On this day 116 years ago in Kharkov Nikolay Dmitrievich Pilchikov – scientist-physicist, inventor in the field of radio engineering, author of works on optics, terrestrial magnetism, electrical and radio engineering, radioactivity, X-rays, electrochemistry, geophysics, meteorology – was shot in the heart.
At about seven o’clock in the morning of 6 May 1908, a shot rang out in a ward of an expensive Kharkov hospital. Breaking open the door locked from the inside, the doctors saw its only patient – it seemed that his life had been cut short in his sleep. The man was lying in his bunk, as if he hadn’t woken up yet. And if not for the bloodstain on his chest, no one would have realised the tragedy. A revolver lay on the tea-table beside the bed. It was from this revolver that the bullet that had pierced the scientist’s heart had been fired. Could a man who was undergoing medical treatment have carefully placed the gun beside his tea glass and folded his arms across his chest after shooting himself at point-blank range? Nevertheless, the “cadaver book” records ruled the death a suicide.
For some reason forensic experts did not do dactyloscopy – the investigation was not puzzled by fingerprints on the black “bulldog”, which became the murder weapon. And the authoritative professor Nikolai Bokarius, whose name now bears the local Institute of Forensic Medicine, even described Pilchikova’s case in a textbook for lawyers and doctors as an example of temporary purposeful capacity of suicides with fatal gunshot wounds in the heart area. At that, the luminary recommended to take into account not only anatomical features of the injury, but also the functional state of the central nervous system. The picture was completed by the conclusion of pathologists, who found in the killed after the autopsy of the corpse modifications in the structure of the brain.
A purely “police” justification for not considering the murder version was the fact that the incident took place in a locked room on the first floor (as if this could be an obstacle to unauthorised entry).
And a week after the scientist’s death, on 13 May 1908, the head of the police department received a report from the head of the Kharkov security service about the unreliability of the “extreme leftist” Professor Pilchikov, who was known for his active participation in “criminal agitation activities of engineering students”. This was confirmed by a search of the scientist’s house, during which propaganda literature from the period of the first Russian revolution of 1905 was found.
What was Professor Pilchikov doing before he was “worked out” by the police? The scientific fate of Nikolai Dmitrievich was as unusual as his death was mysterious and the fate of outstanding discoveries inexplicable.
The scientist, whose life was cut short at the age of 51, was not only a physicist, but also a lyricist: he was no less talented in composing poetry, painting pictures and playing the violin. But he considered his life’s work to be his scientific career, which was unusually successful.
The son of a public and cultural figure, who was a friend of Taras Shevchenko, was born on 9 May 1857 in Poltava, and already during his studies in gymnasium showed remarkable abilities in exact sciences. Entering the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kharkiv University, he experimented in new at that time experiments in the field of sound recording, while still a student invented an electric phonograph.
After graduation, the graduate was left to work at the Department of Physics. His first scientific monograph was devoted to optical analysis. Later the scientist made a number of discoveries on the topics of scattered light polarisation and atmospheric ionisation, atmospheric electricity and geomagnetism, radioactivity and X-rays. Pilchikov was awarded the Silver Medal from the Russian Geographical Society for a series of studies of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, during which iron ore deposits near Prokhorovka were predicted.
https://preview.redd.it/qgjjyhraue1d1.jpg?width=670&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc9b32df718dc6e9a0403ae713878a85cecc4add
After defending his thesis at the University of St. Petersburg, the master of physics was appointed privat-docent of the Kharkov University, and two years later he went to practice at a magnetic observatory in Paris, where he discovered flaws in the design of the seismograph and offered his mentors a way to correct them.
Soon the young professor of Kharkov University becomes famous outside Russia, becoming a regular at international scientific conferences and a member of the Toulouse Academy of Sciences.
Nikolay Pilchikov returned to Kharkov as a university professor, where he created a meteorological station that still exists today. To study the upper atmosphere, the professor developed a stratostat and then a high-altitude spacesuit to equip the pilot. The atmospheric optics researcher created his own seismograph and designed equipment to determine magnetic pressure.
Having moved for some time to Odessa (to work at the Imperial Novorossiysk University), in 1894 the scientist invented an original lamp for the study of X-rays, called “Pilchikov’s focus tube”. The optical and galvanic version of the study of electrolysis developed by him made it possible to obtain images on metal plates – so the inventor became the author of electrophotography or photogalvanography.
And on 25 March 1898, Nikolai Pilchikov demonstrated for the first time a device working with radio waves of a certain length and rejecting interference. During his experiments in Odessa he lit a lighthouse with the help of radio waves and moved a railway semaphore, blew up a yacht and made a cannon fire.
The scientist characterised his contribution to radio physics as follows: while Popov and Marconi were looking for a way to transmit a signal over the greatest possible distance, he was solving the problem of cutting off wireless power transmission from extraneous electrical waves. Thus appeared the first device with a protector – a security filter, allowing only the waves addressed to it to reach the mechanism and protecting the equipment from atmospheric and radio interference. The scientist not only designed and manufactured different types of the first protectors, but also tested them in practice.
With the help of his revolutionary device, Professor Pilchikov made it possible to create radio-controlled mine boats that could sink enemy ships without a crew and fire on enemy targets. In proposing the idea to the Russian military, the inventor characterised it as a way of detonating objects at a considerable distance without cables or other visible communication.
Applying for financial assistance from the military department, Pilchikov planned to spend 15,000 roubles on laboratory equipment, manufacture of devices and their testing with the support of the Sevastopol naval forces. For his part, the scientist undertook to keep the know-how in strict secrecy and not to publish any information about the development in scientific literature. As a result, this circumstance may have contributed to the fact that the scientist’s works disappeared and he himself may have been eliminated.
Military engineers discussed the professor’s petition for research funds with reference to foreign experience. Specialists compared Pilchikov’s achievements with the developments of foreign scientists experimenting with wireless telegraph, to whom the authorities did not refuse anything. For example, Preece was authorised for experiments by the postal department of England, Marconi obtained in 1897 large sums of money from the naval department of Italy, and the Berlin scientist Slaby received aeronautical parks, watercraft and troops of the Potsdam garrison from the Emperor of Germany. Pilchikov, on the other hand, had a much more extensive programme and was naturally expected to produce the most ambitious results.
On his return to Kharkov in 1902, the professor continued his research in the best-equipped physical laboratory of those times, the local University of Technology. He was also allocated a ship “Dnestr” and funds for marine experiments. On the ship in 1903 the scientist equipped a receiving radio station, and on the Chersonese lighthouse – transmitting.
Alas, neither the scheme of those protectors, nor the content of the experiments, nor their further fate are known today. In the archives we found only information about a letter of gratitude to Professor Pilchikov from the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. It was dated the beginning of September 1904. It is clear that in the midst of the war with Japan secret military developments could be of interest to both belligerents. Moreover, other external enemies were also interested in preventing Russia’s military advantage.
Professor Pilchikov’s research competed with American experiments in the Maritime Ministry under Tesla, who was also working on the task of wireless control of a minelayer from the shore. This is a case in science when “an idea is in the air” and the same discovery is independently made by scientists at different ends of the world.
It is believed that the first radio-controlled telemechanical system in the world was developed by Nikola Tesla – he patented and presented an unprecedented ship model in the summer of 1898, but came to the discovery the day before, in spring. And “Russian Tesla” Nikolai Pilchikov tested a similar invention in March of the same year, which was reported in a note in the “Odessa Review”, which for some reason remained unnoticed by the scientific community.
The “two Nicholas” had a lot in common, despite the fact that they lived and created on different continents. Scientists were almost the same age. Both had no family – neither wives nor close relatives. Both were undividedly attracted to physical science – the mysteries of radioactivity, X-rays and lightning. But to Pilchikov did not appear one day George Westinghouse with a million dollars for four dozen patents. And an understanding friend, as Tesla had in the person of Katharine Johnson, next to Nikolay Dmitrievich was not there either…
Being left without further state support, Pilchikov could not complete the work on his wireless protector. In 1905 he left to observe the solar eclipse in Algeria, from where he returned with failing health. Ill-health was aggravated by an acute feeling of loneliness.
1908 was a fateful year in the fate of the scientist. It was the best time of the year, the beginning of May, a time of intoxication with life and romantic dreams. But for Pilchikov, the “delight of nature” had no inspiring meaning: five days before his own birthday, he went to a psychoneurological clinic. And it happened under very mysterious circumstances.
According to police reports, the owner of a private hospital and a well-known doctor I. Y. Platonov received a call from an unknown man on 3 May with a request to hospitalise Nikolai Dmitrievich Pilchikov. It was asked to prepare a separate room where the patient would be alone.
When the professor appeared in the clinic, the doctors saw nothing critical in his condition. He was elegantly dressed, and in his hands held a suitcase with papers. Two days later, a shot rang out in the ward, and the papers were gone. Not a single piece of his war work was found among his household belongings. The blueprints of inventions of world importance, which the scientist had not even had time to patent, disappeared.
Wasn’t the murder then the final fat point in the planned operation? And didn’t the inventor-physicist take with him to the ward what the special services hunting for his military developments were tracking down?
Perhaps it was in the hospital that Nikolai Pilchikov, who had a premonition of trouble, tried to hide from his threatening pursuers? Or maybe they put him there so that it would be easier to realise what they had planned? And who were these mysterious killers?..
We will probably never get answers to these questions. But it is known how the brilliant ideas of the tragically departed scientist were put into practice.
In 1913, the first radio-controlled aeroplane took to the skies. Four years later, a German boat controlled from a plane blew up the quay in the English harbour of Newport. In the same year, 1917, a German ship was damaged by a British minelayer guided from a radio-controlled aeroplane. In 1925 the first mine without wires appeared. And in 1943 the Soviet troops destroyed the Nazi headquarters with General von Braun in Kharkov occupied by the enemy by controlled explosion from Voronezh.
Radio warfare has long been supplemented by radio defence, where the first role is played by devices like Pilchikov’s protectors. Thanks to radio defence, in 1944 the British were invulnerable to German fighters in the Libyan desert. Radio locks of increased complexity are used in satellite navigation and launching systems for space and military rockets. And all responsible radio electronic equipment is protected from interference by modern devices working on the principle of Professor Pilchikov’s protector – the “Russian Tesla”, who became a hindrance to someone himself…
Source: Vyacheslav Kapreljants

