Regimes Around the World are Manipulating History and Threatening Historians
Reading time: 6 minutes
In March 2022, overshadowed by British asylum policies, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published its findings about the state of free speech in Rwanda. In 2018, the government of President and “darling tyrant” Paul Kagame adopted the latest version of a law making punishable, by up to seven years imprisonment, public speech questioning the events and statistics related to the 1994 Genocide. However, the law lacks clear definitions and its vague language is seen as instrumental in prosecuting legitimate debate, in particular over crimes committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), of which Kagame was the commander. Prosecution of legitimate historical discourse took place under earlier versions of the law, but in the lead-up to the thirtieth anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the Kagame government has increased its efforts to combat “genocide ideology.”
On the screen: Cold warriors
Reading time: 4 minutes
The Courier, directed by Dominic Cooke, is a film of the Cold War with the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 as backdrop. The central characters, British salesman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) and GRU (Soviet military intelligence) Colonel Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), are centre stage, but the real dynamic is the challenge issued by the Soviet Union and its empire to the United States and its Western allies. Infamously, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had boasted that the USSR would bury the West and this claim features in the opening of the movie. A nuclear war between the two superpowers of the time emerges as possible as the Soviet presence in Cuba is revealed to be more threatening than originally thought.
PUTIN’S PAST: The Return of Ideological History and the Strongman
Reading time: 8 minutes
From Russian Constitutional Court chairman Valery Zorkin, to former Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, to presidential adviser Yuri Kovlachuk, amateur history is everywhere in the Russian government today. This is not an accident but a deliberate way to build official state ideology in Russia. For instance, in a recent interview discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, Oleg Khramov, said that the West is trying “to stop the course of history” by “blinding” many Ukrainians to the historical truth of their shared civilizational identity with Russia.
The absurd irony of Putin’s invocation of Stalingrad
Reading time: 5 minutes
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address in Volgograd on 2 February, in which he sought to draw moral parallels between the heroic Soviet defence of Stalingrad in World War II and the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, represents a new low for Kremlin propaganda.
The debate on the origins of the First World War
Reading time: 5 minutes
The way historians have viewed the causes of WWI has changed in the hundred years since war broke out. This article explores the origins of the Great War.
How could the death of one man, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was assassinated on 28 June 1914, lead to the deaths of millions in a war of unprecedented scale and ferocity? This is the question at the heart of the debate on the origins of the First World War. Finding the answer to this question has exercised historians for 100 years.
Ukraine: why supply of US and German tanks echoes cold war
Reading time: 5 minutes
The export of German and US tanks to Ukraine is not without risk, both real and symbolic. In purely military terms, well-trained, well-led and motivated Ukrainian tank crews operating the Leopard 2 or M1 Abrams will be better protected, have better firepower and be more manoeuvrable than their Russian counterparts. Provided the Ukrainians can cope with the fact that they will need different ammunition, spare parts and possibly fuel they can make a difference, significantly enhancing Ukraine’s capability to defend its territory.
Saint Olga of Kyiv is Ukraine’s patron saint of both defiance and vengeance
Reading time: 6 minutes
Ukrainians are used to adversity and they have a special medieval role model who personifies their bravery in the face of hardship. The Mongol horde destroyed her tomb in Kyiv in 1240 but a Ukrainian Orthodox cathedral dedicated to her was consecrated there as recently as 2010.
Why Gorbachev’s legacy still threatens Putin
Reading time: 5 minutes
Little remains of the legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader and one of the greatest reformers in Russian history.
The Story of the AK-47: The World’s Most Famous and Deadliest Rifle
Reading time: 7 minutes
The AK-47 is perhaps one of the most recognizable automatic rifles in the world. This simple gun, produced by Mikhail Kalashnikov, was initially intended to replace the somewhat ineffective weapons carried by Soviet forces. However, it quickly became the weapon of choice during most conflicts following the Second World War. But, how did this weapon become the most famous and deadliest rifle in the world?
Dispatches from Red Square: reporting Russia’s revolutions then and now
Reading time: 9 minutes
“No news from Petrograd yesterday”, was the headline in the Daily Mail on March 14, 1917. The story – or non-story – which followed, was only a few dozen words: “Up to a late hour last night the Russian official report, which for many months has come to hand early, had not been received”, it ran. So why publish it? The non-appearance of the daily news bulletin from the Russian government had led the Mail’s writer, trying to prepare a report in London, to suspect something was going on.
Putin’s brazen manipulation of language is a perfect example of Orwellian doublespeak
Reading time: 6 minutes
If you’ve been paying attention to how Russian President Vladimir Putin talks about the war in Ukraine, you may have noticed a pattern. Putin often uses words to mean exactly the opposite of what they normally do.
He labels acts of war “peacekeeping duties.”
