Military Defeat Research Articles

The Red Army’s “Perm Catastrophe” and Iron Felix’s Terror Strategy Development

The article examines the circumstances of the “Perm catastrophe” in 1918. The author focuses on the consequences of the military defeat of the Third Red Army at Perm, revealing the main role of Ya. M. Sverdlov in F. E. Dzerzhinsky and Stalin’s secondment to Vyatka. The result of this trip was the strengthening of Yakov Sverdlov’s position, an important circumstance being Felix Dzerzhinsky’s replacement by Yakov Peters. The article reveals the role of Joseph Stalin and Felix Dzerzhinsky in the investigation of the “Perm catastrophe in 1918” and their work in Vyatka and Glazov. In addition to arrests, they carried out numerous mobilization activities in the region which led to the stabilization of the Eastern Front. White terror in Perm Region had a great impact on Felix Dzerzhinsky’s radicalization of attitudes. First of all, it was his attitude to the officers that changed, with him regarding officers as the main threat to the Soviet system. It resulted in his frequent orders to execute former army officers during his time as Chairman of the Cheka (Emergency Committee).

Menstruation and Procreation in Early Modern France by Cathy McClive

pervasive thematic element seems to be how Sfar investigates the two sides of his Jewish family history in order to confront“persecution and the temptation of counterviolence ” within his work (224). A few minor mistakes are found in this book: the mentions of Galicia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire refer to the geopolitical situation in Europe before World War One, not World War Two (83). Overall, however, Sfar So Far is refreshingly free of typographical errors. Leroy’s interview of Sfar (in English) concludes this volume, which contains an appropriate number of illustrations , including several in color. Leroy has produced a consistently insightful work that is well-written and thoroughly documented, and that will be of interest to all scholars and readers of French bandes dessinées. Western Washington University Edward Ousselin McClive, Cathy. Menstruation and Procreation in Early Modern France. Surrey: Ashgate, 2015. ISBN 978-0-7546-6603-5. Pp. 267. £70. Drawing from hundreds of medical, judicial, and theological documents from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, as well as personal correspondences by women to their families and medical practitioners, McClive examines the broad-ranging complexity of the phenomenon of menstruation in early modern France. She argues that the prevalent contemporary“myth of ‘menstrual misogyny’”incorrectly identifies early modern French attitudes toward menstruation as negative, as it also incorrectly posits menstruation as a direct signifier of womanhood that is related to procreation in a straightforward manner. Rather, McClive turns to post-structuralist and recent feminist analytical frameworks to interrogate or “trouble” reductionist binary dichotomies (sex/gender, female/male, natural/cultural, positive/negative) that lead to polarized analyses of menstruation. McClive then applies the microhistorical methodology of the “exceptional normal” to contextualize the “exceptional” bodies found in some early modern case studies within the “normalizing” framework of numerous theological, medical and legal documents. That is, she incorporates the study of medical, legal, and theological exceptional cases as a means to define and comprehend early modern understandings of menstrual norms. Through this broader analytical perspective, McClive concludes that the negative attitudes frequently cited in historical scholarship on early modern menstruation were not the norm; they were only one piece of an overly simplified picture. With chapters entitled, “Leviticus and the Problem of Sex during Genital Fluxes,”“Menstruation, Conception and the Timely Use of Marriage,”“Menstrual Regularity and Irregular Menstruation,”“Detecting and Proving Pregnancy,” “Menstrual Time and the Moons of Pregnancy,” and “Bleeding Hermaphrodites and Menstruating Men,”McClive explores the phenomenon of menstruation from a wide variety of biological, legal, and theological perspectives. Her well-researched and documented examination of conflicting early modern discussions 248 FRENCH REVIEW 89.4 Reviews 249 of menstruation, sex, procreation and pregnancy, and (rare) cases of menstruating men and bleeding hermaphrodites, demonstrates that early modern French attitudes were much more complex,nuanced,and frequently ambivalent than has been previously stated. The ramifications of McClive’s analysis of menstruation are far-reaching and implicate our analyses of a broad range of historical, political, cultural, and biological issues, such as definitions of embodiment, sex, and gender, as well as procreation, patriarchy, and patrilineage. McClive’s stated goal through this work is to expand historical discussions of early modern menstruation and to encourage comparative approaches to this important and currently “emotive” field of study. Her original and fascinating study will be of tremendous interest to students and scholars of early modern history, politics, theology, gender, and culture studies. Northern Arizona University Erika E. Hess Nord, Philip. France 1940: Defending the Republic. New Haven: Yale UP, 2015. ISBN 978-0-300-18987-2. Pp. 189. $27. The early chapters of World War Two were not very glorious for France, but one of the author’s stated goals is to make the case for a more sympathetic understanding of France’s devastating defeat. This is a refreshing perspective in the light of the nottoo -distant French-bashing of the Iraq war period and the use by some of“cheese-eating surrender monkeys”to refer to the French people. This book offers an overview of the events leading up to the Pétain regime: the diplomatic tribulations that preceded the war; the military defeat of May–June 1940; and the ensuing disintegration of...

