martedì 6 ottobre 2020
László Almásy, 22 August/3 November 1895 – 22 March 1951Explorer
László Almásy
László Ede Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós (Hungarian: Almásy László Ede; pronounced [ˈɒlmaːsi ˈlaːsloː ˈɛdɛ]; 22 August/3 November 1895 – 22 March 1951) was a Hungarian aristocrat, motorist, desert explorer, aviator, Scout-leader and sportsman who also served as the basis for the protagonist in both Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient (1992) and the movie adaptation of the same name (1996).
Biography
Almásy was born in Borostyánkő, Austria-Hungary (today Bernstein im Burgenland, Austria), into a Hungarian noble family (his father was the zoologist and ethnographer György Almásy), and, from 1911 to 1914, was educated at Berrow School, situated in a private house in Eastbourne, England, where he was tutored by Daniel Wheeler.
World War I
During World War I, Almásy joined the 11th Hussars along with his brother Janos. Almásy saw action against the Serbians, and then the Russians on the Eastern Front. In 1916, he transferred to the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops. After being shot down over Northern Italy in March 1918, Almásy saw out the remainder of the war as a flight instructor.
Interwar period
After the war, Almásy returned to join the Eastbourne Technical Institute, in East Sussex, England. From November 1921 to June 1922, he lodged at the same address in Eastbourne. He was a member of the pioneering Eastbourne Flying Club.
Returning to Hungary, Almásy became the personal secretary of the Bishop of Szombathely, János Mikes, one of the leading figures of the abortive post-war Habsburg restoration attempt. The young Almásy became involved in these events by accident as the driver of Bishop Mikes when King Karl IV of Hungary returned to Hungary in 1921 to claim the throne, and was helped by Mikes to reach Budapest (from where he was politely but firmly sent back to Austria by Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary). After he was introduced, the King continued to refer to him as "Count Almásy", confusing László with another branch of the family. This was the basis for Almásy using the title to his advantage, mostly in Egypt among the Egyptian Royalty to open doors that would have remained closed to a commoner. However, he himself admitted in private conversations that the title was not legitimate.
After 1921, Almásy worked as a representative of the Austrian car firm Steyr Automobile in Szombathely, Hungary, and won many car races in the Steyr colours. He managed to persuade a wealthy friend, Prince Antal Eszterházy, to join him in driving a Steyr from Alexandria to Khartoum, before embarking on a hunting expedition to the Dinder River, a feat which had never before been accomplished by an ordinary automobile.
The 1926 drive from Egypt to the Sudan along the Nile proved to be the turning point in his life. Almásy developed an interest in the area and later returned there to drive and hunt. He also demonstrated Steyr vehicles in desert conditions in 1929 with two Steyr lorries and led his first expedition to the desert. In 1931 Almásy made arrangements with a Cairo - Cape Town expedition, led by captain G. Malins, to make a detour and accompany him to Uweinat and northern Sudan on what was planned to be the first exploration of the Libyan Desert by aeroplane. He was accompanied by Count Nándor Zichy. They took off from Mátyásföld Airport Budapest on 21 August in a De Havilland Gipsy Moth that had been purchased by Zichy in England a few weeks earlier. Four days later they crashed in a storm near Aleppo. Both survived with scratches only, but the aircraft was a total wreck. The Syrian papers reported them dead, and the Malins expedition left Cairo without them.
Exploring the Libyan Desert
In 1932, Almásy embarked on an expedition to find the legendary Zerzura, "The Oasis of the Birds," with three Britons, Sir Robert Clayton, Squadron Leader H.W.G.J. Penderel and Patrick Clayton. The expedition used both cars and a De Havilland Gipsy Moth aeroplane owned by Sir Robert Clayton. While Almásy went with two cars to Kufra Oasis, Sir Robert and Penderel discovered a valley with green vegetation inside the Gilf Kebir plateau, which they presumed to be one of the three hidden valleys of Zerzura. Their attempts to reach the mouth of the valley by car failed.
Later in 1932, Almásy's sponsor and travel companion Sir Robert Clayton East-Clayton died of acute spinal poliomyelitis contracted within two months of completing the spring 1932 expedition to the Gilf Kebir. (Robert East-Clayton died, not from a crash-landing as described in The English Patient but from an infection possibly picked up during the desert expedition. However, East-Clayton's wife Dorothy, also a pilot, did die in a peculiar plane accident, at Brooklands on 15 September 1933.)
Despite the setbacks, Almásy succeeded in organizing another Zerzura expedition for the spring of 1933, this time with the desert explorer Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein as his sponsor. He was accompanied by Squadron Leader H.W.G.J. Penderel, the Austrian writer Richard Bermann (pen name Arnold Hollriegel) and the German cinematographer and photographer Hans Casparius. This expedition succeeded in entering the valley discovered the previous year, and circumstantial evidence collected from an old Tibou at Kufra Oasis confirmed the identity of the valleys as Zerzura. Later on this expedition, Almasy succeeded in entering Wadi Talh, (the third valley of Zerzure), and at the very end of the expedition Almásy, together with Lodovico di Caporiacco, discovered the prehistoric rock paintings of Ain Dua at Jebel Uweinat.
In the autumn of 1933 Almásy embarked on a further expedition, this time with the noted German ethnographer Leo Frobenius, his assistant Hans Rhotert and draughtswoman Elisabeth Pauli (later Elisabeth Jenssen). They copied and cataloged the known prehistoric rock art sites, and made a large number of new discoveries at Karkur Talh (Jebel Uweinat) and the famous Cave of Swimmers at Wadi Sora in the Gilf Kebir.
