Mungo Melvin. Sevastopol’s wars: Crimea from Potemkin to Putin

Major General Mungo Melvin CB OBE. Sevastopol’s wars: Crimea from Potemkin to Putin. Continuities & changes in statecraft & conflict.

Major General Melvin presents the major themes and conclusions from his latest military historical work, “Sevastopol’s Wars: Crimea from Potemkin to Putin” published in April 2017 by Osprey Books of the Bloomsbury Press. Melvin’s contention is that Crimea generally, and Sevastopol specifically as the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, have been of enduring geostrategic importance to Russia since the time of Catherine the Great. Largely as a result of the heroic defences of Sevastopol during the |Crimean and Second World Wars, moreover, the city occupies a significant place in the Russian soul. Leo Tolstoy, for example, fostered this sense of patriotic attachment through his series of evocative sketches of the besieged Russian port, drawing attention to the defiant ‘spirit of Sevastopol’. In the wake of Kiev’s Euromaidan in February 2014, the people of Sevastopol unilaterally declared independence from Ukraine and the Russian second annexation of the Crimean peninsular was soon under way.

Mungo Melvin retired from the British Army in December 2011 following a career of 37 years in the Royal Engineers and General Staff. He then served as a specialist to the House of Commons Defence Committee until April 2017. From 2012 to 2017 he was President of the British Commission for Military History. He has recently been appointed as the Chairman of the Royal Engineers Historical Society and as Vice President of the Western Front Association. He is a Senior Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute and a Senior Visiting Research Fellow of the War Studies Department of King’s College London. Melvin’s biography, “Manstein: Hitler’s Greatest General” was published to critical acclaim in 2010, and was awarded as the best military biography of the year by the United States Society for Military History in 2012.

Signed copies of “Sevastopol’s Wars: Crimea from Potemkin to Putin” (800 pages) will be sold by General Melvin himself at a specially discounted price of £20 (RRP is £30). Always bring the exact CASH. There is no facility to accept credit or debit cards.

* – in cooperation with The Great Britain – Russia Society

Tea, Coffee & Biscuits at 6.30 pm. Talk starts at 7.00pm.

Please note that this event will be in English, without translation into Russian.

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