A Tradition Sadly Fading

This month we celebrate the 130th anniversary of the Russian Red Cross Society (RRCS). The RRCS was officially born on May 3, 1867, when the imperial-medic Karol put forward a proposal to establish the Russian Society in order to take care of sick and wounded servicemen. The First Statute of the Society was sub-mitted to the State Council and approved by Tsar Alexander II.

But Russian traditions of mercy and clemency go further back in history than 1867. In 1812, during the Russo-French War, philanthropist Fyodor Rtishchev financed transportation of the wounded from the battlefield and provided them with medical care. During the Crimean war of 1853-1856, the famous Dasha Sevastopolskaya and her female-comrades  helped to cure the wounded of Sevastopol.

Later, three years after its foundation, the RRCS sent 30 Russian surgeons to help victims of the French-Prussian War of 1870-1871. In 1877-1878, during the Russo-Turkish War, 32 special RRCS trains carried more than 100,000 wounded and sick back from the front. The total sum spent by the RRCS helping victims of that war was some 17 million rubles, which had much greater value at that time than today’s battered Russian currency. In 1897 the RRCS built the first Russian hospital in Addis-Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. And RRCS financial aid to victims of the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 amounted to 50 million rubles, a huge sum.

At the beginning of WWI, the RRCS had a solid organizational and financial structure. It had 80 hospitals (with 2559 beds), nine maternity homes, ten pharmacies, four asylums  for retired servicemen and a home for soldier’s widows.

The October Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Civil War split the RRCS along with the rest of society. The RRCS’s Chief Directorate sided with the White Guards and refused to give help to wounded Red Army soldiers. This prompted the formation of the Proletarian Red Cross. In January 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars nationalized RRCS assets and proceeded to reorganize the Red Cross. The organization was renamed The Soviet Red Cross November 1918. One of its first, visible actions was to help the victims of famine in the Volga and Northern Caucasus regions in 1921 (when the Red Cross sent some 100 mn food kits there).

In 1924, the Soviet Red Cross set up a network of health resorts for children – pioneer camps, namely the famous camp in Artek, Crimea. In 1938, Stalin’s government undertook a major ‘confiscation’ of Red Cross assets. Some 6,111 institutions (including pharmacies, hairdressers and laundries) were passed on to the Health Ministries and other respective agencies, “to avoid overlapping.”

During WWII, the Soviet Red Cross collected 25 mn rubles to construct  planes. Help was also given to children in liberated territories.

Today’s RRCS is working in a variety of activities (far to many to even list here) to help the sick, aged, infirm and homeless all across Russia and the former  USSR, from Chernobyl to Murmansk, from Ulan-Ude to Ulyanovsk. It counts among its ranks some 2,210 nurses, who serve more than 60,000 elderly and handicapped each year.

Even with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition of market economy, the RRCS’ goals and tasks are unchanged – to help those in need, the sick and those suffering from natural disasters in times of peace and war. What has changed, however, is the attitude of rich Russians towards clemency, mercy and charitable activities.

“Most of our individual  donors are people with low or average income,” said Alla Korshunova, deputy chairman of the Moscow RRCS. “Even the word ‘average’ is a stretch, though, for it is still low by Western standards.

“It’s strange to say, but foreign sponsors help us more than domestic sponsors. For instance, we just opened the first children’s’ asylum in Moscow, with the help of the Dutch Red Cross, which is very active in Moscow. We do receive help from the Moscow Mayor and the pension fund, but get almost nothing from Russian entrepreneurs, especially banks. These latter regularly ‘provide’ us only with negative answers to our pleas for help. They do sponsor shows or things with a high level of exposure, say like the restoration of Christ the Savior Cathedral,  but nothing low-key,” Korshunova said. “But the old Russian Red Cross had a great number of sponsors among Russian nobles and the rich... Suffice it to mention the likes of Prince Vladimir Dolgorukov, the merchant Pyotr Mikhailov, countess Nadezhda Trubetskaya... Unfortunately, today these traditions are forgotten by the new Russian kuptsy...”

Donations to RRCS can be sent to :

beneficiary customer :/3800170500112 MOSCOW CITY COMMITTEE OF RUSSIAN RED CROSS

sender to receiver information:/REC/KHAMOVNICHESKOE BRANCH 7812 CO//RR ACC 081000031

Brief Items

This month, our calendar celebrates its first anniversary. It was exactly one year ago in these pages that we began honoring those worthy men and women who helped to mold Russia’s history, language, culture and sciences. We hope that these past months have given you a more intimate feeling for Russia. But there is always room for improvement. Please let us know what you would like to see more (or less) of in future calendars. Are there people who you think we should take note of? Important dates we may have overlooked? This is your  calendar and we would like to make it as interesting and relevant to you as possible. Please write and tell us, because Russian Life values your contributions.

To begin with, the month of May is very significant in the Russian Orthodox religion. The first Sunday after Easter (this year it falls on May 3), is officially called, strangely enough, Anti-Easter, but the Slavic people have always commemorated this holiday as “Little Red Mountain (Krasnaya Gorka).” Long ago, in the villages, May 3  was a day of weddings, feasting and fun, as newlyweds and their relatives eagerly anticipated imminent future generations. This spring rite, celebrating the fertile land, was how Russian peasants ensured that their children would be born after the all-consuming harvest, so that parents could spend more time caring for them.

May is also the month we honor the memory of some of Russia’s most revered saints. Saint Georgy Pobedonosets (“he who brings victory”), is remembered on May 6, while Saint Nikolai Chudotvorets (“he who makes miracles”) is honored on May 22.

Besides these religious events, May is also rich in civil achievements and triumphs.

On May 8, 1867, 130 years ago, the Society of the Red Cross was founded in Russia. Which is why our cover story this month is devoted to health care in Russia, see page 4 for Mikhail Ivanov’s story.

On May 11, 1712, 285 years ago, the legendary Tula Armory was founded. The armory, which still sets international standards in the quality and manufacture of weaponry, has consistently played an impor-tant role in Russian military history. The armory’s work during World War II was espe-cially important.

The year 1712 is doubly important in Russian history because on May 21, Russia’s uncompromising Emperor Pe-ter I signed an order to move the nation’s capital from Mos-cow to St. Petersburg, his gho-stly invention. In his new book, Saint Petersburg, A Cultural History, Solomon Volkov described Peter’s desire to forcibly found and populate the “window on Europe” as a reaction to “muddy, dangerous Moscow, where Pe-ter’s enemies could hide in the crooked streets...” But not all of Peter’s successors agreed with his decision, and the capital was repeatedly moved back and forth between Moscow and St. Petersburg over the years. In 1727, Peter II, returned the royal residence to Moscow. However, in 1733, 6 years later, St. Peters-burg was once again established as the capital under the flam-boyant Catherine the Great. This decision remained in effect until the Bolsheviks achieved power in 1917. Lenin, who had never felt comfortable among St. Petersburg’s independent-minded intelligentsia, named Moscow the capital of Soviet Russia in 1918, leaving Peter’s glittering city to starve.

On a happier note, May 24 is the Day of Slavic Language and Culture. Traditionally, this holiday also marks the birth of Saint Cyrill (827-869) who laid the groundwork for the Slavic written language. Though Cyrill died 1170 years ago, his spirit is as alive and vibrant as the language he developed.

Eighty-five years ago, on May 31, 1912, in Moscow, thanks to the far-reaching initiative of the scientist Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetayev (1847-1913), father of the brilliant but doomed poet Marina Tsvetayeva, the Museum of Fine Arts was brought into being. Today, the museum, now named after Alexander Pushkin, is the second most important in Russia, after the Hermitage.