Be careful what you wish for. The Russia of Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine exactly a week ago. The Russian aggression faced almost unanimous condemnation from the Western World, and since then, Russia was hit by the harshest economic sanctions they ever faced. Despite their bleak outlook, the Ukrainian army and…

Spoiler alert: those who wish to see this movie without me spoiling it for you, stop reading this article right now. I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago on the recommendation of one of my friends. During the first twenty minutes, I was…

My favourite sports — Sports have become one of the most popular forms of entertainment in our modern world. Daily, hundreds of millions of people are watching football, basketball, tennis, or motorsport events just to mention a few. Sports followers rarely limit their interest to a single type of sport, and this is true…

The Fall of the Austrian Imperial Eagle — One glance at the map of Europe before the outbreak of WWI will tell us that the world of pre-World War Europe was fundamentally different to our own one. The Europe of 2022 is made up of many big or small nation states, the EU alone numbers 27 member states. …

Who was right after all? George Orwell’s NineteenEightyFour is one of the most famous, widely read, and quoted books of the 20th and 21st centuries. The phrase Orwellian was probably heard by almost everyone who has ears, and many of us have also seen people decrying developments that they deemed…

Being a leader of a country was never a safe job, and countless kings, princes, and politicians fell victim to assassinations. Fear of assassination drove many leaders to become morbidly paranoid, and some even took drastic measures to improve their chances of survival. One of the more extreme cases was…

The birth of modern Germany — Historical Background Throughout the Medieval and Early Modern period, no unified German state emerged as in the case of France, where the Valois and Bourbon dynasties slowly, but surely annexed and inherited the territories of their rivals in Brittany, Burgundy, or Provence. …

History was always one of my favorite subjects, but unfortunately, I soon became aware of just how distorted a way can the past be seen and taught. Opportunistic rulers, their subordinates, and nowadays politicians often used/use history to gather support and propagate their political programs and/or views, although the figures…

The reply of the Cossacks to the Ottoman Sultan The origins of the Ottoman-Cossack Conflict The western edges of the Great Eurasian steppe(modern-day Ukraine and southern Russia) were always regarded in medieval and early modern Europe as wild and rather lawless lands. For centuries the steppes served as the highway through which nomadic people starting from…