I’m enjoying them both so much!
These are my second and third pens, and my first gold nibs. One was a birthday present from my husband, and the other was a birthday present from myself.
The Pilot 823 WA is so smooth and writes very well at my steep writing angle. I was worried it would be too heavy, but it feels fine after a few pages of continuous writing. I can certainly feel the nib’s quality- it feels slightly soft and gentle on the paper. This nib is a real winner, and I expect it will become the standard that I judge all other smooth nibs by. The barrel looks like it will be difficult to clean; I expect I will fill this with one colour only, and stick with it to avoid cleaning. The ordering process was straightforward. Tokyo Quill Shop Pen replied to my quote request email within a day, advised they had it in stock, then after I paid via PayPal they shipped the pen the next day, and it arrived in Australia less than a week later.
The Sailor PG EF definitely has that famed toothy, pencil-like feedback, which will take some getting used to, but I love the colour, how light the pen is, and how incredibly thin the line is. The pencil-like feedback allows me to write softly without losing grip on the page. The two-tone nib is stunning. I got this second-hand, and it’s in perfect condition. I have only dip-tested it so far, but it wrote pleasantly and reliably at my high writing angle, and one dip was enough to transcribe a whole poem (I think it was Ozymandias).
While this is incredibly subjective, I think Sailor make the prettiest pens, and Pilot make the best writers. I’ve certainly got my eye on some other Pro Gear colours for a future birthday, and maybe an 823 PO nib too.