In the spring of 1934 Almásy led an expedition organised by the Royal Egyptian Automobile Club to the Gilf Kebir and Jebel Uweinat. The expedition erected a memorial tablet for Prince Kelam el Din (who died the previous year, giving another blow to Almásy's ambitions) at the southern tip of the Gilf Kebir plateau. The note left by the expedition now rests in the Heinrich Barth Institut in Köln. At Jebel Uweinat Almásy visited the Sudan Defence Force camp commanded by Captain Francis Godfrey Bertram Arkwright, and together they made some new rock art discoveries at the south of Jebel Uweinat. Almásy also visited and copied a panel of paintings found by Captain Arkwright at Jebel Kissu.
In February 1935, Almásy and his colleague Hansjoachim von der Esch became the first Europeans to re-establish contact with the Magyarab tribe, living on an island of the Nile opposite Wadi Halfa in Nubia, who speak Arabic but are believed to be the descendants of Nubian women and Hungarian soldiers serving in the Ottoman army in the 16th century. The accounts of Almásy and von der Esch differ substantially. While Almásy presents the discovery as his own, von der Esch describes the encounter as having been made after Almásy left Wadi Halfa with Count Zsigmond Széchenyi and Jenő Horthy on a hunting trip to the Wadi Howar. As Almásy's only illustration shows a group of Egyptian fellahin surrounding a car (no car could have made it over to the island), while von der Esch shows several photos taken on the island, the story of the latter is more likely to be true.
In April 1935, again accompanied by Hansjoachim von der Esch, Almásy explored the Great Sand Sea from Ain Dalla to Siwa Oasis, the last remaining 'blank spot' untouched by earlier explorers or Patrick Clayton's surveys. In his book Almásy claims to have been in the service of the Egyptian Government, a statement which led some authors to claim that Almásy was a cartographer of the Libyan Desert in a formal capacity. However, as at the time Patrick Clayton was still the "official" Libyan Desert desert surveyor of the Desert Survey department of the Survey of Egypt, and the two were definitely not on good terms, this claim is very unlikely, with no surviving documentary proof.
In 1939 with the help of Hansjoachim von der Esch, Almásy published a German edition of a compilation (not the entire text) of selected chapters from his books published in Hungarian.
End of his stay in Egypt
Almásy never had the means to finance his own expeditions; he was always reliant on financial backers, some of whom raised the suspicion of the British Authorities in Egypt. By 1934 both the Italians and the British had suspected him of spying for the other side (though there is no conclusive proof that he did so for either), and in 1935 he was refused permission by the British military authorities to make another expedition to Uweinat. His attention turned to another passion, aviation, and he was deeply involved with setting up gliding activities in Egypt under the auspices of the Royal Egyptian Aviation Club (the president of which, Taher Pasha, was also providing accommodation for Almásy). There is an oft-quoted urban legend (spread mainly in Hungary) that the Almaza Air Base was named after him, but this has absolutely no foundation; the first airfield of Cairo had carried this name since its establishment during World War I, well before Almásy ever visited Egypt.
World War II
After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Almásy had to return to Hungary. The British suspected that he was a spy for the Italians, and vice versa. While there is no evidence to suggest that he was involved in any clandestine intelligence gathering prior to the War, he was clearly not welcome by authorities on either side of the Egypt-Libya border. Hungary formally joined the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact on 20 November 1940.
Nikolaus Ritter of the German military intelligence service, the Abwehr, recruited Almásy in Budapest. As a Hungarian reserve officer, he was permitted to wear the uniform of a Hauptmann (Captain/Flight Lieutenant) of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe. Initially he was working on maps and country descriptions prepared by the Abteilung IV. Mil.Geo., then he was assigned to an Abwehr commando in Libya under the command of Major Nikolaus Ritter, using his aviation and desert experience in various missions. After the failure of Plan el Masri and the first Operation Condor to airdrop two German spies into Egypt (ending with the ditching of one of the two aircraft and the injury of Ritter), Almásy assumed command of the unit.
Almásy's greatest achievement during his wartime stay in North Africa was the successful completion of Operation Salam, the infiltration of two German spies through the Libyan Desert behind enemy lines in a manner similar to the Allied Long Range Desert Group. Operation Salam was not a covert operation; Almásy and his team were wearing German uniforms. They used captured British (Canadian-built) Ford cars and trucks with German crosses surreptitiously incorporated into the vehicles' camouflage pattern. Almásy successfully delivered the two Abwehr agents, Johannes Eppler and his radio operator Hans-Gerd Sandstede, into Assiut in Egypt after crossing the Gilf Kebir and Kharga Oasis. Unknown to Almásy and the German Command, British code breakers at Bletchley Park had succeeded in breaking the Abwehr hand cypher that Almásy and the spies used for their wireless transmissions. A young intelligence analyst at Bletchley Park, Jean Alington (later Jean Howard), noticed the signal trail. However, as a warning to the British HQ ME in Cairo arrived too late (due to the imminent attack of Rommel), Afrika Korps messages had a higher priority in deciphering and analysis, and Almásy was able to return to his starting point at Gialo unhindered. The subsequent Operation Condor, the actual spy mission of Eppler and Sandstede, was a complete failure. They were both captured within six weeks of reaching Cairo.
