Anna M. (ILI) - Love of History, Reconstruction of the Past

The spirit of the time. I really like walking around our Kremlin: when I go there, I feel that spirit of the time.

It seems to me that I can even see how people lived there at the time when the Kremlin was being built. Sometimes I suddenly imagine how battles took place there—how they climbed the walls, shot, returned fire. In the Kremlin, historical time can be felt.

I love the historical part of the city: walking along the streets with old, dilapidated buildings—there I feel that time. Then I understand that I live in a rich city, rich in historical events, and that is very important to me. Before, I lived in military towns—they are empty, there is no history there. And where it’s empty, it’s not interesting.

I really love looking at old paintings in museums. I immerse myself in that time. There is a person in the painting, belonging to some era. I try to look closely and understand what they felt, how they lived, their facial expression. Their lives were completely different from ours. It was harder then, harsher, more brutal. Perhaps simpler in some ways—we have more complexity now; there was also the animal world then, but the strongest survived. I look at paintings and think: if a person was painted, that means they were one of the best representatives of that time.

<…> I really love reading historical books. But preferably factual material, not invented. When I read Peter the Great as a child, I sincerely believed that everything happened exactly like that. And when I later read actual history and realized there was a lot of fabrication, I experienced deep disappointment. That’s why now I want to read documentarily accurate works, so that impressions are formed on the basis of correct facts.