In the South of the Red Square stood a colorful cathedral
with onion shape domes, it was the first time I saw such cathedral. Red bricks
with white-stone ornaments mixed with vibrant swirling patterns in green, blue
and red of the domes. At first look people might mistook it as a Cinderella’s castle
in Disneyland.
But it is no Disneyland fantasy, it is a church loaded with history
and devotion, it is the Cathedral of St. Basil. It was built in the 16th
century by order of Russian Tsar Ivan IV to fulfill his vow to have a church
built for his victorious conquests of Kazan. He intended to build the church on
a scale reflecting the importance of his victory of Kazan, which not only
eliminated a troublesome Kazan, but also opened a vast area for colonization
and trade.
The cathedral is not one large space, it consists of 11 small
churches, one of them built over the grave of St Basil. The churches are
connected with the labyrinth of narrow corridors with arched roofs, beautifully
decorated with colorful flower patterns symbolizing the heavenly garden. Each
church looks like a vase, a narrow room with a high ceiling. Perhaps this shape made the acoustics
amazing, we can hear clearly hymns and chants sung in other room, the sound of their
voices was divine.
The cathedral of St. Basil is so impressive that legend has
it that supposedly Tsar Ivan IV blinded the cathedral’s architects so that the
designs of this new and impressive structure could not be replicated in any
other buildings. Although this cannot be verified, it aligns with what is known
of his complex personality and his severe temperament, his harsh treatment of
Russian nobility, his people and servants. There are notes of his mental
outbreaks, with one tragic instance, he accidentally killed his own son during
an argument. Because of his cruelty and temper, he is also known as Ivan the
Terrible.
The legacy of the cathedral built to memorize Tsar Ivan IV’s
victories in Kazan has been overshadowed by Basil, known as a beggar, a “Fool
for Christ”, a prophetic voice of conscience clothed in rags, buried under the
Cathedral. Basil and the Tzar had a complicated relationship. The strong and
vicious Tsar Ivan IV did not dare to trample the beggar who stood in his way, the
entire population of Moscow hung on the beggar’s every word and action,
revering him as a prophet. The Tsar once showered Basil with gifts, wanting to
test if Basil was tempted by wealth. Basil accepted the gifts but promptly gave
away all of them to the first needy person he met. When Basil died in 1557, the
Tsar Ivan IV himself was among the pallbearers
to bring his body to its resting place: now known as the Cathedral of
St. Basil.
For us knowing Red Square in Moscow from the Red Army parade
at the square to commemorate the October Revolution it can’t be helped that our
image of the Red Square is that of the Red Army, communism and blood. So, if we
come there we would expect to see a cold square with monuments of Lenin, or
Stalin or Marx, along with red communist propaganda posters and banners,
something like that. How wrong are we.
When we come from Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro station to the
Red Square we enter through the front gate of the city from the side of
Tverskaya street and Manezhnaya Square. This is the Kilometer Zero of Moscow,
it has red brick color walls with white linings and two archways. In the inside
of the gate there is an icon depicting the resurrection of Christ, therefore the
gate is named the Resurrection Gate. Ironically the gate has been demolished
and resurrected a number of times, first appeared in 1534 and was reconstructed
in 1680, torn down by Stalin to make way for large-scale Soviet ceremonies in
the square. The Gate was once again assembled between 1994 and 1995.
Going further, we can see a huge department store in the
late 19th century Russian Architecture. It is the GUM (Glawny
Uniwersalny Magasin) Department Store, occupying the majority of the Red
Square’s East side flanked by Nikolskaya and Ilyinka streets. It is the largest
in Russia, selling luxury goods with walls in intricate forms, with abundance
of decor, composition and picturesque glass windows and roofs. But we should
know that Red Square originally began as a slum, a shanty town of wooden huts
clustered beneath the Kremlin walls that housed a collection of peddlers,
criminals and drunks whose status left them outside the official boundaries of
the medieval city. It was cleared on the orders of Ivan III at the end of the
1400's, but remained the province of the mob, the site of public executions,
and rabble rousing, until much later. Today GUM stands brightly at the side of
Red Square presenting itself to the locals and visitors as a noble shopping
center characterised by boutiques in the upper price ranges.
