The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The History behind The Bratinsky Affair "It is not the wimpled version of history that is interesting but its brutality." - Hilary Mantel The story of Countess Irina Bratinsky, née O’Rourke de Breffny, has its roots in the religious wars of 17th-century Ireland and...
The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance that Won the War What British diplomat earned his place in history by penning a note to his superior in London commenting mischievously on the name of his Turkish counterpart, Mustapha Kunt? You've guessed it:...
At school I was an avid reader of history, including the swashbuckling adventures of the members of the O’Neill, O’Donnell and O’Rourke clans who used the strength of their sword arms to carve out positions of wealth and influence in their adopted homelands in...
Vladimir Putin clearly fancies himself something of a historian – even if, as a professional historian, I feel much of his ‘work’ would struggle to get a passing grade, laden as it is with factual inaccuracies and the careful cherry picking of evidence to fit his...
In 1879 a group of eleven young people descended on the quiet Russian spa town of Lipetsk, over 700 miles south of St Petersburg. The ten men and one woman stood out from the geriatric invalids who comprised the resort’s usual visitors, thanks to their youth, physical...
Putin's War in Ukraine The area that we now know as Ukraine has rarely been an independent entity. We first hear of it as part of Kievan Rus, a state established by Vikings who went east and, centred on Kiev (now Kyiv), gave their name to Russia. Kievan Rus was...
On 24 February 2022, President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in effect a massive escalation of a war he had begun in 2014 as a direct result of Ukraine’s ‘Revolution of Dignity’ which ousted the authoritarian regime of his ally Viktor...
Philip W. Blood, many congratulations on this fascinating collection of essays. Why did you want to embark on this project? Thank you. The impetus to write the book originally followed from posting an open access paper on academic websites. The paper postulated that...
Putin and the Old-Age Dilemmas of Russian Military Reform Ever since he first ascended to power, as acting president in 1999 and then elected in 2000, Vladimir Putin has made it clear that building a powerful military was not only one of his personal priorities but...
Russian War Crimes (1837-1864) In 1837, the former Decembrist revolutionary, Nikolai Lorer, was serving on the frontline in Russia’s war in the Caucasus. Demoted from major to private, he had been sent to Circassia, a small, independent country in the north, on the...