On this day 116 years ago in Kharkov Nikolay Dmitrievich Pilchikov – scientist-physicist, inventor in the field of radio engineering, author of works on optics, terrestrial magnetism, electrical and radio engineering, radioactivity, X-rays, electrochemistry, geophysics, meteorology – was shot in the heart.
At about seven o’clock in the morning of 6 May 1908, a shot rang out in a ward of an expensive Kharkov hospital. Breaking open the door locked from the inside, the doctors saw its only patient – it seemed that his life had been cut short in his sleep. The man was lying in his bunk, as if he hadn’t woken up yet. And if not for the bloodstain on his chest, no one would have realised the tragedy. A revolver lay on the tea-table beside the bed. It was from this revolver that the bullet that had pierced the scientist’s heart had been fired. Could a man who was undergoing medical treatment have carefully placed the gun beside his tea glass and folded his arms across his chest after shooting himself at point-blank range? Nevertheless, the “cadaver book” records ruled the death a suicide.
For some reason forensic experts did not do dactyloscopy – the investigation was not puzzled by fingerprints on the black “bulldog”, which became the murder weapon. And the authoritative professor Nikolai Bokarius, whose name now bears the local Institute of Forensic Medicine, even described Pilchikova’s case in a textbook for lawyers and doctors as an example of temporary purposeful capacity of suicides with fatal gunshot wounds in the heart area. At that, the luminary recommended to take into account not only anatomical features of the injury, but also the functional state of the central nervous system. The picture was completed by the conclusion of pathologists, who found in the killed after the autopsy of the corpse modifications in the structure of the brain.
A purely “police” justification for not considering the murder version was the fact that the incident took place in a locked room on the first floor (as if this could be an obstacle to unauthorised entry).
And a week after the scientist’s death, on 13 May 1908, the head of the police department received a report from the head of the Kharkov security service about the unreliability of the “extreme leftist” Professor Pilchikov, who was known for his active participation in “criminal agitation activities of engineering students”. This was confirmed by a search of the scientist’s house, during which propaganda literature from the period of the first Russian revolution of 1905 was found.
What was Professor Pilchikov doing before he was “worked out” by the police? The scientific fate of Nikolai Dmitrievich was as unusual as his death was mysterious and the fate of outstanding discoveries inexplicable.
The scientist, whose life was cut short at the age of 51, was not only a physicist, but also a lyricist: he was no less talented in composing poetry, painting pictures and playing the violin. But he considered his life’s work to be his scientific career, which was unusually successful.
The son of a public and cultural figure, who was a friend of Taras Shevchenko, was born on 9 May 1857 in Poltava, and already during his studies in gymnasium showed remarkable abilities in exact sciences. Entering the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kharkiv University, he experimented in new at that time experiments in the field of sound recording, while still a student invented an electric phonograph.
After graduation, the graduate was left to work at the Department of Physics. His first scientific monograph was devoted to optical analysis. Later the scientist made a number of discoveries on the topics of scattered light polarisation and atmospheric ionisation, atmospheric electricity and geomagnetism, radioactivity and X-rays. Pilchikov was awarded the Silver Medal from the Russian Geographical Society for a series of studies of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, during which iron ore deposits near Prokhorovka were predicted.
After defending his thesis at the University of St. Petersburg, the master of physics was appointed privat-docent of the Kharkov University, and two years later he went to practice at a magnetic observatory in Paris, where he discovered flaws in the design of the seismograph and offered his mentors a way to correct them.
Soon the young professor of Kharkov University becomes famous outside Russia, becoming a regular at international scientific conferences and a member of the Toulouse Academy of Sciences.
Nikolay Pilchikov returned to Kharkov as a university professor, where he created a meteorological station that still exists today. To study the upper atmosphere, the professor developed a stratostat and then a high-altitude spacesuit to equip the pilot. The atmospheric optics researcher created his own seismograph and designed equipment to determine magnetic pressure.
Having moved for some time to Odessa (to work at the Imperial Novorossiysk University), in 1894 the scientist invented an original lamp for the study of X-rays, called “Pilchikov’s focus tube”. The optical and galvanic version of the study of electrolysis developed by him made it possible to obtain images on metal plates – so the inventor became the author of electrophotography or photogalvanography.
And on 25 March 1898, Nikolai Pilchikov demonstrated for the first time a device working with radio waves of a certain length and rejecting interference. During his experiments in Odessa he lit a lighthouse with the help of radio waves and moved a railway semaphore, blew up a yacht and made a cannon fire.
The scientist characterised his contribution to radio physics as follows: while Popov and Marconi were looking for a way to transmit a signal over the greatest possible distance, he was solving the problem of cutting off wireless power transmission from extraneous electrical waves. Thus appeared the first device with a protector – a security filter, allowing only the waves addressed to it to reach the mechanism and protecting the equipment from atmospheric and radio interference. The scientist not only designed and manufactured different types of the first protectors, but also tested them in practice.
With the help of his revolutionary device, Professor Pilchikov made it possible to create radio-controlled mine boats that could sink enemy ships without a crew and fire on enemy targets. In proposing the idea to the Russian military, the inventor characterised it as a way of detonating objects at a considerable distance without cables or other visible communication.
Applying for financial assistance from the military department, Pilchikov planned to spend 15,000 roubles on laboratory equipment, manufacture of devices and their testing with the support of the Sevastopol naval forces. For his part, the scientist undertook to keep the know-how in strict secrecy and not to publish any information about the development in scientific literature. As a result, this circumstance may have contributed to the fact that the scientist’s works disappeared and he himself may have been eliminated.
Military engineers discussed the professor’s petition for research funds with reference to foreign experience. Specialists compared Pilchikov’s achievements with the developments of foreign scientists experimenting with wireless telegraph, to whom the authorities did not refuse anything. For example, Preece was authorised for experiments by the postal department of England, Marconi obtained in 1897 large sums of money from the naval department of Italy, and the Berlin scientist Slaby received aeronautical parks, watercraft and troops of the Potsdam garrison from the Emperor of Germany. Pilchikov, on the other hand, had a much more extensive programme and was naturally expected to produce the most ambitious results.
On his return to Kharkov in 1902, the professor continued his research in the best-equipped physical laboratory of those times, the local University of Technology. He was also allocated a ship “Dnestr” and funds for marine experiments. On the ship in 1903 the scientist equipped a receiving radio station, and on the Chersonese lighthouse – transmitting.
Alas, neither the scheme of those protectors, nor the content of the experiments, nor their further fate are known today. In the archives we found only information about a letter of gratitude to Professor Pilchikov from the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. It was dated the beginning of September 1904. It is clear that in the midst of the war with Japan secret military developments could be of interest to both belligerents. Moreover, other external enemies were also interested in preventing Russia’s military advantage.
Professor Pilchikov’s research competed with American experiments in the Maritime Ministry under Tesla, who was also working on the task of wireless control of a minelayer from the shore. This is a case in science when “an idea is in the air” and the same discovery is independently made by scientists at different ends of the world.
It is believed that the first radio-controlled telemechanical system in the world was developed by Nikola Tesla – he patented and presented an unprecedented ship model in the summer of 1898, but came to the discovery the day before, in spring. And “Russian Tesla” Nikolai Pilchikov tested a similar invention in March of the same year, which was reported in a note in the “Odessa Review”, which for some reason remained unnoticed by the scientific community.
The “two Nicholas” had a lot in common, despite the fact that they lived and created on different continents. Scientists were almost the same age. Both had no family – neither wives nor close relatives. Both were undividedly attracted to physical science – the mysteries of radioactivity, X-rays and lightning. But to Pilchikov did not appear one day George Westinghouse with a million dollars for four dozen patents. And an understanding friend, as Tesla had in the person of Katharine Johnson, next to Nikolay Dmitrievich was not there either…
Being left without further state support, Pilchikov could not complete the work on his wireless protector. In 1905 he left to observe the solar eclipse in Algeria, from where he returned with failing health. Ill-health was aggravated by an acute feeling of loneliness.
1908 was a fateful year in the fate of the scientist. It was the best time of the year, the beginning of May, a time of intoxication with life and romantic dreams. But for Pilchikov, the “delight of nature” had no inspiring meaning: five days before his own birthday, he went to a psychoneurological clinic. And it happened under very mysterious circumstances.
According to police reports, the owner of a private hospital and a well-known doctor I. Y. Platonov received a call from an unknown man on 3 May with a request to hospitalise Nikolai Dmitrievich Pilchikov. It was asked to prepare a separate room where the patient would be alone.
When the professor appeared in the clinic, the doctors saw nothing critical in his condition. He was elegantly dressed, and in his hands held a suitcase with papers. Two days later, a shot rang out in the ward, and the papers were gone. Not a single piece of his war work was found among his household belongings. The blueprints of inventions of world importance, which the scientist had not even had time to patent, disappeared.
Wasn’t the murder then the final fat point in the planned operation? And didn’t the inventor-physicist take with him to the ward what the special services hunting for his military developments were tracking down?
Perhaps it was in the hospital that Nikolai Pilchikov, who had a premonition of trouble, tried to hide from his threatening pursuers? Or maybe they put him there so that it would be easier to realise what they had planned? And who were these mysterious killers?..
We will probably never get answers to these questions. But it is known how the brilliant ideas of the tragically departed scientist were put into practice.
In 1913, the first radio-controlled aeroplane took to the skies. Four years later, a German boat controlled from a plane blew up the quay in the English harbour of Newport. In the same year, 1917, a German ship was damaged by a British minelayer guided from a radio-controlled aeroplane. In 1925 the first mine without wires appeared. And in 1943 the Soviet troops destroyed the Nazi headquarters with General von Braun in Kharkov occupied by the enemy by controlled explosion from Voronezh.
Radio warfare has long been supplemented by radio defence, where the first role is played by devices like Pilchikov’s protectors. Thanks to radio defence, in 1944 the British were invulnerable to German fighters in the Libyan desert. Radio locks of increased complexity are used in satellite navigation and launching systems for space and military rockets. And all responsible radio electronic equipment is protected from interference by modern devices working on the principle of Professor Pilchikov’s protector – the “Russian Tesla”, who became a hindrance to someone himself…
Source: Vyacheslav Kapreljants

Overlaps in Koschei and Tamlin's stories

just reading koschei wiki and wondering why too much of it matches tammy
^{Koschei ACOwiki:}

He is regarded as a powerful sorcerer who has a fondness for imprisoning women. He is the sorcerer who cursed Vassa turning her into a firebird by day, and woman by night and bound her to his lake.

