ExtraCredits
patreon
Pick the Next Extra History Series! "Eastern Europe"
🕑 Added 2023-01-11 16:42:06 +0000 UTCIt's time for our Extra History poll! Where you get to vote on what our next Extra History Series is about!
These four topics were selected from our "Eastern Europe" Patreon Suggestions and are listed in no particular order below.
Killing the Romanovs
The Russian Revolution has finally come. The Tsar is deposed, his family in closely-guarded exile. But… what to do now? Nicholas would almost certainly face death for his crimes, and perhaps Alexandra also—but the new Russian government wouldn’t dare execute the children, would it? As plans swirled to send the children to Britain, or establish a noble exile, events began to cascade. A second revolution—this one communist—was sweeping the country and the land descending into civil war with possession of the royal family as one objective. But should the Romanovs fall into the hands of the Red Army, a far worse fate than exile might befall them. This series charts the strange, exciting, and tragic story of the Romanovs’ captivity and murder, as well as the bizarre aftermath of fraudsters seeking to profit off their deaths.
Ivan the Terrible: A Series of Unfortunate Events
In 1547, things were bad enough in Russia that a group of nobles decided to rally around the 16-year-old Grand Prince of Moscow and declare him Tsar of all Russians. At first, no one doubted this was a good idea. Ivan IV's reign was peaceful... until his wife died from poison and he started to descend into paranoia. Join us for a parade of odd incidents as Ivan drags Russia out of the Middle Ages, from poisoned queens (three of them), to fake royal resignations, to creating Russia's autocratic state. The series will end with Ivan’s murder of his son and heir… and an episode about the bizarre era of the False Dmitrys, when multiple con men pretended to be Ivan’s dead son in order to take the throne (and power brokers pretended to believe them).
Russian Pogroms: The Jewish Diaspora
For centuries, Jewish communities had taken refuge and grown in Eastern Europe. Though often harassed, they managed to hang on. But between 1881 and 1905, the forces of the Russian Empire executed one of the most vicious pogroms in history. With mobs rampaging through Jewish districts and Cossacks sweeping into villages, thousands of Eastern European Jews opted to leave and seek new homes abroad. Many set their sights on the United States, a country with clear religious protections and an open-door immigration policy. But to get to a port, many would have to pay shady people smugglers, illegally cross borders, and avoid arrest in unfriendly nations—providing an interesting parallel to modern refugees. In this series, we'll discuss the reasons for the pogroms and complicity of the Romanov dynasty, then follow Jewish refugees across Europe and see how their flight changed communities across the continent. Finally, we'll talk about how their arrival in the United States reshaped American life—and shaped Judaism in return.
The Crimean War: The First Modern Military Mess
In 1853, the Russian and Ottoman Empires came to blows over the treatment of Christians in the Ottoman-held territory of Palestine. And within months of declaring war, the armies of the Tsar pressed Ottoman holdings hard enough that Europe feared the empire might collapse. For France and Britain, that would not do—the balance of power in Europe depended on a strong Ottoman state to counterbalance Russia—so they formed an alliance with the Ottomans and unleashed their fleets on Russia’s territory in Crimea. The resulting war would be the first modern conflict, one with photographs, war correspondents, and industrialized weapons. It would provide both glorious images like the charge of the Light Brigade and the grinding brutality of history’s last classical-style siege. And it would be a mess. European armies would make mistake after mistake, with the ongoing debacle—such as insufficient medical care—exposed for the world to see. Join us for the conflict that taught Europe how to fight modern wars, providing eerie parallels to the later American Civil War and World War I.
Current Schedule:
Frederick the Great airs 1/14 --> John Brown: The Army of the Lord --> Napoleon in Egypt --> Your Vote!
***Friendly reminder: The poll will end at 5:00 PM PT on Wednesday the 18th. You can vote for as many choices as you want! This style of voting helps us see what people are most interested in without having to make tough decisions between a couple of close favorites. ***
Comments
whitacre
Will Charlemagne ever be an option again? Sorry, I'm unfamiliar how voting works.
Petr Blake
I agree. Eastern Europe also includes the Balkans. The history of the Balkans is very often overlooked.
