I don't know why I think this is funny

Not "ha ha" funny, but just amusing, but I was at the library the other day and noticed that back in the American history section they had four books - 1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton, 1775: A Good Year for a Revolution by Kevin Phillips, 1776 by David McCullough, and 1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga by Dean R. Snow. The fact that four separate people covered a four year period of American history in a sequence independently of one another amused me.

I've developed an interest in American history recently, so these four books will help. I can't tell you exactly why I have this interest, but I think it might be a combination of two things: 1. Right-wingers going on and on about how the "commies", "leftists", or whatever the current boogie man is is trying to "cancel" history or some such nonsense. 2. Realizing that my own knowledge of American history, especially early American history, is spotty. I have a general knowledge of people and events, but I've never much cared about delved into it until now. Given that the right-wing is setting its sights on "patriotic" historical revisionism, I figured I better get to reading before it's too late.

With that in mind, I'm going to start with Norton's book, then work my way forward. I also started reading another book called Autumn of the Black Snake by William Hogeland. The book is about the events that led to the founding of the United States Army, the behind the scenes political maneuvering required for its formation, and its first campaign: an invasion of the Northwest to defeat a coalition of Native American tribes. The Black Snake in the title is a nickname bestowed by those very same natives on the general commanding this new army, "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Should be interesting.

I just hope I can get through all of these books!

Kim Il-Sung and his giant tumor [Warning: Graphic]

Hi-ho, we're going off on a trip to Weirdville with this one, folks! I was just thinking of North Korea yesterday because something is going down in the Hermit Kingdom after Kim Jong-un unloaded on his goons over something related to COVID-19. North Korea officially has no confirmed cases of the virus, but they're probably just not reporting them to the outside world. They aren't nicknamed the Hermit Kingdom for nothing. This did lead me down a line of thought about how devastating the virus could be in that country given how pisspoor it's managed. Famine and mass starvation are common specters there, to the point that malnourishment has successive generations of North Koreans to physically shrink. Somehow, somehow, that reminded me of something I read (and saw) about Kim Il-Sung, the founder of the communist state: the man had a giant tumor on the back of his neck.

No, really, I'm not kidding. Going by the rare photographs, the tumor was about the size of a grapefruit right on the back of his neck. Pictures of his condition were rare because Kim Il-Sung was the leader of a brutal regime and nobody was going to be snapping candids if they didn't want to wind up in a labor camp or in front of a firing squad.

According to Wikipedia, it was a condition called calcinosis, where calcium deposits form on the body. Clearly, milk did not do this man's body any good. Shockingly, this isn't even what killed him in 1994. No, instead he dropped from a heart attack.

I'm posting a couple pictures of it, but I'm putting under a read more because you never know who might be grossed out by something like that.

Here's the new blog

I went ahead and created a new history blog last month, called The Casual Amateur Historian. Check it out.

A new start?

So here's the thing: I like posting about history on the very rare occasions that I remember to, but I feel stuck when it comes to posting here. With that in mind, I've been thinking for a bit* about just starting over with a brand new blog. A Matter of Expedients has been running since *checks* 2011, so I think eight years is long enough. I'll keep this up as an archive.

Of course, now I have to come up with a new name and hope that the few people who still read this thing will follow over.

The Notre Dame is burning and the heart breaks

This is an unfathomable tragedy and I only hope that if it can't be saved, that the Notre Dame will be rebuilt.

A face only a mother(land) could love

Alternate title: The Soviet Yak-28 "Brewer-C" is one ugly aircraft.

Via Wikipedia.

I get that the Reds valued function over form, but even that has to have proper limits! Some comrade really looked at the final product and thought "Yeah, this looks good." The wings look so thin and narrow in that picture that I'm surprised that they could support the weight of those engines. Probably why they needed landing gear on the ends.

A horde of Roman Legion artifacts unearthed near Hadrian's Wall

Remains of the Vindolanda fort.
Credit: mramoeba.

This should interest both ancient history buffs and wargamers. Archaeologists discovered a previously hidden room under a Roman-era fort named Vindolanda and as they put it, won the lottery:

Archaeologists are likening the discovery to winning the lottery. A Roman cavalry barracks has been unearthed near Hadrian’s Wall, complete with extraordinary military and personal possessions left behind by soldiers and their families almost 2,000 years ago. A treasure trove of thousands of artefacts dating from the early second century has been excavated over the past fortnight.

The find is significant not just because of its size and pristine state, but also for its contribution to the history of Hadrian’s Wall, showing the military build-up that led to its construction in AD122. The barracks pre-dates the wall: the Romans already had a huge military presence in the area, keeping the local population under control.