Europe on Trial: The Story of Collaboration, Resistance, and Retribution during World War II by Istvan Deak

EUROPE ON TRIAL: THE STORY OF COLLABORATION, RESISTANCE, AND RETRIBUTION DURING WORLD WAR II By Istvan Deak. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2015. 288 pp.Prolific scholar Istvan Deak examines the spectrum of collaboration and resistance across Europe during the Second World War in Europe on Trial: Story of Collaboration, Resistance, and Retribution during World War II. For Hungarian-born Deak, these themes have a deep personal resonance; he begins his account with the story of Bela Stollar, the fiance of his sister and close friend from his youth who died resisting fascism in Hungary. Throughout the autobiographical account that opens this text, Deak recounts his life in war-time Hungary, followed by his refugee status in early Cold War Paris and his academic career at Columbia University.In this concise textbook, Deak stresses that collaboration with the Nazi regime remained endemic in Europe until the tide of the war turned against Germany at the battles of Stalingrad and El Alamein. For Deak, European collaboration proved essential to furthering Nazi war aims, especially in implementing the phases of the Holocaust. Collaboration took different forms. In some cases independent nations aligned themselves with Nazi Germany in order to further their own national interests. For instance, Hungary sought to regain territories lost as a result of the Treaty of Trianon. For conquered nations, collaboration was indicative of self-preservation, especially if the German authorities permitted a modicum of autonomy. By supplying the German war effort and eschewing armed resistance, the Danes managed to preserve their parliamentary system throughout much of the war. Other nations, especially Poland, possessed fewer avenues of collaboration, but the widespread embrace of antisemitism led some Poles to aid the Nazis in ferreting out Jews.What is the line between collaboration and resistance? How does one consider the question of fear and intimidation? Drawing upon Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men, Deak observes that even those involved in the actual murder of Jews had a remarkable range of options and could opt out from serving as executioners. But do we swing too far in the other direction and fail to stress the primacy of the Nazis as perpetrators of the Holocaust? How much autonomy did Hungary's ruler, Admiral Horthy, have in chartering a foreign policy that challenged Nazi Germany? Even in 1944, with the Wehrmacht losing the war on both fronts, Horthy tilted away from the Nazis, only to be toppled by German troops with the support of Hungarian fascists. In the Netherlands in 1941, Dutch Jews resorted to violence, and Dutch workers waged sympathy strikes on their behalf. Deak observes that these actions were unique for occupied Europe, but also acknowledges how quickly they were suppressed by German forces.How much weight should Deak give to the question of intention? surrender of France in 1940 and the creation of the Vichy regime suggest a level of collaboration of the highest order. Many other governments, most notably those of Poland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Greece, refused to surrender when facing military defeat, continuing the struggle in exile.Considering Europe on Trial made me reflect on my own encounters with the Second World War in my college textbooks in the late 1970s and ponder shifts in historiographical focus. During the Cold War the lines between good and evil seemed more rigid. In my introductory class, The Atlantic Community and Contemporary World 1914-1945, my professors at Drew University assigned Robert Edwin Herzstein's Adolf Hitler and the German Trauma, 1913-1945 (1974) as the main text dealing with the Second World War. …

