He stood alone in the field of sunflowers. They were tall, but not as tall as him yet or his emperor. His emperor, Peter the Great, who had brought them from the Netherlands had told him about how tall they grew there, rising so high as to even brush the emperor's shoulders.
He stood alone there in the field admiring the sunflowers, the yellowness of their petals which were just beginning to open, the way they all faced the sun, the greenness of their rough stalk. It was all so beautiful.
"Mr. Russia?" He turned around to see a young page. "His most noble grace, the great emperor, would like to see you."
He turned and followed the young page to yet another war meeting, leaving the sunflowers behind.
He stood alone in the field of sunflowers. These sunflowers were taller than the ones in the field he had stood in when Peter the Great had first brought them to Russia. Those sunflowers had never grown as high as they could have and they were mowed down and a rock garden put in their place.
These sunflowers waved gently above his head, but they were drooping and their petals had turned brown and ugly. It was late in the year and his empress was dead. She had been discovered almost drowned in the bath. The doctors said she had had a stroke. She died the next day.
Now six weeks had passed and they had buried her. Her son sat on the throne in her place. He would never be so good a ruler as his mother, Russia knew. Russia stood up slowly and left the field. One last tear left his eye to roll down his cheek.
He stood alone in the field of sunflowers. Snow still covered the ground and only a few brown, drooping sunflowers were left. He felt as wilted as them.
His friends had left him. He hadn't thought that England could hate him so much, but England had come with France to declare war on him. Together they had stood in the small office he was allowed and had produced their declarations of war.
"We are joining the Ottoman Empire against you," France had said. England hadn't said a word, but glowered. Only when France had left did he say anything.
"I hate you."
Russia had jumped out after him, pulling out his pipe and had been gratified to see the fear in England's eyes just for a moment. Then the fear vanished and England spoke again,
"You don't really want to make my politicians angrier at you than they already are, do you?"
Russia had stopped. Together France, England and the Ottoman Empire had a greater force than his. If they got truly angry at him he would lose the war and more importantly, his territories. He had to keep his friends. He couldn't let the other nations take them away.
A child laughed and he heard it's voice rise up into the air, "Look at that man all alone in the sunflower field. He must be stupid to be standing outside there when it's so cold."
"Shush," another child answered, "That's Mr. Braginsky. If he hears you, he'll kill you!"
He stopped listening and turned away, walking back to the palace.
He stood alone in the field of sunflowers. They were in full bloom above his head. The Soviet Union had been disbanded and his people were happy. Though many had chosen to leave, many others had stayed.
America said they could be friends once more and England and France said they would forget the past, too. So why wasn't he happy?
He had looked at the news on TV earlier that day and had seen people cheering everywhere. Statues of Stalin and Lenin were being pulled down all over what had once been the Soviet Union-what had once been his. His servants had left his house in floods, returning to their rightful place in the capitals of their own countries.
So now he stood, once again, alone in the field of sunflowers.
Author's Note:
-Sunflowers were first introduced to Europe in the early sixteenth century. In the eighteenth century Peter the Great (who was 6"11) brought sunflowers to Russia where they became wildly popular because their oil wasn't forbidden during Lent.
-The empress is Catherine the Great who made many good changes to Russia, like widening the libraries and galleries of art.
-The third part talks about the Crimean War when the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France and Sardinia banded against Russia, mainly because of the rights of the Christian minority in Israel (which was in the Ottoman Empire's territory). In the end Russia had to give back all the territories he had captured from the Ottoman Empire.
-The Soviet Union officially disbanded on December 26th, 1991 when Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, declared his office extinct and handed over all it's powers to Boris Yeltsin.