Why I love what I do.

There are many days of dull tedium being an archive ferret. I have spent many hours opening files, reading boring correspondence, annual accounts, minutes of meetings, reports etc and then standing for equally tedious hours photographing it. But every now and then a little nugget comes along and makes it all so worth while. A couple of weeks ago it was the hand drawn maps and watercolours. Today it was telegrams. Of course telegrams do not have the same immediate beauty as art and I have looked through many telegrams saying nothing more exciting than 'Arriving Thursday' or 'Send money'. Today, however, they told their own little story in tiny little sentences.
It wasn't that it was a previously untold story. It is in fact well known. In March 1921 Russian soldiers,sailors and civilians in the Baltic fortress at Kronstadt near St Petersburg, rebelled against the Bolshevik government. It was brutally suppressed by the Red Army with many of the protesters killed, jailed or fleeing across the ice to Finland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronstadt_rebellion)
The rebellion only lasted a couple of intense weeks and that story was told by the telegrams in the Zemgor files I read today. In beautifully succinct sentences they revealed, 'Kronstadt is liberated from the Bolsheviks', 'The situation in Kronstadt is difficult' 'We must have success', 'Bombardment continues', 'Children need food' and finally 'Kronstadt has fallen. In Bolshevik hands. Thousands of refugees in Finland.'
Between 'Kronstadt is liberated' and 'Kronstadt has fallen' I was caught up in their struggle and could feel the tears well up as I read the last telegram. The lucky ones who escaped to Finland were met by my Dead Russian Guys who, despite their undoubted feelings of devastation at the lost chance to overthrow the hated Bolsheviks and the opportunity to return to their own country once more, provided shelter, food and a future for the defeated rebels.
Damn! I love what I do! And I love my Dead Russian Guys!