OLVIDOS Y RECUERDOS DE UN MONTAJE COMUNICACIONAL. Una aproximación a las memorias subterráneas de ex militantes del Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria en Chile

RESUMEN Este trabajo se aproxima a un acontecimiento escasamente investigado y que, sin embargo, circula como una memoria subterránea entre los sobrevivientes y ex militantes del Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionario; me refiero a la llamada Conferencia de Prensa de Villa Grimaldi, montaje comunicacional organizado por la DINA (Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional) que tuvo como protagonista a un grupo de militantes de esta organización que se encontraban secuestrados en el Cuartel Terranova (Villa Grimaldi). El operativo consistió en que los prisioneros llamaran públicamente a deponer la resistencia armada en contra de la dictadura, declarando la derrota política y militar del MIR. Una vez realizado el montaje, los cuatro militantes fueron acusados de traición y condenados a muerte por ésta organización, medida que finalmente no se implementó. En este artículo me aproximo a las diversas memorias (muchas de ellas en conflicto) que existen en torno a este acontecimiento, incluyendo el testimonio de sus dos sobrevivientes.

Interplay of Cultural Narratives in Martinique: French, African, and Indian Journeys toward a Pluralistic Society by Mahadevi Ramakrishnan, R. Scott Smith

outcome, which leads to the main point of his book: that a coalition of extreme-right leaders terminated French democracy in the wake of military defeat. Contrary to the widespread belief that the demise of the Third Republic was the whole political class’s doing, Nord argues that the Republic was“cornered into self-destruction”(111) by an alliance of army brass and senior civil servants who were “dead set on democracy’s demise”(152) and on regime change. To better account for this takeover, he underlines that democracy was still a novel concept in the light of recent history, like royalist electoral victories in 1871 and 1873,authoritarian threats like Boulanger and MacMahon, or fascist sympathizers in the 1930s. This book is a great read for a fresh look at the somber turn of events of the late 1930s and a comprehensive understanding of what unfolded. Southwestern University (TX) Francis Mathieu Ramakrishnan, Mahadevi, and R. Scott Smith. Interplay of Cultural Narratives in Martinique: French, African, and Indian Journeys toward a Pluralistic Society. Pompano Beach, FL: Caribbean Studies, 2015. ISBN 978-1-62632-370-4. Pp. 282. $24.50. This comprehensive study examines the evolution of Martinique’s hybrid society, beginning with Columbus’s discovery of the island in 1502 and continuing to the present day. Building on the premise that contextualizing emigration patterns can lead to an understanding of the interaction between host communities and immigrant groups, Ramakrishnan and Smith skillfully weave together multiple historical narratives and psychological factors that contribute to a broad understanding of the complex Martinican identity. The book is intended for introductory or intermediate students in a range of fields, including but not limited to French and Francophone studies, African and Caribbean studies, and cross-cultural psychology. A detailed glossary and discussion questions, found at the conclusion of each chapter, enable the authors to provide an excellent introduction on Martinican cultural history to students at the undergraduate level. Each of the ten chapters, arranged chronologically, focuses on a different community’s influence on Martinican society. Ramakrishnan and Smith frequently refer to Martinican society as a“braided society”(vi), and the appropriateness of this term is made evident by the structure of the book. The authors rely on a variety of sources, including historical documents, literary works, and especially a large number of personal communications with faculty at Université des Antilles, and consequently present a clear and coherent narrative of Martinican society. Two chapters are of particular note. Chapter 4 examines the complex plantation system in Martinique during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The authors present expected information, such as the structure of plantation society, the methods of 250 FRENCH REVIEW 89.4 Reviews 251 transporting and selling slaves, and the mechanisms of control once slaves entered the plantation system. They also explain the ramifications of the plantation system on the French economy, thereby allowing students to understand the reciprocal relationship between the colony and the metropole. Chapter 7 is also notable for its chronicle of the narratives of Indian indentured servants that arrived in Martinique following the 1848 abolition of slavery. Ramakrishnan and Smith clarify Tamil terms and explain the structure of Tamil society, both of which might otherwise confuse those unfamiliar with Indian culture. Furthermore, they frequently draw comparisons between the treatment of indentured Tamil workers and former African slaves in order to demonstrate the emotional toll that servitude had on both individuals and on Tamil culture during their integration into the established Martinican societal structure. Enhancing the book is the inclusion of many photographs that are part of the authors’ personal collection that serve to illustrate their arguments. Faculty wishing to integrate this book into their curriculum should be aware of some minor editing issues that, while they do not significantly alter the quality of the scholarship, may pose problems to less-experienced readers. Several sentences on pages containing photographs are left incomplete, but these do not impede comprehension and should not discourage the incorporation of an otherwise excellent contribution to the field. Ithaca College (NY) Rachel Paparone Rudolph, Nicole C. At Home in Postwar France: Modern Mass Housing and the Right to Comfort. New York: Berghahn, 2015. ISBN 978-1-78238-587...