In front of the GUM Shopping Mall stands a cathedral with
various colorful onion shaped cupolas, it is St Basil cathedral, the iconic
building of Russia, and is probably the first image that comes to mind when
people visit Russia. The cathedral’s
fame might be due to its distinctive, eccentric design, the 10 onion shaped
cupolas with the vibrant clash of colors.
At the center of the square we can see a multi-tiered
pyramid building, which is Lenin Mausoleum. Made of granite and labradorite, it
shows the character of the mausoleum as a monumental burial place, designed by
the renowned architect Alexey Shchusev. Inside the mausoleum, the lavishly
embalmed corpse of Vladimir Lenin rests in an armored glass sarcophagus. To
this day, the mausoleum is open to visitors on certain days.
The Red Square ('Krasnaya Ploschad' in Russian), is indeed
dominated by the brick red color of the buildings in the square, so perhaps that
is why many of us associated the Red Square name with the color of the
buildings there. Many people also believe that Red Square is so named because
communism and Russia are associated with the color red, even further associated
with blood(shed). But, actually the word Krasnaya originally means beautiful in
old Russian language but now in modern times it means ‘red’. Therefore, common
assumptions that the 'Red' in Red Square referred to the red brick colour of
the buildings, Communism, or even bloodshed - are misunderstood.
The Red Square is indeed a beautiful square, with beautiful
churches overshadowing the Lenin Monument, and the privately-run luxurious GUM
Department Store overshadowing the socialistic way of the country. And it is a pity
that the image of this square is misrepresented by the military parades of the
Red Army broadcasted on television worldwide.
After visiting the Red Square we walked to
the nearby Nikolskaya street leading to Lubyanka Square. At a glance the street
just looked like a fashionable shopping street, lined with boutiques, bars and
food shops. But actually, the place had many historical and cultural buildings
in the past. The street is named after the Greek Monastery of St. Nicholas
situated there, and the north side of the street is lined with some historic
buildings, such as the Kazan Cathedral, the former Red Mint building, and the Russian
State University for the Humanities. Other historical buildings have been
replaced with souvenirs shop, restaurants and boutiques.
We can feel the commercial atmosphere in
the street, many local ladies and gentlemen wear Russian traditional clothes,
complete the big blonde wig strolling the street offering souvenirs or selfies.
They greeted the passing by tourists ‘nihao, nihao’ as there are many Chinese
tourists coming there. There are also benches in the middle of streets for us
to sit after a long walk, enjoying the fresh spring air, under blue sky with
flocks of white cloud. There are also street performers there, including one
singing opera arias, with his quite powerful voice. We heard that he was
actually practicing for an operatic performance, as he wouldn’t be able to do
it in his apartment room, it would be to noisy for the neighbours.
From there we took a metro and walked in
the Vozdvizhenka Street area, and saw a huge modern building dominating the
area. It is the Russian State Library, the largest in the country and the fifth
largest in the world for its collection of books. In front of the library
stands a statue of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a famous Russian novelist. The statue depicts
him in a very informal posture, sitting slanting on a pedestal, looking deep in
thought. Within the vicinity of this area there are other museums such as the
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Gogol House museum, and Gallery Aleksander
Shilov. There are other museums, theater and churches in this district, making
it one of the most dense area with cultural heritage.
Taking another metro to the Teatralnaya
Ploschad or Theater Square, in front of Bolshoi theatre, at the side of Teatral'nyy
Proyedz street stands the statue of Karl Marx the founder of Communism. The
statue carved out Marx from a grey
granite block, depicting him as a speaker standing on the podium as if
addressing people with a speech. The pedestal is engraved with his famous
words: "Workers of the World,
Unite!". The sculpturer Lev Kerbel was awarded the Lenin Prize the
following year.
I captured the soul of Moscow in the brief
walk on its streets.
