Customer Reviews

The Northern Wars: War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe, 1558 - 1721

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This book is a collection of discrete essays on the theme of the Baltic or Northern wars. In the period following the end of the crusading in the Baltic region four key players emerged to contend for control of the crusader states. These were Sweden, Denmark, Russia and Poland/Lithuania.

Frost analyses the rises and falls of the influence of each of the states over time with regard to a number of factors.
1. He looks at the makeup of the military machines in each state. The ratio of professional and conscript soldiers. The makeup of the officer corps. The percentage of cavalry to infantry. The adoption of firearms, the development of the Huzzar to replace heavy cavalry, the failure of early mounted musketeers against Polish cavalry shock tactics and the ability of well drilled infantry to frustrate cavalry ambitions as practiced by the Swedes.
2. He looks at the relationship between ruler and state, from the wholly autocratic Russian system to the almost democratic Polish and Lithuanian system. The income of ruler and state such as the ability of Danish kings to act autonomously of their parliament due to the money from sound dues etc.
3. He looks (most interesting to me) at the ability of nations to fund war. The cost of standing armies and mercenaries. The need to vote extraordinary funds to armies in times of national peril. The difference in support given to rulers by landowner classes in periods of defence against an agressive neighbour and in periods of national expansion. His analysis of the economics of war is where Frost excels.
4. He also places the northern wars in their temporal, historical and geographical context by commenting on the developments in Western Europe, the 30 years war, the wars of the protestant reformation, the expansion of the Ottoman Turks in the south of the region, the incursions by Tatars from the asian steppes etc.
5. He analyses the impact of war on the societal makeup of the countries in the region. How landownership and serfdom developed, the evolution of the Cossack class, and so on.

If you are looking for an adventure story about knights charging into battle this is probably not the book for you. If you are looking for real history on the different approaches that can be taken to wage war, and how these strategies played out in short and long term, then this is a very useful read.

Because they are discrete essays it is possible to deal with them one at a time. Although the essays move chronologically through time, they deal with different sets of players and different types of tensions. Frost strives to uncover why any given set of strategies was successful in the time period where they worked.

The subject of the book for an obvious reasons is unknown to English-speaking readers, but well known to Russian and Polish ones, because they essencially studied it in a high -school History curriculum. The work is a piece of the emmence erudition, because the author knowledgible and citate sources on the the Polish, Russian, Swedish and German, Ukranian, naturally out of the reach of English-speaking readers. Knowledgible reader immediately sees the "Polish" bias of the author. Russian historians are blamed by him in crude nationalism, and ideological support of Russian Imperialism. As a proof author citate some works from 70 years old, written on the direct orders from Stalin, or works of Imperialist Historians of Czars period, which even Russian historians ceased to consider seriously in mid 1960. In the same token author prefers not to notice that Polish historiograpy for the most part of XIX century, and till the WW II, was spinning the same nationalistic myth, as ideological support for the Poland "From Sea to Sea", i.e from Baltick to the Black Sea. After blaming Russiann historians in vulgar nationalism, the author, describing Livonian War and it's aftermath, practically retells synopsis from the works of the major Russian specialist, Skrynnikov, whose some works are available in English, on the reigns of Ivan the Terrible, his son Feodor, Boris Godunov, and Times of troubles, of course properly referenced. The author tries to present the Military History and development of the armed forces of the North-Eastern, and Eastern Europe. His conclusions are far from original, that neither aristocratic republic of Poland-Lithuania, run by grand Magnates for thier narrow interests, nor reasonably well centralized and effectively administered, by standards of the time, Sweeden, but sparcely populated with limited resources could stand against Authocratic Russia with her population, resources, and ability to mobilize both for the purpose of war. Major value of the book is that it breaches totally new field for English-speaking general reader, and provides Russian and Polish ones with access to documents from Prussia, and Sweeden, otherwise unknown to them.

Excellent piece of sustained analysis of over 150 years of warfare along the Borderlands which also manages to give one a flavour of the thing. This period saw the rise of Sweden, something often linked with some perceived organisational advantages in the army of Gustav Adolph. Frost demonstrates why this was not so and the reason why Polish cavalry armies were sometimes the best solution.

The subject is replete with names of rulers, battles and sieges but I found it admirably clear in getting to the underlying reasons of such events as the Time of Troubles and the Deluge. And of course there is the Gothick Meteor himself, Karl XII. Would that other histories were as clear and yet as good at giving you the sense of the atmosphere: the forest covered borders, the husariya charging home, the long sieges of the Baltic towns. Great stuff.

Polish Hussars, Crafty Lithuanian Dukes, Mad Danish Kings, Gay Swedish Boy Kings, Patient and Lethal Muscovites, Prussian Electors and Lettish and Estonian Barons fill the pages of this seminal and erudite work of history. I can only echo the other reviews of this fine work of well researched, and enjoyably written history. For any and all interested in the histories of any of the nations taking part in the "Struggle for the North" you simply can't do better than this excellent study. Despite its hefty price tag (I got it for less some years ago) it IS worth it. Long Live the Commonwealth!