Lincoln and Kennedy: A Pair to Compare by Gene Barretta

Reviewed by: Lincoln and Kennedy: A Pair to Compare by Gene Barretta Elizabeth Bush Barretta, Gene Lincoln and Kennedy: A Pair to Compare; written and illus. by Gene Barretta. Ottaviano/Holt, 2016 [40p] ISBN 978-0-8050-9945-4 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 2-5 Separated as they are by a hundred years, and representing rival political parties, Lincoln and Kennedy don’t immediately lend themselves easily to a side-by-side picture-book analysis. Kudos to Barretta, then, who is stunningly successful at creating such a book by pausing at key moments of each man’s life to see what he’s facing and enriching the biography of both by comparison. Boy Lincoln, scrubbing down in a tin bathtub while a bear hovers near his shoulder, “had a passion for learning and borrowed books whenever he could.” On the facing page, boy Kennedy soaks in a footed tub, with a teddy bear perched on the radiator: “He showed little interest in his studies.” A picture shows Lincoln wooing Mary Todd at a dance, in true meet-cute fashion, while the scene below depicts Jacqueline Bouvier sneaking a sidelong glance at Kennedy as he holds forth at a dinner party. Both men, pictured in somber silhouette, experienced the loss of a child and suffered from [End Page 507] depression or pain. Each made a stand for civil rights; each faced military defeat. And, of course, both fell to an assassin’s bullet. Cartoon illustrations are respectful but at times humorous, and the career of each man is recapped with a double-page spread that includes presidential accomplishments, trivia, and five memorable quotations. With a glossary and list of sources, this will obviously catch the eye of social-studies teachers, but the lively illustrations and inviting approach will entice independent readers as well. Copyright © 2016 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

The Civil War in Syria and the International Response

Both parties involved in the civil war in Syria, reached to secure the support of other states and the control over considerable parts of the territory, but none of them could trigger a comprehensive military defeat against the other. The cost of the conflict where government forces as well as armed rebels continue to commit atroccities has been shocking. Security Council with regard to the problem of Syria was divided between a majority who wanted a strong response to implement the Responsibility to Protect and some who did not want. The debate between Western democracies was based on the fact if foreign governments should militarily intervene in Syria, being that they thought military intervention could aggravate the conflict and could increase the sufferings of ordinary Syrians. However individual countries and regional organizations took actions to maintain their responsibility to protect. The use of the veto by the permanent members of the Security Council to prevent the implementation of the "Responsibility to Protect " which aims to end the massive atrocities is inconsistent with the goals of the United Nations and makes the Security Council inappropriate on the situation when his involvement to resolve conflict situations is an urgent need. State sovereignty can no longer constitute an unrestricted license to mass killings and other atrocity crimes.