Almásy received the Iron Cross (Eisernes Kreuz) and a promotion to captain for the success of Operation Salam. However, his services in North Africa were no longer needed and he returned to Hungary, where he wrote a short book on his wartime experiences in Libya. There is some evidence that he remained in contact with the Abwehr until late 1943.
Post war
After the war, as the Communists took over in Hungary, Almásy was arrested for alleged war crimes and treason for joining the armed forces of a foreign power. The charge was based mainly on his wartime book. However, during the trial it emerged that neither the prosecutor nor the judge had read the book, as it was placed on the banned books list by the Soviet occupation forces. Eventually Almásy was acquitted with the help of some influential friends. However, after the trial the Soviet NKVD also started looking for him.
He escaped from the country, supposedly with the aid of the British Intelligence, which reportedly bribed Hungarian Communist officials to enable his release. The bribe was paid by Alaeddin Moukhtar, cousin of King Farouk of Egypt. The British then spirited him into British occupied Austria using a false passport under the name of Josef Grossman, then on to Rome, where he was escorted by Ronnie Waring, later known as the Duke of Valderano. When Almásy was pursued by a "hit squad" from the Soviet "Committee for State Security" (Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosty or KGB), Valderano put him on an aeroplane to Cairo.
A note of caution needs to be exercised when taking Valderano's account at face value. While he claimed to have been working for MI6 as the Rome "resident", there is no corroborating proof that Almásy was helped by British Intelligence, and the story was only released following the wide media publicity generated by the 1996 film The English Patient. If indeed Almásy had any contacts with British intelligence during and after the War as rumoured, any evidence is still lying in unreleased intelligence files.
Back in Egypt, Almásy supported himself with odd jobs, some related to aviation, but also leading hunting parties to other parts of Africa. His last brief moment of glory came in December 1950, when King Farouk appointed him Director of the newly founded Egyptian Desert Research Institute.
Death
Almásy became ill in 1951 during a visit in Austria. On 22 March, he died of complications induced by amoebic dysentery—contracted during a trip to Mozambique the previous year—in a hospital in Salzburg, where he was then buried. The epitaph
on his grave, erected by Hungarian aviation and desert enthusiasts in
1995, honors him as a "Pilot, Saharaforscher und Entdecker der Oase
Zarzura" (Pilot, Sahara Explorer, and Discoverer of the Zerzura Oasis).[citation needed]
Scouting
From the beginning he was a member of the Scout movement. In 1921 Almásy became the International Commissioner of the Hungarian Scout Association. With Count Pál Teleki, he took part in organizing the 4th World Scout Jamboree in Gödöllő, Hungary, where Almásy presented the Air Scouts to Robert Baden-Powell on August 9, 1933.[citation needed]
The English Patient
Almásy remained a little-known desert explorer until 1996, when he (or rather his fictitious character) was thrown into the limelight by the Academy Award-winning film The English Patient. The screenplay was based on the 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje. While the storyline is pure fiction, some of the characters and the events surrounding the search for Zerzura and the Cave of Swimmers have been adapted from Geographical Journal articles describing the expeditions of the real Almásy into the Libyan Desert. The publicity attracted by the film helped uncover many hitherto unknown details about Almásy's life, but also resulted in a huge volume of inaccurate or outright untrue claims, mostly related to his World War II activities, which continue to circulate in print and on the web. Much of these inaccuracies and false stories has been examined and refuted in the recent (2013) book on Operation Salam by Kuno Gross, Michael Rolke and András Zboray. In the movie, a native guide describes to Almásy the physical location of the cave; "A mountain the shape of a woman's back". Almásy then renders a drawing and some text that he then includes in the book that he keeps for himself.
Half-length portrait of László Almásy, Hungarian Geographical Museum, Érd, Hungary. Sculptor: Béla Domonkos (1995). Loc.: in the garden of Wimpffen mansion complex.
Laszlo Almasy è stato un esploratore ed un aviatore ungherese.
E' stato sconosciuto ai più fino a quando, nel 1996, uscì il film "Il paziente inglese",
vincitore di 9 premi Oscar: la sceneggiatura era basata sul romanzo di
Michael Ondaatje, che si basò sulla vita di Almasy e sulle sue avventure
nel deserto africano per creare i personaggi e l'ambientazione della
sua storia.
Laszlo nacque nel 1895, nell'impero austro-ungarico, in una nobile famiglia ungherese. Anche suo padre, Gyorgy, era un esploratore: viaggiò nella regione del fiume Illi, nell'area di Issik Kul e le montagne del Tien-San.
Dal 1911 al 1914, Laszlo studiò alla Berrow School, in Inghilterra, sotto la tutela dell'istitutore Daniel Wheeler.
Allo scoppio della Prima guerra mondiale ritornò in patria dove si arruolò l'11° reggimento Ussari
insieme a suo fratello Janos: Laszlo combatté contro i Serbi e contro i
Russi sul fronte orientale. Nel 1916 fu trasferito nell'aviazione.
Fu ferito durante un combattimento sul fronte italiano, nel marzo del
1918; dopo questo evento passò gli ultimi mesi di guerra come istruttore
di volo.
Dopo la fine della guerra tornò in
Inghilterra per completare gli studi, iscrivendosi al Eastbourne
Technical Istitute, nell'East Sussex: fu uno dei membri fondatori del pionieristico club di volo di Eastbourne.