Benjamin Fouty
Aside from the rather obvious circular reasoning there (we didnt select other ethnicities because they werent independent during the time periods we selected), and governments =\= peoples; that’s simply incorrect. Poland-lithuania and Sweden were much larger powers, occupying territories of future Russian Empire territories, while Ivan was tsar. And while the Romanovs were falling, those various ethnicities were fighting for and gaining independence. Czechs, Slovaks, Romanians, Bulgarians, Poles, Ukrainians and Latvians were parts of Germany, Prussia, Austria Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and their own separate states during Crimea and the pogram periods. Why dont they count as Eastern European? Besides, these ethnicities dont just evaporate because the governments were run by other ethnicities. Your responses goes to show that this series should be about anything but Russia.
Evan
I said in another reply, it makes sense, because in the time periods being mentioned, most if not all of those areas were under control of the Tzars.
Herkles
Btw I think the title should be changed from Eastern Europe to Russian as it is all about Russia here. Where is the Lithuanian, Estonian, Latvian, Ukranian, Moldovan, Romanian, Polish, options?
Herkles
I vote for the Russian Pogroms.
Gabe Rosenthal
I was really hoping for something on Poland, Maybe the Partitioning, the Apex of the Commonweath, or the rebirths of the state post-Napoleon and World War 1.
Gabe Rosenthal
Much of my Family on my Father's side ended up in the United States as a Direct or indirect result of those Pogroms, so I feel somewhat obligated to vote for them. The Storms in the South took a heavy toll... I'll drop a vote for the Crimean War as well, just because of how little it's covered in U.S. History classes. I recommend these to my High School interns who want to do extra History studies, and they've never been disappointed.
chromicacid
My guess is that the history research started as a curiosity into the history of Ukraine right now, and what was found was a sprawling series of rabbit trails in the Forest of Infinite Knowledge, and then he got lost and asked for our vote to guide him in one direction or another.
chromicacid
I want them all, but since the stories of the Romanovs often seem so close to folklore tales, I never feel like I get the full picture of the events and aftermath. So that's my vote. But I look forward to any one of these.
RedWizzrobe
I'm a sucker for anything related to the Romanovs, but I decided to cast my vote for the Crimean War so I could learn something entirely new.
Benjamin Fouty
Or Ivan. Fredrick II first thing that comes to mind is battles and wars. Ivan, not so much. I voted for both and would be glad for either.
Shiny Latios
Pogroms unfortunately took place in much of the Russian Empire, and oppression of Judaism continued into the Soviet Union, and honestly to this day. That said, when the other three topics are all about Russian history, and the fourth is about the mistreatment and oppression of one particular ethnic group in the Russian empire, where genocide has happened -multiple- times to different ethnicities, usually perpetrated by the Russian ruling class... Just saying, still seems like we're discussing Russian history here, less so Jewish history.
Evan
I will say that the Pogroms took place in the Pale of Settlement which at the time was under Russian control, but is now part of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, etc (having been annexed from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth)
Malachi Phoniex
Exactly, especially during current events it's important to promote Eastern European identity.
Malachi Phoniex
So basically pogrom then? Agreed.
Malachi Phoniex
Its a tough choice but I feel like a choice like the pogroms won't come again versus this is like the third time the Crimean War has been up for votes.
Shiny Latios
If they want to make a series on Russian history, that's fine. But why call it an "Eastern European" series when it decidedly ignores Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Moldovan, Belarusian, Romanian, Finnish, and many, many other ethnic groups histories?
Benjamin Fouty
Anything but another war, warrior, or battle. It’s been getting like a high school boys locker room.
Joshua Evans-Lowell
I'm personally invested in the Jewish Pogroms because my family fled them to America but I also think the Crimean War is woefully underdiscussed
Malachi Phoniex
Now I've been begging for a Crimean War series since the dawn of EH... the progrom series is the only topic I feel like no one knows anything about, so it's the best topic.
Malachi Phoniex
Agreed. I feel like none of the suggestions made were considered because they already knew what they wanted.
Shiny Latios
Why are all the topics centered on Russian history? I'm not sure why the Patreon suggestions are all focused on Russian history, this certainly does not seem very "Eastern European" to me.
Guidrion
Romanov has been done to death (no pun intended). All other topics, I'm down for
Andrew Schneider
Very hard to choose indeed! But can we eventually have Eastern Europe themed stuff that specifically has focus on things that are not Russia? Russian history is very interesting and all, but still… Although I doubt not that any takes on this are going to be very interesting!
Nimrod
The Crimean War!!!
Evan
All interesting topics, but I have to vote for the Pogroms, something a lot of people just ignore having happened (and not just Russia) but is the entire reason most of the US’ Jewish Population moved here. Including my own family.
Katie Malone
I'd definitely be interested in the pogroms and the Crimean War.
Bear Kid
Very hard to chose!