The Military Defeats of 1915 and the Organization of Progressive Bloc

The Military Defeats of 1915 and the Organization of Progressive Bloc

MARSHAL JOSEPH PILSUDSKI AND REBORN POLAND

May 12 this year, it has been 80 years, since one of the greatest of Poles, our homeland has ever had – Marshal Joseph Pilsudski has departed to the eternal watch. That is he, more than anybody else, undertook efforts to restore to political being Polish Republic, which did not exist politically for 123 years. It was on October 24, 1795 that three neighboring powers: Russia, Prussia and Austria shared the rest of the territory of the Polish Republic in its third partition. Signed two years later the partitions convention in St. Petersburg on January 26 1797 has permanently legitimized this state of affairs. Uprisings such as Kosciusko Insurrection of 1794, November Uprising of 1830, and the January Uprising of 1863 were not able to reverse this state of affairs. Hopes connected with French-Russian war of 1812 proved to be too barren hopes. Poles had to wait for the arrival dreamed by Mickiewicz “war of the nations” and take advantage of this incredible coincidence, that at one time three invaders suffered military defeat. This favorable situation predicted and fully took advantage of it, the future Head of State – Joseph Pilsudski. He was for the whole galaxy of patriots’ inspirer and leader in those very complicated times. He was a man of great capacity, able to answer to challenges of those years.

Organizational structure and operations of the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces (1955-1963)

The Republic of Vietnam Military Forces (RVNMF) is a product of the neocolonialism and the US war in South Vietnam. It is organized, staffed, well-equipped in a modern way to carry out combat operations with the US military. After understanding its organization and activities in the period 1955-1963, the author gives out some explanation for the failure of the US in the neocolonialism war in South Vietnam which is actually a military defeat.

On the overthrow or endurance of kings

Monarchy has two elements, autocratic government and hereditary succession to office. After surveying arguments for and against hereditary access to public office, the paper illustrates that theoretical explanations of the rise of representative government do not account for the abolition or preservation of hereditary monarchy in contemporary democratic states. The paper then distinguishes between proximate and fundamental causes of the fall of monarchy. The former are military defeat, dissolution of the state as a result of war defeat and decolonization, and revolution. Fundamental causes are those that explain how proximate causes led to the overthrow of the monarchy and focus on the failures of monarchs to preserve national unity and to withdraw from a politically active role.

La Frontera: Forests and Ecological Conflict in Chile's Frontier Territory, by Thomas Miller Klubock

La Frontera: Forests and Ecological Conflict in Chile's Frontier Territory, by Thomas Miller Klubock. Durham & London, Duke University Press, 2014. ix, 385 pp. $27.95 US (paper). Thomas Klubock has written an excellent book based upon exhaustive research that pieces together the social and environmental effects caused by large scale transformations to forests during a sustained period of nation-building and state development in southern Chile. He provides a chronological narrative, one that seeks to locate the origins of today's miracle in complex and contested relationships that began at least a century ago. Klubock explains how forestry development remade the social landscape and how campesinos confronted changing environmental conditions. The setting involves an extensive southern region known colloquially as La Frontera, stretching between the Bio Bio and Tolten rivers and from the Andes to the Pacific. Klubock begins after the military defeat of the last independent Mapuche groups as the weak state reduced these groups into commonly held and circumscribed settlements. Although European immigration proved paltry, enormous land concessions in this frontier allowed for wheat production to expand alongside livestock rearing and the first conservation reserves. Forestry laws facilitated modern forestry production and secured estate owners' property rights at the expense of prior rural residents. The system shepherded by the state limited land fraud and unchecked forest clearing, which had social consequences, in particular, violent peasant protests against the enclosure of the lands they used for their livelihoods. Klubock's investigation shines in his dramatic analysis and close reading of the Ranquil rebellion, an organized uprising against the largest estate families that exposed the ways campesinos' relationships to the state were also tied to ecological processes. The 1930s and 1940s brought an abrupt shift away from failed attempts to create a breadbasket in the south. Instead, Monterrey pine plantations became the proposed solution to diminished yields and infertile soil. Seen as a way to restore value to increasingly barren lands and combat rampant erosion, pine also promised to link the rural sector to industrial changes. Swapping wheat for pine had major restructuring effects based upon state driven incentives and rewards. By reorganizing land and labour relations, planting pine provided a way to present the state and large landowners as modern and productive. It will come as no surprise that rather than resolve these festering issues, tree plantations created new tensions of their own as they swallowed up peasant lands and depleted rural unionization. By the 1960s, this spiral of degradation and deepening rural poverty created pressures for agrarian reforms. …

Bombed Into Defeat?