• Maas goes out of her way to write Tamlin as Feyre's imprisoner
• We still don't know what the Spring Court pool of starlight does, it could connect to the lake

^{Koschei wikipedia:}

Koshchei often given the epithet "the Immortal", or "the Deathless," is an archetypal male antagonist in Russian folklore.
The most common feature of tales involving Koschei is a spell which prevents him from being killed. He hides "his death" inside nested objects to protect it. For example, his death may be hidden in a needle that is hidden inside an egg, the egg is in a duck, the duck is in a hare, the hare is in a chest, the chest is buried or chained up on a far island. Usually he takes the role of a malevolent rival figure, who competes for (or entraps) a male hero's love interest.

• Where's Tammy's heart?
• entrapped male hero's love interest: checks out

In The Tale of Igor's Campaign Konchak is referred to as a koshey (slave). The legendary love of gold of Koschei is speculated to be a distorted record of Konchak's role as the keeper of the Kosh's resources.

• Spring Court Tithe: love of gold, keeper of resources

Koschei's life-protecting spell may be derived from traditional Turkic amulets, which were egg-shaped and often contained arrowheads (cf. the needle in Koschei's egg).

the needle in koschei's egg?

It is thought that many of the negative aspects of Koschei's character are distortions of a more nuanced relationship of Khan Konchak with the Christian Slavs, such as his rescuing of Prince Igor from captivity, or the marriage between Igor's son and Konchak's daughter. Konchak, as a pagan, could have been demonised over time as a stereotypical villain.

• Plenty of Tammy apologist posts can back up a reexamining of Tamlin's character distortion, which caused him to read as a demonized villain

Nikolai Novikov also suggested the etymological origin of koshchii meaning "youth" or "boy" or "captive", "slave", or "servant". The interpretation of "captive" is interesting because Koschei appears initially as a captive in some tales.

• Tam's also technically a slave to Amarantha when we meet him

In folk tales

He usually functions as the antagonist or rival to a hero. Common themes are love and rivalry.
In other tales, Koschei can cast a sleep spell that can be broken by playing an enchanted gusli. Depending on the tale he has different characteristics: he may ride a three- or seven-legged horse; may have tusks or fangs; and may possess a variety of different magic objects (like cloaks and rings) that a hero is sent to obtain; or he may have other magic powers.

• Tam antagonizes Rhys plenty
• enchanted gusli: stringed instrument. Harp? Stryga's viol?
• horse, tusks, fangs, other magic powers: Tam's beast form, wind manipulation, shifting, glamouring, winnowing, healing
• rings: feyre's engagement ring sounds like aelin's. what king's tomb did aelin steal the rings from? whose sarcophagus would need to be buried that remotely, that deep under an inaccessible mtn, guarded by Little Folk and barrow wights?

The parallel female figure, Baba Yaga, as a rule does not appear in the same tale with Koschei, though exceptions exists where both appear together as a married couple, or as siblings. Sometimes, Baba Yaga appears in tales along with Koschei as an old woman figure, such as his mother or aunt.
In the tale, also known as "The Death of Koschei the Deathless", Ivan Tsarevitch encounters Koschei chained in his wife's (Marya Morevna's) dungeon. He releases and revives Koschei, but Koschei abducts Marya. Ivan tries to rescue Marya several times, but Koschei's horse is too fast and he easily catches up with the escaping lovers. Each time Koschei's magical horse informs him that he could carry out several activities first and still catch up. After the third unsuccessful escape, Koschei cuts up Ivan and puts his body parts in a barrel which he throws into the sea. However, water of life revives Ivan. He then seeks out Baba Yaga to ask her for a horse swifter than Koshei's. After undergoing several trials he steals a horse and finally successfully rescues Marya.

• Cut up body parts thrown in a barrel and sea water...Jurian in the Cauldron's dark freezing waters being resurrected?
• idk how Baba Yaga fits, maybe Baba Yaga is "Lorin"

Tsar Bel-Belianin's wife the Tzaritza is abducted by Koschei (the wizard). The Tsar's three sons attempt to rescue her. The first two fail to reach the wizard's palace, but the third, Petr, succeeds. He reaches the Tzaritza, conceals himself, and learns how the wizard hides his life. Initially he lies, but the third time he reveals it is in an egg, in a duck, in a hare, that nests in a hollow log, that floats in a pond, found in a forest on the island of Bouyan. Petr seeks the egg, freeing animals along the way – on coming to Bouyan the freed animals help him catch the wizard's creatures and obtain the egg. He returns to the wizard's domain and kills him by squeezing the egg – every action on the egg is mirrored on the wizard's body.

• Could easily turn this into a "Elain gets taken, Az goes spying to find her, figures out how to kill Koschei, turns out Koschei was disguised as Tammy, so no one's left to run Spring Court, let's give Spring Court to Elain as a sorry you got kidnapped consolation gift."

In "The Snake Princess" (Russian "Царевна-змея"/%D0%A6%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%B7%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%8F)), Koschei turns a princess who does not want to marry him into a snake.

• Who are you Viper Queen?
• Who is Syrinx? Where'd Jesiba get him? If Syrinx and Tamlin are both chimera, are there other links btwn their characters?

Koschei hears of three beauties in a kingdom. He kills two and wounds a third, puts the kingdom to sleep (petrifies), and abducts the princesses. Ivan Sosnovich (Russian Иван Соснович) learns of Koschei's weakness: an egg in a box hidden under a mountain, so he digs up the whole mountain, finds the egg box and smashes it, and rescues the princess.

• 3 beautiful archeron sisters
• instead of putting the Archerons to sleep, Tam glamours them when he abducts Fefe
• We still need to find out what's under Ramiel

Opera and ballet

• [Koschei is the] villain in Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird.
  • Benois recalled that Pyotr Petrovich Potyomkin, a poet and ballet enthusiast in Diaghilev's circle, proposed the subject of the Firebird) to the artists, citing the 1844 poem "A Winter's Journey" by Yakov Polonsky that includes the lines:

And in my dreams I see myself on a wolf's back Riding along a forest path To do battle with a sorcerer-tsar In that land where a princess sits under lock and key, Pining behind massive walls. There gardens surround a palace all of glass; There Firebirds sing by night And peck at golden fruit.

