Crimea: The Last Crusade

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The Crimean War: A History
Crimea; The Last Crusade.jpg
First edition
Author Orlando Figes
SubjectHistory
Published2010
PublisherAllen Lane
Media typePrint
Pages575
ISBN 0713997044

Crimea: The Last Crusade is a book by Orlando Figes. Figes argued that the Crimean War was the first truly modern war and that the Siege of Sevastopol was a precursor of trench warfare. He also emphasized the religious aspects of the Crimean War and the importance of public opinion. It appeared in the midst of the controversy over Figes's Amazon reviews.

In the United States the book has been published under the title The Crimean War: A History.

Reception

Gary J. Bass of Princeton University praised Figes "painstaking archival work". [1] Angus Macqueen commented in The Guardian that Figes underlines how the Cold War "froze over fundamental fault lines that had opened up in the 19th century". [2] Oliver Bullough in The Independent called the book "lucid, well-written, alive and sensitive". He praised it for its "startling immediacy", for highlighting parallels with contemporary conflicts and for describing the impact of high politics on ordinary people. Nevertheless, he also wrote that the book is not perfect and that the sourcing is problematic. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crimean War</span> 1853–1856 war between the Russian Empire and their allies, and the Ottoman Empire and their allies

The Crimean War was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Sardinia-Piedmont.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sevastopol</span> City on the Crimean peninsula

Sevastopol, sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base throughout its history. Since the city's founding in 1783 it has been a major base for Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and it was previously a closed city during the Cold War. The total administrative area is 864 square kilometres (334 sq mi) and includes a significant amount of rural land. The urban population, largely concentrated around Sevastopol Bay, is 479,394, and the total population is 547,820.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of the Alma</span> 1854 battle of the Crimean War

The Battle of the Alma was a battle in the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20 September 1854. The allies had made a surprise landing in Crimea on 14 September. The allied commanders, Maréchal Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud and Lord Raglan, then marched toward the strategically important port city of Sevastopol, 45 km (28 mi) away. Russian commander Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov rushed his available forces to the last natural defensive position before the city, the Alma Heights, south of the Alma River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of the Chernaya</span> 1855 battle of the Crimean War

The Battle of the Chernaya was a battle by the Chyornaya River fought during the Crimean War on August 16, 1855. The battle was fought between Russian troops and French and Piedmontese troops. The Chyornaya River is on the outskirts of Sevastopol. The battle ended in a Russian retreat and a victory for the French and Piedmontese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crimea</span> Peninsula in Europe

Crimea is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukraine. To the east, the Crimean Bridge, constructed in 2018, spans the Strait of Kerch, linking the peninsula with Krasnodar Krai in Russia. The Arabat Spit, located to the northeast, is a narrow strip of land that separates the Syvash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to the west lies Romania and to the south is Turkey. The largest city is Sevastopol. The region has a population of 2.4 million, and has been under Russian occupation since 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Paris (1856)</span> 1856 treaty which made the Black Sea neutral territory, thereby ending the Crimean War

The Treaty of Paris of 1856 brought an end to the Crimean War between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom, the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crimean Tatars</span> Turkic ethnic group, an indigenous people of Crimea

Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group and nation native to Crimea. The formation and ethnogenesis of Crimean Tatars occurred during the 13th–17th centuries, uniting Cumans, who appeared in Crimea in the 10th century, with other peoples who had inhabited Crimea since ancient times and gradually underwent Tatarization, including Greeks, Italians, Armenians, Goths, Sarmatians, and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855)</span> Part of the Crimean War

The siege of Sevastopol lasted from October 1854 until September 1855, during the Crimean War. The allies landed at Eupatoria on 14 September 1854, intending to make a triumphal march to Sevastopol, the capital of the Crimea, with 50,000 men. Major battles along the way were Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, Tchernaya, Redan, and, finally, Malakoff. During the siege, the allied navy undertook six bombardments of the capital, on 17 October 1854; and on 9 April, 6 June, 17 June, 17 August, and 5 September 1855.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orlando Figes</span> British historian and writer

Orlando Guy Figes is a British historian and writer. Until his retirement, he was Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Eupatoria</span> 1855 battle of the Crimean War

The Battle of Eupatoria occurred on 17 February 1855 during the Crimean War when the army of the Russian Empire unsuccessfully attempted to capture the Crimean port city of Eupatoria held by the forces of the Ottoman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crimea Medal</span> British campaign medal

