Life and Fate

I showed in a recent article for Science & Society how two fakes were used to bolster anti-Russian feeling in the British press and literature in the 19th century: a mistranslated quote from Nikolai Karamzin's History , and a forged document, the supposed 'Will of Peter the Great'. Through the century, both fakes cropped up repeatedly, sometimes in the same article. For example, here is the  Newcastle Daily Journal, of  March 2, 1863: Similarly, the  North Wales Chronicle,  of   Oct 20, 1840, also combined the two fakes (via  Newspapers.com ):

We all know this phrase from Mr T. But where does it come from? If you look online, you'll find various people suggesting some kind of Biblical origin; but the Bible quotes don't quite fit.  This interesting blog post: https://www.overthinkingit.com/2010/05/04/i-pity-the-fool-origin/   identifies the first use of the phrase as being in the 1860s. This may be true for the exact wording; but an earlier use can be found. It's in the poem Bardomachia (1800) by Alexander Geddes: It's unlikely that Mr T., or the writers of the A-Team , were fans of this little-known Scots writer. But the sentiment of 'laugh at the folly, but pity the fool' fits the context of his poem, which I'll say more about it future posts.

I have recently been researching an article on the supposed "Testament of Peter the Great". For the uninitiated, this is a famous example of a 'political fake': the supposed will left by Russian Emperor Peter I (1672-1725), including commandments to his successors to expand Russian power over her neighbours; in some versions, it was expanded to include an exhortation to world domination:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Will_of_Peter_the_Great The "Testament" has long been known to be a fake. The evidence for this is partly anachronistic language (e.g. references to 'Germany' at a time when this nation-state did not exist), and partly the fact that no such document was ever found, despite free access to the archives of Tsarist Russia. This has not stopped it from being dug up whenever anti-Russian propaganda requires it, including by Germans during both World Wars; by both Napoleons (the First, during his 1812 invasion of Russia, and the Third dur...

I'm proud to announce the publication (on Amazon) of my translations of volumes I-VII of Nikolai Karamzin's History . They are all free to read if you're a member of Kindle Unlimited. They can be read in any web browser or any smartphone (via the free Kindle app), plus of course on a Kindle device.  The History  is a foundational work in Russian historiography, but no full English translation has yet been published. It takes the reader from pre-history until the 17th century, and covers iconic events such as the supposed "Invitation of the Varangians", the Christianization of Rus', the period of Mongol-Tatar domination, the Black Death, and the rise of Moscow as a power centre. It  affords the reader a long-term view of the creation of a state and a nation stretching from Eastern Europe to the Pacific Ocean . Amongst the colourful characters who feature are Prince Vladimir (Volodymyr), Genghis Khan, Tamerlane (Timur), and Ivan IV ('the Terrible'). The ...