Ritornato in Ungheria divenne il segretario privato del vescovo di Szombathely, Janos Mikes, una delle figure centrali del tentativo di restaurazione asburgica post-bellica. Il giovane Almasy fu direttamente
coinvolto in questi eventi come autista del vescovo quando Carlo
d'Asburgo ritornò in Ungheria nel 1921 e fu aiutato da Mikes a
raggiungere Budapest. Laszlo ebbe quindi modo di conoscere l'ex
imperatore che si riferiva a lui come al "conte Almasy", confondendolo
con un altro ramo della famiglia che deteneva quel titolo. E' a partire -
e per questo - evento che Almasy si face chiamare conte, soprattutto una volta che sarebbe andato in Egitto. Privatamente ammise che il titolo era illegittimo.
Dopo il 1921, Laszlo lavorò come rappresentante dell'azienda automobilistica austriaca "Steyr Automobile" partecipando a molte corse con i colori della Steyr.
Allo stesso periodo risale la prima avventura in Africa.
Con un ricco amico, il principe Antal Eszterhazy,
viaggiò in macchina da Alessandria, in Egitto, a Khartum in Sudan,
prima di partecipare ad una battuta di caccia nell'area del fiume
Dandera, un affluente del Nilo: nessuno aveva mai compiuto un viaggio simile in macchina.
L'avventura fu un punto di svolta nella vita di Almasy, che sviluppò una grande interesse per l'Africa, dove ritornò più volte.
Ne approfittò anche per testare le auto della Steyr nel deserto, e nel 1929 partecipò alla sua prima spedizione nel Sahara.
Nel 1931 Amlasy si organizzò per prendere parte ad una spedizione dal Cairo a Città del Capo guidata dal capitano G. Malins; Laszlo aveva intenzione di deviare per raggiungere il Gebel Auenat ed il Sudan settentrionale: l'intento era quello di esplorare il deserto libico via aereo, insieme al conte Nandor Zichy.
I due partirono dall'aeroporto Matyasfold di Budapest, il 21 agosto, su un De Hallivand DH.60 Moth, che era stato acquistato da Zichy, in Inghilterra, qualche mese prima. Per quattro giorni rimasero intrappolati in una tempesta vicina da Aleppo:
entrambi rimasero illesi, salvo qualche graffio, ma il velivolo era
ridotto ad un rottame. I giornali siriani li diedero morti, quindi
Malins partì senza di loro.
Nel 1932, Almasy iniziò una spedizione per trovare la leggendaria Zerzura, "l'oasi degli uccelli", insieme a tra britannici: sir Robert Clayton, il capitano Hubert Penderel e Patrick Clayton.
Sir Robert Clayton e sua moglie Dorothy sono serviti come base per i
personaggi di Geoffrey e Kathrine Clifton: Dorothy, come la sua
controparte letteraria Kathrine, morì veramente in seguito ad un
incidente aereo, a differenza del marito, che morì a causa di una poliomielite acuta contratta, in primavera, probabilmente durante la spedizione del Kebir, nel 1932.
Ma è da escludersi una relazione sentimentale tra Dorothy e Laszlo, visto che quest'ultimo era, molto probabilmente, omosessuale: da alcune sue lettere emerge una relazione con un ufficiale della Wehrmacht, Hans Entholt.
La spedizione si servì sia di automobili
sia dell'aereo di Clayton, sempre un Hallivand. Mentre Laszlo era
andato con due macchine all'Oasi di Kufra, sir Robert e Penderel scoprirono una valle con vegetazione verde nell'altopiano del Gilf Kebir:
ipotizzarono quindi che fosse una delle tre vallate nascoste di
Zerzura. I tentativi di raggiungere la bocca della valle via macchina
fallirono.
Almasy organizzò un'altra spedizione per
trovare Zerzura nell'estate del 1933; questa volta era accompagnato da
Penderel, dallo scrittore austriaco Richard Bermann e dal fotografo
tedesco Hans Casparius. Questa volta riuscirono ad entrare nella valle
scoperta l'anno scorso: le prove raccolte confermarono l'ipotesi sulla valle di Zerzura. In seguito, Almasy riuscì ad entrare a Wadi Talh, la terza valle di Zerzura, e, alla fine della spedizione, insieme a Lodovico di Caporiacco, scoprì le pitture preistoriche su roccia di Ain Dua, a Jebel Uweinat.
Nell'autunno dello stesso anni, Almasy
si unì ad un'altra avventura, questa volta con il noto etnografo tedesco
Leo Frobenius, il suo assistente Hans Rhotert e la disegnatrice
Elisabeth Pauli. Insieme copiarono e catalogarono un gran numero di siti
di arte rupestre, oltre che a fare altre scoperte: la più famosa è
quella della Caverna dei Nuotatori a Wadi Sora.
Nella primavera del 1934, Laszlo guidò una spedizione del Royal Egyptian Automobile Club a
Gilf Kebir e a Jebel Uwenait: eressero una tavoletta memoriale in onore
del principe Kelam el Din, all'estremità meridionale dell'altopiano del
Gilf Kebir. L'iscrizione è ora conservata al Heinrich Barth Istitute di
Colonia.
A Jebel Uweanit, Almasy incontrò il
campo della Sudan Defence Force, comandato dal capitano Francis
Arkwright, e insieme i due scoprirono altre dipinti su roccia a sud
dell'altopiano. Oltre a ciò. Laszlo ricopiò un pannello di pitture
ritrovato dal capitano Arkwright a Jebel Kissu.
