Thieves Steal 10-Ton Railway Bridge in Czech Republic

“How much can I get away with and still go to heaven?” That seems like the motto of a well-known cleric who’s doing his best to pack a particular Synod of Bishops with his pals and associates… I think that you know whom I have in mind…

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The newspaper Právo reported that thieves dismantled and stole an old 10-ton railway bridge during broad daylight in western Czechia. The well-organised crooks used a crane and trucks to steal the bridge, built in 1901 over a river near the town of Horní Slavkov in Karlovarský Kraj. Pavel Halla, a spokesman for Czech Railways, said the thieves also stole some 200 metres (@656 feet) of railway track. He added that a police patrol stopped during the stealing of the bridge, but the thieves showed them forged documents stating that they allegedly had an agreement with Czech Railways to dismantle the old bridge. A police spokesman in Karlovy Vary said the total damage caused by the dismantled bridge and railway track, allegedly stolen for their scrap metal value, could total some 120,000 Czech Korunas (187,500 Roubles. 6,400 USD. 4,800 Euros. 3,900 UK Pounds), whilst Halla put the figure at over a million Korunas (1.56 million Roubles. 53,100 USD. 40,200 Euros. 32,700 UK Pounds).

1 May 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/strange/20120501/173144960.html

Editor’s Note:

The old merry larcenous Slavic spirit is alive and well in Czechia! That is, all Slavs are Artful Dodgers, finding a way around all burdensome government regulation and red tape (and you thought that Americans were the experts at such… do think again). It sounds like the story of the Sov soldiers who sold their tank for vodka money (no lie… it happened in the ’68 Invasion of Czechoslovakia). Slavs aren’t efficient Germans! Slavs aren’t dutiful Westerners! Slavs are like Irishmen, not Englishmen! That’s why the konvertsy are so clueless… they actually think that Greeks, Russians, Serbs, Romanians, Bulgarians, et al follow the canons… yes, they really do think that. What’s more, they think that we’re lazy and torpid… au contraire… the Slav (or the Greek or the Romanian) doesn’t stir until their backs are to the wall… then, watch out! If you have any doubt on that, ask the Germans and the French and the Poles. Oh, yes… the first man in space was Yuri Gagarin… and American cosmonauts have to hitch a ride into space on Russian capsules (do American male cosmonauts follow the Russian custom of peeing on the bus’ rear wheel before boarding the Soyuz? Perspirin’ minds wanna know…)… fancy that…

BMD

Patriarch Kirill Acknowledged Bulgaria’s Contributions to Pan-Slavic Culture

Ss Cyril and Methodius

Unknown Artist

19th century

Russian

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The visit of Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias to Bulgaria has generated a surprisingly high level of public interest. However, the first visit of the First Hierarch of the MP to Bulgaria in recent times is especially remarkable for another reason… His Holiness Patriarch Kirill made an explicit recognition of what’s one of the most important achievements of the Bulgarian nation in global history, namely, Bulgaria’s role in spreading and promoting Greco-Roman Christian civilisation across a huge swath of the Eurasian continent by developing a distinct Bulgarian-Slavic (Western authors style it Greco-Slavic) culture based on Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the Slavonic language, and the Cyrillic alphabet. All the academic and practical disputes about the “Easternness” of the Slavic nations in Eastern Europe (Russia included) aside, the fact of the matter is that it was the work of the Bulgarian scholars and monks (themselves having just learned from the cultural, religious, and academic tradition of New Rome) that brought large parts of Eurasia into European civilisation some 11 centuries ago, with Bulgaria serving as the cultural Piedmont of the Eastern and Southern Slavic nations.

During his meeting with the Bulgarian President, Patriarch Kirill emphasised the fact that Bulgaria and Russia share a common religious and cultural heritage as Eastern Orthodox Slavic nations using the Cyrillic script, developed in the 9th century during the First Bulgarian Empire (681-1018 AD), saying, “The work of the holy brothers Ss Cyril and Methodius laid the foundations for the cultural identity of the Bulgarian, Russian, and other Slavic nations, and the first missionaries to bring new Christian values to Russia were Bulgarian priests”, referring to the key role that Bulgarian clergymen played in the 10th and 11th century during the Christianisation of Kievan Rus, the first medieval Russian state. In late 9th century Bulgaria, St Naum of Preslav and St Kliment of Ohrid, disciples of Ss Cyril and Methodius… the authors of the original Slavic Glagolitic alphabet… created a new Slavic alphabet, named “Cyrillic” in honour of their teacher St Cyril. The common history of the Bulgarian and Russian churches goes further, as, between the 10th and 18th centuries a total of eight Bulgarian clergymen held top positions in the Russian Orthodox Church, such as Bishop Cyprian the Bulgarian of Moscow (ruled 1379-1406), and Bishop Gregory Tsamblak of Kiev (ruled 1413-20). Apparently, up until the late Middle Ages, the Slavic languages in Europe were so mutually-understandable that the nations could freely borrow one another’s educated men.

In Sofia, Patriarch Kirill further declared that these cultural and spiritual ties survived throughout the ages, and motivated the heroism of the Russian soldiers in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, when the Russian Empire liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. The recognition of Bulgaria’s role in the creation of the Eastern Orthodox-Slavic culture might not seem to be a big deal in the age of post-9/11, post-2008 globalisation, as it was in the late 19th century Pan-Slav movement, or the 20th-century Eastern Bloc dominated by (Soviet) Russia. It mightn’t seem particularly impressive for a Western public that often views Russia as an ill-fated autocracy, or for the rising non-Western powers for which the Slavic culture stuff was some regional European matter way too long ago.

Nevertheless, Patriarch Kirill’s recognition of Bulgaria’s civilisational role in international history is still very important. For one thing, it’s the story of great brave men who ventured the creation of an entirely new culture (though a part of the Western civilisation) from scratch, eventually reaching much of the Eurasian continent led by the word of the Christian God recorded in the Cyrillic-Slavic script. For another, Bulgaria hardly ever gets positive international recognition by anybody. Even the Bulgarians’ cousins, the Russians, being the citizens of a great power, are generally reluctant to acknowledge the significance of the once-powerful Bulgarian empire, today, a minor Balkan state, for their history, culture, and identity. So, thank you, Your Holiness Patriarch Kirill, for bringing that up.

1 May 2012

Ivan Dikov

Novinite.com

Sofia News Agency

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=138943

23 January 2012. The Unity of Holy Rus… A Lemko Epiphany in Sanok

This is Epiphany from the Lemkovshchyna in the Far Western marches of Holy Rus. The priest is blessing the San River near Sanok (Subcarpathian Voivodeship) in Poland, the traditional boundary between Poles and Lemkos in the region.

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The Great Blessing of the Waters takes place all over the space of Holy Rus, from Alaska and the Primorsky Krai in the Far East to Zakarpattya and the Lemkovshchyna in the Far West, from the Solovetsky Islands and Salekhard in the Far North to Tskhinvali and Central Asia in the south… not to mention such diaspora outposts as Australia, Brighton Beach in Brooklyn (USA), Nice (France), Harbin (PRC), and Essex (England UK). Disregard all “Ukranian” fulminations… the similarities between the Orthodox peoples of Holy Rus are much deeper than our differences. We are the people of the Orthosphere… we are NOT Westerners… we’re Eurasians, who look both East and West. That’s why Uniatism is anathema to us, foreign to our very identity, hateful to our sense of “right glory”, and completely “other” (“Eastern Christianity”… I think NOT!). No one who cowers in front of the Pope of Rome is part of our naroda; all those on our space who confess the Orthodox Faith whole and entire ARE part of our “people”, and that’s that.

THIS is “Russian” Orthodoxy. We have a united culture, a united faith, and a united community… why aren’t we united as “Church?” Yes… why aren’t we?

BMD

20 November 2011. St Maksym Sandovich was NOT Alone! Pan-Slavism Lived… Pan-Slavism Lives… Pan-Slavism Shall Live!

Petr Chelčický: Do Not Repay Evil with Evil

from the cycle, “The Slavonic Epic”, nr 12

Alfons Maria Mucha

1918

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Many of you are aware of St Maksym Sandovich of Gorlice, the Protomartyr of the Lemkovshchyna. A smaller number, but still substantial, know of the Austro-Hungarian concentration camps at Talerhof and Terezín. However, most Orthodox people in the USA aren’t aware that the Habsburgs (and their Uniate lickspittle running-dogs) were scared to death of the Russophiles and Pan-Slavs. They weren’t scared of the Poles or Croats… the Croats and Poles were loyal to the Dual Monarchy. They weren’t scared of the Uniate leadership (both lay and ecclesiastical)… they were in their pockets. They WERE scared absolutely shitless of the Pan-Slav Movement. Look at what happened in America… thousands of Uniates “came home” to the Mother Church. They were scared of the Lemkos, of the Slovaks, of the Czechs, and of the Carpatho-Russians… the spectre of the po-nashemu people rising up against their Hapsburg oppressors haunted their sleep. Ergo, when war broke out, they started shooting Russophile activists such as St Maksym.

However, how many of you are aware of the Pan-Slav ferment in the musical and art worlds of the Dual Monarchy? Musicians like Leoš Janáček and artists like Alfons Maria Mucha were tailed by fearful Hapsburg secret police agents. Yet… Pan-Slavism lived! Mucha produced his seminal The Slavonic Epic… a series of 20 historical paintings documenting the historical path of the Slavs. Janáček wrote In the Mists and On an Overgrown Path… we shouldn’t talk about music and art… we should LOOK at art and LISTEN to music…

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In the Mists…

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On an Overgrown Path…

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As for the art, I just finished posting the entire Slavonic Epic on Art and Faith, Too… click here to go to the first painting. Before you do anything else, look at the “tags” and click “The Slavonic Epic”… that’ll bring up all the works in order. Everything has links to most obscure points, so, you’ll learn a lot about the Western Slavs, in particular.

Any time that you hear some Uniate claim, “I’m Orthodox in Union with Rome”… remember St Maksym… remember St Aleksei Kabalyuk, remember Blessed Gavriil Kostelnik… remember Fr Mikhail Shuvar. Ask your Uniate interlocutor if his church honours St Maksym… do note the silence that’ll greet that question. Yes, Virginia, Pan-Slavism not only lived, it lives now… and we’ll pass on the flame to the next generation, too…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Sunday 20 November 2011

Albany NY

This Just In Department:

A friend of mine wrote me:

You might like to know that Mucha’s niece became Orthodox and a matushka in the Czech Republic (she died quite recently) and Janáček’s grand-daughter also became Orthodox. She’s in the USA in a ROCOR parish.

Who woulda thunk it? SMALL WORLD…

BMD