Crimean War

Working on some notes on the Crimean War for my history of Russia course.  Estimates of casualties in the war are from precise and vary quite a bit.
Statisticsof Wars, Oppressions and Atrocities of the Nineteenth Century(the1800s) is an excellent site that summarizes the different statistical sources:
As an approximation, dead from both military and and non-battlefield causes might be:

• UK a bit over 20,000
• France close to 100,000
• Turkey maybe 45,000
• Russia, 100,000+

 Also, some authors have put the total death toll in the conflict at over one million.

Russia Prepares to Open the Tomb of Tsar Aleksandr III

Sarah Pruitt, Russia Prepares to Exhume Czar Alexander III in Romanov Investigation (5 November 2015). This has also been reported by TASS. The exhumation is connected with DNA testing requested by the Russian Orthodox Church to verify the remains the Tsar Nikolai II's family, executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918

Peter the Great Naval Ship Located

Divers have reportedly located the remnants of one of Peter the Great's favorite naval ships, which sank in 1715, off the coast of Sweden. See the TASS report.

Catherine the Great and the Origins of Roller Coasters

See this interesting post on how giant ice-coated slides that were popular in the reign of Catherine the Great set the stage for the development of the roller coaster in France.

Russia's Syrian Gambit, some history

Russia’s latest Syria adventure brings history full circle

Russian designs on involvement in the Near East go back centuries, and most unfortunately led to war in the mid-nineteenth century.  The Crimean War was not a glorious page in the Russian history textbook.

The Russians re-entered the Near East with their support for Egypt in the 1950s and were a principle support of the Arab countries against Egypt through the early 1970s.

The Reuters article linked above highlights Moscow's somewhat-secret involvement in Syria in the 1980s, again in support of regimes against Israel.

"If Russians Hate the U.S. So Much, Why Do They Want to Move There?"

Carol Matlack, article posted by Bloomburg on 16 October. An overwhelming majority of Russian respond to polls saying that that they have a negative view of the U.S., yet "the number of Russians trying to emigrate to the U.S. has never been higher."

ASEEES Annual Convention Coming Soon

The Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), which used to be AAASS, will be holding the forty-seventh annual convention in Philadelphia this November. Information is available online. Myself, I haven't been to one of these conferences in probably thirty years or so.

Does Putin Have a Philosopher, or Does He Really Need One?

Anton Barbashin and Hannah Thoburn, Putin's Philosopher: Ivan Ilyin and the Ideology of Moscow's Rule (Foreign Affairs, 20 September 2015)

The mysterious name of the semi-literate, semi-rational, semi-intellectual, mysterious, Russia emigre, Ivan Ilyin (1883-1954)keeps circulating these days in connection with Putin's ideas and behaviors, and scholars are looking for the direct, ideological connections between the two with the hope that perhaps Ilyin's writings provide a rational explanation for Putin's ideas.

Reminds me a lot of the effort to figure out a rational definition of fascism from the readings of so-called fascist thinkers, but it's an effort in futility.

Remembering the Stalinist Terror

Sabrina Tavernise, Russian Project Honors Stalin’s Victims and Stirs Talk on Brutal Past (New York Times, 20 September 2015).  Some Russians are endeavoring to remember those who perished in the Great Terror by placing small plagues on the last know residences of those who disappeared.  It's a very small act, but some feel that something is needed instead of sweeping the past under the carpet.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

Masha Gessen, The Dearly Departed Return to Russia, 21 August 2015

For some unknown reason, the Putin administration is working to dig up famous Russians buried abroad so that they can be "repatriated" back to Russia.  It is especially hard to believe that Anton Denikin, a fierce opponent of the Bolshevik regime during the Russian civil war, has now been reburied in Russia. The Kremlin has also been launching a public relations campaign that Sergei Rachmaninov should be returned to Moscow, claiming that his remains are not being properly taken care of in the United States.