Sunday, December 09, 2007
Even Bolsheviks loved Spaniels
Regular readers know that we love Springer Spaniels around here. This is not difficult to do, since they are friendly, loyal, very easy to train, and have floppy ears. Indeed, Spaniels are so easy to love that even the Bolsheviks, who were willing to kill almost anybody, were merciful when it came to Spaniels. From Niall Ferguson's outstanding book (which I unreservedly recommend, by the way), The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West
The very insecurity of the Revolution encouraged terrorist tactics. In the early hours of July 17, just hours after Lenin had wired a Danish paper that the "exczar" was "safe", the Bolshevik commissar Yakov Yurovsky and a makeshift firing squad of twelve assembled the royal family and their remaining servants in the basement of the commandeered house in Ekaterinburg where they were being held and, after minimal preliminaries, shot them at point-blank range. Trotsky had wanted a spectacular show trial, but Lenin decided it would be better "not [to] leave the Whites a live banner". Unfortunately, because the women had large amounts of jewellery concealed in the linings of their clothes, they were all but bullet-proof. One of the executioners was very nearly killed by a ricochet. Contrary to legend, Princess Anastasia did not survive but was finished off with a bayonet. Only the royal spaniel, Joy, was spared.
There really is no such thing as too many Spaniels.2 Comments:
By 
, at
Sun Dec 09, 12:48:00 PM:
Springer Spaniels are indeed wonderful dogs. Almost on a par with Viszla and German Shorthaired Pointer in temperament and love of the outdoors. That long coat does make the aftermath of a joyous field outing much more tedious than a Shorthair or Viszla.
By , at
Mon Dec 10, 02:07:00 PM:
Well, after months of reading your blog, I didn't realize your were a fan of Springer Spaniels... congrats! As I write this, our English Springer Spaniel Tucker is in my office, lightly dozing, after a hard afternoon of chasing a tennis ball through the snow. Without a doubt, they are the *best*. Thanks for the pix.
