Posted on 04/05/2026 11:59:44 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell
The Kaiser was on a visit to Russia, the Kaiser who was held to be at fault for Germany being insufficiently prepared for World War One mobilization, the last country to mobilize; the Kaiser who was the favorite nephew of Queen Victoria, who died in his arms. The leader of the most cultured country that has ever existed, land of the philospher Immanuel Kant, the mathematician Gauss, writer Goethe, composers Beethoven and Bach. Not a baby-bayonetting Hun.
The German Kaiser was visiting his cousin, the Russian Tzar; they were looking out over a vista, over a cliff. To prove a point about the discipline of his army, the Tzar called over an attending General. The Tzar told the General to jump off the cliff. The General unhesitatingly marched over to the edge of the cliff and jumped over.
Our Generals, twelve of the top ones who have just been fired, have told their Commander in Chief that there is no profit in the war, that it will ruin our country's military, our country itself, impoverish its people and lead them to starvation, ruin the economies of most of the rest of the world, and engender their continuing hostility and enmity to us for generations to come. The highly professional soldiers will obey their orders, and ruin their lives and those of their subordinates.
The Commanders are like the story of Lieutenant Kije (Kijay), told in a film by Sergei Eisenstein, with music by Sergei Prokofiev. (Peter and the Wolf. Romeo and Juliet, Dance of the Knights, the "Montagues and Capulets". Classical Symphony.)
The incompetent, idiotic Tzar is listening to a verbal report by one of his Generals' adjutants.
"Lieutenants, however…", "Porúchiki zhe".
Misunderstanding what the adjutant said, as "Porúchik Kizhé", the Tzar asks, "who is this 'Lieutenant Kije' "?
To mollify the idiotic, incompetent Tzar in his bright and shiny, honorific military uniform, the subordinates have to make up a whole life story from childhood to grave, of the mythical Lieutenant Kije: An initial, wistful bugle call signifying the military culture; his childhood marching around in a boy's soldier outfit; his days as a student cadet; his premiere as a well-dressed, new soldier; before the end, the famous "Troika", three-horse sleigh ride episode with the three-stringed, triangular-shaped, mandolin-like balalaikas and horses’ bells; Lieutenant Kije's final, fatal battle; a trumpet-bugle motif, which led off the piece, finishes it off at his burial. The subordinates can't take the chance that the moronic Tzar will demand to meet this "Lieutenant 'However' ".
Lieutenant Kije is extremely wonderful music.
André Previn conducts Prokofiev’s “Lieutenant Kijé” Suite
However, the corresponding film by Sergei Eisenstein is much less illuminating; as Soviet propaganda, it had to portray a lecherous Tzar, along with other gratuitous, salacious incidents, in concert with the first woman's commissar Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952), People’s Commissar for Social Welfare from 1917–1918, who sought to foist women’s liberation and divorce onto poor women who just wanted to feed and care for their children; this sexual liberation as political control (libido dominandi), to tamp down any residual loyalty or reverence for the Romanoff Dynasty; whereas, today, their whole, murdered family are accounted in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saints.
Lieutenant Kije by Sergei Eisenstein on YouTube
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It most certainly is. I still on occasion hum the “troika” part when I’m strolling about. Good stuff.
brilliant sweeping pastoral so Russian
One of very few classic orchestral pieces with a prominent sax solo.
“The German Kaiser was visiting his cousin, the Russian Tzar; they were looking out over a vista, over a cliff. To prove a point about the discipline of his army, the Tzar called over an attending General. The Tzar told the General to jump off the cliff. The General unhesitatingly marched over to the edge of the cliff and jumped over.” He didn’t even get to kill anybody, but himself.
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