The Crimea Medal was a campaign medal approved on 15 December 1854, for issue to officers and men of British units which fought in the Crimean War of 1854–56 against Russia. The medal was awarded with the British version of the Turkish Crimea Medal, but when a consignment of these was lost at sea, some troops received the Sardinian version.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Crimea</span>

The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as Tauris, Taurica, and the Tauric Chersonese, begins around the 5th century BCE when several Greek colonies were established along its coast, the most important of which was Chersonesos near modern day Sevastopol, with Scythians and Tauri in the hinterland to the north. The southern coast gradually consolidated into the Bosporan Kingdom which was annexed by Pontus and then became a client kingdom of Rome. The south coast remained Greek in culture for almost two thousand years including under Roman successor states, the Byzantine Empire (341–1204), the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461), and the independent Principality of Theodoro. In the 13th century, some Crimean port cities were controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese, but the interior was much less stable, enduring a long series of conquests and invasions. In the medieval period, it was partially conquered by Kievan Rus' whose prince Vladimir the Great was baptised at Sevastopol, which marked the beginning of the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. During the Mongol invasion of Europe, the north and centre of Crimea fell to the Mongol Golden Horde, and in the 1440s the Crimean Khanate formed out of the collapse of the horde but quite rapidly itself became subject to the Ottoman Empire, which also conquered the coastal areas which had kept independent of the Khanate. A major source of prosperity in these times was frequent raids into Russia for slaves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deportation of the Crimean Tatars</span> 1944 Soviet ethnic cleansing and genocide

The deportation of the Crimean Tatars or the Sürgünlik ('exile') was the ethnic cleansing and the cultural genocide of at least 191,044 Crimean Tatars which was carried out by the Soviet authorities from 18 to 20 May 1944, supervised by Lavrentiy Beria, chief of Soviet state security and the secret police, and ordered by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Within those three days, the NKVD used cattle trains to deport the Crimean Tatars, mostly women, children, and the elderly, even Communist Party members and Red Army members, to the Uzbek SSR, several thousand kilometres away. They constituted one of the several ethnicities which were subjected to Stalin's policy of population transfer in the Soviet Union.

<i>Master Georgie</i> 1998 historical novel by Beryl Bainbridge

Master Georgie is a 1998 historical novel by English novelist Beryl Bainbridge. It deals with the British experience of the Crimean War through the adventures of the eponymous central character George Hardy, who volunteers to work on the battlefields.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crimean Bridge</span> Bridge to Crimea across the Kerch Strait

The Crimean Bridge, also called Kerch Strait Bridge or Kerch Bridge, is a pair of parallel bridges, one for a four-lane road and one for a double-track railway, spanning the Kerch Strait between the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai in Russia and the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea. Built by the Russian Federation after the annexation of Crimea at the start of 2014, the bridge cost ₽227.92 billion (US$3.7 billion) and has a length of 19 km (12 mi), making it the longest bridge in Europe and the longest bridge ever constructed by Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Autonomous Republic of Crimea</span> De jure autonomous republic of Ukraine

The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is an administrative division of Ukraine encompassing most of Crimea that was annexed by Russia in 2014. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea occupies most of the peninsula, while the City of Sevastopol occupies the rest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation</span> 2014 annexation of territory

In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it. This took place in the relative power vacuum immediately following the Revolution of Dignity and was the first act of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver Bullough</span> British writer

Oliver Bullough is a British writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian occupation of Crimea</span> Military occupation by Russia

The Russian occupation of Crimea is an ongoing military occupation within Ukraine by the Russian Federation, which began on 20 February 2014 when the military-political, administrative, economic and social order of Russia was imposed on the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol. The occupation of Crimea and Sevastopol was the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Crimean Bridge explosion</span> 2022 explosion on the Crimean Bridge

On 8 October 2022, at 6:07 a.m., a fire broke out on the Crimean Bridge as a result of an explosion of a bomb loaded onto a truck, which occurred on the road bridge, on the westbound vehicle lanes running from Russia to Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea. Two two-lane vehicular spans of the bridge collapsed into the water. Two adjacent eastbound lanes on a separate structure survived. The railway bridge was also significantly damaged by a railway tanker car that caught fire. Five people were killed, and the Investigative Committee of Russia launched an investigation.

References

  1. Bass, Gary J. (8 July 2011). "Why the Crimean War Matters" . Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  2. Macqueen, Angus (10 October 2010). "Crimea: The Last Crusade by Orlando Figes – review" . Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  3. Bullough, Oliver (8 October 2010). "Crimea: the Last Crusade, By Orlando Figes" . Retrieved 23 August 2019.