Assigned to interview Friedrich, I was at a
loss as to how to deal with it. He is famous as a controversial philosopher who
declared 'God is Dead', with his views on religions, especially Christianity, very
negative, even though his father was a Lutheran minister. His father died when
Friedrich was only 4 years old so he did not get to witness his son's
'apostasy'.
To prepare for this interview I forced to
read his writings entitled 'Antichrist' which is very demeaning to Christianity
and even considers Christian values as poison for his followers. Of course,
many readers will feel insulted by these provocative remarks and cannot accept
their blasphemy. But by stroking my chest I finally decided to meet Friedrich
in his hometown of Röcken, in Germany.
That day Friedrich received my visit in the
living room of his house, he looked weak, his neck was wrapped in a thick
scarf. It seemed the cold February air had turned him pale. He was not as
fierce as his writing, only his thick mustache made him look like a member of
the military force. His body was hunched, his legs were slightly bent, and his
hands looked like dumplings.
I then opened the conversation:
“Herr Friedrich, straight away, in the book
The Joyful Wisdom you wrote about the Madman proclaiming that “God is Dead”.
How did this happen?”
Friedrich, repeating the Madman's words in
the book ‘The Joyful Wisdom’:
"Where is God gone?" he called
out. "I mean to tell you! We have killed him,—you and I! We are all his
murderers! But how have we done it? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who
gave us the sponge to wipe away the whole horizon? What did we do when we
loosened this earth from its sun? Whither does it now move? Whither do we move?
Away from all suns? Do we not dash on unceasingly? Backwards, sideways,
forwards, in all directions? Is there still an above and below? Do we not
stray, as through infinite nothingness? Does not empty space breathe upon us?
Has it not become colder? Does not night come on continually, darker and
darker? Shall we not have to light lanterns in the morning? Do we not hear the
noise of the grave-diggers who are burying God? Do we not smell the divine
putrefaction?—for even Gods putrefy! God is dead! God remains dead! And we have
killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all
murderers? The holiest and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed,
has bled to death under our knife,—who will wipe the blood from us? With what
water could we cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what sacred games shall we
have to devise? Is not the magnitude of this deed too great for us?
I said:
"Then if God is Dead, who will replace
him?"
Friedrich, as he said in ‘The Joyful
Wisdom’
God is dead: but as the human race is
constituted, there will perhaps be caves for millenniums yet, in which people
will show his shadow,—And we—we have still to overcome his shadow!
Let us be on our guard against saying that
there are laws in nature. There are only necessities: there is no one who
commands, no one who obeys, no one who transgresses. When you know that there
is no design, you know also that there is no chance: for it is only where there
is a world of design that the word ‘chance’ has a meaning.”
I said:
“Besides the Madman proclaiming God is Dead
in that book, there is also the Zarathustra who says: 'Once you said 'God' when
you gazed upon distant seas; but now I have taught you to say 'Superman'. Who
is Superman?”
Friedrich, quoting ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’:
"I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN. Man is something
that is to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass man?
All beings hitherto have created something
beyond themselves: and ye want to be the ebb of that great tide, and would
rather go back to the beast than surpass man?
What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock, a
thing of shame. And just the same shall man be to the Superman: a
laughing-stock, a thing of shame.
Ye have made your way from the worm to man,
and much within you is still worm. Once were ye apes, and even yet man is more
of an ape than any of the apes.
Even the wisest among you is only a
disharmony and hybrid of plant and phantom. But do I bid you become phantoms or
plants?
Lo, I teach you the Superman!
I said:
“Referring to 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', I
grasped the call for man to become Superman by realizing that there is no
objective truth and no objective morality—that God and goodness are all
man-made. Thus man will go beyond the commonly accepted and discover his own
values, and these discovered values will arise from his own essential desire
for power. Is that not so?"
Friedrich, again quoting ‘Thus Spoke
Zarathustra’ randomly:
The beauty of the Superman came unto me as
a shadow. Ah, my brethren! Of what account now are—the Gods to me!
Man is a rope stretched between the animal
and the Superman—a rope over an abyss.
A dangerous crossing, a dangerous
wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting.
What is great in man is that he is a bridge
and not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is an OVER-GOING and a
DOWN-GOING.
