Book description
The terrible conflict that dominated the mid 19th century, the
Crimean War killed at least 800,000 men and pitted Russia against a
formidable coalition of Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. It was
a war for territory, provoked by fear that if the Ottoman Empire were
to collapse then Russia could control a huge swathe of land from the
Balkans to the Persian Gulf. But it was also a war of religion, driven
by a fervent, populist and ever more ferocious belief by the Tsar and
his ministers that it was Russia's task to rule all Orthodox
Christians and control the Holy Land.
Orlando Figes' major new book reimagines this extraordinary war, in
which the stakes could not have been higher and which was fought with
a terrible mixture of ferocity and incompetence. It was both a
recognisably modern conflict - the first to be extensively
photographed, the first to employ the telegraph, the first 'newspaper
war' - and a traditional one, with illiterate soldiers, amateur
officers and huge casualties caused by disease. Drawing on a huge
range of fascinating sources, Figes also gives the lived experience of
the war, from that of the ordinary British soldier in his snow-filled
trench, to the haunted, gloomy, narrow figure of Tsar Nicholas himself
as he vows to take on the whole world in his hunt for religious salvation.
Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University
of London. His books include
Natasha's Dance
and
The Whisperers
.