"People, look at yourselves, did not Christs emerge from you, and can you not be Christs? Can I with will-power not be a Christ…? How absurd all our life is. It distorts us from the cradle, and instead of truly real people some kind of monster emerges. " ➖Kliuev's protege, Esenin (1895-1925), longed for the end of the old world and its replacement by a new one, and even proclaimed a new religious trend called "Aggelism," with clear roots in Russian Gnosticism. He hailed both Christ and Gautama the Buddha as geniuses because they were men of "word and deed". In a letter to a friend, Esenin wrote the above. ➖He warned the United States, to him the symbol of all non-Russian and rationalist sources, not to commit the mistake of "unbelief" and ignore the new "message" from Russia, as the way to the new life is only through Russia. A friend wrote how Esenin and his fellow ‘Scythian' poets wanted a "deepening of the political revolution to the social" and came to regard Russian Marxism as "coarse". Before his death Esenin became convinced ‘evil forces' had usurped the Revolution and the Bolshevics betrayed Russia's mission. ➖The famed poet Nikolai Kliuev knew both Dr. Badmaev and Grigory Rasputin, and like the latter had been initiated into a secret school of Christian sexual mysticism with similarities to Tibetan Tantra and Indian Shivaism. "They called me a Rasputin," Kliuev wrote in a 1918 poem. Kliuev's spirituality was deeply rooted in the tradition of the Russian religious dissidents like the Old Believers, the Khlysty and Skoptsy, who formed a veritable subterranean river among the common people. Kliuev admitted how challenged by a Khlyst elder to "become a Christ," he was introduced to the secret community of "Dove brethren". With the help of "various people of secret identity", Kliuev traveled all over Russia participating in secret rituals and imbibing the occult traditions of the Russian East. ➖In his poems Kliuev sought to convey the mystic spirit of Eurasia. He was a prophet of Belovodia, the name given by Russian Old Believers to the awaited earthly paradise similar to Shambhala. Kliuev envisioned a radical transformation of Russia that would bring about a classless society where peasant culture would triumph over industrialism, capitalism, and the general mechanisation of life. He expressed his concern about the dangers of soulless Western civilisation in a 1914 letter to a friend: ➖Every day I go into the grove – and sit there by a little chapel – and the age-old pine tree, but an inch to the sky, I think about you… I kiss your eyes and your dear heart… O, mother wilderness! Paradise of the spirit… How hateful and black seems all the so-called civilised world and what I would give, what Golgotha I would bear – so that America should not encroach upon the blue-feathered dawn… upon the fairy tale hut. ➖The Russian philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev articulated the vision shared by pre-revolution Russian thinkers as well as the cultural elite, when he wrote of the end of Western rationalism and the birth of a new era of the spirit which would witness the struggle of Christ and Antichrist. He saw the popularity of mystical and occult doctrines as proof of the approach of this New Era, and called for a "new knighthood". "Man is not a unit in the universe, forming part of an unrational machine, but a living member of an organic hierarchy, belonging to a real and living whole." Berdyaev's attacks on Western materialist values only reflected a view widely held by Russian society. Writing in exile in the early 1930s he observed: ➖Individualism, the ‘atomisation' of society, the inordinate acquisitiveness of the world, indefinite over-population and the endlessness of people's needs, the lack of faith, the weakening of the spiritual life, these and other are the causes which have contributed to build up that industrial capitalist system which has changed the face of human life and broken its rhythm with nature.
I Peter II: IX "......You are a Chosen Generation, A Royal Priesthood, an Holy Nation, a Peculiar People....."

The phrase Royal Priesthood will be familiar to scholars who have studied the concept of priest kingship. The word royal derives from the Latin Regalis meaning to rule. Originally this meant ’to apply a rule’, meaning to be able to measure, observe and thus divine and understand the hidden span or workings of matter. In this sense a ruler was one who was born with the ability to measure and hence understand the hidden workings of the Cosmos. Here we have a direct reference to derkesthai. Hence the regalis was the derkesthai and the derkesthai was the Dragon King. The condition of being royal in the accepted sense is derived from being born into a royal family, clan, race (species) or tribe. Contextually and originally this phrase could only have been used in connextion with the Davidic concept of royalty passed through the blood as the ’holy spirit’ (genetic inheritance) of the gods: Mana, Maia or Maja (Maga or Magi, Magha, Maxa: greatness). 

https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/dragons2/esp_sociopol_lordring.htm

In the age of current mass glorification via media from Lithuania and the United States of diaspora Lithuanian fascists like Adolfas Ramanauskas (Ramanauskas was born in New Britain, Connecticut, USA and later moved to Lithuania, later collaborating with Nazis during their invasion) or Lithuanian exile fascists like Jonas Mekas, few diaspora Lithuanians remember the names of revolutionary socialist Lithuanian diaspora heroes like Vytautas Montvila or Antanas Bimba. Antanas Bimba was a Lithuanian involved in the early American Communist movement, and a post will be made for him sometime later. As for the story of Montvila, It is up to Lithuanians everywhere to give this man his credit as a hero and martyr against fascism.
Vytautas was born to to an ethnic Lithuanian Catholic immigrant family in 1902 in the city of St. Charles, Illinois. His family, like many Lithuanian immigrants to America at the time, left Lithuania due to persecution by czarist Russian Empire authorities, whom sought to ban Lithuanian language as well as restrict the Catholic Church in favor of Orthodoxy. This persecution under czarism caused many minorities, particularly ethnic Lithuanian Catholics and Lithuanian Jews, to move often to the United States, Canada, or South American nations. In 1906, he and his family returned to Lithuania, moving to the city of Marijampolė. The family later moved to Degučiai, then a Marijampolė suburb.
As Vytautas grew older, between the years of 1922-26 he joined the Kėdainiai Teacher’s Seminary. It was somewhat of a social club for study, covering a wide range of topics, such as science, culture, atheism, and philosophy. Members were of various political parties, but it was here Vytautas became acquainted with local Communist activists and gained entry into the wider movement. The communists at these meetings often discussed Marxist theory, offered to share sections of the Communist Manifesto, and recruited members into local Worker’s Guilds. In 1923, he began writing his early poetry, often revolutionary in nature and influenced by avant-garde style. In his most famous poem, “Naktys be Nakvynės” (ENG: “Nights Without Accommodation”), written early in his career, he champions revolutionary socialism and personifies art of poetry as a tool for revolution. His later work from 1940-41 reflects the new Soviet period, condemns the reactionary past, hoping towards a socialist future in Lithuania. These later poems were influenced heavily by the works of fellow Soviet poet V. Mayakovsky, whose works Montvila enjoyed. These later works by Montvila were of a topical oratorical style, and he is credited often with having laid the foundation for other Lithuanian Soviet poets at the time. Montvila also wrote short stories and portions of novels. Among other feats, he translated the novel “Mother” by fellow Soviet writer Maxim Gorky, from Russian into Lithuanian, as well as translated the writer Émile Zola’s novel “The Collapse” from its original French into Lithuanian.
He shortly then studied in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lithuania (Today, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas).
Following his departure from university, he began a life fully committed to revolutionary socialist activism. In 1929, in an effort to organizationally unify leftist writers against the bourgeoisie, he published the revolutionary almanac “Raketa” (ENG: “Rocket.”) For this, he was imprisoned from his arrest in 1929 to 1931. During 1935, he moved back to Marijampolė, and published the “Skardas” (ENG: “Tin”) worker’s newspaper for the Communist faction of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. He also published other socialist newspapers, titled “Darbas” (ENG: “Work”), “Kultūra” (ENG: “Culture”), “Aušrine” (ENG: “Dawn”), and “Prošvaistė” (ENG: “The Light”) for various leftist organizations. He simultaneously worked odd jobs to add to his livelihood.
Upon establishment of the Soviet Lithuanian government in 1940, Montvila, like many leftist Lithuanian citizens, was thrilled and ready for change, having been oppressed in a society previously plagued by issues such as anti-communism, rural serfdom, clerical fascism, anti-Semitism, and capitalist exploitation of all of the working people of Lithuania. Vytautas dedicated specialized time to working with Soviet authorities to publish and translate revolutionary texts from various authors, as well as delivering his own revolutionary pro-Soviet speeches. He continued this into 1941, the final year of his life.
Upon the Nazi invasion of Lithuania in mid-1941, he was captured by local collaborators and Gestapo. According to documents, he did not run or resist, rather instead defiantly, in true revolutionary martyr manner, insulted his captors. He was taken prisoner to the 9th Fort in Kaunas, where he was executed, being shot to death on July 19th, 1941, killed alongside many other Jewish and leftist victims of Nazi and collaborator fascist terror. To leftists who are aware of his heroism and revolutionary martyrdom, he is often compared to fellow revolutionary and Spanish poet F. Garcia Lorca, a leftist whom was executed by the Francoists. Vytautas, Lorca, and all revolutionaries shall be remembered forever. May we remember Vytautas Montvila, a hero to all Lithuanians, but especially to Lithuanians in the diaspora! Remember Vytautas Montvila, both uniquely a hero to Lithuanian-Americans, and the people of Lithuania!