Nel febbraio 135, Almasy e il suo collega
tedesco Hansjoachim von der Esch divennero i primi europei a
ristabilire i contatti con le tribù Magyarab,
che vivevano su un isola nel Nilo, di fronte a Wadi Halfa in Nubia:
questa popolazione parlava arabo ma si riteneva che discendessero dalle
donne numidiche e dai soldati ungheresi che avevano servito nell'impero
ottomano nel XVI secolo.
Tuttavia le versione della storia di Almasy e di Esch differivano.
Almasy descrive la scoperta come suo, mentre Esch sostiene che
l'incontro fosse avvenuto dopo la partenza di Laszlo da Wadi Halfa
insieme al conte Zsigmond Szechenyi e Jeno Horthy per una battuta di
caccia a Wadi Howar. Molto probabilmente è vera la versione di Esch che,
a suo favore, può portare molte fotografie scattate sull'isola, al
contrario di Almasy che possiede solo un'illustrazione di fellahin
egiziani che circondano un'auto - che non sarebbe potuta giungere
sull'isola.
L'aprile successivo, sempre con Esh, Laszlo visitò il Grande Mare di Sabbia da Ain Dalla all'Oasi di Siwa, l'ultima area che era rimasta inesplorata.
Nelle sue memorie, Almasy sostenne di essere stato al servizio del
governo egiziano: questa affermazione spinse molti a considerarlo un
vero e proprio cartografo del deserto libico. Tuttavia non si sa quando
fare affidamento su questa sua affermazione, visto che il ruolo era già
detenuto da Patrick Clayton - che lavorava per il Desert Survey - il quale non andava d'accordo con Almasy.
Nel 1939, con l'aiuto di Esch, Almasy pubblicò in tedesco alcuni dei capitoli del suo libro, scritto in ungherese.
Almasy non finanziò mai nessuna delle
sue spedizioni, fu sempre dipendente dai dei sostenitori finanziari,
alcuni dei quali potrebbero essere stati le autorità britanniche in
Egitto. Ma, a partire dal 1934, sia gli Italiani che i Britannici
cominciarono a sospettare che lui fosse una spia - anche se non c'è
nessuna prova che lo fosse - e così non ottenne i permessi da parte
degli inglesi di fare altre spedizioni nell'Uweinat.
La sua attenzione si concentrò quindi su un'altra sua passione, il volo,
e quindi si concentrò per organizzare attività nel settore
dell'aviazione sotto la tutela del Royal Egyptian Aviation Club. Secondo
una leggenda metropolitana, la base aerea di Almaza prese questo nome
in onore di Almasy, ma non c'è nessuna prova a riguardo; anzi il luogo
portava questo nome già dai tempi della Prima guerra mondiale, molto
prima che Laszlo visitasse l'Egitto.
Con lo scoppio della Seconda guerra
mondiale, Laszlo ritornò in Ungheria: nonostante non ci siano prove di
sue attività come spia pre-bellica, non era più il benvenuto dalle
autorità né in Libia né in Egitto.
Dopo che l'Ungheria si unì all'Asse, Almasy venne reclutato dal maggiore Nikolaus Ritter nella Abwehr, la forza di intelligence militare tedesca.
Come ufficiale ungherese di riserva, gli fu permesso di indossare la
divisa da capitano della Luftwaffe. Inizialmente lavorava sulle mappe e
sulla descrizione dei paesaggi, per poi essere trasferito in Libia sotto
il comando del maggiore Ritter dove fece uso della sua esperienza nel
deserto e nel volo molte volte. Laszlo arrivò ad assumere il comando
dell'unità dopo il fallimento di due tentativi di paracadutare due spie
tedesche in Egitto - durante queste operazioni, Ritter rimase ferito.
l più grande successo di Laszlo in Nord Africa fu il completamento dell'Operazione Salam,
ovvero l'infiltrazione di due agenti tedeschi, Johannes Eppler e
l'operatore radio Hans-Gerd Sandstede, oltre le linee nemiche,
attraverso il deserto libico.
Ma, all'insaputa dello stesso Almasy e dell'alto Commando tedesco, i britannici erano riusciti a decriptare
il cifrario che Almasy e le sue spie usavano per comunicare: fu la
giovane Jean Alingont a tracciare il segnale. L'avvertimento, però,
arrivò troppo tardi al quartier generale del Cairo: a causa
dell'imminente attacco di Rommel, i codici dell'Africa Korps avevano
l'assoluta priorità, e quindi Almasy riuscì a completare l'Operazione
Salam e a ritornare a Gialo senza ostacoli.
Per il successo
dell'operazione Laszlo ricevette la Croce di ferro e fu promosso a
capitano. Tuttavia i suoi servigi in Nord Africa non erano più richiesti
e così Laszlo ritornò in Ungheria, dove scrisse un libro sulla sua
esperienza bellica in Libia. Ci sono prove secondo cui rimase in
contatto con la Abwehr fino al 1943.
Quando la guerra finì e i comunisti presero il potere, Almasy fu arrestato per presunti crimini di guerra e tradimento per essersi unito alle forze armate di un paese straniero. L'accusa si basò sul suo libro. Visto che né il giudice e né l'accusa lo avevano letto - il libro, nel frattempo, fu inserito nella lista dei libri vietati, Laszlo, anche con l'aiuto di qualche amico importante, fu assolto.
