, how well I am acquainted with
suppression in your United States of
America, Mr. Rockefeller, I would like to
summarize what I learned as reporter of a
communist paper published at the Eastside
of New York City ... You see, I was a
regular visitor to your public libraries,
eager to read everything which came under
my eyes, especially the whole caboodle
which dealt with the American system of
economy and its repercussions on the life
of those employed by it … it would
have been difficult not to come across
the name of Rockefeller, wouldn‘t
it?
I want to narrate what I dotted down then
…
 Your father, Mr.
Rockefeller, conducted in
Cleveland, since 1859, a rather
successful trading company, together with
his partner Clark; major trading-goods
were grain and meat. Then, in 1862, he
reckoned that the booming new business
based on oil-refineries could provide a
better chance. Therefore, he founded
another company, Andrews, Clark &
Company, which expanded quickly. In order
to grow even faster, he paid out his
partner in 1865 and invested all profits
and credits into further expansion.
Assisted by his brother William, who
later made his own career as a big
banker, and with his life-long partner
Henry Flagler, he founded in 1867 the
Rockefeller company Andrew & Flagler
which, already in the following year, was
counted as one of the biggest
oil-refineries of the world …”
—
tazara — tazara — tazara ...
…
and, in the history of the
Rockefeller-Empire, railways seem to have
played an important role as well.
HELLO! ATTENTION AT THE CONTROLS!
We are going to display a picture once we
pass the next tunnel — not painted
in oil, gentlemen, but a nostalgic
document of black & white
photography, taken on May 10th, 1889, in
Promontory Point, U.S.-State of Utah.
—
tazara — tazara — tazara ...
ATTENTION:
TUNNEL! ... PROJECTION!
35
 On the left side, with a
wide funnel-like chimney, we are seeing
the steam locomotive as it had arrived
from Sacramento … on the right, with
a narrow, more elegant chimney; we are
seeing the other one, coming from Omaha
…
On this day, the Pacific coast and the
Atlantic coast of the United States of
America had been connected, for the first
time, by a transcontinental railway line
…
Two notabilities are toasting each other
with glasses of champagne, two more are
shaking hands, in-between the two head-on
parked locomotives are huddling some
hundred workers to whom — on this
day — the photographer of the United
Pacific Railroad seemed to have posed the
greater attraction … The state
supported construction of railways by
offering a subsidy for every piece of
finished rail-mile, and land along the
proposed line was given gratis to the
constructors … that’s how
history-books tell us …
ATTENTION AT THE CONTROLS! — START
MOVIE!
 „C'ERA UNA VOLTA
IL WEST!”
Italy/U.S.A., 1968
Director: Sergio Leone
Music: Ennio Morricone
Duration: 164 Min.
… A railway-station somewhere in
America’s Wild West: Three men in
long overcoats are waiting on the
platform, waiting for someone to arrive.
A man with a mouth organ (Charles
Bronson) finally disembarks, he exchanges
some words with the trio, then shoots all
of them … Somewhere else in Wild
West, the farmer Brett McBain (Frank
Wolff) is waiting for his wife Jill
(Claudia Cardinale) to arrive — both
got married recently in New Orleans. Some
riders, again in long overcoats, appear
and extinguish McBain’s whole
family. The „men in overcoats”
act on behalf of business-tycoon Morton
(Gabriele Ferzetti). Before
bone-tuberculosis will have eaten him up,
he wants to finish his railway-line to
the Pacific’s coast …
McBain’s farm was in his way .
…
So, there were incentives to lay rails as
fast and as much as possible. That was
the reason why, at the beginning of 1896,
two companies had raced to build their
own, almost on a parallel line, one from
East to West, the other one from West to
East. Business thinking prevailed; a
decision was taken to connect both lines
in the hills near the Great Salt Lake in
Utah. The occasion was celebrated with a
special rail-nail, the golden spike. We
are not seeing it on this picture,
however, nobody seems to have nicked it,
the spot is known, until today, as the
Golden Spike National Historic Site.
To travel by rail from New York to
Sacramento was in those days a matter of
seven and a half days.
But, comrade Trotsky, please drive on!
—
tazara — tazara — tazara ...
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