Crimean War and the “The Charge of the Light Brigade”

History repeats itself so they says. In this case the issue is Crimea and including what is now known as the surrounding Ukraine. Europe has been warring for centuries. A brief look at the Crimean War as a reminder of the absurdity of it all. A snap shot of what Europe has been about. Let’s see if it sounds familiar, and then the video and narrative poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”

The Crimean War^[e] was a military conflict fought from October 1853 to February 1856^[4] in which Russia lost to an alliance of France, the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.

The basic cause of the Crimean War was the continuing decline of Turkey and its Ottoman Empire, and the fear by Austria, Britain and France that Russia would use this as an opportunity to increase its power in the Black Sea and the Balkans. Catherine the Great had gained a foothold on the north coast of the Black Sea in 1774 (G3a), and taken over the Crimea nine years later. In the Balkans, the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829 had given the Russians some control over Moldavia and Walachia, and in 1833 the Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi had virtually put the Ottoman Empire under Russian protection.

The immediate cause of the war involved the rights of Christian minorities in Palestine, which was part of the Ottoman Empire. The French promoted the rights of Roman Catholics, and Russia promoted those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the expansion of the Russian Empire in the preceding Russo-Turkish Wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe. It has widely been noted that the causes, in one case involving an argument over a key,^[5] had never revealed a “greater confusion of purpose” but led to a war that stood out for its “notoriously incompetent international butchery”.^[6]

….The Crimean War marked a turning point for the Russian Empire. The war weakened the Imperial Russian Army, drained the treasury and undermined Russia’s influence in Europe. The empire would take decades to recover. Russia’s humiliation forced its educated elites to identify its problems and to recognize the need for fundamental reforms.

More from Wikipedia

The poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”

The Charge of the Light Brigade was a failed military action involving the British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. Lord Raglan had intended to send the Light Brigade to prevent the Russians from removing captured guns from overrun Turkish positions, a task for which the light cavalry were well-suited. However, there was miscommunication in the chain of command and the Light Brigade was instead sent on a frontal assault against a different artillery battery, one well-prepared with excellent fields of defensive fire. The Light Brigade reached the battery under withering direct fire and scattered some of the gunners, but they were forced to retreat immediately, and the assault ended with very high British casualties and no decisive gains.

The events were the subject of Alfred, Lord Tennyson‘s narrative poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854), published just six weeks after the event. Its lines emphasise the valour of the cavalry in bravely carrying out their orders, regardless of the nearly inevitable outcome. Responsibility for the miscommunication has remained controversial, as the order was vague and Captain Louis Nolan delivered the written orders with some verbal interpretation, then died in the first minute of the assault.

“The Charge of the Light Brigade” is an 1854 narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson about the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. He was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom at the time he wrote the poem. (source: Wikipedia)

“Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die” is a line that stays with me.

I suggest that it is watched in full screen.

Our prayers go out to the people of Ukraine.