In the age of current mass glorification via media from Lithuania and the United States of diaspora Lithuanian fascists like Adolfas Ramanauskas (Ramanauskas was born in New Britain, Connecticut, USA and later moved to Lithuania, later collaborating with Nazis during their invasion) or Lithuanian exile fascists like Jonas Mekas, few diaspora Lithuanians remember the names of revolutionary socialist Lithuanian diaspora heroes like Vytautas Montvila or Antanas Bimba. Antanas Bimba was a Lithuanian involved in the early American Communist movement, and a post will be made for him sometime later. As for the story of Montvila, It is up to Lithuanians everywhere to give this man his credit as a hero and martyr against fascism. Vytautas was born to to an ethnic Lithuanian Catholic immigrant family in 1902 in the city of St. Charles, Illinois. His family, like many Lithuanian immigrants to America at the time, left Lithuania due to persecution by czarist Russian Empire authorities, whom sought to ban Lithuanian language as well as restrict the Catholic Church in favor of Orthodoxy. This persecution under czarism caused many minorities, particularly ethnic Lithuanian Catholics and Lithuanian Jews, to move often to the United States, Canada, or South American nations. In 1906, he and his family returned to Lithuania, moving to the city of Marijampolė. The family later moved to Degučiai, then a Marijampolė suburb.
As Vytautas grew older, between the years of 1922-26 he joined the Kėdainiai Teacher’s Seminary. It was somewhat of a social club for study, covering a wide range of topics, such as science, culture, atheism, and philosophy. Members were of various political parties, but it was here Vytautas became acquainted with local Communist activists and gained entry into the wider movement. The communists at these meetings often discussed Marxist theory, offered to share sections of the Communist Manifesto, and recruited members into local Worker’s Guilds.
In 1923, he began writing his early poetry, often revolutionary in nature and influenced by avant-garde style. In his most famous poem, “Naktys be Nakvynės” (ENG: “Nights Without Accommodation”), written early in his career, he champions revolutionary socialism and personifies art of poetry as a tool for revolution. His later work from 1940-41 reflects the new Soviet period, condemns the reactionary past, hoping towards a socialist future in Lithuania. These later poems were influenced heavily by the works of fellow Soviet poet V. Mayakovsky, whose works Montvila enjoyed. These later works by Montvila were of a topical oratorical style, and he is credited often with having laid the foundation for other Lithuanian Soviet poets at the time. Montvila also wrote short stories and portions of novels. Among other feats, he translated the novel “Mother” by fellow Soviet writer Maxim Gorky, from Russian into Lithuanian, as well as translated the writer Émile Zola’s novel “The Collapse” from its original French into Lithuanian.
He shortly then studied in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lithuania (Today, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas).
Following his departure from university, he began a life fully committed to revolutionary socialist activism. In 1929, in an effort to organizationally unify leftist writers against the bourgeoisie, he published the revolutionary almanac “Raketa” (ENG: “Rocket.”) For this, he was imprisoned from his arrest in 1929 to 1931. During 1935, he moved back to Marijampolė, and published the “Skardas” (ENG: “Tin”) worker’s newspaper for the Communist faction of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. He also published other socialist newspapers, titled “Darbas” (ENG: “Work”), “Kultūra” (ENG: “Culture”), “Aušrine” (ENG: “Dawn”), and “Prošvaistė” (ENG: “The Light”) for various leftist organizations. He simultaneously worked odd jobs to add to his livelihood.
Upon establishment of the Soviet Lithuanian government in 1940, Montvila, like many leftist Lithuanian citizens, was thrilled and ready for change, having been oppressed in a society previously plagued by issues such as anti-communism, rural serfdom, clerical fascism, anti-Semitism, and capitalist exploitation of all of the working people of Lithuania. Vytautas dedicated specialized time to working with Soviet authorities to publish and translate revolutionary texts from various authors, as well as delivering his own revolutionary pro-Soviet speeches. He continued this into 1941, the final year of his life.
Upon the Nazi invasion of Lithuania in mid-1941, he was captured by local collaborators and Gestapo. According to documents, he did not run or resist, rather instead defiantly, in true revolutionary martyr manner, insulted his captors. He was taken prisoner to the 9th Fort in Kaunas, where he was executed, being shot to death on July 19th, 1941, killed alongside many other Jewish and leftist victims of Nazi and collaborator fascist terror. To leftists who are aware of his heroism and revolutionary martyrdom, he is often compared to fellow revolutionary and Spanish poet F. Garcia Lorca, a leftist whom was executed by the Francoists. Vytautas, Lorca, and all revolutionaries shall be remembered forever. May we remember Vytautas Montvila, a hero to all Lithuanians, but especially to Lithuanians in the diaspora! Remember Vytautas Montvila, both uniquely a hero to Lithuanian-Americans, and the people of Lithuania!

Joy of All Who Sorrow Icon of the Mother of God. Photo: Yuri Gripas
My car had broken down and I couldn’t get to church to greet the Joy of All Who Sorrow Icon of the Mother of God. Feeling dejected, I was watching the Liturgy online from our St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Washington, and I wondered why the Lord allowed this to happen to me: After all, it’s my icon, it’s celebrated on my birthday. But when Metropolitan Nicholas (Olkhovsky), the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, who brought the icon, started talking about the wonderworking icon, it cleared something up in my mind. After all, I was planning to go to the other service, and then I wouldn’t have watched this one or heard the wonderful story told by the Metropolitan.
This is what Vladyka Nicholas said:

We didn’t particularly plan it, it’s out of our hands, but I believe it’s providential that this sacred treasure—the Joy of All Who Sorrow Icon of the Mother of God—is visiting our church. We brought it from the Synod of Bishops in New York. It’s a wonderworking, beautiful, salvific icon, full of prayer. The Mother of God loves us and has come to strengthen our faith as well.
The icon has its own history. In 1920, Bishop Nestor (Anisimov) opened a shelter for children, orphans, and the sick and the elderly in Harbin, and there he built a church in honor of the Joy of All Who Sorrow Mother of God. One Orthodox woman heard about it and presented Vladyka Nestor with this icon for the church. It was completely dark—nothing could be seen on it.
Time passed, and during one service, the priest noticed that the icon had begun to renew itself somewhat. It went on for an hour, two, three, and he watched. In a short period of time, less than a day, the icon completely renewed itself, and everyone saw the most pure face of the Mother of God, this wonderful image.

Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky)
Then the icon wound up in Europe, and the ever-memorable Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky), who himself served as an archimandrite in Harbin, was able to bring it to New York. Since 1965, this sacred icon has been kept in the lower Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh in our Synod of Bishops. The icon doesn’t go anywhere; it’s always there, and you can come and pray before it.
And here we have such a wonderful miracle. It was out of our hands; it came from above: The icon is visiting us. We can look at it, and moreover, we can pray and understand that we also have darkness, blindness, and just sin inside us. But with prayer, with repentance, we can purify ourselves and remain God-enlightened Orthodox Christians. As the icon has renewed itself, so we can also renew our soul, heart, and mind, our whole life. I urge you all to strive for this.
Metropolitan Nicholas and Archpriest Victor Potapov. Photo: Yuri Gripas
Having heard this story, I decided to ask Archpriest Seraphim Gan, chancellor of the Synod of Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, why this icon, which is usually kept in New York, suddenly came to us so unexpectedly.
“Vladyka decided to bring the icon to comfort and strengthen the Washington flock, which, like everyone else, is fasting for Holy Week and Christ’s Pascha,” Fr. Seraphim told me.
Then Batiushka, whose grandfather, the well-known Archpriest Rostislav Gan, also served in Harbin, added some details to the story. According to him, the icon renewed itself in the 1930s, right in front of people praying at the Liturgy in the Church of the House of Mercy founded by Vladyka Nestor.
The Kamchatka representation in Harbin, 1930s. Source: Korostelyov, V. V., Orthodoxy in Manchuria, 1898-1956: Essays on History. Moscow: 2019, p. 195
The House of Mercy was considered a representation of the Kamchatka mission, which Vladyka Nestor headed before the revolution and which he hoped to return to. Fr. Seraphim recalled that the brotherhood of the podvoriye included future hierarchs of the Russian Church Abroad, namely Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky) and Archbishop Nathaniel (Lvov).
“It’s interesting to note that at that time in Harbin, as in other cities of China where Russian emigrants lived, the miraculous renewal of holy icons and even frescoes in churches was happening,” said Fr. Seraphim. “These miracles strengthened the faith of the emigrants, who were experiencing all kinds of difficulties at that time. And now this icon reminds us that Heaven doesn’t abandon us, that prayer draws God’s mercy to us.”
I was already planning to write this article, but something kept making me put it off. It was planned that the icon would be going back to New York. But it turns out my story was not over yet. A few days later, I made it to our church, for another service; I wasn’t even thinking about it. I quickly venerated the icon in the center and suddenly froze in my tracks: Right before me was the Joy of All Who Sorrow Icon, the very one from Harbin, which was supposed to already be back in New York! “Mother of God, you waited for me. Thank you!” flashed through my mind.
And now I’m thinking that maybe the Lord and His Mother deliberately made it so I “unexpectedly” wound up in church on a different day, to give me such a gift and show that they love me?
Dmitry Zlodorev

In the age of current mass glorification via media from Lithuania and the United States of diaspora Lithuanian fascists like Adolfas Ramanauskas (Ramanauskas was born in New Britain, Connecticut, USA and later moved to Lithuania, later collaborating with Nazis during their invasion) or Lithuanian exile fascists like Jonas Mekas, few diaspora Lithuanians remember the names of revolutionary socialist Lithuanian diaspora heroes like Vytautas Montvila or Antanas Bimba. Antanas Bimba was a Lithuanian involved in the early American Communist movement, and a post will be made for him sometime later. As for the story of Montvila, It is up to Lithuanians everywhere to give this man his credit as a hero and martyr against fascism. Vytautas was born to to an ethnic Lithuanian Catholic immigrant family in 1902 in the city of St. Charles, Illinois. His family, like many Lithuanian immigrants to America at the time, left due to persecution by czarist Russian Empire authorities, whom sought to ban Lithuanian language as well as restrict the Catholic Church in favor of Orthodoxy. This persecution under czarism caused many minorities, particularly ethnic Lithuanian Catholics and Lithuanian Jews, to move often to the United States, Canada, or South American nations. In 1906, he and his family returned to Lithuania, moving to the city of Marijampolė. The family later moved to Degučiai, then a Marijampolė suburb.
As Vytautas grew older, between the years of 1922-26 he joined the Kėdainiai Teacher’s Seminary. It was somewhat of a social club for study, covering a wide range of topics, such as science, culture, atheism, and philosophy. Members were of various political parties, but it was here Vytautas became acquainted with local Communist activists and gained entry into the wider movement. The communists at these meetings often discussed Marxist theory, offered to share sections of the Communist Manifesto, and recruited members into local Worker’s Guilds.
In 1923, he began writing his early poetry, often revolutionary in nature and influenced by avant-garde style. In his most famous poem, “Naktys be Nakvynės” (ENG: “Nights Without Accommodation”), written early in his career, he champions revolutionary socialism and personifies art of poetry as a tool for revolution. His later work from 1940-41 reflects the new Soviet period, condemns the reactionary past, hoping towards a socialist future in Lithuania. These later poems were influenced heavily by the works of fellow Soviet poet V. Mayakovsky, whose works Montvila enjoyed. These later works by Montvila were of a topical oratorical style, and he is credited often with having laid the foundation for other Lithuanian Soviet poets at the time. Montvila also wrote short stories and portions of novels. Among other feats, he translated the novel “Mother” by fellow Soviet writer Maxim Gorky, from Russian into Lithuanian, as well as translated the writer Émile Zola’s novel “The Collapse” from its original French into Lithuanian.
He shortly then studied in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lithuania (Today, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas).
Following his departure from university, he began a life fully committed to revolutionary socialist activism. In 1929, in an effort to organizationally unify leftist writers against the bourgeoisie, he published the revolutionary almanac “Raketa” (ENG: “Rocket.”) For this, he was imprisoned from his arrest in 1929 to 1931. During 1935, he moved back to Marijampolė, and published the “Skardas” (ENG: “Tin”) worker’s newspaper for the Communist faction of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. He also published other socialist newspapers, titled “Darbas” (ENG: “Work”), “Kultūra” (ENG: “Culture”), “Aušrine” (ENG: “Dawn”), and “Prošvaistė” (ENG: “The Light”) for various leftist organizations. He simultaneously worked odd jobs to add to his livelihood.
Upon establishment of the Soviet Lithuanian government in 1940, Montvila, like many leftist Lithuanian citizens, was thrilled and ready for change, having been oppressed in a society previously plagued by issues such as anti-communism, rural serfdom, clerical fascism, anti-Semitism, and capitalist exploitation of all of the working people of Lithuania. Vytautas dedicated specialized time to working with Soviet authorities to publish and translate revolutionary texts from various authors, as well as delivering his own revolutionary pro-Soviet speeches. He continued this into 1941, the final year of his life.
Upon the Nazi invasion of Lithuania in mid-1941, he was captured by local collaborators and Gestapo. According to documents, he did not run or resist, rather instead defiantly, in true revolutionary martyr manner, insulted his captors. He was taken prisoner to the 9th Fort in Kaunas, where he was executed, being shot to death on July 19th, 1941, killed alongside many other Jewish and leftist victims of Nazi and collaborator fascist terror. To leftists who are aware of his heroism and revolutionary martyrdom, he is often compared to fellow revolutionary and Spanish poet F. Garcia Lorca, a leftist whom was executed by the Francoists. Vytautas, Lorca, and all revolutionaries shall be remembered forever. May we remember Vytautas Montvila, a hero to all Lithuanians, but especially to Lithuanians in the diaspora! Remember Vytautas Montvila, both uniquely a hero to Lithuanian-Americans, and the people of Lithuania!

