The terrible conflict that dominated the mid 19th century, the Crimean War killed at least 800,000 men and pitted Russia against a formidable coalition of Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. It was a war for territory, provoked by fear that if the Ottoman Empire were to collapse then Russia could control a huge swathe of land from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf. But it was also a war of religion, driven by a fervent, populist and ever more ferocious belief by the Tsar and his ministers that it was Russia's task to rule all Orthodox Christians and control the Holy Land. Orlando Figes' major new book reimagines this extraordinary war, in which the stakes could not have been higher and which was fought with a terrible mixture of ferocity and incompetence. It was both a recognisably modern conflict - the first to be extensively photographed, the first to employ the telegraph, the first 'newspaper war' - and a traditional one, with illiterate soldiers, amateur officers and huge casualties caused by disease.

Drawing on a huge range of fascinating sources, Figes also gives the lived experience of the war, from that of the ordinary British soldier in his snow-filled trench, to the haunted, gloomy, narrow figure of Tsar Nicholas himself as he vows to take on the whole world in his hunt for religious salvation.

作者简介

奥兰多·费吉斯（Orlando Figes），英国人，生于1959年，剑桥大学三一学院博士，现任英国伦敦大学伯贝克学院历史学教授。俄国生活的方方面面，不论是文学艺术，还是政治经济，他都烂熟于心，无人能出其右。他的一系列解读沙俄及苏联历史的著作如《耳语者：斯大林时代苏联的私人生活》《娜塔莎之舞：俄罗斯文化史》等都取得了非凡的成就，是当今英语世界俄罗斯研究的一流大家。作品曾获沃尔夫森奖、NCR图书奖，并入围萨缪尔·约翰逊奖、达夫·库珀奖等，已被翻译成二十多种文字出版。

译者简介

吕品，香港科技大学细胞生物学博士，在英国学术、新闻及商业机构工作多年，曾担任英国《卫报》中文版主编及英文评论版编辑。目前在英国从事卫生经济学领域的循证医疗传播工作。

朱珠，英国纽卡斯尔大学翻译学博士，现任英国爱丁堡大学亚洲学系中文教学主任，研究领域涉及翻译学、心理语言学、第二语言习得等。从事英语作品汉译工作多年，广泛涉及文学、影视及学术专著的翻译。