The room, which was sealed when the Romans covered it with a concrete floor, contained two Roman cavalry swords, lances, wooden practice swords (one of which has a gemstone set in the hilt, fancy!), and even mundane items such as bath clogs, styluses, combs, hairpins, and more. The concrete floor itself apparently is what preserved all of these items by creating an airtight seal.

It's really fascinating to think that all of that stuff was just laying there for near two millennia and is now just being found. It really goes to show how much history is still left buried in the ground and that archaeology is not a field that will be going away anytime soon.

Under Renovation - Keep Clear

A seawall under construction in Galveston, Texas.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Without intending to, I let this blog lapse into nearly two years of inactivity, which is unfortunate because while I never posted with any kind of frequency, I did enjoy posting here. I also let the focus of this blog slip into more modern, less historical concerns and that I regret. So, I'm going to try and remedy it and bring A Matter of Expedients back. Here's some ideas I have in mind:

I don't think I ever had any kind of limitation imposed on what time periods I posted about, but it did seem like most of what ended up on here was 19th century stuff. I'm aiming to maintain that but at the same time, I want to avoid touching on anything recent, so I'm going to impose a limitation: nothing beyond the 1950s. Maybe I'll push that line further back later on, but for now, I just want to avoid touching on subjects that are still sensitive or have become heavily politicized by today's political climate.

So basically, anything from the very beginning of history (or even before) up to December 31, 1959.

Another thing I noticed is that a lot of my posts are military history related and while that's fine because wars and battles and such interest me, I want to post non-military history items too. There's a tremendous amount of meat there, with major events and larger than life figures to post about, so it's not like I'm going to be scrapping the bottoms of any barrels for subject matter.

In terms of posts, I'm aiming for both long and short. The former will roll out less often than the latter because I want to take my time crafting them and not everything needs a 1000+ word article.

On a minor note, there might be a blog redesign in the works. Blogger added new templates a few months back and I think one or two might work for this.

Well, that's a bit bothersome: Stalin's making a comeback in Eastern Ukraine

Credit: Alexey Filippov/AFP/Getty Images

Saw an article on The Guardian about how portraits of Josef Stalin are being installed in Donetsk, the capital of the rebel-held and unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic. In fact, the rebel government is also reviving other artifacts of the Soviet-era.

The previously taboo display comes as the rebels revive Soviet customs to cement their Moscow-backed rule – while glossing over Stalin’s atrocities.

The portraits went down well with one young woman walking past. “I think the portraits of Stalin are a good thing. It’s our history and a lot of people have forgotten he even existed,” said Yekaterina, a 22-year-old student.

The horrors of Stalin’s repressions and the deaths of up to five million Ukrainians in the 1930s due to famine caused by forced collectivisation go unmentioned.

The Donetsk rebel leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, said how he regretted the break-up of the Soviet Union.

“The Soviet Union was a great country and it was a huge mistake that it was destroyed by the CIA and other secret services,” said the 39-year-old former field commander who prefers to dress in camouflage gear. “Europe and other countries were scared stiff of us.”

Stalin portraits have become de rigueur in the offices of rebel officials in eastern Ukraine, where the separatist conflict has killed more than 8,000 people.

The Donetsk rebels’ deputy defence minister, Eduard Basurin, wears a badge with Stalin’s profile on his uniform.

Side note: Donetsk was also once named Stalino, so I wonder how long until that gets revived as well.

The pro-Russian separatists and their T-54

#451795974 / gettyimages.com

So I was derping around on Wikipedia, reading up on what kind of weapons and equipment the military of the self-proclaimed (and little recognized) Federal State of Novorossiya was using to fight against the Ukrainians. I noticed something interesting under the section about tanks: they've got a T-54. Now that itself isn't noteworthy because a lot of countries had them, thanks to the Soviet Union's foreign policies. What I did find amusing however was that they got the tank from a museum.

They've been erected new barricades on the streets of the city of a million people - and have even nicked a World War II tank from a local war museum.

The armed men arrived at Donetsk museum with heavy lifting gear, winched the Soviet era T-54 tank onto a flat-bed truck and drove it off. Squatting on top of the tank, one of them told a local online journalist: ‘‘We have got an engine to go in it. We have got some experts. We have to add the engine, ease the turret and it will be a working battle tank.’’

Well, necessity is the mother of invention, so I have to tip my hat to their improvisation. I wonder who these experts were and from which side of the border they hailed from? Actually, the separatists have a nice little armor corp, the bulk of which is made up of about 40 or more T-64s (apparently from Crimea after the Russians took over there), some T-72B1s, and a small number of other armored vehicles.