LOKI’S RUSSIA

The class arrived in Saint Petersburg on a Wednesday. Our first trip amazed me through the red walls of the Hermitage museum. The Peacock Clock’s mechanical movements mesmerized me as something I would have expected from a modern Steam-Punk Animation. In front of the Peacock Clock, the man with an eye patch first appeared. He opened the conversation by explaining the artist. He claimed James Cox’s creations during his time as a goldsmith were quite phenomenal and nothing like anything imagined today. This clock was purchased as a gift by Prince Potiomkin for Czarina Catherine. He informed just like this clock, Russia’s history hides more mysteries than any other timepiece because the writer is the Norse god, Loki.

Loki’s first encounter with Russia followed the death of Czar Ivan IV Vasilyevich. This death led to what is known as the Time of Troubles. Russia went through more leaders during this time than Boris Yeltsin went through Prime Ministers. An unstable time for Russia. Russia’s uncertain future looked glum. Loki heard the prayers. He recommended the 16-year old Mikhail Romanov before an assembly of Russian Lords to take the throne as the new Czar. After they agreed with this decision, Loki journeyed to the monastery to convince the young man to accept the position. The Romanov Dynasty commenced.

After the story, we split only to meet the next day at the Peterhof Palace. Here he told the story of Franz Lefort, the adviser to Peter the Great, whom he claimed was Loki.

The class split to wander among the golden fountains of Peterhof Palace. The man from the Hermitage Museum appeared. The following story was very similar to the last. This time a man named Franz Lefort, a General Admiral initially from Switzerland, portrayed Loki. Like the earlier time, Loki’s significant intervention followed the death of a Czar, Fyodor Alekseyevich. Sofia, the younger sister, took command of the throne, and Peter fled to the Troitse-Sergiev Monastery, afraid his older sister would have him arrested and sentenced to death. Loki went to the monastery to convince Peter Romanov to take the throne from Sophia. Peter Romanov and Loki became close friends. Loki offered many of the Westernization ideas of Europe to Peter, which helped push Russia into a new age. Loki always prepared Peter for the possibility of war with strategies and games. One such method led to Peter’s “Grand Embassy,” which delegated support for the Czar’s war against the Ottoman Empire and recruited European Officers to fight for Russia. This strategy was cut short with the Streltsy Uprising in 1698, which required suppression. After many victories, Loki desired to return home to Asgard to inform his father of these accomplishments. Unfortunately, to transcend to Asgard meant death on earth. The Czar celebrated Lefort’s departure. Years later, Loki returned with high expectations of a much different Russia.

On the last day in Saint Petersburg, we went to the Church of our Savior on spilled blood. The church is covered in biblical scenery both inside and out. Our teacher informed us this was the place of Alexander II’s assassination in 1881. The man with the patched eye joined as we walked through the corridors for the tail of Loki’s return.

Loki returned discouraged, this time as the People’s Will strategist architect, Andrey Ivanovich Zhelyabov. In 1880, he once said during a conference in Kharkov, Ukraine, “History moves frighteningly slowly one has to give it a push.” Loki had been amazed by all the changes during Peter the Great’s Era but returned to find an outdated Russia, which he no longer related. The country appeared at a standstill and failed to progress as Loki had hoped during the departure. He desired revenge for this failure and recruited people to push a new agenda against the royal family. Examples of these were the explosion in the Winter Palace on February 5th, 1880; 11 people died, and 57 soldiers were wounded on duty. On August 16th, one of the bridges was blown up. They succeeded in Czar Alexander II’s assassination after exiting his carriage while en route to the Winter Palace. The man’s story closed. That night we journeyed back to Moscow certain the man with the eye patch would remain in Saints Petersburg.

Saturday the school scheduled us a chance to journey to the center of the Russian government with a visit to Vladimir Lenin’s mausoleum. Many of the students slept in this day instead of catching the 9:00 AM bus the school rented for our trip.

The other building towered the tiny mausoleum. Vladimir Lenin was one of the early revolutionaries who lead Russia into the Soviet Era. His body lay on a bed of red silk underneath some glass. It looked so real, like a wax figure of a celebrity with each hair still positioned as it had been when he was alive.

