Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

A conventional landscape, a villa in a park of willows, and a lake or river in the foreground. It could have been in Russia.And then she discovered the signature of the painter: Wassily Kandinsky, 1899. It was the first Kandinsky Alexandra saw.Her friend Katharina rose before Alexandra’s eyes, and she knew intuitively why Nina was crying.Nina tried to collect herself and confessed that Kandinsky had been her first lover two years ago, before he had desertedher, married a cousin of his, and eloped to Munich. She to wait fifteen years until he returned, driven by war and historyback to his native land. Eventually the fifty-year-old Kandinsky married Nina. She became his last companion.Just before New Year a long letter from Deda arrived full of ominous messages, lamentations, and misgivings.Uncle Ilia was in trouble again. The Russian viceroy had ordered him out of Georgia before the New Year of the centurybecause the Russians expected a large demonstration for Georgian independence that night. He had been told to spendthe season in one of the Russian resorts in the Crimea—where he could be better supervised and could cause notrouble. Ilia, of course, was indignant. A long article in his defense in Iveria had caused additional tension. It had costOlga all her persuasion to take her upset husband to Sevastopol by boat.When their steamer left Batumi, a demonstration in Ilia’s favor had taken place that had been dispersed by the Russianmilitia. Ilia left with mixed feelings, because the demonstration had for the first time been heavily infiltrated by the dubiousmembers of the new Georgian Socialist Party. A certain Soso Djugashvili, their main agitator, was a shady character withwhom Ilia would prefer not to be identified.Deda was frightened by the ominous clouds on the horizon of the coming century. Persephone had, in a lengthy trance,issued a terrible forecast of what the next century would bring: war, fire, murder, the death of thousands of innocentpeople."Oh, well," said Konrad when Alexandra read him the letter, "Der Untergang des Abendlandes, the decline of theOccident has been a favorite subject of the pessimist school of German Kulturphilosophie for several years, we don’tneed a mystic clairvoyant to bring this subject to our attention. The historians of philosophy cannot agree whether this isthe fin de ciecle or the dawn of civilization."Alexandra, who had been pursued by similar visions since their arrival in St. Petersburg, berated him. Had he not himselfsaid that the Empire and the institution of the Tsar were ready to collapse? Didn’t he also feel that a revolution of themasses of dispossessed people was imminent? What would one do if that happened?Konrad sniggered. "Life has always been dangerous, it is only because the past few years have been so peaceful thatpeople are pursued by fearful premonitions. You are much more sensible than you admit to yourself, was it not your ideato counteract your fears by studying medicine? What to do? Exactly what you are doing!"But, she pointed out that her work had not assuaged her fears or ended her nightmares. "Maybe I should try to imaginehow such a collapse would look to be able to cope with my fears should it happen."Konrad shook his head. "Dearest woman, you are pregnant, that is most likely the reason for your nighhtmares. Brimus isdisturbing your peace of mind. The Gedankenexperiment, the thought-experiment you propose would put you into ahypersensitive, hysterical condition, which would be more dangerous for your emotional balance than your premonitions.Be alert, watch the evolution of events with your clear eyes and act very fast when necessary without regard to yourpersonal property, possessions, or safety."Alexandra remembered the certainty she had experienced in front of van Gogh’s paintings, that her body and her eyeswould protect her from going insane. At this moment Brimus kicked her into the stomach. She sighed and with a laughgave Brimus a slap.She was, of course, not entirely wrong, thought Konrad later. The University was infiltrated with radicals, and because hewas a young docent who did not belong to the establishment, he was often approached by these people trying to recruithim to their various causes. Konrad had a deep-seated aversion to radicals and their theories: One could spot them bytheir poor clothing and emaciated looks. Not that they were all poor, that was their "uniform." The most rabid of themwere invariably women. They were brighter, and more determined than their male co-students.Konrad found the ideas of the radical extremists chaotic and irrational. They were almost without exception confusedpolitical dreamers, influenced by mystics. Many were religious fanatics, who in the hope of becoming a revered "martyr,"would willingly let themselves be rounded up and be taken to prison or sent to Siberia. There was no single leader thatunited them—if one excluded the old Tolstoi. The many groups fought each other more viciously than their commonenemy.Alexandra had been inoculated by her father against religious and political fanaticism. Her Georgian background madeher a critic of the "system," not because of any vague philosophical idealism, but because the "system" was Russian. Hernewly acquired "socialism" was not a political ideology but practical humanism.But, thank God, he mused, Alexandra had not yet been exposed to the worst in St. Petersburg. Every month thousandsof illiterate peasants streamed into the city and overcrowded the horrible slum dwellings that housed the factory workers.They worked and slept in shifts, two or three people to one bed. Mercilessly exploited, their life was much bettercompared to the villages where a decade ago their parents had still been serfs.Social friction was an inevitable consequence of these conditions, but this proletariat consisted of uneducated andunmotivated illiterates. They could not grasp the confusing slogans of the Socialist agitators. Only if they were drunk60