CRIMEA

The Crimean War killed nearly a million men and completely redrew the map of Europe. It was the first conflict to use photography, the telegraph and newspapers; a war over territory from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf; a war of religion, driven by the Tsar and his ministers’ belief that it was Russia's task to rule all Orthodox Christians. Orlando Figes brings to life ordinary soldiers in snow-filled trenches, surgeons on the battlefield and the haunted, fanatical figure of Tsar Nicholas I himself.