Crimean War Research Articles

The Crimean War and Its Impact on International Relations Until 1856 AD

The Crimean Peninsula is the peninsula where one of the most significant world wars began, which had a direct and profound impact on the main party in this war, the Ottoman Empire, and on the European countries that caused this war, especially Russia, the country with great ambitions and interests in this region. Therefore, the Crimean War is a major turning point in the history of the Ottoman Empire and the history of its peoples, in which they found the appropriate opportunity to be liberated from the Ottoman control in order to achieve their independence, like Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro.

Renaming Kyiv’s Streets Amid the Russian War of Invasion: The Politics of History Between “Decommunization” and “Derussification”

The article undertakes a comparative thematic and narrative analysis of the trends in place name change in Kyiv (as published by the Kyiv City State Administration) during two periods: (1) between 2014 and the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022 and (2) between 24 February 2022 and the first anniversary of the Russian invasion in 2023. From 2014 to early 2023, 517 (about 17 percent) of Kyiv’s urbanonyms were changed. It is found that 58 percent of names changed during this entire time span belonged to the “Soviet nostalgic” narrative and 41 percent — to the narrative of the “Russian world”, while 1 percent were non-political. Before 24 February 2022, the “Soviet nostalgic” narrative was affected the most (88 percent of renamings), which reflects the phenomenon of “decommunization”; however, during the full-scale Russian invasion its share fell to 30 percent. In the period after 24 February 2022, the theme of “derussification” clearly dominated, with the share of removed names that represented the “Russian world” narrative increasing from 11 percent (before the full-scale invasion) to 69 percent. The largest proportion of newly minted toponyms in the period from 2014 to 2023 embody the “national Ukrainian” narrative (59 percent), while 35 percent invoke a “non-political” context and 6 percent are internationally-themed. The ongoing urbanonymic change, as analyzed in the article using Kyiv as a case study, has led to a radical transformation of the urban symbolic order in Ukraine. Ukraine is appropriating these spaces, displacing the Russian imperial legacy. The radicalization of this policy is a result of the Russian aggression; however, it reinforces an already existing trend. It is also an act of defiance, doing the opposite of what the aggressor may have planned or would have done, had Kyiv been captured. Thus the sad but stubborn irony is that the attempt to reintegrate Ukraine into the Russian imperial order has produced the exact opposite outcome — a fundamental rejection of the symbols of the “Russian world”.

Criminal liability of commanders for giving criminal orders on violation of laws and customs of war in the context of Russia's war against Ukraine

The article examines the issue of criminal liability for commanders' orders to violate the laws and customs of war in the context of Russia's war against Ukraine. The author establishes that criminal liability in this case is based on the command responsibility concept of the sources of international humanitarian law. It is proposed that Article 438 (1) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine should provide for liability not only for giving an order or instruction to violate the laws or customs of war, but also for the failure of a superior who became aware of such violations by his subordinates to take measures to stop them and to notify the competent authorities of the crime. Courts in their verdicts against commanders of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, when qualifying under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, usually do not incriminate such an act as giving an order, but rather impute a specific violation of the laws and customs of war committed by his subordinates. When qualifying the actions of commanders and subordinates, the qualification formula usually refers to Article 28 (2) of the of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. However, many verdicts do not contain such a reference. The proposal to recognize the state-political and military entities of the Russian Federation as criminal organizations was supported. The author notes the formation of a legal axiom in judicial practice of unconditional criminal liability for all military personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation who, as part of a criminal organization, commit violations of the laws and customs of war on the territory of Ukraine. Within this axiom, an irrefutable legal presumption is distinguished: all military personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation are aware and familiar with the laws and customs of war, which they violated on the territory of Ukraine, executing criminal orders of the military and political leadership of the aggressor state, and therefore, consideration of the actions of these military personnel through the prism of the existence of a factual circumstance that excludes the criminal unlawfulness of an act, such as the execution of an order or instruction, is inadmissible, which is in line with the standards of international humanitarian law. Key words: execution of an order or instruction, circumstance excluding criminal unlawfulness of an act, violation of the laws and customs of war, complicity, criminal organization, crime, criminal liability, qualification, court practice.