Subito dopo scappò dal suo paese con
l'aiuto dell'intelligence britannica, che corruppe degli ufficiali
ungheresi: la tangente fu pagata da Alaeddin Moukthar, cugino di re
Farouk d'Egitto. Gli inglesi lo mandarono in Austria con un passaporto
falso, con il nome di Josef Grossman, poi a Roma. Lì fu rintracciato da
una squadra scelta del KGB, e per questo la sua scorta lo spedì al Cairo
su un aereo. Ritornato in Egitto, Almasy si mantenne facendo dei lavori
un po' strani, alcuni legati all'aviazione ma anche legati alle battute
di caccia in Africa. Il suo ultimo momento di gloria fu nel
dicembre del 1950, quando re Faoruk lo nominò direttore dell'Egyptian
Desert Research Institute.
L'anno seguente, Laszlo si ammalò
durante una visita in Austria. Morì il 22 marzo in seguito alle
complicazione di un'amebiasi contratta durante un viaggio in Mozambico
in un'ospedale di Salisburgo, dove fu sepolto.
Carolina Gaggero
domenica 4 ottobre 2020
Vladimir Tatlin (28 December [O.S. 16 December] 1885 – 31 May 1953) Artist inspired by anarchism
Vladimir Tatlin (28 December [O.S. 16 December] 1885 – 31 May 1953) was a Russian-Ukrainian and Soviet painter, architect and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Tower, which he began in 1919. With Kazimir Malevich he was one of the two most important figures in the Soviet avant-garde art movement of the 1920s, and he later became an important artist in the Constructivist movement.
Biography
Vladimir Tatlin (full name Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin) was born in Moscow, Russian Empire. His father, Yevhraf Nikoforyvych Tatlin was a hereditary nobleman from Oryol, a mechanical engineer graduated from the Technological Institute in St.Petersburg and employed by the Moscow-Brest Railway in Moscow. His mother, Nadezhda Nikolaevna Tatlina (Bart), was a poet sympathizing the Narodnaya Volya revolutionary movement. After she died in 1887, his father married again and resettled to Kharkiv. His father, by whom he lived after having failed to study in Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture died in 1904, so young Vladimir had to interrupt his studies at the Kharkov Arts School and to leave for Odessa to become a merchant sea cadet. According to his own memories, sea and distant lands gave him both means of subsistence and source of inspiration; he sailed all across the Black Sea and also to Egypt.
In 1905 he started and in 1910 successfully completed his studies at N.Selivestrov Penza Art School in Penza. During the summer vacations he traveled to Moscow and St.Petersburg to participate in various art events. In 1911 he resettled to Moscow to live by his uncle and began his art career as an icon painter. He also sang in Ukrainian and was a professional musician-bandurist, and performed as such abroad.
Tatlin became familiar with the work of Pablo Picasso during a trip to Paris in 1913.
Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed the huge Monument to the Third International, also known as Tatlin's Tower. Planned from 1919, the monument was to be a tall tower in iron, glass and steel which would have dwarfed the Eiffel Tower in Paris (the Monument to the Third International was a third taller at 400 meters high). Inside the iron-and-steel structure of twin spirals, the design envisaged three building blocks, covered with glass windows, which would rotate at different speeds (the first one, a cube, once a year; the second one, a pyramid, once a month; the third one, a cylinder, once a day). For financial and practical reasons, however, the tower was never built.
Tatlin was also regarded as a progenitor of Soviet post-Revolutionary Constructivist art with his pre-Revolutionary counter-reliefs, three-dimensional constructions made of wood and metal, some placed in corners (corner counter-reliefs) and others more conventionally. Tatlin conceived these sculptures in order to question the traditional ideas of art, though he did not regard himself as a Constructivist and objected to many of the movement's ideas. Later prominent constructivists included Varvara Stepanova, Alexander Rodchenko, Manuel Rendón Seminario, Joaquín Torres García, László Moholy-Nagy, Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo.
Although colleagues at the beginning of their careers, Tatlin and Malevich quarrelled fiercely and publicly at the time of the 0.10 Exhibition in 1915 (long before the birth of Constructivism), also called "the last futurist exhibition", apparently over the 'suprematist' works Malevich exhibited there. This led Malevich to develop his ideas further in the city of Vitebsk, where he found a school called UNOVIS (Champions of the new art).
Tatlin also dedicated himself to the study of clothes, and various objects, and flight, culminating in the construction of Letatlin personal flying apparatus.
In the year of 1930 he taught in Kiev where one of his students was Joseph Karakis.
From the 1930s Tatlin worked for different theatres in Moscow and during the Great Patriotic War, in Gorkiy. In 1948 he was heavily criticized for his allegedly anti-communist stance and lost his job, but was not repressed.
Tatlin died in 1953 in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Il monumento di Tatlin del 1919
Vladimir Tatlin and an assistant in front of the model for the Third International
Vladimir Evgrafovič Tatlin (in russo: Владимир Евграфович Татлин?; Charkiv, 28 dicembre 1885 – Mosca, 31 maggio 1953) è stato un architetto, pittore e scultore russo.
Biografia
Tatlin era un artista completo, dedito sia alla pittura che alla musica folkloristica, motivato dai suoi continui viaggi in Turchia, in Grecia e sulle coste dell'Africa del Nord, per il suo lavoro di marinaio. Grazie alla sua passione per la pittura cubista e futurista riuscì ad annoverare fra il suo giro di amicizie Gončarova e Larionov, con i quali condivise varie esposizioni. Realizzò rilievi astratti polimaterici (i Controrilievi), inaugurando in tal modo il costruttivismo, con cui esprimeva l'arte funzionale, costruttiva, attenta ai nuovi materiali (dell'epoca) e alle tecniche industriali.
