M A I N   N E W S

RUSSIAN DIARY
St Petersburg enraptures Vajpayee
Hari Jaisingh

Enraptured by the “timeless beauty and inspiring history” of St Petersburg, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee spoke in glowing terms about how the city had been immortalised by the poetry of Pushkin and the prose of Dostoyevsky. He noted that St Petersburg not only aroused the most refined feelings and thoughts but knew how to defend itself against the most savage form of aggression.

He said the 900-day siege of “your city” during the Second World War would forever remain a “stirring saga in the history of humanity’s resistance to inhumanity. “The passage of time cannot dim the significance of the defeat of fascism.”

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Confessing “I am not an intellectual,” Mr Vajpayee told intellectuals and Indologists, “I used to write poetry when I was younger but gradually politics began to make exclusive demand on my time. Nevertheless, I have always enjoyed interacting with people of letters, aware of the truth of the Sanskrit adage that there is nothing in this world that equals the purity of knowledge.”

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The Prime Minister said Prince Alexei Soltikov travelled to India 150 years ago and left his wonderful memoirs in water colours, graphics and lithographs. In the 1920s another great Russian artist, Nicholas Roerich, who belonged to St Petersburg, came to India. A multi-faceted genius, Roerich made the scenic Kulu valley in Himachal Pradesh his home. He painted more than 7,000 brilliant paintings of the Himalayas capturing the eternal message of the high snowy mountains in all their eloquent colours. India remains indebted to the Roerich family for the rich artistic and intellectual legacy it has left behind. India has drawn up a plan to renovate the Roerich estate in Himachal Pradesh and develop it as a major centre for artistic tourism. The necessary steps will also be taken to redevelop the estate of Svatslav Roerich, a celebrated painter in his own right, in Bangalore.

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Mr Vajpayee said there was something in the relations between India and Russia that defied time and tide. It is not widely known that Afanasy Nikitin, a Russian traveller, visited India well before the Portuguese voyager Vasco Da Gama sailed to our western shores in 1492. He was the first recorded European to set foot on Indian soil. He came to India by river, land and sea routes which 500 years later has been recognised by India, Russia and Iran as the North-South Corridor of tremendous significance not only for trade but as a strategic axis for Eurasia. India, Russia and Iran signed an agreement in September to develop this corridor.

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Mr Vajpayee recalled that the founder of St Petersburg, Peter the Great, issued directives in 1712 to explore the possibilities of a direct route to India. He and other Russian Czars gave privileges at Astrakhan to facilitate trade between India and Russia.

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Of late, there have been some disturbing trends in St Petersburg with Neo-Nazism rearing its head. There have been incidents of those pursuing Neo-Nazism turning their ire against coloured people. A staffer of the Indian Consulate in St Petersburg appears to have been attacked by these Neo-Nazi fanatics.