Sevastopol’s Wars: Crimea from Potemkin to Putin

802 Pages·2017·64.533 MB·English

by  Mungo Melvin

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S E V A S T O P O L ’ S W A R S
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M U N G O M E L V I N
S E V A S T O P O L ’ S
W A R S
CRIMEA FROM
POTEMKIN TO PUTIN
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First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Osprey Publishing,
PO Box 883, Oxford, OX1 9PL, UK
1385 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10018, USA
E-mail: [email protected]
Osprey Publishing, part of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
This electronic edition published in 2017 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Osprey is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
© 2017 Mungo Melvin
All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or
any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical,
mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of
the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable
to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Mungo Melvin has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be
identified as the Author of this Work.
ISBN: 978 1 4728 0794 6
PDF e-book ISBN: 978 1 4728 2228 4
ePub e-book ISBN: 978 1 4728 2227 7
Index by Zoe Ross
Cartography © Barbara Taylor
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C O N T E N T S
List of Maps 7
List of Illustrations 8
List of Tables 10
Author’s Note 11
Prologue 17
PART ONE: EARLY SEVASTOPOL
1. Crucible of Conflict 29
2. The Founding of Sevastopol 61
3. Bastion of Maritime Power 91
PART TWO: THE CRIMEAN WAR
4. The Eastern War 133
5. The First Defence of Sevastopol 166
6. Inkerman and the Spirit of Sevastopol 203
7. Defeat and Defiance 237
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PART THREE: CITY OF REVOLUTION
8. Ruin, Peace and Recovery 275
9. The 1905 Revolution 314
10. World War to Civil War 343
11. Allied Intervention and the Russian Civil War 382
PART FOUR: MODERN WAR
12. Red Terror to Patriotic War 423
13. City of Courage: the Second Defence of Sevastopol 464
14. The End of the Second Defence and Axis Occupation 505
15. Liberation and Reconstruction 544
16. Fraternal Conflict 585
Epilogue 623
Chronology 635
Acknowledgements 648
Notes 652
Bibliography 725
Index 745
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LIS T OF MA PS
1. Sevastopol and the Black Sea Region 27
Between pages 368 and 369
2. Central Sevastopol’s Historic Locations and Monuments
3. Ancient Crimea and Chersonesos
4. The Principal Bays and Capes of Sevastopol
5. The Battle of the Alma, 20 September 1854
6. The Chersonese Peninsula during the Crimean
Campaign, 1854–55
7. The Battle of Balaklava, 25 October 1854
8. The Battle of Inkerman, 5 November 1854
9. The Allied Assaults on Sevastopol, 7 and 8 June
and 8 September 1855
10. The Battle of the Chernaya River, 16 August 1855
11. The Black Sea in Revolution and War, 1905–15
12. The Red Army’s Assault on Crimea, 7–16
November 1920
13. Sevastopol’s Defences: The First and Second Axis Assaults,
November – December 1941
14. The Axis Assault on Crimea, 1941
15. Sevastopol: The Third Axis Assault on Sevastopol,
2 June – 4 July 1942
16. The Liberation of Crimea, 8 April –12 May 1944
17. The Battle for Sevastopol, 5–12 May 1944
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LIS T OF ILLUS T R AT IONS
Between pages 256 and 257
1. The Basilica of Ancient Chersonesos. (Vladimir Zizak)
2. St Vladimir Cathedral in Ancient Chersonesos. (Vladimir Zizak)
3. Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
4. Russian Empress Catherine II (‘the Great’). (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
5. Monument to the foundation of Sevastopol. (Vladimir Zizak)
6. Monument to Kazarsky and the sailors of the brig Merkurii. (Vladimir Zizak)
7. Admiral Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
8. Vice Admiral Vladimir Alekseyevich Kornilov. (SCRSS/TopFoto)
9. Rear Admiral Vladimir Ivanovich Istomin. (New York Public Library)
10. Vice Admiral Pavel Stepanovich. (Popperfoto/Getty Images)
11. ‘Russian Squadron on the Sevastopol Roadstead’ by Ivan Aivazovsky. (Fine Art Images/Heritage
Images/Getty Images)
12. ‘View of Sevastopol’ by Carlo Bossoli. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
13. ‘Docks at Sevastopol’ by William Simpson. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
14. ‘Hot Day in the Batteries’ by William Simpson. (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
15. Emperor Nicholas I. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
16. Emperor Alexander II. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
17. Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
18. Professor Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)
19. Lord Raglan, Omar Pasha and Marshal Pélissier, 7 June 1855. (Library of Congress)
20. Lieutenant General Sir John Fox Burgoyne. (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
21. Count Lev (Leo) Nikolayevich Tolstoy. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)
22. Charles George Gordon. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
23. The Fourth Battery at Sevastopol’s Fourth Bastion, 1920. (© IWM Q 37442)
24. Monument to General Eduard Ivanovich Todleben. (Vladimir Zizak)
25. The Malakhov Tower depicted after the withdrawal of troops in 1855. (RIA Novosti/TopFoto)
26. The reconstructed Malakhov Tower today. (Vladimir Zizak)
27. ‘Huts and Warm Clothing for the Army’ by William Simpson. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty
Images)
28. ‘Railway at Balaklava’ by William Simpson. (Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images)
29. View of Balaklava, photographed by James Robertson. (Public domain)
30. The Black Sea Fleet Museum. (Vladimir Zizak)
31. Detail of ‘The Defence of Sevastopol 1854–1855’ by Franz Rubo. (Author’s collection)
32. The Panorama, the Defence of Sevastopol 1854–1855 Museum. (Author’s collection)
33. The Monument to the Scuttled Ships. (Vladimir Zizak)
34. Impounded Russian warships during the German occupation of Sevastopol, 1918. (Bundesarchiv)
35. The mutinous Russian battleship Prince Potemkin, 1905. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
36. Lieutenant Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt, leader of the Ochakov mutiny. (© TASS/TopFoto)
37. The Monument to Lieutenant P. P. Schmidt. (Vladimir Zizak)
38. The German battlecruiser SMS Goeben, 1914. (Bundesarchiv)
39. Rear Admiral Wilhelm Anton Souchon. (ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
40. General Robert Paul Theodor Kosch. (Library of Congress)
41. Emperor Nicholas II. (The Print Collector/Getty Images)
42. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, alias Lenin. (Sputnik/TopFoto)
43. Pyotr Nikolayevich, Baron Wrangel. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
44. Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze. (RIA Novosti/Sputnik/ TopFoto)
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