While the Second World War is by far the most studied global conflict, prolific scholarship on its contours and causes has yet to yield consensus. The effectiveness of different military strategies, most notably air bombing, is still disputed. Richard Overy examines the claim that strategic bombing was a major factor in bringing both the European and Pacific wars to an end in 1945. Rejecting the argument that bombing led to surrender in either Germany or Japan, he highlights the significance of outright military defeat and political calculation.

Miks demokraatia Soomet ei päästnud? Ühendkuningriigi-Soome sõda ja demokraatliku rahu teooria [Why did democracy not save Finland? The war between the United Kingdom and Finland, and the democratic peace proposition

Miks demokraatia Soomet ei päästnud? Ühendkuningriigi-Soome sõda ja demokraatliku rahu teooria [Why did democracy not save Finland? The war between the United Kingdom and Finland, and the democratic peace proposition

The Collapse of the Ottoman andHabsburg Empires and the Brutalisationof the Successor States

The Collapse of the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires and the Brutalisation of the Successor States This essay explores the interconnected issues of demobilisation and brutalisation in the collapsing Habsburg and Ottoman empires in the period immediately after 1918. Post-imperial Austria, Hungary and Turkey witnessed the emergence of sizeable paramilitary subcultures that were shaped by the successive traumatising experiences of war, defeat, territorial disintegration, occupation, and revolution – nationalist or socialist. Members of these subcultures fed on a doctrine of ethnic nationalism and shared a determination to use violence in order to suppress real or alleged internal enemies and to avenge their perceived humiliations resulting from military defeat. Ex-officers brutalised by wars and infuriated by their outcomes joined forces with, and transmitted their «values» to, members of a younger generation, who compensated for their lack of combat experience by often surpassing the war veterans in terms of radicalism, activism and brutality. Together the veterans and members of the «war youth generation» formed ultra-militant milieux that differed from the «community of the trenches» in their social make-up, their «liberation» from the constraints of military discipline, and their self-imposed post-war mission of destroying external and internal enemies.

Turkey's Military Victory over the PKK and Its Failure to End the PKK Insurgency

This article explores the major reasons why Turkey could not end the PKK insurgency despite its military defeat in the late 1990s. It argues that Turkish governments have failed to sufficiently address two key aspects of their low-intensity conflict with the PKK, namely the fact that the PKK is not just a group of armed militants, but rather a complex insurgent organization and that it appeals to a large number of Kurds. Turkey's inability to definitively quell the PKK insurgency raises significant questions regarding the justification and effectiveness of the use of military force in dealing with insurgencies.

Realism or Radicalism: Explaining Autocratic Rulers’ Strategic Choices Following Military Defeats in the Middle East

This article explains autocratic rulers’ behavior in the aftermath of costly military defeats in the Middle East. Essentially, military defeats cause political crises of legitimacy for all Middle East rulers, albeit to varying degrees of severity. In responding to these crises, rulers have two broad strategic options: addressing the crisis’ root cause by reversing the strategic consequences of defeat or merely mitigating the immediate political symptoms of the crisis. Crucially, it is the severity of the political crisis that is the primary factor determining the choice of strategy. However, when the crisis is less severe, additional factors—leaders’ own beliefs, perceptions about the viability of each option, and their regime’s particular vulnerabilities—also determine the choice between the two orientations.

USSR NATIONAL ECONOMY DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

This article examines the impact of the Great Patriotic War on the economy of the Soviet Union. The Second World War had an enormous pressure on the historical, political and economic development around the world. It was the most devastating armed conflict in modern history. Most of the States participating in the hostilities, suffered extensive damage in human lives and the national economy. The participating countries were divided into two camps: the anti-Hitler coalition and the Nazi unit. In the anti-Hitler coalition includes the United Kingdom, Poland, France, Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, the USSR, the USA, China and other countries in the Nazi unit - Germany, Italy, Japan and several other countries. At this time, dramatically changed the geopolitical space and the balance of power on the world stage. Countries Nazi unit, such as Germany, Italy, Japan before the war belonged to the great powers. As a result of military defeat as they are for several decades have become dependent countries. The economic potential of these countries has been significantly eroded. But lost the status of a great power and the anti-Hitler coalition. For example, France was defeated by Germany in 1940 and was forced to pay tribute to her enormous occupation, UK, ending the war as one of the great victorious powers, also lost its former power. By adopting the Marshall Plan, the United Kingdom became dependent on US aid and economically and militarily far behind the US. Most large-scale loss of all the anti-Hitler coalition suffered the USSR. Damage dealt not only branches of material and non-material production, but also the enormous loss of population.