RUSSIAN RIVER MILITARY FLOTILLAS IN THE REPULSION OF THE FRENCH INVASION OF 1812

The Russian use of river flotillas during the 1812 military campaign against Napoleonic France is discussed in this article. Their use on the Western Dvina River (the Daugava in Latvian) and the Western Aa River (now the Lielupe, Latvia) during the defence of Riga played a colossal role in stopping the advance of Napoleon’s troops towards St. Petersburg – the capital of the Russian Empire. What was a particularly significant factor was the fact that the said offensive appeared to be impossible for the French either during the clashes of Vilna (the Battle of Vilna), Saltanovka or Polotsk. As a matter of fact, the defence of Riga would not have been that effective without the participation of the Baltic Fleet. The considered flotillas, which were used in the water area of the above mentioned rivers, did not allow the enemy troops to break through to St. Petersburg bypassing Riga. It is this problem that is considered in this article. For the study of the voiced problem, the materials of the Russian State Archive of the Navy were attracted. As a result, thanks to archival materials and the works of historians Feodosiy Veselago and Nikolay Kallistov, it was possible to establish that it was the crews of the ships of the flotillas that successfully defended Dünamünder fortress (now Daugavgrīvas fortress) located on the Western Dvina River, and that by knocking the enemy out of Schlock (now Sloka district of Jūrmala) located on the Western Aa River, Russian naval sailors defended the latter town as well. The courage and skill of the crews of the ships of the flotillas helped to prevent the enemy from advancing from the western direction. This saved the capital and largely decided the outcome of the war in Russia’s favour.

Forest Management in Ukraine Under War Conditions

Attention is drawn to scientifically based theoretical and practical approaches to the implementation of the concept of sustainable forest management and, accordingly, to ensuring the principles of sustainable forestry aimed at the adequate protection, use, and regeneration of forest resources in Ukraine during Russia's war against Ukraine. The main socio-economic and ecological aspects that influence the implementation of the concept of sustainable forest management at the national and regional level in the current conditions of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine are considered. The changes in the forest sector in the conditions of war are reflected, which must be considered from the point of view of understanding the principles of sustainable development, sustainable forestry, and the concept of sustainable forest management. It is proposed to develop and implement a theoretical, methodological, and practical approach to the implementation of the concept of sustainable forest management in Ukraine which would take into account the regional differences regarding the organisation and development of forestry in Ukraine.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE RUSSIAN GENOCIDE: TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE DEFENSELESS

The military destruction of children and youth in Ukraine is foreseen both by the declared goals of Russia's war against the Ukrainian state and the Ukrainian people, in which the entire collective "West" is personified, and by the practice of its conduct. The named goals of denazification and demilitarization denote the Russian understanding of the destruction of any non-Russian people whose marker is the Russian language (denazification) by military suppression of its resistance (demilitarization). The Russian idea that Russia ends where the Russian language ends means, in practice, that the borders of Russia do not end anywhere, since the Russian invaders are nomads in all the spaces of Eurasia available to them, where they are occasionally lucky not to receive decisive military resistance.

The Dutiful Daughters of the British Empire: Psychosocial Topology of The British Hospital in Smyrna

Scholarship on the accounts of the Western travellers about the Ottoman Empire focuses on some commonly known writers only, and Ismeer, or Smyrna, and its British hospital in 1855, by a lady [M. Nicol] remains neglected. It is a diary written by a lady-nurse, Martha Nicol, who worked in the British hospital in Smyrna, during the Crimean War. She is tightly bound in with the imperial ideology and by reconceptualising the space in the hospital, the lady-nurses help the British soldiers achieve a sense of continuity between their home back in England and the host culture about which they know very little. By playing a formative role to transpose this hospital to a homely space in a foreign territory, the lady-nurses function as psychic and cultural stabilisers. This essay aims to decipher how the hospital space functions as an ideological heterotopia of deviance, and how the lady-nurses contribute to its power to inspire the idea of “at-homeness” in the soldiers and retain the ideological structuring mechanisms in this distant location by exploring the textual evidence in the book. This essay will also explore how power and ideology are contextualised in the psychosocial topology of the hospital.

