By Phil Roberts, 7-11-23
While traveling in the southern Caucasus mountains in western and northern Azerbaijan some years ago, I encountered several small villages that had been former German colonies. They were thriving places in the 19th century and, later, until Stalin expropriated all property and banished some 60,000 residents, to Siberia and the Gulag, just before World War II. Once, the area was known for high quality wines, much of it harvested from vineyards, made, bottled and sold by German colonists, contributing substantially to the local and national economy. Most appear to be very poor now with only fleeting vestiges of their past. Another example of the destructive outcome of senseless xenophobia and autocratic authoritarian rule when the mob hands one man unfettered power.
** *
Perceptions of how others feel about important historical figures sometimes don’t comport with reality. At no time was this fact more evident than the time I was one of three non-Azeris sitting in a bar in Baku one evening in early June 2004. Along with the several dozen local people, we were watching the funeral of Ronald Reagan on the bar’s big-screen TV. The audio coverage was in Azeri, but the picture was a feed from an American broadcaster. It was probably as quiet as any bar would be on a weekend night in any bar in a foreign capital. The TV showed the parade of dignitaries paying their respects. Suddenly on TV, the very recognizable face of Mikhail Gorbachev appeared on screen. The place erupted in hisses, boos, angry shouts and a rain of paper drink coasters and rolled-up paper napkins being hurled at the TV screen! The three of us non-Azeris were shocked. I turned to our Azeri colleague. “What’s going on?” asked. “Isn’t Gorbachev liked for what he did in the break-up of the Soviet Union?” My colleague answered simply, “He sent the tanks. He caused Black January.” She was referring to the Soviet tank invasion of January 1990. https://www.pacificcouncil.org/newsroom/30-years-later-lessons-azerbaijan%E2%80%99s-black-january (At the time of the invasion, I was finishing up my dissertation at the University of Washington, evidently fairly oblivious as to what was happening half-way around the world)
***
Gee, I learn a lot reading articles in old Wyoming newspapers. It is little wonder that my “serious” research takes so long. Today’s item is from a July 1931, Wheatland newspaper: “B. C. Fay raised cantaloupes east of Wheatland on old Yellowstone highway. He kept his seeds locked in a trunk. Fay sold the crop each year as “Fay’s Melons,” setting aside some of the seeds, with those from 15 years of earlier crops, in the zinc-lined trunk. Somehow, a mouse got into the trunk and, according to the report, “survived five months on cantaloupe seeds.” Fay’s precious seeds were nearly destroyed. The mouse was found “alive but shriveled, not having had any water for five months.” Source: “16 Years Labor Almost Destroyed by Mouse in Zinc Trunk,” Wheatland Times, July 2, 1931, p. 1.
***
When we were in Cairo, we lived in a 7th floor flat overlooking the beautiful manicured gated grounds of the Brazilian Embassy. Annually, the embassy would host a big party to commemorate their national day (Sept. 7). One year, we were treated to the smells of tasty Brazilian barbecue and the loudspeaker sounds of an Elvis Presley impersonator providing the music to the guests from Egypt and from embassies in Cairo. Nothing like hearing songs like Heartbreak Hotel and Hound Dog, as neighborhood watches the last rays of the sun going down behind the Pyramids in the distance!