A CHAPTER OF RUSSIAN HISTORY (PART II OF II)

FEBRUARY 20, 2023 – (Cont.) Now back to the big lie of Ivan’s “murder.” In fact, he was alive—if not exactly well—as proved by Peter’s mother (Ivan’s step-mother) courageously leading both boys by the hand out to confront the crazy mob of Streltsy crazies (egged on, historians believe, by Ivan’s older sister, Sophia, who sought to be Ivan’s regent). The front lines of the Streltsy could see Ivan and hear the mom say, “Hey, guys! No one’s been murdered, see? You got it all wrong.”

For the vanguard, seeing and hearing was believing, but the conspiracy theorists in the rear would have none of it. “How do we know this isn’t a set-up? How do we know that’s really Ivan? Oh, and by the way, we hate the boyars [the nobles who were in charge of “government”—to the extent anyone was in charge of anything back then]! Yeah! We have other grievances, so off with everyone’s head!” Whereupon, all hell broke loose.

I thought immediately of the 2020 election lie—and attendant “grievances”—that motivated the January 6 mob to storm the capitol—actively encouraged by their “Sophia.”

THIRD, the blood-letting that ensued was as horrific as anything you’ll find in the annals of random sadism. The favored method was to grab a victim, toss him into the air and over the balcony down onto a regiment of Streltsy with spears held skyward. The impaled bodies were then hacked to pieces by halberds. The Streltsy gathered up the body parts and heaped them into a big pile in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral on (blood) Red Square. The savagery continued for several days before the Streltsy got tired of all the blood-letting. They then demanded (and received!) payment for their services and immediate construction of a monument, on which all the names of their victims—”traitors,” of course—were to be listed.

The horrific butchery had a powerful and negative impact on young Peter, who witnessed it firsthand. He developed a visceral hatred of the backwardness of the ultra-conservative, ultra-Orthodox, ultra-xenophobic Streltsy—and the city that harbored them. Decades later, of course, he’d open Russia to Western influences and build a Western City—St. Petersburg—to serve as capital of the country over which he ruled.

In pondering the Streltsy rebellion, I thought of the brutality that Russians have unleashed in Ukraine. Is it any wonder that a nation whose history is replete with such violence would become acculturated to it? (Fast forward to the widespread, protracted Pugachev Rebellion during Catherine’s reign, the long civil war following the 1917 Revolution and a generation and a half of Stalinism.) Our species is capable of egregious crimes against humanity, but if barbarity within a national culture is historically more commonplace than aberrational, then war crimes—and deployment of prisoners as cannon fodder—become unremarkable to the perpetrators.

Those who perpetrate “big public lies”  or dismiss them as inconsequential should think again. Those who tire of supporting Ukraine against the Russian onslaught should understand the tradition of Russian brutality.

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© 2023 by Eric Nilsson