You did a great job emphasizing the importance of bread in the Russian empire during World War I. Without enough food, the foundation of the entire hierarchy that was built upon the peasants began to crumble. This then caused the political system to co…
Author: Dalton Ragland
Comment on The Effects of War on Civilians by Dalton Ragland
I like how you illustrated how the war affected every person in the Russian society in some way. The displeasure of the Russian people with the war is what allowed revolutionary groups such as the Bolsheviks to gain larger followings. This begs the mysterious question that if the war had never happened, would the revolution ever have occurred?
Comment on Alter of Virgin Mary by Dalton Ragland
I liked your final sentence: “History begins with religion and to understand religion is to understand history.” It’s true that almost every civilization has had a central religion from which many of their values were derived from. However, there are many aspects of history that are secular in nature and, in some cases even anti-religious. The assumption that understanding religion allows one to understand all of history is a overstatement. Though religion may open the door to history, it remains a vast hodgepodge of cultural, political, economic, and imperialistic aspects of which many have been incompletely analyzed.
Comment on When Life Gives You Metal, Make A Lot of Swords by Dalton Ragland
The amount of effort put into the crafting of these swords is astounding. Do you think that, as time continued into the late 20th Century, that the manufacturing shifted more toward guns or did the wants for swords and sabers continue to flourish? Do you think the use of sabers in warfare was to retain the traditional feelings and ties to Imperial Russia, or was it something else?
Comment on A Carpenter Tells All by Dalton Ragland
I enjoyed your analysis of the carpenter’s ethnicity and his likely religion. Do you think that the differences in culture and religion throughout various parts of the Russian Empire caused rifts within the Empire itself? Were these differences underlying causes of some of the conflicts throughout the 20th Century?
