rom 2003-2007 Nightpeople magazine recorded the glamour and excess of Moscow's ultra-elite. The inheritors of the ‘eastern Roman Empire’ captured at play in a pyramid apex system that governs and behaves in ways familiar to scholars of ancient Rome. Do these pictures reflect the declining empire? Metaphors for the inequalities, insecurities and egoism which led to the sacking of Rome in 486AD? Or are they just some gratuitous skinshots, too much money and unbridled ostentatiousness. The western Roman Empire exists arguably as the Catholic Church, Moscow (The 3rd Rome) of the early 21st century flaunted the more heady and sensual aspects of original Rome. From recent reports of Moscow nightlife and the now defunct Nightpeople, these times are unlikely to be seen again soon.
he decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight.
Agriculture is the foundation of manufactures; since the productions of nature are the materials of art. Under the Roman empire, the labour of an industrious and ingenious people was variously, but incessantly employed, in the service of the rich. In their dress, their table, their houses, and their furniture, the favourites of fortune united every refinement of conveniency, of elegance, and of splendour, whatever could soothe their pride or gratify their sensuality. Such refinements, under the odious name of luxury, have been severely arraigned by the moralists of every age; and it might perhaps be more conducive to the virtue, as well as happiness, of mankind, if all possessed the necessities, and none of the superfluities, of life. But in the present imperfect condition of society, luxury, though it may proceed from vice or folly, seems to be the only means that can correct the unequal distribution of property. The diligent mechanic, and the skilful artist, who have obtained no share in the division of the earth, receive a voluntary tax from the possessors of land; and the latter are prompted, by a sense of interest, to improve those estates, with whose produce they may purchase additional pleasures. This operation, the particular effects of which are felt in every society, acted with much more diffusive energy in the Roman world. The provinces would soon have been exhausted of their wealth, if the manufactures and commerce of luxury had not insensibly restored to the industrious subjects the sums which were exacted from them by the arms and authority of Rome.
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Chapter 2, «The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire» by Edward Gibbon
or about twenty years, waves of one or more diseases, possibly the first epidemics of smallpox and/or measles, swept through the Empire, ultimately killing about half the population. Similar epidemics also occurred in the third century. McNeill argues that the severe fall in population left the state apparatus and army too large for the population to support, leading to further economic and social decline that eventually killed the Western Empire.
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William H. McNeill
Monetary taxation was replaced with direct requisitioning, for example taking food and cattle from farmers. Individuals were forced to work at their given place of employment and remain in the same occupation. Farmers became tied to the land, as were their children, and similar demands were made on all other workers, producers, and artisans as well.
Workers were organized into guilds and businesses into corporations called collegia. Both became de facto organs of the state, controlling and directing their members to work and produce for the state. In the countryside people attached themselves to the estates of the wealthy in order to gain some protection from state officials and tax collectors. These estates, the beginning of feudalism, operated as much as possible as closed systems, providing for all their own needs and not engaging in trade at all.
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Bruce Bartlett
rnold J. Toynbee and James Burke argue that the Roman Empire itself was a rotten system from its inception, and that the entire Imperial era was one of steady decay of institutions founded in Republican times. In their view, the Empire could never have lasted longer than it did without radical reforms that no Emperor could implement.
The Romans had no budgetary system and thus wasted whatever resources they had available. The economy of the Empire was basically a Raubwirtschaft or plunder economy based on looting existing resources rather than producing anything new.
The Empire relied on booty from conquered territories (this source of revenue ending, of course, with the end of Roman territorial expansion) or on a pattern of tax collection that drove small-scale farmers into destitution (and onto a dole that required even more exactions upon those who could not escape taxation), or into dependency upon a landed élite exempt from taxation. With the cessation of tribute from conquered territories, the full cost of their military machine had to be borne by the citizenry.
An economy based upon slave labor precluded a middle class with purchasing power. The Roman Empire produced few exportable goods. Material innovation, whether through entrepreneurialism or technological advancement, all but ended long before the final dissolution of the Empire. Meanwhile the costs of military defense and the pomp of Emperors continued.
