Philaret Drozdov Quotes
If you avoid dying for the honour and freedom of the Fatherland, you will die a criminal or a slave; die for the faith and the Fatherland and you will be granted life and a crown in heaven
St. Philaret Russian Orthodox Metropolitan [Chief Cleric] of Moscow, Statement Urging the Russians to Resist Napoleon’s Invasion, 1813
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Quintus Horatius Flaccus
Quintus Horatius Flaccus. This famous quotation has been echoed in virtually every language and every country of the world. However, see Ernest Hemingway for a counter view.
This line was used in the WPA Federal Theater Project. The play was closed down, because the State Department was distressed that the Federal Theater quoting heads of State might be insulting to the world leaders. Mussolini was another character in the play and he was depicted as the boorish thug that he turned out to be. It was that which offended the government officials who closed the show before it could open. FDR used a similar line 6 years later. See {32529} . Dolores Ibarruri in the Spanish Civil War is quoted with a similar phrase at about the same time. See {604321}
Even as he was being executed for his many war crimes, the Field Marshal exhibited the mental perspective of Germanic patriotism that had brought Europe as well as Germany itself so much death and ruin.
Joseph Addison had earlier written of such a situation. Recent research has strongly suggested that Hale may never have said these words. The American patriots wanted to have heroes and may not have been too worried about the documentation and historical research. See {621112}
The Poles were fighting the Russians. Pulaski was a Field Marshall. This was before he had come to America and fought in the American Revolution.
In one of the most unusual revolutions in world history, Brazil became independent from Portugal via a revolution led by the son of the Portuguese King and heir to the throne, Pedro I. The crown prince of Portugal, led Brazil in her breakaway from Portugal and by popular acclaim became Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil. He is probably the only monarch in history who was the heredity monarch of one kingdom and selected by popular acclaim to the throne of another.
Ataturk had been a military hero, but was very much opposed to war and military adventurism not unlike the Dwight Eisenhower and Colin Powell type leaders. However, the one thing that he thought worth the sacrifice of his own and other Turkish lives was Turkish independence and sovereignty. Historically, the Ottoman Empire which Ataturk finally ended, had dominated half of Europe and all of the Mid East at the cost of sovereignty of other nations and Ataturk saw no more important virtue with dying for than national sovereignty. See {125322} and {584501}.
Compare Nathan Hale's last words.
Referring to the British war dead:
The first two lines of the song became the slogan a few years later of veterans of the Normandy invasion of WWII.
Metropolitan Philaret was Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna and the most influential figure in the Russian Orthodox Church for more than 40 years, from 1821 to 1867.
