WAR - WHAT'S IT GOOD FOR?

Okay, so one more Jason-related incident.

On the Sunday, Jason's last full day in Moscow, I took him to that most typical and representative of Russian cultural events - the Napoleonic battle re-enactment.

This basically involved shivering in the snow on a hillside about 100km south of Moscow, while lots of very drunk Russian men pretended to be very drunk Russian or French soldiers. The re-enactment was to commemorate the battle of Maloyaroslavets in 1812, in which the Russians, after having previously and rather cunningly burnt down their own capital city, got trounced yet again by Napoleon. The battle was a bit of a pyrrhic victory for the French, though, and it forced them to run home east rather than carrying on pressing south to the warmer, sunnier bits of Russia. The wusses.

Actually, as Napoleonic battle re-enactments go, this one was a bit of a corker. Not only did they have horses, and big cannons that actually went bang, but they had also put up little wooden buildings to torch whenever they got too cold. I did pity the soldiers that 'died' in the first five minutes of the battle and who then had to lie in the snow for the next hour and a half...

Another particularly fine aspect of this event was the running commentary. Some bloke in a van at the top of the hill had loudspeakers and obviously thought he was a sports commentator: "And the French are coming up on the left , oh but that's a bold move by the Russian cavalry..." Well, it kept me amused.

Jason and I also met up with some friends of mine from my first year here in Russia (who had told me about the re-enactment), so Jason got to meet some real Russians and experience real Russian hospitality. This basically involved forcing him to drink strange, nameless and incredibly syrupy spirits. I'm sure he was very grateful for the whole day. But hey, what are friends for?