No comments about The Fool: Events from the Last Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78.

No comments about "93 Harbi" sirasinda ingilizler ve araplar.: An article from: Journal of Cyprus Studies.

No comments about The Russo-Turkish War: Comprising an account of the Servian Insurrection, the dreadful massacre of Christians in Bulgaira and other Turkish atrocities, ... customs and domestic life of both nations.

No comments about The Russo-Turkish war 1877-1878 and the liberation of Bulgaria.

No comments about Prince Schamyl's Wooing: A Story of the Caucasus - Russo - Turkish War.

2 comments about The Russo-Turkish War 1877 (Men-at-Arms).

1. This is one of the less known conflicts of the XIX century. Both sides used modern weapons and techniques learned from the American Civil War, but both still showed poor capacity to adapt themselves for the new kind of war, having a high cost of lifes for a relatively short conflict. Some historical mistakes found, take care.
   
   If you are interested in the Balcans wars and the historical struggle between Russia and Turkey for the control of Black Sea and the access to the Mediterrean, you should get it.



2. The very first line of the book "On 24 April 1877 Tsar Nicholas II declared war on the Ottoman Empire" shows how shoddy and rushed this book was. Alexander II was the Tsar at that time. Nicholas wasn't crowned until 1894. The book is filled with maddening errors like that as well as ommisions and weaknesses like plate commentaries that don't describe the uniforms in the referenced plate at all.

   But still a somewhat worthwhile attempt since there are so few books on the subject.

No comments about Report On The Russian Army And Its Campaigns In Turkey 1877-1878 (European War Series).

No comments about The Russo-Turkish War: Including an Account of the Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Power, and the History of the Eastern Question. Part 5.

4 comments about Bayonets Before Bullets: The Imperial Russian Army, 1861-1914 (Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies).

1. This is a first-of-its-kind work in English to review the Imperial Russian Army during its crucial period of modernization from 1861 (just after Crimea) to 1914 (the eve of the Great War).

   The author is an instructor of strategy at the US Army Command and General Staff College and is an outstanding writer of military history.

   The defeat in Crimea lead to changes in organization, doctrine and strategy for the Russian army. It's involvement in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 and the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905 gave it operational experience from which to learn (or fail to learn) the lessons which a rapid change in military technologies taught on the battlefield.

   Russia was one of the very few European powers to fight major, non-colonial wars in this period which saw the introduction of smokeless powder, magazine rifles, quick firing artillery, and machine guns. Contrary to popular belief, the Russian army did take active measures to adapt to the new military technologies along with improvements in transportation (railroads) and communications (telegraph, field telephones, and radio). The Russian army from Alexander II to Nicholas II was not a hide-bound, unintelligent mamoth as it is so often depicted.

   The author divides the work up neatly by periods and his writing flows smoothly between doctrine, strategy, organization, and operational history. The politics of the Tsarist regime, the personality conflicts within the Tsar's army, and the technical changes on the battlefield are all woven together into a comprehensive whole. It is an excellent review of how the Russian predilection for reliance on "cold steel" held up during the changes forced by the Industrial Revolution.

   I give it all five "bayonets".




2. This is a very military-academic study of how the Tsarist Russian army evolved from the Crimean War, through the 1877 Russo-Turkish War and Russo-Japanese War to become the military that went into World War One. One big disappointment is that the author stops at August 1914 without analyzing the first month of the war. He points out Russian deficiencies but fails to show how they were able to defeat Austrians in Galicia but lose at Tannenburg. Although the emphasis here is on doctrine, technology and force structure issues, there are excellent chapters on operations in 1877-8 and 1904-5. There are definitely similarities with Russia's current military troubles: political and social instability, economic weaknesses, technological changes that threaten to leave Russia's military behind, uncertain threat environment and lackluster military leadership. The Russian army made several key mistakes in terms of force structure, some of which are currently being repeated: they made the army too big for peacetime, but it was low quality and had few reserves. Not enough was spent on civilian infrastructure, such as railroads and industry. Officer education was woefully inadequate. Training exercises were more like parades than tactical problems. On the other hand, the individual Russian soldier fought well in both wars and the army made good choices on simple, robust weapons like the 1891 Mosin-Nagant rifle, the 76.2mm field gun and the Maxim machine-gun. Although only briefly mentioned in the book, it is apparent upon reflection that the Russian Navy was a waste of resources then, as now. Fully 25% of the military budget went to support a fleet that was annihilated in 1905 and inactive in 1914-7. This money would have been better spent building up an air force. The maps are hard to read and insufficient to follow major battles.



