By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 29 January 2022
Al-Naba 323, front page
Islamic State Gives Its Version of the Syrian Prison Break
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Author Archives: KyleWOrton
The Trial of an English King
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 27 January 2022
“Judgement of Charles I,” by Ladislaus Bakalowicz, 1650
An Uptick of Islamic State Activity in Libya
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 25 January 2022
Islamic State in its desert sanctuaries in eastern Syria, 2017
Islamic State and “Breaking the Walls”: Jihadist Prison Breaks
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 January 2022
Islamic State car bombing against Al-Sinaa prison in Syria, 20 January 2022 [image source]
Islamic State Dismisses the West’s “False Victory” Against It
Islamic State’s War With Christianity in Africa
The Bolshevik Assassination Campaign Against the Russian Royal Family
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 15 January 2022
The Russian Imperial Family: Olga, Maria, Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, Anastasia, Tsesarevich Alexei, and Tatiana. Taken in Crimea, 1913.
The Last Tsar and the Duty of Monarchy
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 30 December 2021
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich in exile in France, February 1929
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich (1866-1933), the brother-in-law of Tsar Nicholas II (r. 1894-1917), gives an interesting anecdote in the second volume of his memoirs, Always a Grand Duke, published in the year he died, 1933, showing how the last Russian Emperor conceived of the duties of his office. Continue reading
The February Revolution: The End of the Russian Monarchy
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 19 December 2021
Skobelev Square during the February Revolution, painting by Aleksandr Gerasimov, 1917
The “February Revolution” is so-called because Russia at the time was on the Julian (Old Style (O.S.)) calendar. By the Gregorian (New Style (N.S.)) calendar, which Russia adopted in February 1918, these events take place in March 1917. And momentous events they were, leading to the abdication of the last Tsar, the end of a monarchy and an entire system of power and authority that dated back more than 350 years. For eight months in 1917, Russia struggled to extend the constitutionalist reforms that had begun under the Tsardom within a more liberal framework. The liberals never did gain the upper hand over the radicals, not even after the September 1917 de facto return to autocracy. In November 1917, a coup by the most extreme Leftist faction, the Bolsheviks, terminated the experiment, burying for seven decades even the aspirations in Russia for liberalism and democracy. Continue reading
Russia and the Outbreak of the Great War
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 15 December 2021
Tsar Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm II aboard a ship in the Gulf of Finland, 1905
In the early historiography of the Great War, it was accepted that Germany was chiefly responsible, with debates on the margins about the degree of intentionality and premeditation. Of late, however, “It has become fashionable to spread the guilt of the First World War liberally around Europe”, as one prominent historian noted.[1] Some revisionists go even further and try to find another state that is not only equally as culpable as Germany but more so. In this post, I want to, without in any way pretending to be comprehensive, deal with the argument that blames Russia for the 1914-18 War. Continue reading
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