#ExecutionoftheRomanovfamily100
१००वर्षांपूर्वी , १६-१७ जुलै १९१८ रोजी, झार निकोलस-२ आणि त्यांचे कुटुंबीय यांची हत्या करण्यात आली
प्रिन्स निकोलस -II , जे १८९६मध्ये झार बनले, आणि ज्यांचा बोल्शेव्हिकनी शंभर वर्षांपूर्वी, जुलै १९१८मध्ये खून केला. ते भारताला १८९०मध्ये भेट देऊन गेले होते.
डिसेंबर ११ १८९०मध्ये ते मुंबईला पोचले होते.
ब्रिटिश सरकारला भारतावर रशिया आक्रमण करेल याची भीती कायम वाटायची. अनेक पुस्तकातून ह्याचे दाखले आजवर मी वाचले आहेत.
"Within months, Napoleon and Paul were planning a fantastical
scheme to send the French General Masséna with 35,000 men to rendezvous in
Astrakhan with a Russian army of 35,000 infantry and 50,000 Cossacks. Together
they would cross the Caspian, capture Kandahar, then invade British India...
Meanwhile Paul was enthusiastically launching his quixotic
war against Britain in alliance with Napoleon. In January 1801, he ordered the
ataman of the Don Cossacks, Vasily Orlov (no relation to Prince Orlov), to lead
20,000 men against India...
Shamyl now found support in Britain. He wrote to Queen
Victoria. The British lionized the plucky Islamic warriors, raised funds and
sent rifles, while Nicholas was increasingly regarded as a dictator* who
aspired to swallow the Ottoman empire – and threaten British India. Nicholas
decided that only his own charm could conquer the British....
‘We are in Asia!’ Nikola wrote to Fanny on his way to fight
the khan of Khiva. ‘Goodbye Europe! Goodbye Fanny Lear, my love!’
Nikola arrived on the steppe to join the new Great Game, the
struggle for Central Asia and the borderlands of India waged between Russia and
Britain. ‘Here I am a staff officer of the Russian army of Central Asia, the
same army that one beautiful day will cross Afghanistan to occupy British
India!’ Nikola told Fanny on 8 March 1873....
After the disaster of the Crimean War, Russia was scarcely
strong enough to project power against modern industrialized powers, but
Alexander and Bariatinsky saw the three main kingdoms of Central Asia as a way
to reinvigorate Russian arms, promote trade and threaten British India....
The tsar demanded Western backing to force the Ottomans to
protect the Orthodox, promising Queen Victoria, ‘We cannot and don’t wish to
quarrel with England. On our part it would be madness to think of
Constantinople and India.’ But the British feared Russian power more than
Ottoman atrocities....
The triumph was short-lived. Ignatiev had overridden the
informal deal with Austria. Britain and Austria demanded a European conference
– or war. Bismarck offered to mediate at a congress in Berlin. Alexander and
Miliutin planned a (delusional) attack on British India...."
(‘The Romanovs: 1613-1918’, by Simon Sebag
Montefiore)
किंवा मी फेब्रुवारी ६ २०१८च्या पोस्ट मध्ये लिहले त्याप्रमाणे अलेक्झांडर व्हॉन हुम्बोल्डटना भारतात इंग्रजांनी येऊन दिल नाही त्याचे एक कारण म्हणजे शेवटी रशियातून खुष्कीच्या मार्गाने यायची पण हुम्बोल्डट यांची तयारी होती, हे असाव.
हा प्रकार १९४१पर्यंत चालू होता.
“...In any case, until the last weeks of 1941, the war
seemed a long way off. The greatest official fear was that Russia or Germany
would invade through the Khyber Pass....”
(Jon Wilson’s ‘India Conquered: Britain's Raj and the Chaos
of Empire’, 2017)
त्यामुळे भारताला गुलाम करणाऱ्या ब्रिटिश सरकारला वाटणारी रशियाची सतत भीती हा विनोदासाठी जबरदस्त विषय होता.
गणेश नारायण कोल्हटकर (?- १८९७) हे 'बहुरूपी'कार चिंतामण गणेश कोल्हटकरांचे वडील. त्यांनी English 'Punch'च्या धर्तीवर मराठीत १८७३साली 'विनोदप्रतोद ' नावाचे पत्र सुरु केले.
त्यांच्या लेखनाबद्दल वासुदेवशास्त्री खरे सांगतात:
'बहुरूपी', १९५७
सौजन्य: चिंतामण गणेश कोल्हटकरांच्या वाङ्मयाचे कॉपीराईट होल्डर्स
दुर्दैवाने मला झारच्या डायरीची पाने अजून वाचायला मिळाली नाहीयेत. पण ब्रिटिश सरकार काही काळ त्यामुळे हादरल खर! मराठी विनोद त्याकाळी किती बेडर, सशक्त होता, (श्रीपाद कृष्ण कोल्हटकर सुद्धा उच्च दर्जाचा विनोद त्याच काळात लिहीत होते.)
Russian Imperial family
Photo shows members of the Romanovs, the last imperial family of Russia
including: seated (left to right) Marie, Queen Alexandra, Czar Nicholas
II, Anastasia, Alexei (front), and standing (left to right), Olga and
Tatiana.
सौजन्य : Source: Flickr Commons project, 2010 आणि विकिपीडिया