Vladimir Filonov / MT
Rochambeau standing by the U.S.
Embassy last week. He considers
himself an aristocrat and says it
impresses girls.
Posted on 07/24/2006 9:49:36 PM PDT by Pharmboy
Vladimir Filonov / MT
Rochambeau standing by the U.S.
Embassy last week. He considers
himself an aristocrat and says it
impresses girls.
Chances to reenact U.S. Revolutionary War battles like Saratoga and Bunker Hill and lift a glass to Generals Washington and Greene don't come often in Moscow. But star-spangled revolutionary standards might soon be fluttering here.
Frenchman Donatien de Rochambeau is seeking members for a Moscow chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, a U.S.-based club for men with an ancestor who fought in or supported the Revolutionary War. De Rochambeau's aristocratic forebear defeated the British in a key battle, and Donatien was raised on tales of his exploits. He recounts the stories as if they happened yesterday, and by virtue of his ancestry considers himself a nobleman.
De Rochambeau anticipates cozy dinners where descendants will hold forth on liberty and equality as snow gusts outside. Russia-based SAR members might tour U.S. battle sites with their stateside counterparts.
A chapter here might even help Russia move away from authoritarianism, said Mike Scroggins, an assistant at SAR headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky.
"SAR provides the blueprint for American development and democracy," he said. "Russia could learn from it. It could be a group that rallies people to it, to go in the right direction.
"Russia's going through some rough spots, but they've got good heads on their shoulders, they know the direction they want to go."
Ten to 15 members are needed before the organization will accredit its first-ever Russian chapter. They'll have to provide extensive genealogical information to researchers at SAR headquarters to prove their ancestry. Members will get a certificate and gold medallion, and as chapter head de Rochambeau will be allowed to wear the medal suspended on a ribbon. He hopes an American company will donate a meeting room out of a desire to appear patriotic.
So far, though, no one has signed up. There has been no response to de Rochambeau's newspaper ads. A publicity drive at the U.S. Embassy should be the next step, he muses.
A Western diplomat said difficulty finding members was to be expected. Most Americans currently in Moscow are from northern states, she said, and it was her understanding that SAR mostly attracted southerners, who are often portrayed as more patriotic than people north of the Mason-Dixon.
De Rochambeau has other hurdles to overcome. His SAR membership in France expired when he failed to pay the fee, and Jacques de Trentinian, head of the 450-strong group, said a committee would decide whether to let him back in.
"He was kicked out in February," de Trentinian said by telephone from Paris. "It's very strange for a man to become a member, not to take part in activities or pay his fee, and then want to start a society in a new city. One could wonder whether he's doing it only to gather professional contacts."
De Rochambeau, 31, thinks himself as much a noble as his ancestor, even though the French state does not recognize titles.
Comte Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau was dispatched by King Louis XVI in 1780 to help the American colonists defeat Britain. He besieged the British at Yorktown, and their surrender led to them recognizing the independence of the United States in 1783.
"My problem is not only to have a famous ancestor," Donatien said, referring perhaps to the burden of fame: a Washington bridge, chicken recipe and an airport in French Guiana are all named after the count. "It's also to be an aristocrat in modern times, in the 21st century."
De Rochambeau's life in Moscow does not seem terribly aristocratic, however. He lives in an apartment a few metro stations from the center, its plaster walls bare. Some stuffed animals and photographs of a woman in a skimpy evening dress, which he said came with the apartment, are the only decoration in the living room, where he also sleeps. He travels by metro. Teaching French brings $35 per lesson, though in a recent week he only had eight.
But de Rochambeau's blue-collar parents taught him that values, not possessions, define an aristocrat. "I must treat the same people in smoking jackets at a very private, select dinner and the guy in a blue shirt at a little bistro in the country," he said. "For me, to speak with a prince and a worker is the same thing."
De Rochambeau said he once met a prince from Abkhazia at a party in Paris, although it has not had a ruling monarchy since at least 1864, when it became part of the Russian empire. He lived in his parents' small apartment in the French capital until he was 28, writing articles on children's games for a Disney magazine and later the subtitles for a television channel for deaf people. He moved to Moscow to make a new start.
De Rochambeau said there were numerous perks of being an aristocrat. Sometimes it's useful for impressing girls. At others, it's a tool for clowning and mischief.
"I would like to make a little scene at the [Rochambeau] airport in Guiana," he said. "I would be arrested, they'd tell me to hand over my papers -- I hope they'd laugh upon seeing my name. I will go to jail, but it will be a good joke.
"But maybe it's a bit expensive to go to French Guiana just for a good joke."
Everytime I see or hear Rochambeau, I think of "South Park" and the 'Mega-Streisand' episode. Sad, because if this guy is an actual son of the American Revolution, it sounds like he's trying to cash in on something his great-great grandfather did. I'm sure, if I dug deep enough, I'd find a great uncle who fought in the War of Northern Agression, too.
Agression=Aggression
May God bless the French. Without them there would be no America.
I hate the SOBs, but that is fact.
Rochambeau was also jealous of the much younger Marquis de Lafayette because of the fact that, he- Rochambeau had spent years in the army waiting for some kind of promotion and this young upstart is promoted ahead of him, in the Colonial Army as well?
Oops....Actually, i think that was a different French officer who joined the Colonial officer w/Lafayette and von Steuben...... who i was refering to.
The French of which you speak were executed and gone. The aristocratic genocide of the revolution removed the genes from the pool.
That and a little thing called World War I . . .
This guy is a little unusual!
My thoughts also...
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