I love those that know not how to live
except as down-goers, for they are the over-goers.
I love those who do not first seek a reason
beyond the stars for going down and being sacrifices, but sacrifice themselves to
the earth, that the earth of the Superman may hereafter arrive.
I love him who justifieth the future ones,
and redeemeth the past ones: for he is willing to succumb through the present
ones.
I love him who is of a free spirit and a
free heart: thus is his head only the bowels of his heart; his heart, however,
causeth his down-going.
I love all who are like heavy drops falling
one by one out of the dark cloud that lowereth over man: they herald the coming
of the lightning, and succumb as heralds.
Lo, I am a herald of the lightning, and a
heavy drop out of the cloud: the lightning, however, is the SUPERMAN.
I said:
“The tight-rope walker’s performance is
dangerous as he must traverse a rope suspended over a deep chasm. So too, in
bringing about the Superman, man must live dangerously. He must assume great
risks and never remain stagnant, but despite the dangers always live for the
sake of self-transformation. As Zarathustra explains, those who live in this
manner are the individuals destined to be the harbingers of the Superman. But
who is Superman?”
Friedrich, as he said in ‘Joyful Wisdom’:
“People have never asked me as they should
have done, what the name of Zarathustra precisely meant in my mouth, in the
mouth of the first immoralist; for that which distinguishes this Persian from
all others in the past is the very fact that he was the exact reverse of an
immoralist. Zarathustra was the first to see in the struggle between good and
evil the essential wheel in the working of things. The translation of morality
into the realm of metaphysics, as force, cause, end-in-itself, is his work. But
the very question suggests its own answer. Zarathustra created this most
portentous of all errors,—morality; therefore he must be the first to expose
it. Not only because he has had longer and greater experience of the subject
than any other thinker,—all history is indeed the experimental refutation of
the theory of the so-called moral order of things,—but because of the more
important fact that Zarathustra was the most truthful of thinkers. In his
teaching alone is truthfulness upheld as the highest virtue—that is to say, as
the reverse of the cowardice of the ‘idealist’ who takes to his heels at the
sight of reality. Zarathustra has more pluck in his body than all other
thinkers put together. To tell the truth and to aim straight: that is the first
Persian virtue. Have I made myself clear? ... The overcoming of morality by
itself, through truthfulness, the moralist's overcoming of himself in his
opposite—in me—that is what the name Zarathustra means in my mouth.”
I said:
“Oh, so you mean the Zarathustra, who in
Greek is called Zoroaster, the founding prophet of Zoroastrianism in ancient
Persia over 1000 BC. Some researchers suggest that Zarathustra may have been the
first monotheistic prophet in recorded history. He eliminated all the ancient
gods from the Persian pantheon, leaving only Ahura Mazdah, the 'Wise God', as
the Only True God. This was, at a time when Zarathustra instituted religious
reforms that were broader in scope and more radical than Martin Luther's
challenge to the Roman Catholic Church.
Then Zarathustra established the concept of
morality which can be summed up with the words 'good thoughts, good words, good
deeds.' Living these three principles is how we exercise our free will by
following the law of Asha. The three ethics of Zoroastrianism also pass down
concepts such as the cosmic struggle between right and wrong, between
Asha—Truth and Virtue and Druj—Lie, Evil, and Chaos.”
Friedrich:
“As Zarathustra spoke: ‘ Let us speak thereof, ye wisest ones, even though it be bad.
To be silent is worse; all suppressed truths become poisonous.”
I said:
“Zarathustra urges to discard God and
instead create a new meaning of the earth; one that embraces the personal
desire for self-actualization and self-affirmation, and promotes the
development of a strong body in which natural instincts are seen as a source of
energy to be channeled and sublimated in order to overcome oneself. This new
meaning, Zarathustra announced to be Superman.
