This is Mikhail Frunze, a Romanian revolutionary who became head of the Red Army after achieving many striking successes against the Whites in the Civil War. He subsequently fell out with Stalin and died, apparently of accidental chloroform poisoning, in 1925 while being operated on for stomach cancer. Many believe Stalin engineered the accident. This statue stands opposite a Russian army artillery academy, and when I sat on the bottom step to rest my camera on my knee to take the picture without blurring the picture, the officer on the door of the huge building came down to tell me I was on the "territory" of the Russian Army and that photographing, even pointing away from the building was forbidden. When I said ничего, and carried taking my pictures, he smiled rather sheepishly and walked back up to his place on the door.Sunday 24 June 2007
Moscow miscellaneous
This is Mikhail Frunze, a Romanian revolutionary who became head of the Red Army after achieving many striking successes against the Whites in the Civil War. He subsequently fell out with Stalin and died, apparently of accidental chloroform poisoning, in 1925 while being operated on for stomach cancer. Many believe Stalin engineered the accident. This statue stands opposite a Russian army artillery academy, and when I sat on the bottom step to rest my camera on my knee to take the picture without blurring the picture, the officer on the door of the huge building came down to tell me I was on the "territory" of the Russian Army and that photographing, even pointing away from the building was forbidden. When I said ничего, and carried taking my pictures, he smiled rather sheepishly and walked back up to his place on the door.
