“Cannon to left of them, cannon to right of them, cannon in front of them volleyed and thundered.”

How many of us had to memorize those lines from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s immortal poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” back in our dim, distant school days. The words seemed so heroic then, so filled with the glorious sights and sounds of battle.

Where I learned it, though, was in freshman high school English class, where it was all about the poetry, not the history. So I didn’t realize until many years later that it had been written about the Crimean War, or what that war was about, or even what countries were involved. And I certainly would not have imagined that that small part of the world — the Crimean Peninsula — would continue to be the site of violent conflict well into the 21st Century.

That war, stretching over 2-1/2 years between 1853 and 1856, was — like most armed conflicts — precipitated by a number of issues, including protection of the rights of Christians living in the predominantly Muslim Ottoman Empire, and . . . stop me if this sounds familiar . . . halting the expansionist ambitions of the Russian Empire toward the West.

“Those who forget history . . .”

Yes, the Russia of the 19th Century was, even then, obsessed with gaining control of the Black Sea and beyond. And England, France and Turkey (among others) were equally determined to prevent it.

And 158 years later, in 2014, Russia once more invaded — and still occupies — Crimea . . . and in 2022, took aim at the rest of Ukraine.

So what has changed since 1856? Well, for one thing, the weapons. In modern warfare, more civilians are lost today than in the past, and more destruction rained upon more highly-developed infrastructure. Death comes from the skies, not just face-to-face between military troops on the ground.

Now, also, there is no such thing as a local war. The world has shrunk, in geopolitical terms, and what affects one region has an unavoidable effect in the most far-flung places on the world map.

*. *. *

And the excuse for Russia’s current incursion into Ukraine? Allegedly, to protect ethnic Russians living in eastern Ukraine from the purported — though in reality non-existent — “nazi” regime.

“ . . . are doomed to repeat it.”

The history of Russia, Kievan Rus, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation — all taken together — is more complex than one could ever imagine. And when you begin to study it, you realize that parts of it inevitably do begin to feel like “deja vu all over again.”

Only, now, with missiles and drones and nukes . . . oh, my!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/5/24