Il suo incontro con Pablo Picasso avvenuto a Parigi lo influenzò positivamente, riuscì in quel lasso di tempo ad attingere da lui la tecnica di scomposizione degli oggetti su piani diversi, fino a ottenere pure forme geometriche. Professore di arte e di tecniche pittoriche durante la rivoluzione russa, aderì alla corrente del produttivismo, secondo la quale l'arte veniva asservita ai principi pratici della costituzione di una società nuova e egualitaria. Nel 1919 era stato coinvolto nel progetto del Monumento alla Terza Internazionale, una torre metallica a forma di spirale di 400 metri, che doveva essere dedicato alla Terza Internazionale, ma i lavori di costruzione non furono mai iniziati e il progetto venne abbandonato. Il suo studente era Josif Karakis.
Nel 1932, per via del decreto staliniano, che aveva decretato lo scioglimento di qualunque gruppo potesse essere considerato troppo moderno all'epoca, decise di trasferirsi a Leningrado, dedicandosi al disegno industriale e alla scenografia.
Tatlin fu sepolto nel cimitero di Novodevichy a Mosca.
В. Е. Татлин. Эскиз костюма Винеры к спектаклю «Царь Максемьян и ево непокорный сын Адольфа». 1911
Sailor painting by Vladimir Tatlin 1911
Vladimir Tatlin
1911
Vladimir Tatlin
1912
Tatlin, 1913, Female Model / Натурщица, oil on canvas
Forest Vladimir Tatlin
1913
Tatlin 1913, scene design for the play 'A Life for the Tsar'
House-painter by V.Tatlin (1913, from Trebnik troikh).
1913
V.Burlyuk by V.Tatlin (1913, from Trebnik troikh)
Tatlin, c. 1942, Window Cleaner and Portrait of V., brush on paper
Russia-2000-stamp-Tatlin Tower and Worker and Kolkhoz Woman by Vera Mukhina
Quotes of Vladimir Tatlin
Quotes, 1910 - 1925
- In
reinforced concrete we have not only a new material but, of far greater
consequence, new constructions and a new method for designing
buildings. Therefore, in using [reinforced concrete], we have to
renounce the old traditions and concern ourselves with meeting new
tasks.
- Quote in: 'Zodchii 19' (1915), p. 198; as quoted by Vasilii Rakitin, in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992, p. 30
- Let's split open our figures and place the environment inside them.
- Quote before 1920; ac cited by Christina Lodder, in Russian Constructivism, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 17
- [iron and glass, the] 'materials of the new Classicism'.
- Quote, 1921: in Nasha predstoiashchaia rabota,, V. Tatlin, T Shapiro, I. Meerzon, and P. Vinogradov, 'VIII s"ezd sovetov. Ezhednevnyi biulleten' s"ezda 13 (January 1, 1921), p. 11; as cited by Vasilii Rakitin, in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992, p. 30
- [to create] A union of purely artistic forms for a utilitarian purpose.. [referring to his Tower / Monument, with a height of 400 meters, but never constructued]
- Quote, c. 1920; as cited by Camilla Gray, The Russian Experiment in Art: 1863-1922, London: Thames and Hudson, 1962, p. 225
- It [ [his Tower ] was to be dynamic, both in its outward form and inward activity..
- Quote, c. 1920's; as cited by Camilla Gray, The Russian Experiment in Art: 1863-1922, London: Thames and Hudson, 1962, p. 226
- [the task of material culture is] to shed light on the tasks of
production in our country, and also to discover the place of the
artist-constructor in production, in relation to improving the quality
both of the manufactured product and of the organization of the new way
of life in general.
- Quote, May 1924; from Tatlin's lecture on 'Material Culture and Its Role in the Production of Life in the USSR'; as quoted by Larissa A. Zhadova, ed., Tatlin, trans. Paul Filotas et al; Thames and Hudson, London, 1988, p. 252
- In May 1924, right in the middle of N.E.P., Tatlin offered his synoptic statement of what was still the task of material culture
Quotes, 1926 - 1954
- The influence of my art is expressed in the movement of the Constructivists, of which I am the founder – Tatlin.
- Quoted from a biographical note written by Tatlin in 1929, published in Tatlin', Weingarten; Kunstverlag Weingarten, 1987), p. 328; as quoted by Vasilii Rakitin, in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992, p. 34
- The dream [of flying] is as old as Icarus.. .I too want to give
back to man the feeling of flight [with his 'Letatlin'-air-bike,
1929-1932]. This we have been robbed of by the mechanical flight of the
aeroplane. We cannot feel the movement of our body in the air.
- quote, c. 1930; cited by Christina Lodder, in Russian Constructivism; Yale University Press, Connecticut, 1983, p. 213
- The 'Letatlin' was a glider, what Tatlin called an 'air bike', since it would be manually pedaled by the user and contain no motor
- The engineers made hard forms. Evil. With angles. They are easily broken. The world is round and soft..
- quote, c. 1930; cited by Christina Lodder, in Russian Constructivism; Yale University Press, Connecticut, 1983, p. 214
- The 'Letatlin' Tatlin constructed in organic round and oval forms
Quotes about Vladimir Tatlin
- sorted chronologically, by date of the quotes about Vladimir Tatlin
- [Moscow, Spring of 1914:] Dear Sirs, On the 10th, 11th, 12th,
13th, and 14th of May this year the studio of Vladimir Tatlin (57
Ostozhenka, apartment 3) will be open from 6 to 8 p.m. for a free
viewing of his synthetic-static compositions. In addition, at seven
o'clock on the aforementioned days, the Futurist Sergei Podgaevskii will
dynamically declaim his latest poetic transrational records.
