Now, this news about the destruction of the “Defense of Sevastopol” panorama painting in the Ukrainian city occupied by the Russians will spread from all sources. There will be talk about the loss of cultural heritage or gloating. But that’s not the point at all.
The point is that this piece of European battle painting, created by a group of German artists under the direction of Frenchman Franz Roubaud in Munich, has not existed since 1942. It was destroyed after a German attack on the museum building created by a German engineer. After World War II, Russian artists simply painted a new canvas – “better than ever.” It has no artistic value at all. Its value is purely historical: it reminds of the imperial family’s attempts to distort the events surrounding the Russian Empire’s defeat in the Crimean War. If the Russians are so keen to continue adhering to historical myths, they can create yet another replica; nothing is stopping them. It’s just better to preserve it in territories that aren’t occupied.
By the way, at the request of the imperial family, Franz Roubaud created another famous panorama — the Battle of Borodino. The building of this panorama was never bombed — it was simply destroyed after the October Revolution. So, what visitors see in the Moscow museum is also a replica, which has no artistic value. The same fate befell another Roubaud panorama — about the storming of a village in the Caucasus. It was lost during a flood in St. Petersburg, and no one has restored it.
This is a lesson for all foreigners in Russian service. The Russians not only lose battles — they are unable even to preserve the beautiful fabrications you create for them. They force visitors to panoramic museums to look at forgeries unnecessarily signed with your names.
I’m enjoying the wailing from Sevastopol, where admirers of grandeur are lamenting about the “Defense of Sevastopol” panorama — “the greatest cultural heritage of all time,” which unexpectedly got scorched by friendly drones.
But truly I tell you, the original already burned down in 1941. What hangs there is mostly a replica to support the Greatness™ and not any sacred heritage.
Tragedy is when a family in Odessa is killed by a missile, and the surviving husband later dies on the front. Or a little boy in Kryvyi Rih at a playground, killed by an “Iskander” aimed at a restaurant. Or a pregnant woman in Vinnytsia.
And the panorama… well, that’s your air defense’s handiwork, and “don’t turn on the electronic warfare where it’s not needed” — isn’t that what you always write?
But the main point to understand is that these imperial ambitions make life unbearable primarily for you. The neighbors too, but globally — for you.
What if the tsar hadn’t gotten involved in the losing war with a coalition of France and Britain? Industrialization would have progressed faster (before World War I, most of the engines for aircraft or the first machines came from France and Britain).
Helped the Bulgarian brothers? And how, have they thanked you much in both world wars? Are they in the Customs Union now or NATO? Why is that?
What if Nicholas II hadn’t gotten involved in World War I and continued trading grain with all sides and ignored the Serbs with his heavy tsar’s scepter?
There would have been a normal revolution, reforms, the royal family as the British monarchy — a talk show for those interested. There wouldn’t have been millions of victims, gulags, and famines.
Tell me, why do you strong-arm enthusiasts need those straits, Tsargrad, the children of Spain, Yemen, Afghanistan, Avdiivka? What did you personally gain besides death notices, rationing “no more than two per person,” inability to fix teeth under Strelkov, poverty, and dancing without legs in the alley to “Kalinka”?
Such idiotic tales where the English don’t clean guns with bricks, with Nyash-Myash’s fish eyes carrying a tsar’s icon and a red flag simultaneously. Obscurantism that must be the first in both ballet and Dostoevsky, just to not notice the difference between Vyborg or Kaliningrad and a normal European city.
Therefore, if all your paintings glorifying how you heroically got beaten and laid down hundreds of thousands of yours were to burn, it would be in your interest. A release from illusions.
The Swedes’ suffering with their empire ended under Poltava several hundred years ago. Since then, they’ve lost ambitions, but “accidentally” acquired Volvo, IKEA, a standard of living to which you can only dream of, and NATO membership. And you “won” at Poltava back then.
And what in the end? They have safe cities and the best healthcare, while you have wooden outhouses outside, fuel shortages, and bloody meat assaults for the ruins of someone else’s barn.
So put out your panorama and no crying here. The check for greatness is already on the table. Paid in cash, limbs, and generations with salaries below Poland and the Baltic states. Enjoy.
The published photo shows smoke over the building’s roof, though the walls themselves remain intact.
The Telegram channel “Crimean Wind” claims that the fire in the panorama building was the result of Russian air defense work. The authors of the channel also write that Russian military facilities are located nearby. It is currently not possible to independently establish the causes of the incident or the extent of the damage.
Photo: ASTRA
