 „Well — indeed
— as Chief-in-Command
I used a train to visit the Southern
front-line, however, to put together this
train was rather troublesome.
But at the end, I had on board a
secretariat, a printing-room, an office
for telegraphy, a Telefunken- and an
electrical station, a library, a bathing
facility — and an own daily
news-print called ‚WPuti‘
— that means ‚On the Way‘.
Apart from that, we had a
fast-response-team, which — as
everyone on the train— wore
leather-jackets.
The telegraph on the train was operating
without interruption. We were able to
connect directly with Moscow; and my
deputy, Skljanski, received from me lists
with equipment and weaponry needed for
the army.
My train covered some one hundred
thousand kilometres, mostly during the
year 1920.
The train was pulled by two armoured
locomotives which were armed with heavy
machine-guns. That was of great help in
situations were we were in danger of
betrayal. It happened during a visit at a
forward artillery-position. I met an
officer who asked to be excused to give
an order by telephone. Shortly
afterwards, two grenades exploded close
by. It took some time before it dawned on
me that the artillerist had provided the
enemy with our co-ordinates.
Yes, trains, telephones, radio-antennas
— invented in the ‚imperial age‘—
we were using them for our revolution!
On one special wagon, we had mounted an
aerial, which allowed us to receive,
whilst travelling, radio-wires from the
Eiffel-Tower, from thirteen stations
altogether, mainly from Moscow, of
course.
The train was always informed about the
on-goings in the world; and above all,
the carriages were connected with each
other through internal telephone- and
signal devices.
Towards the end of the civil war, the
train received the Medal of the Red
Banner. Before that, a second armoured
train had been put to use; it was called
after Lenin, and direct communication was
possible between both …
In those years, it seems, I got used to
thinking and writing to the tunes of
Pullman’s springs and wheels …
I would like to thank you, from the
bottom of my heart, for the invitation to
board this ‚Great Uhuru Railway‘—
to board this ‚Great Freedom Train‘
... Druschba — Friendship!”
—
tazara — tazara — tazara ...
 Your
revolutionary train received radio-wires
from the Eiffel-Tower in Paris? From the
symbol of industrial revolution? From the
emblem of its pioneers’ spirit of
inventiveness, from the allegory of their
belief in the omnipotence of science?
Are you aware that without the invention
of Marconi’s wireless telegraphy,
for which Europe’s tallest tower was
the ideal aerial-carrier, Eiffel’s
steel-finger was supposed to be
demolished after ten years?
Gustave Eiffel, the man who constructed
— out of the material for steam
ships and locomotives — the tallest
building of the world for the Paris World
Exhibition of 1889 — Gustave Eiffel
left in Africa an industrial symbol too!
Would this train roll on different
tracks, we would soon arrive at a
port-city where Monsieur Eiffel, tasked
by European colonisers, erected a
railway-station out of steel … Well,
comrade Trotsky, old railway-freak, which
of the following port-cities is the
correct one:
a) Mombassa?
b) Maputo?
c) Durban?
„I am afraid; your quiz-editors
seemed to have been out of tune: when
Monsieur Eiffel was tasked by Portuguese
investors, to construct a main-station
for the railway-line to South Africa from
Maputo, which was laid in 1895, this city
was still called Lourenço Marques.
But, I have a question for you as well.
You know, the symbol of early Russian
industrialisation was not made from
steel. Now, was it made from either:
a) Copper?
b) Gold?
c) Marble?”
Well,
comrade Trotsky, taking into account what
material you offered to choose from, we
believe the beginning of Russia’s
industrialisation has to be placed in
pre-revolutionary times — although
— all three types were used in
abundance when Stalin ordered the
construction of the ‚Peoples‘
Palaces‘, those glittering stations
of Moscow‘s Metro, the
underground-railway-network in operation
since 1935 …
However, you asked for the material used
for a symbol of early Russian
industrialisation. The best what we can
do is to call an industrial revolutionary
for assistance who established, decades
before you could make use of it, Russia’s
overland railway-network.
Welcome in our saloon-car, Herr Witte.
Please, tell us: a) — b) — or
c) … ?
„C, of course: marble, along a
railway line which I did plan!“
You
are going to enlighten us in a moment,
but at first, … it doesn’t
sound Russian, your name?
„I was born on 26th
June 1849 in Tiflis. My father
came from a Lutheran Baltic German family
— although the original roots are
Dutch — and he had been member of
the knightage of the City of Pskov. He
converted to Orthodoxy upon marriage with
my mother Yækaterina Fadeyeva. Her
father was Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev, a
Governor of Saratov and Privy Councillor
of the Caucasus, my grandmother was
Princess Helene Dolgoruki, and the mystic
Madame Blavatsky was my first cousin.
And yes, I have been an early
railway-freak as well!
After graduating from Novorossiysk
University in Odessa, I spent the greater
part of the 1870s and 1880s involved in
private enterprises, particularly the
administration and management of various
railroad lines in Russia.
I served as Russian Director of Railway
Affairs within the Finance Ministry from
1889 to 1891; and during this period, I
oversaw an ambitious program of railway
construction. In 1886,
railway-construction had reached the
Eastern range of the Ural, and varieties
of further developments were considered.
