Crimean Quagmire: Tolstoy, Russell and the Birth of Modern Warfare

The Crimean War was the greatest international crisis of the Victorian era, and a modernwar of rifles, railroads and telegraphs. As it raged, two writers embedded in the conflict–the young Russian officer Lev Tolstoy, and William Howard Russell, an Irish correspondent for The Times–brought the horrors of trench warfare home to the public for the first time.

Crimea transformed how we understand war. Stripping away the romanticism of the Napoleonic era, Tolstoy and Russell exposed government lies and cover-ups as their nations descended into the first quagmire of the modern age. Their writing shocked readers, revealing that their loved ones were dying needlessly. Between this reporting and soldiers’ own writings, the world was witnessing an unprecedented showdown between the voices of private individuals and their rulers. Tolstoy and Russell paid dearly for their honesty, but their legacy of confronting the powerful endures.