A Russian on Commando, by Boris Gorelik

A Russian on Commando. The Boer War Experiences of Yevgeny Avgustus by Boris Gorelik. Jonathan Ball Publishers. Johannesburg, South Africa 2022. ISBN 9781776191369 / ISBN 978-1-77-619136-9

A Russian on Commando. The Boer War Experiences of Yevgeny Avgustus by Boris Gorelik. A gripping portrayal of human frailty and courage in the face of mortal danger, A Russian on Commando highlights both the strange attraction and the absurdities of war.

Introduction by Boris Gorelik

The war between the "British Empire and the two Boer republics (the Transvaal, or South African Republic, and the Orange Free State) is possibly the best-researched armed conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. Long seen as a white man's war', the conflict is now understood as a battle between the British Empire and a South African community that comprised Afrikaner men and women, their black and coloured scouts, servants, labourers and tenants, and their families. Apart from the combatants, civilians of various nationalities were involved in the hostilities and suffered from the scorched-earth and mass-internment policies of the British forces. While the South African War, also known as the Anglo-Boer War, has been ideologically important for Afrikaner nationalism and for the development of Afrikaner identity, modern historians have shown that this destructive conflict affected other South African peoples, the majority of the population. But it would be wrong to assert that most inhabitants of South Africa were actively involved in that war or allied with either of the adversaries. Black people usually preferred to shun the confrontation and observe neutrality, though they could use the situation to their political or economic advantage. Editors of a book on social aspects of that conflict admit that, although they did their best to explore and emphasise the multiracial character of the war, 'it nevertheless remains a pre-eminently Afrikaner struggle against British imperialism'. The military historian Ian van der Waag suggests that future generations may regard this conflict as a war of South African unification. There is no sign of this yet. As Bill Nasson remarks, 'the legacy of the war remains a sectional business' in South Africa. For example, African nationalist historians tend to see it primarily as a colonial war waged by Europeans on appropriated African land over matters that had no relevance to Africans but led to their further dispossession and disenfranchisement. From this point of view, it was just 'a domestic quarrel between the Boers and the British government and its two southern colonies of Natal and the Cape'. Moreover, the war is nearly absent in the collective memory of black South Africans. Now that the political and ideological significance of the war in the deeply divided South African society has declined, its historical importance is no longer evident. That conflict is too often seen in South Africa as an internal matter, something that concerns only South Africans and possibly the British. But the South African War matters in global history. It was one of the few times when the world was closely watching developments in South Africa, and when its local events could have lasting consequences overseas. 'From the American Civil War to the First World War, no conflict achieved greater attention in international opinion than the South African War,' states Donal Lowry. The United States and continental Europe rooted for the two small nations in Africa that challenged the largest empire in the world and defied it for three years. To overpower the burghers, the British carried out their biggest military mobilisation since the Napoleonic Wars both at home and in the colonies. For the outside world, 'the South African War was much more than a colonial war writ large'. It was the beginning of the end of British imperialism, and the first modern war. It demonstrated the emerging power of international mass media. It excited the imagination of millions of people in Europe and North America, kindled their Anglophobia and inspired mass pro-Boer movements and war volunteering. [...]

This is an excerpt from A Russian on Commando, by Boris Gorelik.

Title: A Russian on Commando
Subtitle: The Boer War Experiences of Yevgeny Avgustus
Author: Boris Gorelik
Translator: Lucas Venter
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Johannesburg, South Africa 2022
ISBN 9781776191369 / ISBN 978-1-77-619136-9
Softcover, 15 x 23 cm, 306 pages, several b/w images