Poached salmon with béchamel sauce, smoked ham with fruits, quail au gratin, partridges à la regence , cream of beans, cheeses, desserts and French wines. With such a succulent menu the birth of Europe was celebrated , or at least the project that since the end of the 19th century - and despite two world wars - culturally connects the old nations of the continent. The banquet was arranged by Baron James de Rothschild to celebrate the opening of the Paris-Brussels railway line, which made it possible to link France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the German-speaking territories with the high speed of the time (without laughter: 30 kilometers per hour). An inauguration that Rothschild himself and the French and Belgian authorities already saw then as the opportunity to forge a common identity, with the confidence that the locomotive of the steam locomotive would promote the transit of people on a large scale, the exchange of ideas and the multiplication of the commercial volume.

That Saturday, June 13, 1846, is the starting point of The Europeans (Ed. Taurus), the new and portentous investigation of the historian Orlando Figes , which looks at the key period in the birth of European culture just at the moment in that Europe is decomposing as a receptacle for the illusions of millions of citizens. "Nationalism has made us lose a lot of the confidence we had as Europeans," confirms the author. "I am not talking about economic or military superiority over the rest of the world, but about confidence in a set of values ​​that made Europe an open space , " added a video call from his living room at this Birkbeck College Professor of History in the University of London and expert in Russia, on which he has written several international best sellers.

Here, as can be seen from the first pages, Figes (London, 60 years) flees from the encyclopedic aridity and the dispassion of the essay to offer a historical reconstruction with the overflowing life of a novel. Because Europeans is the story starring the love triangle formed by Pauline Viardot-García (1821-1910), of Spanish origin and one of the most famous opera singers in the world, as well as a songwriter and teacher; Louis Viardot (1800-1883), her husband and representative, a great art expert and author of the first guides to major museums in the world (El Prado, among others); and Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883), the first great Russian writer to become a celebrity on the other side of the Volga ... and more than likely the father of one of the couple's children.

Along with the trio, who lived for decades a disconcerting affair, appears the galaxy of composers, painters and writers with whom they related in the geography between Cádiz and Saint Petersburg and London and Naples: Delacroix, Chopin, Flaubert, Dickens, Dostoievski, Beethoven, Chaikovski and an endless etcetera.

Through eight chapters, Figes recomposes his professional adventures, his traveling and cosmopolitan lives and their respective fields of professional performance (literature, music and art) to study in depth almost everything that was relevant in the second part of the XIX. For example, the revolution in mass communication and transport, the invention of lithographic printing and photography, the popularization of tourism or the consolidation of the free market system .

"I was struck by the letters between Pauline and Iván, and then I was interested in the network of connections they established throughout Europe and the excellence of both, international figures, to be ambassadors of Spanish and Russian culture," explains the author on a work in which he has invested seven years and that arose from simple curiosity.

At least in origin. Because it is also true that the final impetus was largely given to it by the Brexit process. Shortly after the ballot boxes certified the desire of 51.9% of Britons to leave the European Union, Figes, whose mother fled Nazi Germany in 1939, decided to claim German citizenship . "I hope that the book will serve as a reminder of the power of union that European civilization has, and that the nations of the continent are at great risk by ignoring it," he explains in the thanks of the Europeans.

Do you think that the readers of 2020 will perceive the germinal epoch that you have investigated with more nostalgia than admiration? " Perhaps there is a certain nostalgia, a yearning for reconnection, " admits the historian, who also warns: "Europe risks becoming a geographical extension of Asia, a place where tourists come to see old buildings. Being a market is not enough, a political identity is necessary. I hate the word inheritance, but I think civilization is an important part of that political identity. Part of the problem with our loss of confidence as Europeans is that we feel a little ashamed of the word 'civilization' , as it is associated with imperialism and the history of the white man. However, the educated Jews in Russia found an escape route by reading classics of European civilization. That took them from [being] a small to [becoming] a great culture. ”

Critics of his country have described the Europeans as a "timely" book, although it is true that the good forecasts of the Figes editor have been unsuccessful. "He thought the book might be a success, but it turned out not, which is a little disappointing. The British have been so obsessed with Brexit for so long that any book on Europe disgusts them, ”says the author of The Dance of Natacha (2006) and Crimea. The first great war (2013). Brexit is a great tragedy and Britain will be much poorer in every way. Of course, you can get Britain out of Europe, but not Europe from Britain . Everyone who has a university degree here feels an affinity for Europe, has traveled and worked in Europe, the food has improved thanks to Europe ... ».

In addition to the borders raised between European countries by the eruption of populist governments and reinforced by the migration crisis in the Mediterranean Sea, a virus has come to erect other borders that seemed to be proof of political contingencies. It was a disaster. I suppose that the speed with which the events unfolded explains everything, but it has shown the erosion of international institutions ”, he comments on the impact of the coronavirus on the containment measures taken alone by Italy, Spain and other neighbors. " Pandemics are, by definition, global problems, and they need global strategies to combat them. We cannot all be like New Zealand and simply close the borders , we are too close to each other. The pandemic has highlighted one of the many dangers of nationalism and isolation that borders pose as a solution to the problems of globalization. "

In The Europeans , which offers a portrait between the exotic and the needy in Spain , Figes includes a quote from Edmund Burke from 1796: "No European can be entirely an exile anywhere in Europe." Will it continue to be so in the coming years? I would like to think so. There is something that connects Europeans, those values, the feeling of a shared history due to war, the inheritance of Greece and Rome, the four freedoms [collected in the Treaty of Rome], who really are daughters of the 19th century. I still believe that there is something special about Europe ».

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