Certainties – Page 45

June 18, 1815

200 years. 200 years and the space of 200 long winters. It’s 200 years since the most talked about military engagement of 1815. Can’t believe it. Battle of Waterloo for all you history buffs out there. Staying buff? Hope so. 200 years ago today.

You know. Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington and the gang? Cannons and black powder rifles and a cast of thousands on a muddy field in Belgium? You remember these guys. They’re back:

Scotland Forever aka Charge of the Scots Greys

The Scots Greys got pummelled on June 18, 1815 and so did a lot of other guys but the red coats prevailed and Napoleon’s 100 days was finished.

The painting, again, was by Elizabeth Thompson, also known as Lady Butler, and appeared 66 years after the famous charge it depicts. Lady Butler was a very talented artist obviously. She’d be worth reading about.

I never understood why Napoleon, if that in fact was his real name, has been lauded by so many historians. Napoleon was a killer responsible for vast amounts of death and destruction. I think the really interesting part is that he basically came from nothing and turned Europe upside down. Europe is heavy so that must have been hard to do for a little guy, which is what he was.

So I was lying here in a swoon and looked up at the calendar and realized. 200. All those books I’ve read on the era. It’s just a number, that’s true. But it’s an anniversary. A bicentennial.

I think there’s still a dinner held to honour the occasion of the anniversary of The Battle of Waterloo. It’s called The Waterloo Dinner. Pretty nice spread I’m sure. I’d be baffled if Beef Wellington wasn’t on the menu.

I can tell you for sure that it’s macaroni and cheese around here tonight.

Selah. Take a moment and think about that.

Vancouverluft

Vladislav Tamarov 1985-1 — Vladislav Tamarov 1985

You know what? I wanted to include this image for the previous post. For reasons our data team has adopted as their pet project of the moment, I couldn’t load it. They’re looking into it. But how could they? They don’t exist. It happens too often.

Am I gay or does Vladislav Tamarov remind you a bit of a young Brad Pitt? If Brad the Pitt was in a truck with guys with guns movie? Back then?

Vancouverluft. That’s right. That’s exactly what it is. The beneficent balmy wind. Good name for a band. It’s yours. You can have it. Vancouverluft could go down in history the same way Vancouverstrasse did. That was enormous.

We don’t experience our own, unique luft too often, but it’s been by the last couple of days and the little zephyrs are still around. The sound is incredible.

It’s the wind. It’s that airy light gusty presence, soft on the skin. It’s the breeze with no bight. It blew over the Delphiniums the other night and that’s probably not the worst it could do, but almost. It’s the kindness. It created a bit of a kefluffle I knew nothing about because I was asleep. Sorry? No. I needed the rest.

Vancouverluft. It’s funny about rare things. It kind of softens the brain and you think, “Oh, yeah. It’s like this all the time. Why I’s all bitchin about the rain? Ain’t none.”

It’s not exactly like that. What we’ve enjoyed here, and it’s mostly gone, is Vancouverluft at its spring-time best. That rumbustious, raucous caressing gusty breeze. It just doesn’t get any more adjectival. It’s great.

We’ll be right back. Coming up: A quick update.

Vladislav Tamarov (1965 – 2014)

Vladislav Tamarov with Russian general — Vladislav Tamarov and guest October 1985

A great man. I hope it’s all good. There’s a Facebook page looking for donations to repatriate the gentleman’s body to his mother in Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, from the state of Nevada, United States of America. I hope it’s legitimate. Vladislav Tamarov passed away last “Boxing Day”.

I wouldn’t know anything about that.

Saint Petersburg, as everyone recalls, was called “Leningrad” for a while. It’s where Vladislav Tamarov grew up.

Vladislav Tamarov wrote a great book. It’s not all that common, you know, to stumble across what you think is a “great” book. A book that after two readings 10 years apart is still a profound experience. See “Chakari Minaret” preceding this post. Go ahead.

It didn’t occur to me that Vladislav Tamarov could be dead. The news saddened me. I found this out doing research for an only vaguely related project about Afghanistan. Like a lot of veterans of any war he encountered difficulties after the shooting stopped.

That rifle he’s got slung over his shoulder is an AK 74, a “modernized” version of the AK 47. There’s been at least a couple further modernizations since. At least that’s what I’ve read.

He emigrated to the United States and published the book these images are drawn from. Mercury Press, San Francisco 1992. He had no chance in the Russia of his youth publishing any portion of his book or his photographs. He spent five years putting the book together. The text is maybe 25,000 words. You can read it in an afternoon. It’s great.

Vladislav Tamarov was a member of the 3rd regiment of the 103rd Airborne Division of the military of the USSR. His job morphed into becoming a minesweeper as there was no need for skytroopers in this particular Russian war. He spent most of his “tour” in the rugged, mountainous Panjsher or “Panjshir” region in northeastern Afghanistan.

As you can see, these guys, unlike Nato soldiers of more recent Afghanistan slaughter and mayhem, wear no body armour or even helmets. A few in this outfit were issued pointy sticks to probe for mines the country was littered with. And still is. They humped it rough and were expendable. The official total for the ten years the Russians were in Afghanistan is 15,000 killed. Vladislav Tamarov says the real total was up to three times as many.

One thing that never changes about old Afghanistan, from everything I’ve seen, is the dust.

Afghanistan: Soviet Vietnam. Mercury Press, San Francisco, 1992. 1-56279-021-8

Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier’s Story. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, 2001. 978-1-58008-416-1

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