Dunsterforce or Dunsterfarce? Re-evaluating the British mission to Baku, 1918

In August 1918, 1500 British troops sailed across the Caspian Sea and occupied Baku. Dunsterforce – named after its leader Lionel Dunsterville – ended in tactical failure. One month after entering the city, the British force withdrew. Many historians have written Dunsterforce off as an ambitious, but ultimately unsuccessful, intervention on a peripheral front. In this article, however, I argue that the operation achieved greater strategic success than it is often given credit for. Dunsterforce's achievements, however, cannot be disentangled from broader developments on other fronts in late 1918. As such, this success was largely incidental. Although some authors have argued that Britain was driven by economic interests, the principal objective of Dunsterforce was the protection of Britain's position in the Middle East and India. By occupying Baku and thus controlling the Caspian, Britain hoped to forestall a Turko-German invasion of India. Operating in an unpredictable strategic environment, Dunsterforce's objectives evolved over time; the operation suffered from what modern strategists have labelled ‘mission creep’. Originally tasked with training local levies, Dunsterville's mission had evolved into a field force: Dunsterforce. Under relative autonomy from London, Dunsterville drove the intervention. His ambitions extended to restoring the entire Eastern Front by linking up with forces in the Ukraine. Three factors contributed to Dunsterforce's failure. First, it arrived too late. By the time Dunsterforce disembarked in Baku, the city was already under siege by the Turkish army. Second, the resources available to Dunsterville – both in terms of men and materiel – were insufficient to accomplish the mission's tactical end: holding Baku. Third, the residents of Baku were too occupied with in-fighting to mount a united defence. Despite being a military defeat, Dunsterforce achieved some successes. The British presence in Baku helped deny the Central Powers access to Baku's oil for six vital weeks. No oil from Baku travelled further than Tiflis (modern-day Tbilisi) by the time the armistice was signed. At a time when German forces on the Western Front were hampered by chronic fuel shortages, this was a significant feat. Indeed, on 17 November, a British force occupied Baku once more. The capture of Baku by the Army of Islam proved the zenith of the Pan-Turanian dream, and Turkey's expansionist plans were never realized. The British retained command of the Caspian from their base at Enzeli in north-west Persia, giving the British a foothold from which the successor of Dunsterforce, Noperforce, could operate against the Bolsheviks. India remained unthreatened, and thus Britain had secured its strategic objectives in the region.

Remarks on an Early-Medieval „Show Trial”: Tassilo III’s Dethronement

The creation of a unified empire by Charlemagne required quite a number of victims, one of whom was Tassilo III, the last duke of the Agilolfing dynasty reigning in Bavaria for two centuries. The history of his fall may awake the legal historians’ interest because the Frank monarch dethroned him not by means of a bloody military defeat but by a legal trial (now called show trial1) in 788. Before the trial Charlemagne isolated Tassilo both in foreign and home affairs by means of carefully measured diplomatic steps. Finally, putting him under his jurisdiction in 787, he made him his vassal. The main charges brought against Tassilo were infidelitas, i.e., unfaithfulness to the liege lord and harisliz, i.e., desertion – though the latter was claimed to had been carried out a quarter of a century before the legal trial. The given work aims to enlighten the legal background of this rather opaque case by contouring the historical context. First we consider Tassilo’s reign and the historical background of the trial, then we investigat the Franko-Bavarian conflict and the iuramenta fidelitatis of Tassilo. In the end, after highlighting the question of infidelitas and of harisliz we analyse the show trial itself.