Looking for World War 1 eastern front diaries/memoirs.

Hi everyone.

I'm researching as much as I can about the First World War and the Eastern front. Now I'm looking for diaries of people who were there or memoirs. I was hoping someone might be able to at least point me in the right direction for some English translations. I'd love to get hold of a Russian Soldier's/German Soldier's diary. I know this might be nigh impossible but I want to try.

I've managed a handful so far:

Florence Farmborough "Nurse at the Russian Front: 1914-1917 A Diary"

Alfred Knox "With the Russian Army 1914-1917"

Otto Feldmann's diary

Any more would be amazing.

1 Answers 2018-05-23

Why didn't Native Americans have the same sort of civilizations seen in the old world?

While there were 'Empires' such as the Mayans and Aztecs neither seem to rival the old world's many empires and dynasties.

1 Answers 2018-05-23

The Emperor Julian's satirical essay "The Caesars" is very positive about minor Emperor Claudius Gothicus. Why might this be and why are his descendants described as inheriting the Empire?

[This is the text I'm using] (www.attalus.org/translate/caesars.html) and here is the passage in question. "Next came Claudius, at whom all the gods gazed, and admiring his greatness of soul granted the empire to his descendants, since they thought it just that the posterity of such a lover of his country should rule as long as possible."

1 Answers 2018-05-23

How culturally similar were Italy and North Africa in late antiquity?

Both were part of the Roman Empire; how "Romanised" was North Africa? What was culturally distinct about it, if anything?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

Odysseus has sex with several women (Hecuba, Circe, Calypso) but Penelope remains loyal to his husband. Odysseus' infidelity is not chastised in the story, so how commonplace was this ideology of sex in ancient Greece? Were men expected to be monogamous?

5 Answers 2018-05-23

Short Answers to Simple Questions | May 23, 2018

Previous weeks!

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16 Answers 2018-05-23

How historically accurate is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy? Is it a gross exaggeration, or do you think the Western US was as bloody/violent as he depicts the late 1840s to be?

[deleted]

1 Answers 2018-05-23

Were the Nuremberg Trials Fair?

Was Justice Served?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

I've heard stories that say when the Japanese took German POWs after the fall of Qingdao in World War I, they were treated quite well. How did the Japanese treatment of POWs devolve from that to what was seen in World War II?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

How popular was Nye Bevan?

I recently learned that Nye Bevan, essentially the founder of the NHS, stood for the leadership of the Labour Party after Attlee but did incredibly badly.

Considering he's regarded as almost a saint of Labour Party history today and a key part of Labour's Golden Age I was surprised to see Labour members at the time gave the more right-wing Gaitskill their support.

Did Labour members think the welfare reforms had gone too far? Was it just a personality thing? Or something else?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

How significant were threats to napoleon when he first took the consulship? How popular was he?

There were attempts on his life such as the infernal machine from the royalists but how much was this a fringe group of radicals and how much was this a significant organised opposition. I have read that by estimation, his plebiscites would have passed even without vote manipulation but taking into account the low turnout and public vote system, was napoleon really that popular? were people happy to have him as an almost dictator? How strong was the opposition from the left and right?

thanks

1 Answers 2018-05-23

I read that Hitler "was granted absolute powers as party chairman, replacing Drexler, by a vote of 533 to 1." Who was that one that voted against him, and why?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

I have heard that the Muslim conquerors of the Iberian peninsula were often aided by locals turning on their Visigothic rulers due to the Visigoths being really unpopular. Is this accurate, and if so, how much did they help and how?

Did the locals only provide encouragement or were some also actively involved in helping to overthrow the Visigoths?

Oh, and a follow up: Why were the Visigoths so unpopular then?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

How accurate is it to say that China has been largely an unbroken succession of dynasties, as per the Dynastic Cycle theory?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

How was RPI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) of Mexico able to maintain it's rule for such a long period of time given that the party needed support from groups with contradictory interests (unions, business leaders etc)? How did it maintain the "Perfect Dictatorship"?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

Why are there no institutions in the Americas as old as those in Europe?

In Europe there are colleges and breweries that are nearly 100 years old. In Asia there are institutions that date back millenia.

However I don't know of any that old in the Americas. Why? Were they all destroyed by colonialism? Are there some that I just don't know about?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

How exactly did the Soviets fund industrialization in the 1930s?

