Tuesday 28 August 2018

From the Poem of Ecstasy to the Molotov cocktail

An odd nominal connection: Anu Garg tells us that "Soviet foreign minister, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (1890-1986) was born as Vyacheslav Skryabin, but he took the name Molotov (from Russian molot: hammer). During the Winter War between the USSR and Finland (1939-1940), when the Soviets received international criticism for the bombing of Helsinki, Molotov claimed they were delivering humanitarian aid. In response, the Finns sarcastically called those cluster bombs Molotov bread baskets. If the Soviets were bringing bread to the party, the least the Finns could do was bring drinks. They called their makeshift incendiary devices Molotov cocktail and used them to destroy Soviet tanks."

Pianistic prodigy and visionary composer Alexander Scriabin wrote his Poem of Ecstasy in the early years of the twentieth century. There is no evidence that he was related to Molotov.


No comments: