Category: History

The Battle of Poltava

Yesterday evening about twenty of us took a train to Poltava. Not a place I’d heard of which exposes my ignorance. I hadn’t heard of Tchaikovsky’s opera Mazeppa either; there is a connection.

A Tourist in Ternopil

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built 1749 – 1779 and, as you will see, exemplifies Ukrainean baroque.

A Brief History of Ukraine

Russian colonisation of Ukraine intensified throughout the 19th century with a ban on the use of the Ukrainian language in schools and publications. Yet, a cultural revival spread in the late 1800s from Galicia, with secret educational groups ( hromadas) infiltrating Russian Ukraine and increasing calls for Ukrainian independence.

A Brief History of Ukraine

Present-day Ukraine was initially inhabited by Scythian tribes from Central Asia who were displaced by Sarmatians and nomadic invaders, namely Goths, Huns and Avars that overran the Ukrainian steppe nearly two millennia ago.

Anthony Biddle

Chips Channon will be the death of me. His diaries are on the top shelf and I struggle to reach them while teetering on the library steps.  It wasn’t worth the effort either as he never mentions Anthony Biddle.

The Syrian Solution

I wonder how history will treat the actors strutting the Brexit stage? I hope Theresa May comes out with credit. By the time the history books are written she may, in any case, be Duchess of Berkshire, KG, etc.

Hermitage and Chapel

Let me introduce you to Santa Lucia. In her right hand she is strangling a frog, a bit of Catholic iconography with which I am unfamiliar.

A Good Gossip

I’m reading The Journals of Kenneth Rose in small doses, not because they are heavy going; they are highly readable; there are aperçus on every page and they deserve to be savoured.