Great Britain (United Kingdom) and Russia

Great Britain (United Kingdom) and Russia

 

In this short note I would like to call for the friendship and cooperation of the British and Russians, Great Britain and Russia.  There are two great people.

 

And although we fought, England remembers Balaklava, when heroically fighting, the best sons of England died in the Crimea ("All in the valley of Death, Rode the six hundred. 'Forward, the Light Brigade!").

 

Balaklava is the same terrible word, as for the French, - Berezina.

 

 Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892) dedicated to the heroes of Balaklava his brilliant poem:

The poem, published on December 9, 1854 in the British newspaper «The Examiner», sings the attacking brigade, while lamenting the senselessness of that attack.

 

The Charge of the Light Brigade

1.

Half a league, half a league,            

Half a league onward,                  

All in the valley of Death                

Rode the six hundred.                  

"Forward, the Light Brigade!        

"Charge for the guns!" he said:     

Into the valley of Death                    .

Rode the six hundred.  

            

2.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"         

Was there a man dismay'd?             

Not tho' the soldier knew                 

Someone had blunder'd:                   

Theirs not to make reply,                 

Theirs not to reason why,                 

Theirs but to do and die:                  

Into the valley of Death                   

Rode the six hundred.                      

3.

Cannon to right of them,                    

Cannon to left of them,                      

Cannon in front of them                     

Volley'd and thunder'd;                      

Storm'd at with shot and shell,           

Boldly they rode and well,                 

Into the jaws of Death,                        

Into the mouth of Hell                            

Rode the six hundred. 

                     

4.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,                

Flash'd as they turn'd in air,                 

Sabring the gunners there,                    

Charging an army, while                     

All the world wonder'd:                       

Plunged in the battery-smoke                     

Right thro' the line they broke;            

Cossack and Russian                            

Reel'd from the sabre stroke                 

Shatter'd and sunder'd.                          

Then they rode back, but not                

Not the six hundred.                             

5.

                   

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,                       

Cannon behind them                            

Volley'd and thunder'd;                        

Storm'd at with shot and shell,             

While horse and hero fell,                    

They that had fought so well                

Came thro' the jaws of Death               

Back from the mouth of Hell,              

All that was left of them,                      

Left of six hundred.                              

6.

When can their glory fade?                   

O the wild charge they made!               

All the world wondered.                        

Honor the charge they made,                 

Honor the Light Brigade,                       

Noble six hundred.    

 

But there were other times. We, together with Russia, defeated the armies of Napoleon! We defeated Hitler Germany together with the USSR!  And, of course, the role of the USSR in this victory is decisive!

 

Leonid Brezhnev fought for peace throughout the world and for a long time between our countries had good neighborly relations.

 

Our politicians want to quarrel with our people. And we must remember that all people are brothers. We must always remember “For whom the Bell Tolls”:

 

No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

 

John Donne

 From "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions" (1623)

***

More than half a million Russians live in London, they invest in our industry and agriculture! Thousands of sons and daughters of Russia study at our best universities, many stay in England forever.

 

We are people! We are brothers! We are friends!

No intrigues can not embroil two of our great people!