Tsar Alexander III. decided in favour of
my proposals to engage in a general
concept, which included the building of
the Trans-Siberian Railway ...“
—
transsib — transsib — transsib
...
Sergei
Juljewitsch, these are suddenly different
noises?
„It seems that your train can be
transferred, somehow, onto different
tracks! May be, it rolled through one of
your history-tunnels?
Because here, we are near the embankment
of Lake Baikal, close to kilometre 5311
of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and —
look — there you see the solution of
the quiz-enquiry: perhaps the only
railway-station of the world which was
built entirely out of marble —
Sljudjanka 1. This station was erected as
a memorial for the builders of this
unique Baikal-line. Until today, the
appearance of this station has not
changed.“ ...
—
transsib — transsib — transsib
...
Sergei
Juljewitsch — statesman of German
descent and Russian entrepreneur. You are
seen as the man who fought for liberal
ideas and who wanted to modernize economy
in Tsar-governed Russia …
„Well, since the
middle of the 19th century Russia could not depend
anymore on horse-drawn carts or on
river-bound barges to exploit Siberia‘s
richness‘s. Thus, plans to construct
a railway-line through all of Siberia to
Vladivostok at the coast of the Japanese
Sea lingered since 1870.
However, right from the start
expectations and targets were highly
exaggerated. My political opposition was
of the opinion, we would be capable to
subjugate not only China but also Korea
and Japan which did rise very fast from
an isolated Island-Empire to a world
power.
My opposition to Russian
designs
on this policy caused me to resign from
government in 1903, and I witnessed from
the sideline the unfolding tragedy of the
Russo-Japanese War. However, I returned
to the forefront in 1905 when I was
called upon by the Tsar to negotiate an
end to this war. I was sent as the
Russian Emperor's plenipotentiary along
with Baron Roman Rosen, Master of the
Imperial Court of Russia, to the United
States, where the peace talks were being
held.
I managed to negotiate positively on
Russia's behalf. Despite losing
dramatically on the battlefield, Russia
lost very little in the final settlement.
For my efforts, I was elevated to a Count
and I was brought back into the
governmental decision-making process to
help deal with the civil unrest following
the war. I was appointed Chairman of the
Council of Ministers, the equivalent of
Prime Minister, in 1905.
Then came the Russian Revolution; I
advocated the creation of an elected
parliament, the formation of a
constitutional monarchy, and the
establishment of a Bill of Rights through
the October Manifesto. Many of my reforms
were put into place, but they failed to
end the unrest. This, and overwhelming
victories by left-wing political parties
in Russia's first elected parliament, the
State Duma, forced me to resign as
Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
I continued in Russian politics as a
member of the State Council but never
again obtained an administrative role in
the government. Just prior to the
outbreak of the First World War, I urged
that Russia stay out of the conflict. My
warning that Europe faced calamity if
Russia became involved went unheeded
… I proposed peace negotiations with
the German Empire and with France, to no
avail. The Tsar would not hear ...“
Comrade
Trotsky, from railway-fan to railway-fan:
that was your line as well, wasn’t
it? Peace-negotiations with Germany! You
even were in charge of them, tasked by
Lenin! Sergei Juljewitsch Witte — a
Russian patriot?
„He talked about a ‚threatening
revolution‘ — he was the handy
man of Russian imperialism! His vehicle
was the railways, his instrument was
foreign capital which collaborated with
the Petrograd-based state-owned bank, the
declared goal was the opening of markets,
the penetration of underdeveloped and
remote territories, the strengthening of
the Tsar’s imperial power position.“
„Oh yes, but peaceful! Through
railways and through diplomacy! Not
through the Tsar’s army and
war-fleet, and not through revolutionary
execution-commandos either!“
30
„You have to eradicate forever the
idle talk of popes and Quakers about the
holy value of human life.“
—
transsib — transsib — transsib
...
Russia on Thursday
marked the 90th anniversary of the murder
of the last tsar, Nicholas II, and his
family, a day after investigators
announced that DNA analysis has finally
identified the remains of the tsar’s
heir, Alexei, and his sister Maria
...
—
transsib — transsib — transsib
...
Stop!
Someone has misused one of our
history-tunnels! Who caused this
news-snippet to be played? The 90th
anniversary will take place only next
year, in 2008 … Comrade Trotsky, you
still have the word!
„I am quoting from
my diary:
My next visit to Moscow took place
after the fall of Yekaterinburg. Talking
to Sverdlov I asked in passing, ‚Oh
yes and where is the tsar?‘ ‚It's
all over,‘ he answered. ‚He has
been shot.‘ ‚And where is his
family?‘ ‚And the family with
him.‘ ‚All of them?‘ I
asked, apparently with a touch of
surprise. ‚All of them,‘
replied Yakov Sverdlov. ‚What about
it?‘ He was waiting to see my
reaction. I made no reply. ‚And who
made the decision?‘ I asked. ‚We
decided it here. Ilyich [Lenin] believed
that we shouldn't leave the Whites a live
banner to rally around, especially under
the present difficult circumstances.“
„It happened in the night from 16th
to 17th July 1918 ...“
As we
already mentioned it, next year, in 2008,
it will be ninety years ago … But
…
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