Dimitri > Recent Status Updates

Neman river, wider than a mile, dividing Prussia in style ...Napoleon reaches his zenith in 1807, securing a power balance in Europe where the interests of Russia, Britain and Austria conflict enough to make a new coalition against him possible.

"Jena" - one of those familiar battles Napoleon won. By defeating a small detachment of the enemy's army, while one of his marshalls pulled a full Cannae on the main body further down the road, with zero credit.

Self-made Emperor. Not many people can claim that rightfully.

Marengo 1800; snatching 1 hour of victory from tje jaws of 8h of defeat. Celebrated by establishing the Concordat & the code Napoleon.

Napoleon kicked France into shape in a little over 3 months after the establishment of his Consulate.

1940: France vs Italy, who will win ? but wait too long and the Germans do you in....

There's nary a street in Old Town whose origin story isn't mentioned in here

9.11.1799 : executing a Brumaire coup against the detested government of a semi-failed state is easy if you're a popular general with bayonets behind you

in 20..a case of metal currency was discovered under a cellar in Ulica Kanonicza. The first of many facts where I can hapilly blurt : "Hey, I was there !"

there's a similarity between the European growth of the nation-state & the rise of the princely states following the demise of the Delhi sultanate in the 14th-15th century.

And they lived hapilly ever after. But life ain't no fairy tale.

Annihiliation through labor, or a productive contribution to the war economy as the fortunes of battle waned ? The dilemma was never resolved, but there was always room for guinea pigs and camp brothels as poorly chosen incentives.

the origins of the Holocaust are too complex to explain even by an expert. You can only work with transition periods, not defining moments. Largely because there WAS no singular masterplan, the SS were half making it up as they went along.

the mass extermination of Sovjet POWs by prussian acid (a familiar delouser) was developped just in time (autumn/winter '41) to coincide with the planning of the Holocaust (early '42)

The Polish question, how to keep the idea of a vanished country alive and eventually resurecting it, saw little political results in the 19th century but inspired great cultural activity, plus a Polish presence marched to the sound of guns anywhere in the world.

the free-spirited gentry gave the Commonwealth liberal political institutions, which made Poland into an multicultural society that fully reaped the fruits of the Renaissance. However, the severely limited executive powers of the monarchy and the absence of a capitalist evolution of the serf-based economy weakened the country to the point where it was partitioned & erased by its absolutist neighbours.

Between the Mongol invasion and the 'crusades' of the Teutonic knights, Poland couldn't catch a break, until it emerged unscarred from the Black Death & united with Luthania, turning the tables on German cultural dominion at Tannenberg.