We are Back in the 12th Century

Anton Krutikov
7 min readAug 16, 2024
Russian warriors of the 12th century. Source of image: shedevrum.ai

It seems only a lazy person has not recently offered their historical analogy for the ongoing turmoil in the world, including the destructive wars in Ukraine and Gaza/Palestine. The past, as many know, is where people look for answers to the challenges of the present. When Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, much was said about World War I, the German Nazis of the late 1930s, World War II, and finally the Cold War. Vladimir Putin (and Vladimir Zelensky) were compared to Hitler and Mussolini. And during the recent surprise offensive by Ukrainian forces against Russia’s Kursk, General Oleksandr Syrsky, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, was even compared to General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

I will offer my historical analogy between the current Russo-Ukrainian war and the events in Kursk in the 12th century. This is the greatest work of Old Russian literature The Tale of Igor’s Campaign. It tells about a failed raid of Prince Igor Svyatoslavich from Novgorod Seversky and his brother Vsevolod from Kursk against the Polovtsians (Cumans) in 1185.

The princes united their forces in the fight against the common enemy, but without the support of other influential rulers of Rus’ they suffered defeat. The main reasons for the military catastrophe of 1185 were envy, greed, lack of unity and the desire to gain easy glory.

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Anton Krutikov

Independent historian and political analyst, London, UK.