Only in America...

Surviving the brutal communist regime of the Soviet Union a marvelous display from aristocratic Czarist Russia is presented to America

by John Horvat II

It must have been a sight to see. Our guide seemed delighted retelling the story of a man so awed by the ornate, seventeenth-century gilded carriage that he could not resist the urge. He just had to sit in it. When he stepped over the small security barrier, the alarms sounded; his attempt was foiled.

A Russian visitor observing the scene commented that the man would never do something like that in his country. This could happen, our guide continued "only in America."

I was intrigued hearing the story. I could not help but think that, in fact, things like this really do happen only in America. But how is it that we can pride ourselves on our jet-age transports and yet admire a fairy-tale carriage? We live in a country fraught with contradictions, and this is but one more.

Unlike some that might regret these contradictions, I do not find them disturbing. Rather, I think them delightful enigmas that invite us to savor and reflect upon them fully. They are astonishing paradoxes that challenge our myths. They represent a spectacular clash of contrasts that reveal a certain captivating side of the American soul.

After all, where else but near pragmatic New York City will one find a traditional English fox hunt where hunters roam an area three times the size of Manhattan? Where but in Kentucky can one find a fully medieval Gothic cathedral modeled after Paris' Notre Dame and St. Denis, and featuring the world's largest stained glass ecclesiastical window? And where would one scramble to secure a ticket to a dazzling aristocratic exhibit on Czarist Russia?

Only in America

"Nicholas and Alexandra: The Last Imperial Family of Tsarist Russia" made its world debut at the new First USA Riverfront Arts Center in Wilmington, Delaware, last August 1. It boasts one of the largest collections of Imperial treasures ever assembled outside Russia. Over five thousand visitors drifted through its fourteen galleries each day. Such was the exhibit's popularity that its closing was postponed from December 31 to February 14.

Crossing the exhibit's threshold, one is transported into another world. Perhaps that is the most striking aspect that helps explain why people flock to it. Although taking us back just 82 short years, the exhibit presents a world very unlike our own.

"We don't have anything like it," lamented one visitor. "We don't have glamour, elegance, and manners anymore." Indeed, every gallery immerses viewers in a world of quality that they cannot help but contrast with our present world. Surely we have lost something very important.

Seeing the gilded state carriage, one imagines it passing through the streets of Moscow carrying the czarina to the 1896 coronation. Standing before the imperial throne evokes thoughts of a royal audience. The display of elegant court gowns and striking military uniforms re-creates something of the marvelous ambience that permeated that whole society.

Of particular interest is a 190-foot panorama of Moscow, painted in 1896 to document the resplendent coronation festivities for Nicholas II. Displayed in its entirety for the first and only time this century, it communicates something of the vigorous enthusiasm of a whole people for the symbolic person of their monarch.

"Why are we so fascinated by these distant monarchs?" I asked a fellow observer.

"People are enamored with royalty," she responded. "I think it's impressive to see such perfection and quality."

I was particularly impressed by the personal link between the monarch and his people, evident in the ornate gift from the peasants of Kiev to their czar, the honors given by the people to members of the Imperial family, and the outpouring of popular affection seen in paintings from the period. One senses a genuine relationship between the czar and the people.

Although the autocratic regime of the Russian czars was far from the medieval organic monarchy, one could catch a glimpse of what a true ruler might be. In our days of media-made leaders, it was refreshing to see a family that lived a legend. They epitomized the very essence of what it was to be Russian.

Finally, however controversial their lives may have been, one senses the brutality of the Communist Revolution, whose partisans massacred the Imperial family. As piercing as the displayed Winchester bayonet used in that heinous act, the Revolution that burst upon Russian society toppled more than just a government and a throne. It overthrew a way of life and a world of tradition, and severed Russia from its roots.

Modernity has taken this world of tradition away from us. I suspect that part of the exhibit's charm is its healthy attempt to reconnect us with tradition. It reminds us that tradition is a necessary good for the human soul, giving color and definition to life. Having lost touch with our own traditions, our souls thirst for that lost something that others had.

When pondering this kind of thing, I often wonder if perhaps beneath the veneer of our hyper-industrial, media-hyped society, a tired America lives. In those ever-rarer moments of calm, I cannot help but think this America harbors a certain yearning, however fleeting, for the higher things of life - things like honor, excellence, and even grandeur.

And I suspect that in these only-in-America contradictions, found all over the country, we see much more of the real America than in the pre-packaged Hollywood images of ourselves.