Financial needs continued to increase, but the means of meeting them steadily eroded. In the end due to economic failure, even the armor of soldiers deteriorated and the weaponry of soldiers became so obsolete to the extent that the enemies of the Empire had better armor and weapons as well as larger forces. The decrepit social order offered so little to its subjects that many saw the barbarian invasion as liberation from onerous obligations to the ruling class.
lthough the progress of civilisation has undoubtedly contributed to assuage the fiercer passions of human nature, it seems to have been less favourable to the virtue of chastity, whose most dangerous enemy is the softness of the mind. The refinements of life corrupt while they polish the intercourse of the sexes. The gross appetite of love becomes most dangerous when it is elevated, or rather, indeed, disguised by sentimental passion. The elegance of dress, of motion, and of manners gives a lustre to beauty, and inflames the senses through the imagination. Luxurious entertainments, midnight dances, and licentious spectacles, present at once temptation and opportunity to female frailty. From such dangers the unpolished wives of the barbarians were secured by poverty, solitude, and the painful cares of a domestic life. The German huts, open on every side to the eye of indiscretion or jealousy, were a better safeguard of conjugal fidelity than the walls, the bolts, and the eunuchs of a Persian harem. To this reason, another may be added of a more honourable nature. The Germans treated their women with esteem and confidence, consulted them on every occasion of importance, and fondly believed that in their breasts resided a sanctity and wisdom more than human.
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Chapter 9, «The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire» by Edward Gibbon
met Vadim about 10 years ago in a photo studio called F2 where my friend Aivo Kallas worked at the time, Vadim was the graphic artist there and a very talented photographer who always did the pictures the oppposite way than the other photographers do. He has his own real touch or look on life, how you say? He's the Russian guy with a grey passport from Kallavere. Born in Estonia, the town is a bit like Lasnamäe but more radical, it's a forgotten place some 30km from Tallinn towards St Petersburg.
He is a very interesting person and as we all know, some interesting persons don't always find a place to be useful. So at one time someone called him to Moscow to take part in Nightpeople magazine, it was the first number to come out and while he went to work there as a graphic artist he later on became the soul of the magazine, everything came through Vadim and most of the good pictures are from Vadim's camera. He's an easy going guy, not talking very much, quite introverted. You cannot say about Vadim that he is a photographer in the technical sense, he is a life artist, he can use anything, right now he does things with microscopes, recording the images. Before leaving Moscow in 2007 he owed money for the rent so he put his hands in his pocket and left everything he owned in the flat, his expensive bike, computer, files etc to pay off the owner. He does always what he likes to do I remember a time when he collected all his negatives to burn them and I was talking him out of it, not to do this as they would have some value. Later he burned them anyway. He's the person that cuts the tails, like the lizard and a new will grow.
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Jack on Vadim
Thanks to
«Nightpeople» photographers
including
Vadim Wilniewczyc
Vladislav Nazarenko
Andrei Jakovlev (Jack)
Oskar Voit
Sergey Maslov
Sergey Maltsev
Nikolay Karpov
Daniil Bayushev
Evgeny Zarenok
Yuri Feklistov
Jayson Kiddle
Evgeny Dostal
Dmitry Mihkeev
Michail Kashin
Philipp Manuilov
Kalle Veesaar
Vadim Wilniewczyc & Andrei ‘Jack’ Jakovlev
dec 31 '09
1 contribution
Vadim Wilniewczyc - a photographer and graphic artist. He's the Russian guy born in Kallavere, Estonia with a grey passport. One of a kind, not to be repeated, currently in St Petersburg(at least the last report) growing a new tail. Andrei Jakovlev, (Jack) - a freelancing Art Director. Born in Estonia. Went to Russian school, skipped to Estonian language school in 10th grade. Just an old school snowboarder. Pioneer, you can say.
published • December 31st '09