- as quoted by Vasilii Rakitin, in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992, p. 25
- I am familiar with Tatlin's theatrical designs in which there is
a charming and original quality of color and an unusual balancing
[ekvilibristika] of line-{illeg.}. Perhaps this is only trickery, but
even trickery is already an art, and for this talent is required.
- Quote from Benua, in his review of the 0.10 exhibition (Dec. 1915/Jan. 1916): "Posledniaia futuristicheskaia vystavka," p. 3.; as quoted by Jane A, Sharp, in Chapter 'The Critical Reception of the 0.10 Exhibition: Malevich and Benua, in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992, p. 50 - note 15
- [Tatlin, in a lecture] expressed his dissatisfaction with
authorities who did not really support his endeavors to work in
industrial concerns.
- Quote of K. Miklashevskii, 1920's in Hypertrophy in Art, note 37: 37 K; as quoted by Larissa A. Zhadova, ed., Tatlin, trans. Paul Filotas et al; Thames and Hudson, London, 1988, p. 137 n. 35
- If the idea of the monument [ Tatlin's Tower
] is truly new and valuable, then it will never die. Prophets have not
always been stoned and imposters have not always succeeded.
- In the 'Petrogradskaia Pravda', December 1920, quoted from an undated newspaper clipping in the collection of A. Korsakova, Moscow (transl. Vasilii Rakitin, 1992)
- An absurd and naive, monstrous beast [ Tatlin's Tower ] with a radio-telegraph horn on its head and the legislative assembly of the Third International in its belly?
- Quote of N. Radlov, in futurizme, (St. Petersburg: "Akvilon," 1923), p. 48 (transl. Vasilii Rakitin, 1992)
- The Council of People's Commissars would flee from such a
building on the first sunny day and, camped out nearby on the grass,
would immediately issue a decree that Tatlin's tower is for rent, at
public auction, to horticulturists wishing to grow pineapples.
- Quote of K. Miklashevskii, in 'Gipertrofiia iskusstva' (Petrograd, 1924), p. 59 (transl. Vasilii Rakitin, 1992)
- Tatlin does not transcend the confines of Cubism.
- Quote by Kazimir Malevich c. 1928, in 'The Constructive Painting of Russian Artists and Constructivism', in K. S. Malevich, Essays on Art, ed. Troels Andersen, (transl. Xenia Glowacki-Prus & Arnold McMillin), London: Rapp & Whiting, 1969, vol. 2, pp. 74-84
- Malevich asked his students and followers to repeat this short sentence after him, during his teachings
- 'Letatlin' (1929-32) is a flying bird, Tatlin's bicycle, on
which one can 'sail' through the air. In artistic circles reactions
varied yet all struck basically the same chord: he's flown out of art, - a move into technology..
- Quote of E. Kronman, in 'Ukhod v tekhniku. Tatlin 1 'Letatlin,' in 'Brigada khudozhnikov 6' (1932), pp. 19-23; cited by Vasilii Rakitin in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992 - note 73
- The name 'Letatlin' is a combination of the Russian word 'letat', meaning: 'to fly', and Tatlin's own last name
- [Tatlin and his 'Letatlin'] an amazing character, but absolutely no artist.
- Quote of A. Efros, in 'Mastera raznykh epokh', 'Sovetskii khudozhnik, (Moscow, 1979), p. 547; cited by Vasilii Rakitin in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992 - note 74
- ['Letatlin' is] not so much.. ..an invention as.. ..a sui-generis work of art
- quote of N. Frausek, in 'Iskusstvo v tekhniku', 'Tekhnika', April 9, 1932, p. 4; cited by Vasilii Rakitin in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992 - note 75
- In her diary, Popova recorded Tatlin's story about how, right before his departure from Paris for Moscow [in 1913], he visited 'Pavel' Picasso himself.. ..(see A. Strigalev, O poezdke Tatlina v Berlin i Parizh,
in 'Iskusstvo 2' (1989), pp. 39-43).. .After seeing Picasso's Cubist
constructions, Tatlin said, he began to work according to other
principles [than Cubism ].
- Vasilii Rakitin, in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992, p. 29
- The Constructivists
recklessly spoke of replacing art with life and wanted to make the
object of production the object of art. Tatlin built a stove in his room
to keep from freezing, sewed a specially tailored coat to keep from
shivering in the wind, and cut himself a comfortable work suit. Playing
with the industrial production of an object was not the last motivation
of the design solutions of the Moscow Constructivists.
- Vasilii Rakitin, in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992, p. 34
Shukhov and Tatlin towers.ogv 1 min 8 s, 1,280 × 720; 19.4 MB
Vladimir Tatlin as sea-man, 1914-15
Коллективная фотография, сделанная в 1933 или 1934 годах. Нина Игнатьевна Бам (1-я справа во 2-м ряду), Александра Михайловна Бам (1-я справа в 1-м ряду), Владимир Ефграфович Татлин (2-й справа во 2-м ряду), Сергей Матвеевич Ромов (стоит за Татлиным), Мария Игнатьевна Бек (в девичестве Бам в 1-м ряду, первая слева).
Tatlin1932
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