Archive for the ‘History’ Category
When did Ukraine come under Russian control and who was responsible for this?
March 16th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
The short answers are January 1654 and Bordan Khmelnytsky. Khmelnytsky was the leader of the Hetmanate Cossacks who led a successful uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of which Ukraine was then a part. At the small town of Pereiaslav, he signed an agreement that, in return for allegiance to the Russian Tsar, the Cossack Hetmanate […]
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A review of the 2020 film “Quo Vadis, Aida?” about the massacre at Srebrenica
March 10th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
The break-up of the former Yugoslavia led to a number of brutal conflicts of which the worst was the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992-1996 – a country which I visited in 2007. Hollywood has shown no interest in this war but there was a British-made film in 1997 called “Welcome To Sarajevo” about the four-year […]
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A review of the history book “On The Cusp” by David Kynaston
March 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Distinguished British historian David Kynaston has embarked on a formidable project to produce a post-war history of the country under the banner “Tales Of A New Jerusalem” which will eventually cover the period 1945-1979. The distinctive style of this historical record is his use of contemporary records such as diaries, letters, and news reports. By […]
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Have you heard of the “bald-hairy” joke in Russian political discourse?
March 3rd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
“Bald-hairy” is a common joke in Russian political discourse, referring to the empirical rule of the state leaders’ succession defined as a change of a bald or balding leader to a hairy one and vice versa. This consistent pattern can be traced back to as early as 1825, when Nicholas I succeeded his late brother Alexander as the […]
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A review of the new film “Munich: The Edge Of War”
February 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Before I saw this film, I had read the novel by Robert Harris on which it is based [for review click here] and I had read (twice) a detailed examination of the Munich Agreement of September 1938 by Robert Kee [for review click here], so I was very familiar with the subject material. Nevertheless, I found it […]
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Ever heard of the Thucydides’ Trap?
December 2nd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
In foreign policy discussions, this is a deadly trap first identified by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides. As he explained, “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.” The term was popularised by American political scientist Graham T. Allison to describe an apparent tendency towards war when an […]
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How did Bletchley Park break Nazi Germany’s Enigma code?
November 6th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I’ve read the novel “Enigma” written by Robert Harris [my review here]; I’ve seen the film directed by Michael Apsted [my review here]; and this weekend, I visited Bletchley Park where a British team built on the work of Poles to break the Enigma code used by the German army, navy and air force during […]
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As we debate the admission of Afghan refugees, I’m reminded of the Evian Conference of 1938
August 18th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
The Évian Conference was convened 6–15 July 1938 at Évian-les-Bains, France, to address the problem of German and Austrian Jewish refugees wishing to flee persecution by Nazi Germany. It was the initiative of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt who perhaps hoped to obtain commitments from some of the invited nations to accept more refugees, although he took pains to avoid stating […]
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Ever heard of Sobibor?
August 16th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Sobibor was a Nazi concentration camp in German-occupied Poland where, on 14 October 1943, there was a mass break-out of the 600 prisoners, some 300 managing to escape but only around 60 succeeding in avoiding recapture. This remarkable story is told in a 1987 film with a cast including Alan Arkin and Rutger Hauer which […]
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Have you ever heard of a place called Arthurdale?
July 21st, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I hadn’t – but I’ve been watching the excellent 2014 PBS America television series “The Roosevelts” and I was fascinated by the reference to the experiment in community living called Arthurdale. The Wikipedia page on the subject states: Arthurdale is an unincorporated community in Preston County, West Virginia, United States. It was built in 1933, at the height of the Depression as […]
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