Friedrich
then quoted his book the Antichrist:
“Under Christianity neither morality nor
religion has any point of contact with actuality. This purely fictitious world,
greatly to its disadvantage, is to be differentiated from the world of dreams;
the latter at least reflects reality, whereas the former falsifies it, cheapens
it and denies it. Once the concept of ‘nature’ had been opposed to the concept
of ‘God,’ the word ‘natural’ necessarily took on the meaning of ‘abominable’—the
whole of that fictitious world has its sources in hatred of the natural (—the
real!—), and is no more than evidence of a profound uneasiness in the presence
of reality.... This explains everything. Who alone has any reason for living
his way out of reality? The man who suffers under it. But to suffer from
reality one must be a botched reality.... The preponderance of pains over
pleasures is the cause of this fictitious morality and religion: but such a
preponderance also supplies the formula for décadence....”
I said:
“But mankind's rejection of God has existed
since the first humans, Adam and Eve. They chose to freely disobey God's
commandments by eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. According to Christian belief, by his transgression Adam became
an earthly being, a 'natural man' with a 'carnal mind'. You in 'The Antichrist'
advise mankind to repeat Adam's attitude of rejecting God as in the
beginning."
Friedrich quoting ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’:
“At last, after seven days, Zarathustra
raised himself upon his couch, took a rosy apple in his hand, smelt it and
found its smell pleasant. Then did his animals think the time had come to speak
unto him.
‘O Zarathustra,’ said they, ‘now hast thou
lain thus for seven days with heavy eyes: wilt thou not set thyself again upon
thy feet?
Step out of thy cave: the world waiteth for
thee as a garden. The wind playeth with heavy fragrance which seeketh for thee;
and all brooks would like to run after thee.
All things long for thee, since thou hast
remained alone for seven days—step forth out of thy cave! All things want to be
thy physicians!
Did perhaps a new knowledge come to thee, a
bitter, grievous knowledge? Like leavened dough layest thou, thy soul arose and
swelled beyond all its bounds.—'
—O mine animals, answered Zarathustra, talk
on thus and let me listen! It refresheth me so to hear your talk: where there
is talk, there is the world as a garden unto me.
For me—how could there be an outside-of-me?
There is no outside! But this we forget on hearing tones; how delightful it is
that we forget!
Have not names and tones been given unto
things that man may refresh himself with them? It is a beautiful folly,
speaking; therewith danceth man over everything.
How lovely is all speech and all falsehoods
of tones! With tones danceth our love on variegated rainbows.—
—'O Zarathustra,’ said then his animals, ‘to
those who think like us, things all dance themselves: they come and hold out
the hand and laugh and flee—and return.
Everything goeth, everything returneth;
eternally rolleth the wheel of existence. Everything dieth, everything
blossometh forth again; eternally runneth on the year of existence.
For thine animals know it well, O
Zarathustra, who thou art and must become: behold, THOU ART THE TEACHER OF THE
ETERNAL RETURN,—that is now THY fate!”
I said:
"Herr Friedrich, in closing, how do
you want the world to remember you?"
Friedrich:
“As I said in Ecce Homo:’ I am, for
instance, in no wise a bogey man, or moral monster. On the contrary, I am the
very opposite in nature to the kind of man that has been honoured hitherto as
virtuous. Between ourselves, it seems to me that this is precisely a matter on
which I may feel proud. I am a disciple of the philosopher Dionysus, and I
would prefer to be even a satyr than a saint. But just read this book! Maybe I
have here succeeded in expressing this contrast in a cheerful and at the same
time sympathetic manner—maybe this is the only purpose of the present work.
The very last thing I should promise to
accomplish would be to ‘improve’ mankind. I do not set up any new idols; may
old idols only learn what it costs to have legs of clay. To overthrow idols
(idols is the name I give to all ideals) is much more like my business. In
proportion as an ideal world has been falsely assumed, reality has been robbed
of its value, its meaning, and its truthfulness.... The ‘true world’ and the ‘apparent
world’—in plain English, the fictitious world and reality.... Hitherto the lie
of the ideal has been the curse of reality; by means of it the very source of
mankind's instincts has become mendacious and false; so much so that those values
have come to be worshipped which are the exact opposite of the ones which would
ensure man's prosperity, his future, and his great right to a future.”
THE END
This is an imaginary interview in memory of Friedrich Nietzsche.
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