After we left the mausoleum, we went to Macadamia, a European restaurant nearby. Those who finished first went outside to enjoy the view. The man with the eye patch pushes down on his cane with every step. He motioned me closer, ready to tell another story about Loki. He mentioned Loki returned during the time of Lenin, known as the revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Trotsky’s many disagreements with Lenin were set aside to join the Bolsheviks to play a decisive role. He built the Red Army, as war commissar, to prevail against the White Russian forces during the civil war. “Trotsky played a crucial role in keeping the Bolshevik regime alive.” He expected his star to rise and for once show the Soviets the face who had paved Russia’s History, but this changed. Joseph Stalin took Lenin’s place. Stalin later ordered Ramon Mercader to assassinate Loki, which occurred on 20 August 1940. Loki stayed out of Russia for many years. When he returned, he vowed to collapse the Soviet Empire internally.

Sunday offered the opportunity to take the Metro to Arbat Street, unfortunaterly I accidentally switched to the wrong metro. Eventually, downtown appeared, and the opportunity to look at some of the local souvenir shops. While sitting on a white bench wrapped around a tree, the familiar man with the patch sat in the empty gap beside me. He informed me this would be his last story of Loki.

Loki took his last opportunity to set the stage for what Russia is today as Boris Yeltsin. The communist party still had power, and an ordinary man would have died standing up to the Communist party the way Loki did. Gorbachev created half ideas, never completing any. Each failure for Gorbachev pushed Loki closer to success. Loki, as Yeltsin challenged the communist party on the verge of collapse. The communist attempted a coup in 1991, and the tables turned. “Yeltsin’s bravery in facing down the coup leaders transformed him into a national leader. Gorbachev, meanwhile, emerged from the coup not only fatally weakened, but dependent on Yeltsin”.During the confusion, Gorbachev sign papers on television banning the communist party.

Loki had his hands full after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Anyone can tear down a government but building a new one, now that was the challenge. Loki needed a new constitution. He pressured the Russian Parliament. He took extreme measures like those from his days as Zhelyabov. He used military force to settle the 1993 constitutional crisis. Every detail appeared to happen in a blur as the constitution passed. Many mindsets stayed frozen in the Soviet days. Loki needed change to happen quickly. This shock treatment tactic to change everything at once revealed everything Loki hoped not to happen. He believed this was the only way to move forward but regretted the problems, such as inflation, that followed. The privatization of land failed as much of the private property ended in the hands of the oligarchs. Many years he had advised leaders successfully, but now Loki saw the foundation collapse around him. Now in the position of a leader, he made terrible decisions with the oligarchs. He was just as bad as all the other Russians who had sold their vouchers in companies for much less than they were worth. The Russian Parliament denied most of his request and attempted to impeach him. Loki finally realized he could not succeed as a leader but could as an adviser. He looked for talent and set the stage for his heir in a man known as Vladimir Putin.

Loki left office in 1999. Vladimir Putin became the new President. He even switched to Prime Minister for a term and increased the time a President can stay in office. All of this was a part of Loki’s plan to keep him in office as long as possible or as long as it takes to fix Russia. People may claim these elections rigged, and many other rumors occur about Putin, even after Loki’s most recent death. Putin is in office because a god wrote him there. Putin is there for a reason, and someday the rest of the world will understand.

The man lifted his hand into the air as he leaned forward on his cane for balance and walked away. No more words passed. A distant feeling emerged as though this would be the last time we would meet with legs frozen in the middle of Arbat Street. The stories replayed in a cycle as I revisited every detail. The man never offered his name, and he could be a disillusioned person who followed me from St. Petersburg. The question raised: What if the stories are true?

Each step felt stiff as though carrying extra weight. A tiny doll occupied my path back to the apartment as the only souvenir purchased. Over the next couple of weeks, the classes finished in Russia, and as we set course for the United States. The stories of the man with the eye patch followed home. He showed the similarities between so many advisers to political leaders throughout history and its effects on Russia’s overall story.