He claims to be engaging in “denazification” of Ukraine while seeking to overthrow or even kill Ukraine’s Jewish president, who is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor.
ABUSE AND TENACITY: UKRAINE’S STRUGGLE FOR AUTONOMY
Reading time: 10 minutes
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has rightfully outraged and shocked much of the world; a war of aggression from one nation to another, this attack and occupation has been the largest such incursion into a foreign land since the Second World War. Indeed it has also created the displacement of nearly 4 million Ukrainians, leading to Europe’s greatest refugee crisis in 80 years.
The wild decade: how the 1990s laid the foundations for Vladimir Putin’s Russia
Reading time: 6 minutes
By securing victory in a national vote on constitutional changes, Vladimir Putin could now remain president of Russia until 2036 if he chooses to stand again. After 20 years in power, the narrative of Russia’s chaotic 1990s remains core to Putin’s legitimacy as the leader who restored stability.
Kazakhstan: A Story of Endurance
Reading time: 7 minutes
As protests erupt across the former Soviet republic, the world watches transfixed. How did Kazakhstan come to be the country it is today?
Rewilding: lessons from the medieval Baltic crusades
Reading time: 6 minutes
The Forest of Białowieża, which straddles the border of Poland and Belarus, is unique in Europe: it is incredibly ancient. Woodland has been continuously present there for some 12,000 years. With the protection of 6059 hectares from human disturbance within the Polish national park, as well as the return of its iconic European bison herds from the brink of extinction, the forest is widely regarded as a model for restoring biodiversity or “rewilding”, which areas across Europe are trying to emulate.
The Beginning of the End: Napoleon’s Retreat from Russia
Reading time: 6 minutes
On 24 June 1812, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte led the French Grand Army across the Neman River, invading Russia. By this point, the French Emperor had won many military victories, giving him control over most of Europe. However, his invasion of Russia would prove to be a devastating point in the Napoleonic wars and a major blow to his political and military power across Europe.
Under what conditions are international sanctions effective?
Reading time: 7 minutes
According to US government data, 32 sanctions regimes are currently in effect. Canada, for its part, currently imposes sanctions on 20 different states and on terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda. The EU is currently implementing sanctions against some 30 countries and international actors. As for the United Nations, since 1966, the Security Council has put in place 30 sanctions regimes, from apartheid South Africa to Gaddafi’s (and according to him) Libya, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Political History of France, 1789-1910 – Audiobook
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF FRANCE, 1789-1910 – AUDIOBOOK By Muriel O. Davis This little book opens on the eve of the French Revolution. The government is crippled by financial mismanagement, ruled by a King who, in the author’s words, is “devoid of both ability and energy,” and resented by a tax-oppressed peasantry and a rising […]
A Short History of the World – Audiobook
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD – AUDIOBOOK By H. G. Wells (1866 – 1946) A Short History of the World is a non-fictional historic work by English author H. G. Wells, largely inspired by Wells’s earlier 1919 work The Outline of History. The book summarises the scientific knowledge of the time regarding the history of […]
The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 5 – Audiobook
By Charles F. Horne (1870 – 1942),Rossiter Johnson (1840 – 1931) A comprehensive and readable account of the world’s history, emphasizing the more important events, and presenting these as complete narratives in the master-words of the most eminent historians. This is volume 5 of 22, covering from 843-1161 AD.
A Short History of Russia – audiobook
A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA – AUDIOBOOK By Lucy Cazalet (1870 – 1956) A Short History of Russia by Lucy Cazalet is a helpful introduction to the people, places, and events that shaped Russia, the largest country in the world. While covering the bullet points of Russian history, the author expands to greater detail when talking […]
The Russian Revolution
For most people, the term “Russian Revolution” conjures up a popular set of images: demonstrations in Petrograd’s cold February of 1917, greatcoated men in the Petrograd Soviet, Vladimir Lenin addressing the crowds in front of the Finland station, demonstrators dispersed during the July days and the storming of the Winter Palace in October. What happened in the Russian Revolution? These […]
ROME’S AUGUSTUS AND THE ALLURE OF THE STRONGMAN
ROME’S AUGUSTUS AND THE ALLURE OF THE STRONGMAN The Roman emperor Augustus is held up by some as a statesman who brought peace, and as a potential model for the future. But what was the cost of Augustus’ peace, and how real was it? On his 2012 honeymoon to Rome, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took […]
Could the Charge of the Light Brigade have worked?
COULD THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE HAVE WORKED? Middle East tensions. Russian soldiers in Crimea. Western nations’ warships in the Black Sea. Those descriptions sound like Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea. But they also applied 150 years earlier during The Crimean War between Russia and a British-French-Turkish alliance. That war is largely forgotten now, apart […]