We Do Next Summer

The African dirt on my socks had yet to be washed off and away before I was musing on what a next summer’s journey might be.  I’ve long considered a ride across the continent on the Trans Siberian rail road.  Might that be what we do next summer?  

Sitting in my stepdad’s library I notice a book entitled “A History of Russia” up on the wall.  Pulling it down I learn that it was written in the 70s by one Sir John Lawrence.  A diplomat a minister, a writer, a reporter, Sir Lawrence was also a futurist as he had apparently been quoted as saying the following about the Soviet regime:  “there is no substance in it!  It will collapse like a house of cards and I shall live to see it.”   

Soon I’m considering the Greek Orthodox Church.  What are the key debates that separate it from the Roman Orthodoxy?  I’m pondering why it was that the eastern Church did not push itself as far into Russia earlier?  The Irish at the far end of Western Europe are scribing away by the time Gerald of Wales is tromping around in the seventh century.  This is the feverish push of the Roman clergy to the furthest reaches of the former Roman empire. Russia doesn’t appear to have any written record from before the tenth century.

So Kiev is the earliest city in Rus and the city was large and more prosperous than those of the west.  This is where it all begins to flourish, long before there is anything more than huts in Moscow.  Novgorod and the tale of Alexander Nevsky suggest a dialogue with myself from a decade ago, when I’d promised myself I’d need to read more about this medieval strategist. I gobble through the early history feeling the pressure of the travel-hook within my mouth.  I head to the Lonely Planet Azerbaijan, and Armenia on line, just to have a look. 



Thursday 07/13/17