Since forced collectivization failed to increase agricultural yield, what means did Stalin have to fund rapid industrialization during the first five year plan.

2 Answers 2018-05-23

Just finished The Darkest Hour, couple of questions in comments

1) why did king George have such a dislike for Winston Churchill

2) what was Lord Halifax role before Chamberlain resigned? Why was he so respected? What did he do after the war?

3) did FDR really offer to provide tanks to England via horses in Canada?

4) why did it take the US so long to back up England in the war?

5) what was Churchill's role before PM? Why was he the next choice for prime minister when clearly Chamberlain, the king, and so many others thought he was a constant failure from previous battles?

6) what event took place to change the British public in mind, to state that he was the right minister for war but not peace?

7) finally, what occurred after the war that made the people turn on him?

Cheers

2 Answers 2018-05-23

How did the inhabitants of Byzantine Africa react to their conquest by the Arabs? What did they feel about their new masters?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

back handed sword handling through the ages?

https://imgur.com/a/qgb7aKs

was this ever a thing? or is this just a movie and game construct? either way where did it come from? is it just a rule of cool thing? or is there some actual sword style involving the back hand?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

How effective were anti aircraft guns during the world wars? How effective were torpedo bombers and dive bombers at bringing down ships?

I read a post on another subreddit around the effectiveness of AA, which sounded dramatically worse than I imagined (using the Bismarck as an example) - what was the reality of the effectiveness of AA?

And conversely how effective were airborne attacks at bringing down ships? In some video games I play you can hit ships with dozens of bombs and 5-10 torpedos and still not sink them. Is that realistic?

How did both AA and airborne attacks on ships evolve over the course of the two world wars?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

Why was Hannibal so "passive" during the battle of Zama?

During the battle of Zama, Hannibal's infantry significantly outnumbered Scipio's, while Scipio's cavalry significantly outnumbered Hannibal's. Early in the battle, the Roman cavalry drove the Carthaginian cavalry off the field.

It seems like a forgone conclusion that the superior Roman cavalry would have returned to the field at some point -- either by defeating the Carthaginian cavalry or by breaking off the chase. Therefore, Hannibal was essentially working with a time limit -- he had to defeat the Roman infantry before the cavalry returned, or the battle was lost.

From what I've read of the battle, though, Hannibal didn't seem to be looking for a quick resolution. As I understand it, his plan was to attack with each of his three lines in succession, in order to wear the Romans down. This seems like it would be an inherently slow process.

Why didn't Hannibal, for example, try to use his numerical superiority to outflank the Romans? Or, towards the end of the battle, when both armies had paused to reform their lines, why did Hannibal wait for the Romans to resume their attack, rather than pressing the attack himself? I'm no expert on military matters, and I'm sure Hannibal had a reason for conducting the battle in the way he did. What might those reasons be?

1 Answers 2018-05-23

Are there any reliable accounts of European conquest of the Americas from the natives’ perspective?

I’m teaching a lesson on the effects of conquest on the peoples of America and can only seem to find sources from the European perspective. Did indigenous peoples (15th-16th century new world) document their experiences with European settlers/invaders?

6 Answers 2018-05-23

Specific Book Recommendations (I've checked the list already)

I'm looking for more works about the Crusades that would have the readability of Thomas Asbridge or even George MacDonald Fraser.

I've read The Greatest Knight and Steel Bonnets by the aforementioned authors, I'm reading Peter Heather's trilogy of books on Rome and the Migration Era, to give you an idea of my interests and what I'm looking for. I'm also about a quarter of a way into Smith's new biography on Rasputin.

I like in-depth contextualizations and cultural overviews like you get of the Germanic tribes in Heather and the reivers in Fraser, and I do like the sort of "off the beaten path" biographies like Asbridge writing about William Marshal.

Right now I have my eye on God's Wolf by Jeffrey Lee and The Faithful Executioner by Joel Harrington, I was wondering how they would stack up to Asbridge's biography of Marshal in terms of historicity and readability for a layman.

And really anything on the knight orders and/or crusades in a broad survey with a good bibliography akin to how Fraser covered the Border Marches would be in my wheelhouse. Also to relieve any concern, I am not interested in or looking for conspiracies or freemasonry or modern myths about the knight orders. Just straight up history.

1 Answers 2018-05-23

What is truly the biggest empire or nation to exist?

[deleted]

1 Answers 2018-05-23

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