Polish History

Book Review: The Great Northern War Compendium edited by Steve Kling

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[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author and/or publisher. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] The Great Northern War Compendium is a massive two-volume work that covers just about everything you ever wanted to know about the Great Northern War (assuming you have ever heard of this obscure to English speakers war), and probably some that you don’t. Some stats.  The two volumes together comprise 660 pages consisting of over 70 articles arranged in chronological order from the wars beginning in 1700 to its conclusion in 1721.  Each volume has an index and in addition there … More after the Jump…

Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe

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To say that the Polish-Soviet War was a continuation of The Great War would be a lie. Certainly, the vacuum of power from the Vistula to the Dnieper had something to do with it, but it does not account for behaviors that Americans will always find opaque and odd when visiting Eastern European history. The Polish side had brandished rifles at one another during the previous international conflict. They were now united for everything reactionary and terrible (in the eyes of the Bolsheviks): defense of their homeland against the international worker’s revolution (led by soft-handed bourgeois intellectuals). One anachronism would be the idea of a champion swordsman challenging the other … More after the Jump…

WWII Animated Day-by-Day

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Below is an animated map of the progress of WWII day by day from 1 September, 1939 to October, 1945 when the last major units of the Japanese military surrendered.  It provides a fascinating view of the way in which the fortunes of the went back and forth.

How the Hussars Took Moscow

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By the time the leopard-pelt donning Serbian mercenaries arrived in the commonwealth, the ferrous mines of Europe were in full bloom. No longer would the ancestral ingot change from plowshare to spearhead and back again under the same village smithy. The 17th century would see the rise and fall of heavy cavalry. The panoply of the mighty Polish Hussar would only come to rust when the musket was capable of penetrating plate mail, but this falls after our incursion into events past at this moment in time. Today citizens fear the idea of fighting two wars at the same time. In our peek into rustic Poland we shall find that … More after the Jump…

The Christ of Nations, 1920

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In Polish history, war usually comes down to two conflicting scripts. From the Polish side, pushing geographical boundaries out in all directions, as far as possible. From the opposing side: eliminating the irritating roadblock begrudgingly acknowledged as “Poland.” This theme is perennial. It has not only been steel and fire that has determined if the land of the White Eagle was to be a flesh and blood state, or merely a state of mind; it was also the petitioning of the fighting spirit through ideological appeal. Literature in Poland has served such a purpose. Polish literature is not meant to appeal to outsiders. It is generally so nationalistic that neighboring … More after the Jump…

The Significance of The Northern Crusades in History

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Modern historians tend to overlook economic factors when investigating historical motivations. The first Northern Crusade (The Wendish Crusade), as commonly narrated, was a branch of the Second Crusade, undertaken on behalf of St. Bernard de Clairvaux’s furious pulpit outreach to retake the holy land. Ideological motivation is difficult to overlook when analyzing historical empires: the majority of empires and religions are so closely intertwined that it is almost impossible to separate them. This is true of Roman Catholicism no less than for the Vedic seers who wrote the Rig Veda, the Achaemenids who patronized Zoroastrianism, and the cult of Quetzalcoatl in Aztec Mexico. Early Islam and Maccabean Judaism are virtually … More after the Jump…