History of Russian Entrepreneurship in China the First Half of the XX Century in the Mirror of Advertising

The study is devoted to the history of Russian entrepreneurs in China in the first half of the twentieth century as it was reflected in the advertising of their business, placed mainly in local periodicals. During this period, Russian entrepreneurs achieved significant commercial success in many Chinese cities. The promotion of their products in the Chinese domestic market was largely the result of their skillful advertising activities. Advertising in Russian became especially widespread in China after the end of the Civil War in Russia. The most important centers of entrepreneurial and advertising activity of Russian entrepreneurs have become the Chinese cities of Harbin, Tianjin and Shanghai. Advertising activities reflect both the economic sphere of life of the Russian diaspora and the social needs of its representatives. In the course of studying the history of Russian entrepreneurship and advertising of business enterprises owned by immigrants from Russia, the authors repeatedly conducted field research in China, during which they studied former Russian commercial enterprises, often operating at the present time. Sources on the research topic also included documents in Russian and Chinese stored in museums and libraries in Heilongjiang province, Harbin and Shanghai.

Opposite effects of RWA and SDO on war support: Chinese public opinion toward Russia's war in Ukraine.

Previous research has identified the combined effects of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) on individuals' militant attitudes. Much of the existing studies have been conducted in the United States and Europe, where political cleavage is drawn between liberalism and conservatism and where RWA and SDO are aligned with conservatism. In this article, we argue that in a different ideological backdrop where RWA and SDO are not bound by conservative ideology, their influence on war support varies. We use the case study of China, in which socialist ideology upholds authoritarianism but opposes social dominance. We hypothesize that in a war in which the state acquiesces, regime loyalists high on RWA and low on SDO tend to back the war, while regime critics low on RWA and high on SDO are less supportive. Using longitudinal data with a nationwide online sample (Time 1: N = 1000, Time 2: N = 500) collected during the war in Ukraine, we confirmed the opposite effects of RWA (measured by the traditionalism subscale) and SDO (measured by the dominance subscale) on war support. The findings extend our understanding of the impacts of authoritarianism and social dominance in a context beyond the United States and Europe.

Crisis Management Through Verbal and Non-verbal Communication – Zelensky vs Putin

Crisis situations are sudden and unforeseen situations that require a rational and calm response to the crisis and a strategic approach to its management. This includes not only verbal communication but also non-verbal communication. The image that a person projects to the outside world is a decisive factor in how the environment reacts to him. Image is always important if you are trying to attract the attention of the environment. However in some situations it is a hidden success factor. The presidents of the countries know this, and with their verbal and non-verbal communication they create their own image and indirectly the image of the country they lead. This paper provides an analysis of the content of public appearances and a comparison of the verbal and non-verbal communication of presidents Zelensky and Putin during the Ukrainian - Russian war and the reaction of the EU countries and the USA to the president's communication in the media.

How Does It Look from Where You Are? A Visual Media Framing Analysis of the 2022 War in Ukraine

In this study, the authors analyzed how U.S., UK, Russian, and Ukrainian media visually framed the 2022 Russian war in Ukraine. Prior research emphasized the importance of studying media framing of conflict issues due to the potential impact on public perception and apportioning of responsibility of the parties involved. In particular, media images have been shown to be critical elements in the media framing process, but have been studied less often than textual content. A content analysis was conducted on a sample of news articles published during the first year of the war from The Guardian, The New York Times, Lenta.ru, and Ukrainska Pravda focused on denotative and connotative visual framing frameworks. Four major frames were identified: geographic location, dominant subjects/objects, patriotism, and human suffering. Quantitative analysis suggests significant differences in the visual frames adopted by Western media, Russian, and Ukrainian media. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The Crimean War, Sevastopol, and British Military Collecting Strategies in the Black Sea Region c.1829–1856

Between 1854 and 1856 the shape of private and public collections of arms, armour, and ordnance were influenced directly by the conflict with Russia, especially from the main theatre in the Crimea and its key military engagements including Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, and Sevastopol. While antiquities and some examples of militaria had entered private collections through personal travel during the first half of the nineteenth century, it was the outbreak of war with Russia that perhaps had the strongest influence on collections. The new theatre of war provided fresh opportunities to begin a collection or expand an existing one. Moreover, a greater number of individuals from all levels of society were given chances to acquire objects than hithertofore, from militaria to objets d’art to ordinary domestic items. Pictures and photographs were often the most highly prized, particularly of the time before war had started and the destruction of cities such as Sevastopol had occurred. 1

