Trafika Europe 13 - Russian Ballet

Naum Vaiman

“Wewere taught not to exaggerate the role of personality in history.” “How can I say it... it is well known, for example, that sometimes, a single battle had decided the outcome of a war and shaped the historical path of a people: under Poitiers, the extent of the Arab incursion into Europe was determined, under Grünwald, the course of the German expansion in the East, the Battle of Hastings decided England’s fate, and so forth. And the course of a battle itself, and this I can say from my own personal experience, is often decided in some constricted, but key area, where a limited number of people come into conflict, and in this fight, sometimes everything depends on a single person who is capable of drawing others into the fight or of displaying exemplary, and sometimes even incomparable, personal courage. And so, it turns out that a single person is capable of deciding the outcome of a battle, a war, and thus determining the historical fate, even without being a military leader or a government official. It’s not for nothing that people glorify heroes. But what’s interesting here is: even those who consciously shy away from responsibility, deciding so to speak ‘exclusively personal issues’ – still determine the fate of others, and so irresponsibility is just as fate-bearing as heroism, and that’s how it is...” “Is there even such a thing as a History of Mankind?” “Oo, that’s the question of a man, not a boy!” Pyotr Naumovich winked playfully. “It seems to me for some

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