3. This book examines the changes in organisation of the Russian Imperial Army from the period just after the Crimean War till the eve of the First World War.

   Over that time tremendous changes occurred. During the Crimean War the Russians used mainly smooth bore muzzle loading weapons, firing black powder. Artillery was as rudimentary. Armies were reasonably small and a war would be decided by single battles fought over a day.

   Over the next fifty years tremendous changes took place. Infantry were issued with rifled weapons that were breech loaded. This increased the fire rate and range of such weapons. In addition recoil springs were invented for artillery. This combined with breach loading meant that artillery could fire accurately and rapidly at distant targets. In addition the development of the railroad meant that huge armies could be put into the field and supplied for long periods of time.

   These changes in weaponry led immense changes in the nature of battles. Because of the increased lethality of weapons battlefields became more dispersed. Instead of a battle taking place on a defined field of a few miles with closely packed infantry armies were more thinly spread over immense fronts. Battles instead of taking a day lasted months. This in turn meant that the modern armies had to be supplied with huge amounts of ammunition as well as food.

   In the First World War the Russian armies in the end were defeated. However that was due not so much to the structure of the army but other things. The inability of the Russian state to be able to produce sufficient munitions for a long war and the fact that the state itself fell apart in 1917. The reality is that on the whole the Russians were able to build a reasonably efficient army in the period covered by the book.

   Th book is fascinating and in addition to looking at issues around the development of the army it gives a history of two imporant wars. The Russo Turkish War and the Russo Japanese War. A must read for people interested in the subject.




4. Review of Russian army from 1856-1914 including any Russian army reform, organization and campaign history especially Russo-Turkish war of 1877 and its main disadvantage is inadequate of hard data eg more organization charts but good in analysing Russian army doctine. Worth buy

5 comments about The Turkish Gambit: A Novel (Erast Fandorin Mysteries).

1. Turkish Gambit directed by Dzhanik Faiziyev is an vivid film protrayal of this wonderful Russian noevl. The acting is great and the stars, Yegor Beroyev (as Erast Fandorin) and Olga Krasko (as Varvara Suvorova) play their roles flawlessly. I enjoyed the novel and was overjoyed to find this DVD which is in Russian language but has Chinese subtitles. I highly recommend watching this film. You will not be disappointed.



2. Even though this is the third "Erast Fandorin Mystery" to be published in English translation, it was the second written by "Akunin". Because of the way the series is written, the occurances in "Murder on the Leviathan" do not in anyway suffer from this out of chronology publication. Nothing that happens in 'Gambit' change the way you would read 'Leviathan'.
   
   Once again our intrepid young (twenty-one) adventurer is working for the 'third section' (diplomatic intelligence) during the Russo-Turkish War in 1878 helping to liberate Romania and Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire. The war had been going well until the army arrived in front of Plevna where for some reason the 'Turks' seemed to know exactly what the Russians planned to do (sometimes even before the Russians did).
   
   Erast has been ordered to find out if there is a traitor in the Army and if not, how the Turks are getting their information and from who. Our young man has been saddled with a young 'modern' Russian woman (Varvara or Varya) who had traveled to Bulgaria to be with her 'future fiance'. Erast doesn't lack for suspects and is led a merry chase by the actual culprit who constantly is able to remain one step ahead of him. But as in all great stories good triumphs and the bad guy is caught and brought to justice. Erast then goes off to Japan (where his sea voyage is the scene of "Murder on the Leviathan").
   