Spowiedź Sadyka

CONFESSION OF SADYK: THE LAST LETTER OF MICHAŁ CZAYKOWSKI TO HIPOLIT BŁOTNICKIMichał Czaykowski (Sadyk Pasha) is a figure whose assessment remains challenging to this day. His path to national and religious apostasy was complex and winding. At the beginning of his emigration, his dedication to the Polish cause earned him applause and recognition among fellow emigrants. He tirelessly worked in emigrant diplomacy, establishing the extensive Eastern Agency of the Hotel Lambert as a Polish agent in the East. After the Crimean War, he gradually distanced himself from Polish affairs. He deemed the January Uprising unnecessary and increasingly leaned towards Pan-Slavic ideals. Upon returning to Russia and his original name, he lost his old friends and failed to find new ones. It’s hard not to notice that he became a pawn in the hands of the Russians. The published letter from July 17, 1874, is addressed to Hipolit Błotnicki, whom he regarded as a friend, often signing letters to him as his cousin. This is the last preserved letter in their long-standing correspondence. In it, he attempts to justify his actions to his former friend, explaining his attitude towards Polish identity, the shift in his feelings towards the recently hated Muscovites, and the reigning autocrat. He tries to convince and argue why he chose Christianity again and joined the Orthodox Church. The letter seems to be an attempt to convince not only H. Błotnicki but also to justify himself to Władysław Czartoryski, to whom this letter was undoubtedly shown.

The EU's Response to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Invoking Norms and Values in Times of Fundamental Rupture

AbstractThe European Union's response to the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has been widely perceived as unprecedented. This article examines how this could be, considering the long track record of disagreement amongst EU member states over foreign policy vis‐à‐vis Russia. It is argued that whilst the Russian invasion had a decisive impact on member states' security threat perceptions, realist explanations of the EU's forceful response encounter limitations: Germany and France, the EU's most influential powers, were not the drivers of the EU's joint actions during the first months following the invasion, as they struggled to redefine their national security interests. Against this background, this article takes a different perspective. It asks in what kind of intersubjective context the EU's initial response became meaningful and rational, allowing for agreement to emerge amongst the member states on a set of unprecedented measures. This article proposes a theoretical approach that takes into account the role of norms, rationalities and speech acts in a changing context and of social interaction therein. It is demonstrated that, given the dramatic rupture following the invasion, the EU's response in 2022 was embedded in, and structured by, a priori understandings and justifications generated by the EU in response to Russia's war against Ukraine starting in 2014, including normative considerations.

The Perpetual Influence of Historical Trauma: A Broad Look at Indigenous Families and Communities in Areas Now Called the United States and Canada

This article provides an overview of the perpetual influence and impacts of historical trauma within Indigenous families and communities who now live in areas called the United States and Canada. Indigenous Peoples (to include American Indians, Alaska Natives, and First Nations Peoples) continue to experience health inequities which stem in part from violent and systemic geographical dislocations and separations from ancestral and traditional homelands. My contribution to this special issue constitutes a node of comparison and contrast to the other narratives gathered here. Indigenous Peoples in North America persist amid an enduring legacy of settler-colonialism that includes 90% dispossession and loss of lands, and an average forced migration distance of 239 km from homelands to reservations Rarely is this uprootedness told in parallel with other experiences of forced displacement like those which unfolded during the Second World War and the Holocaust, the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s or the contemporary conditions fueled by Russia's war against Ukraine. On one hand, this is an oversight as we have much to learn from each other about the realities of uprooting and, especially, the long-term consequences of it. At the same time, comparisons of experiences with trauma are complex and perhaps inappropriate without attention to the magnitude, underlying motives of, and duration of traumatic events endured. In short, the decades-long research on HT in Indigenous communities offers important lessons about the lingering consequences of uprootedness from place, space, and culture and efforts to support healing that can benefit other displaced communities worldwide.

Mistakenly misinformed or intentionally deceived? Mis‐ and Disinformation perceptions on the Russian War in Ukraine among citizens in 19 countries

AbstractIn information environments characterized by institutional distrust, fragmentation and the widespread dissemination of conspiracies and disinformation, citizens perceive misinformation as a salient and threatening issue. Especially amidst disruptive events and crises, news users are likely to believe that information is inaccurate or deceptive. Using an original 19‐country comparative survey study across diverse regions in the world (N = 19,037), we find that news users are likely to regard information on the Russian war in Ukraine as false. They are more likely to attribute false information to deliberative deception than to a lack of access to the war area or inaccurate expert knowledge. Russian sources are substantially more likely to be blamed for falsehoods than Ukrainian or Western sources – but these attribution biases depend on a country's position on the war. Our findings reveal that people mostly believe that falsehoods are intended to deceive them, and selectively associate misinformation with the opposed camp.