In the age of current mass glorification via media from Lithuania and the United States of diaspora Lithuanian fascists like Adolfas Ramanauskas (Ramanauskas was born in New Britain, Connecticut, USA and later moved to Lithuania, later collaborating with Nazis during their invasion) or Lithuanian exile fascists like Jonas Mekas, few diaspora Lithuanians remember the names of revolutionary socialist Lithuanian diaspora heroes like Vytautas Montvila or Antanas Bimba. Antanas Bimba was a Lithuanian involved in the early American Communist movement, and a post will be made for him sometime later. As for the story of Montvila, It is up to Lithuanians everywhere to give this man his credit as a hero and martyr against fascism.
Vytautas was born to to an ethnic Lithuanian Catholic immigrant family in 1902 in the city of St. Charles, Illinois. His family, like many Lithuanian immigrants to America at the time, left due to persecution by czarist Russian Empire authorities, whom sought to ban Lithuanian language as well as restrict the Catholic Church in favor of Orthodoxy. This persecution under czarism caused many minorities, particularly ethnic Lithuanian Catholics and Lithuanian Jews, to move often to the United States, Canada, or South American nations. In 1906, he and his family returned to Lithuania, moving to the city of Marijampolė. The family later moved to Degučiai, then a Marijampolė suburb.
As Vytautas grew older, between the years of 1922-26 he joined the Kėdainiai Teacher’s Seminary. It was somewhat of a social club for study, covering a wide range of topics, such as science, culture, atheism, and philosophy. Members were of various political parties, but it was here Vytautas became acquainted with local Communist activists and gained entry into the wider movement. The communists at these meetings often discussed Marxist theory, offered to share sections of the Communist Manifesto, and recruited members into local Worker’s Guilds.
In 1923, he began writing his early poetry, often revolutionary in nature and influenced by avant-garde style. In his most famous poem, “Naktys be Nakvynės” (ENG: “Nights Without Accommodation”), written early in his career, he champions revolutionary socialism and personifies art of poetry as a tool for revolution. His later work from 1940-41 reflects the new Soviet period, condemns the reactionary past, hoping towards a socialist future in Lithuania. These later poems were influenced heavily by the works of fellow Soviet poet V. Mayakovsky, whose works Montvila enjoyed. These later works by Montvila were of a topical oratorical style, and he is credited often with having laid the foundation for other Lithuanian Soviet poets at the time. Montvila also wrote short stories and portions of novels. Among other feats, he translated the novel “Mother” by fellow Soviet writer Maxim Gorky, from Russian into Lithuanian, as well as translated the writer Émile Zola’s novel “The Collapse” from its original French into Lithuanian.
He shortly then studied in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lithuania (Today, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas).
Following his departure from university, he began a life fully committed to revolutionary socialist activism. In 1929, in an effort to organizationally unify leftist writers against the bourgeoisie, he published the revolutionary almanac “Raketa” (ENG: “Rocket.”) For this, he was imprisoned from his arrest in 1929 to 1931. During 1935, he moved back to Marijampolė, and published the “Skardas” (ENG: “Tin”) worker’s newspaper for the Communist faction of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. He also published other socialist newspapers, titled “Darbas” (ENG: “Work”), “Kultūra” (ENG: “Culture”), “Aušrine” (ENG: “Dawn”), and “Prošvaistė” (ENG: “The Light”) for various leftist organizations. He simultaneously worked odd jobs to add to his livelihood.
Upon establishment of the Soviet government in 1940, Montvila, like many leftist Lithuanian citizens, was thrilled and ready for change, having been oppressed in a society previously plagued by issues such as anti-communism, rural serfdom, clerical fascism, anti-Semitism, and capitalist exploitation of all of the working people of Lithuania. Vytautas dedicated specialized time to working with Soviet authorities to publish and translate revolutionary texts from various authors, as well as delivering his own revolutionary pro-Soviet speeches. He continued this into 1941, the final year of his life.
Upon the Nazi invasion of Lithuania in mid-1941, he was captured by local collaborators and Gestapo. According to documents, he did not run or resist, rather instead defiantly, in true revolutionary martyr manner, insulted his captors. He was taken prisoner to the 9th Fort in Kaunas, where he was executed, being shot to death on July 19th, 1941, killed alongside many other Jewish and leftist victims of Nazi and collaborator fascist terror. To leftists who are aware of his heroism and revolutionary martyrdom, he is often compared to fellow revolutionary and Spanish poet F. Garcia Lorca, a leftist whom was executed by the Francoists. Vytautas, Lorca, and all revolutionaries shall be remembered forever. May we remember Vytautas Montvila, a hero to all Lithuanians, but especially to Lithuanians in the diaspora! Remember Vytautas Montvila, both uniquely a hero to Lithuanian-Americans, and the people of Lithuania!

Do Greek people Nikos Kazantzakis? I just red Zora the Greek. Everyone knows the movie. Do people know the book? Do people read the book?
Here is what I found there.
The novel Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis was made into the hit film "Zorba the Greek" starring Anthony Quinn as Zorba and Alan Bates as Basil. But the name "Basil" is made up, as in the book the narrator never gives his name. He is just called "boss". Kazantzakis was nominated for the Nobel Prize, but lost by one vote to Albert Camus.
Kazantzakis also wrote another book that was made into a film, The Last Temptation of Christ, directed by Martin Scorsese. The film generated a lot of controversy in part because it talked about Jesus's sex life.
Zorba is a bigger than life character who fought in wars, seduced many women, and was a leader of men and a fighter. This is what makes the book interesting as Basil was the opposite, a quiet and shy intellectual. One thing the movie does not mention is Basil spends most of his time reading about Buddhism. And he reads Dante's "Divine Comedy" . Kazantzakis translated Dante's poem into Greek. And he translated Homer's "The Odyssey" from Ancient Greek. So he was a real scholar.
All the famous things Zorba says in the movie are taken directly from the book. Many scenes are left out, and some are slightly revised and the order changed around. Some seem a little better in the movie, I think. Like the scene on the boat where they see dolphins and Basil is only mildly interested while Zorba is excited. Zorba says, "What kind of man are you? Don't you like dolphins?"
Zorba has convinced Basil to take him with him to Crete where he had rented a copper mine. Zorba said he had mining experience. He says, "Take me with you?" But they had just met. "Why? Can't a man do anything without a why?"This book reminds me of Cyprus because Crete is the closest Greek island. The people were very poor then as they were in Cyprus. Basil even says he thinks opening the mine might help the people there.
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Kazantzakis describes the Cretans as simple peasants. Don't know about Greece, but in Cyprus where I live, the people here are also closer to the Cretan village mentality than the modern European one.
The peasants are superstitious. They execute their own laws with a rifle or a knife.
There is both a monastery and a cloister near the village full of superstitious nuns and monks. The nuns don't get mention at all in the movie. And the devil scene is really a bunch of references to the devil mentioned by both the nuns and monks rolled into one.
Zorba arranged with the monks to cut down the forests around the monastery and use the wood to build an overhead cable to carry logs down to the mine to build a pier and support beams.
Reading this book one is reminded that the Greeks, Bulgaria,Turks, and even Russians are sort of like cousins, always fighting and living close together. They have been at war, at wars in which Zorba fought. But this is kind of like the local neighborhood. Zorba came from Macedonia, the province where Alexander the Great came from. For an America, we have never thought of that. America's of course only know about America. But now I understand this.
And Zorba talks about the Pontic Greeks a lot. They live in Ukraine before the Russians did (i.e., before it was taken over by Catherine the Great, and made part of Russia.) and in Turkey and of course Greece.
I think Pontics is something people outside of this region know nothing about. As for Crete, without Zorba they would know nothing about Crete either.