   This series is in many ways a parallel to George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman" series. They both occur around the same time (mid- to late- nineteenth century) and use the "Great Game" in Asia between Russia and Britain for their background. The difference between the two series is that Fandorin is truly an intelligent man. He is articulate and well read, whereas Flashman is a comedic figure who is always finding the diamond in the manure pile he has fallen into.
   
   Unlike Flashman, Fandorin is more historically tied into the period and much less broad in satire. Flashman is much more polemic in the way that both the main character and the British as a whole are treated, more of the Moliere type farce. Fandorin on the other hand is more of a Pinter or GB Shaw, tongue-in-cheek (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean) and is more subtle in it's skewering of the other characters. At this time only five of the eleven books have been translated, but it's worth looking out for each new volume as it comes out.



3. Akunin is a great writer who tells historically-based tales that combine a mystery with the timing of a thriller. His books are a delight and this one is no exception.



4. I was disappointed in this second book. The voice of Erast was what made the first book so enjoyable in this one he has been silenced in favor of a rather annoying shallow girl.



5. "Gambit", literally "tricking somebody" is usually applied to military operations or chess strategies. In order to achieve the ultimate win some losses have to be accepted along the way. Both contexts fit here beautifully. Boris Akunin, Russian pen name of Georgian writer Grigory Chkhartisvili, has taken an actual episode from the 1877-78 war between the Russian and Ottoman empires to spin yet another successful yarn around young Erast Fandorin, secret agent in the Tsar's Special Division. The author fills a niche market in Russia, as he himself sees it, between the serious literature of the likes of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy and the usual light detective stories of today. For the international reader this new genre of Russian "espionage mystery" - the subtitle of the original - in a specific historical context is a fun read that at the same time provides some insights into the society of the day.
   
   At the end of the previous, first novel in the series, Winter Queen, Erast Fandorin's world was shattered; the repercussions of the drama seem to have resulted in a change of character. Now, he tends to stutter and is introvert and reserved. Has he lost his detective's touch as well? En route to the Russian military command headquarters outside Plevna, in Bulgaria, where a secret mission has sent him, he literally stumbles across Varvara Andreevna Suvorova. A vivacious and "modern" young woman, she is intent on following her fiancé, a volunteer soldier and cryptographer stationed at the same camp. Varvara, Varya for short, takes over as the primary protagonist of the narrative and Akunin exquisitely develops her character and describes her increasingly important position among the expanding entourage of admiring men. One of these is Sobolev, the White General, for the Russian reader easily recognized as General Skobelev, the real-life hero of the battle for Plevna. For the Turkish side, Akunin also bases some of his characters on actual personalities in the conflict. Furthermore, he introduces an illustrious retinue of international journalists, who mingle with the senior military and are "embedded" at the front lines. Akunin's subtle sarcasm at their doings and mishaps shows through and gives the story a certain actuality to current issues surrounding media observing military conflicts. The drama builds when it becomes evident that a saboteur must be at work: Russian attack positions are pre-empted by Turkish troops. Can the culprit or culprits be apprehended before more lives are lost? Like at a treasure hunt, Akunin leads the protagonists and the reader on a few wild good chases. Will Erast Fandorin's ingenuity and sharp deductive talent, help or hinder the investigation?
   
   Erast Fandorin has become a household name in Russia where millions of copies of each Akunin book are sold. The English speaking world is slowly catching on with now eight novels available in translation. This highly entertaining, this fast moving, action-packed and character-rich story, the second in the series, will delight any reader, beyond the already established Akunin fans. The author brings the intricate Russian historical events of the late 19th century to life with wit and a great sense of irony and humour. [Friederike Knabe]