‘Waging word wars’: The ‘emotionscape’ of the United Nations Security Council and the Russian war in Ukraine

This paper seeks to make three intersected contributions: to the growing body of work on emotions in geopolitics, to important scholarship on geographies of diplomacy, and to the further engagement of geopolitics with language writing, delivery, and reception, that is its performative and affective dimensions. A unique and central focus of the paper is emotive language and its use in diplomacy at a time of heightened international tension. Language making is intrinsic to and constitutive of engagements with power and the [geo] political. Building upon the concept of the UN Security Council as an ‘emotionscape’ - a setting which emphasises in relational ways the inter-language, inter-cultural, and inter-individual contexts of emotive language use – the paper shows how language writing and its performance in diplomacy not only binds language with practice but must also be sensitive to the contingencies of place, people, and context; it has a geographical sensibility. In effect, the reception of language in claim making requires an explicit connection to be made between emotions, space, and geopolitical process. The paper seeks to ground emotions spatially by focusing on the diplomatic body/bodies as loci at which geopolitical power is produced and contested through language practice and, crucially, is co-constituted with the international. This embodied geopolitics presents diplomatic bodies as sites of performance of language practice rather than merely surfaces for its inscription. Using first hand interviews with senior diplomats working in the Security Council, and in the specific context of the Russian war in Ukraine, this paper examines how emotive language is deployed in diplomatic calculation and the limits to and consequences of its use in the ‘emotionscape’.

The Economic Development Process of Russia after the Dissolution of the Soviet Union

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the overall economy of Russia has maintained a positive development trend. Among them, oil, natural gas, and mineral resources are some of the most important industrial pillars in Russia, accounting for over 50% of the total revenue of the Russian government. Russia's economy is inseparable from its energy. The single economic structure of excessive dependence on energy resources has also brought many problems to Russia. The economic crisis in 2008, the 14-year Crimean War, the 19-year COVID-19, and the 22-year Russian-Ukrainian War are all great tests of Russia's economic stability. This article mainly discusses the economic development process of Russia from 1991 to the present and elaborates and analyzes Russia's economic situation, structure, and characteristics by sorting out the difficulties encountered by Russia over the past 30 years and corresponding policies. By analyzing the economic development process of Russia, this study can discover many factors that affect the economy and the importance of publishing correct policies, which has great learning significance.

Government response on russian war in Ukraine: Relocating business

The russian war in Ukraine replaced not only millions of people but also businesses in the safer regions of Ukraine. The study aims to identify regional stakeholders’ emergency responses in reaction to the russian war in Ukraine associated with business relocations and their impact on the host region. Employing qualitative research methods, including focus group discussions and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 25 informants (representatives of departments of economic development of regional authorities and administrators of regional development agencies), the study was conducted between March and May 2023. The findings reveal a diverse range of relocation strategies, with a significant inclination toward safer western and central regions of Ukraine, which accounted for more than 70% of displaced businesses. The notable share of relocated companies are wholesale and retail trade companies and the processing industry companies – 40% and 32%, respectively. It is assumed that not capital-intensive companies were relocated first. The support from regional stakeholders played a crucial role in mitigating business challenges related to relocation (communication difficulties, market loss, supply chain disruptions, and employee relocation issues, providing comprehensive assistance, and facilitating integration into the new socio-economic environment). The study acknowledges potential biases in responses and emphasizes the importance of correctly interpreting results. The study results are helpful for policy-making regarding regional development and the post-war rebuilding of Ukraine. AcknowledgmentThe study was conducted within the framework of the State Budget of the Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman on the topic “Displaced business in revitalization of regional ecosystems in Ukraine” (state registration number 0123U100357).

Teaching the Russian War on Ukraine

In this article I discuss an approach to teaching about the Russian war in Ukraine that uses the war as a focal point for teaching about topics in comparative politics and international relations. I discuss the pedagogical advantages for political science teaching, including meeting the interests of students, introducing students to theories in political science, and re-centering courses on the region away from Russia. I then discuss how the various political science topics and research questions are related to the war, and I conclude with a section on assignments and methods for student engagement that work well with this type of course.