A Brief History of the Crimean War

Alexis Troubetzkoy

In September 1854, the armies of Britain, France and Turkey invaded Russia, ostensibly over disputed access to the holy sites of Jerusalem. But few wars in history reveal greater confusion of purpose than this ‘notoriously incompetent international butchery’ (Hobsbawm). In the months that followed over half a million soldiers died from wounds, disease, starvation and sheer cold. We all know of the heroic folly of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

The Crimean War was a medieval conflict fought in a modern age. This new account by a Russian historian shows that the extraordinary struggle was fought not only in the Crimea, but also along the Danube, in the Arctic Ocean, in the Baltic and Pacific.

Much has been written about the war itself and Troubetzkoy does not aim to cover old ground, but traces its true causes and sketches a vivid picture of the age up to the Allies’ departure for the Crimea. Woven with developments in diplomacy, trade and nationalistic expression are descriptions of the Russian, Turkish and British armies and the principal players – Napoleon III, Marshal St Arnaud, Lord Raglan, the great Russian engineer Todleban, Florence Nightingale and Nicholas I.