Ep 37: Alexander Watson on WWI’s Siege of Przemysl and the Making of Europe’s Bloodlands

School of War

Alexander Watson, Professor of History at Goldsmiths, University of London, joins the show to talk about the Eastern Front in World War One, and how the events of 1914/15 foreshadowed tragedies to come and the crisis in Ukraine today.  

Alexander Watson, Professor of History at Goldsmiths, University of London, joins the show to talk about the Eastern Front in World War One, and how the events of 1914/15 foreshadowed tragedies to come and the crisis in Ukraine today. ▪️Times 	•	01:43 Introduction	•	02:40 WWI In The East	•	05:29 Battlefield - Austria-Hungary 	•	10:10 The Austro-Hungarian Army	•	13:28 Coveted Galicia	•	17:44 1914 - A Primordial Soup	•	19:02 The Siege Begins	•	26:27 Przemysl’s Defensive Plan	•	29:50 The Russians Take A Direct Approach	•	36:08 Inside A City Under Siege    •	40:19 Total Exhaustion 	•	44:45 Military And Human Consequences	•	50:00 Birthplace Of The Bloodlands	•	55:09 Strange Ends Maps Courtesy of United States Military Academy West Point <a href="https://www.westpoint.edu/sites/default/files/inline-images/academics/academic_departments/history/WWI/WWOne24.jpg">Eastern Europe, 1914 and Planned Army Concentration Areas in Central Europe, 1914</a> <a href="https://www.westpoint.edu/sites/default/files/inline-images/academics/academic_departments/history/WWI/WWOne28.jpg"> Operations on The Eastern Front to 20 September 1914</a>

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This podcast seeks to learn what war teaches. There has been a steady decline in the study of military history and its associated theoretical discipline, strategy.This podcast seeks to fill that gap through in-depth interviews on military and diplomatic history.&nbsp; Our guests have included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, and China Select Committee chairman Mike Gallagher. We discuss the battlefield commanders, diplomats, strategists, policymakers, and statesmen who have had to make wartime decisions in the ancient and modern eras.The subject of an episode may be an historical battle, campaign, or conflict; the conduct of policy in the course of a major international incident; the work of a famous strategist; the nature of a famous weapon; or the legacy of an important military commander or political leader.&nbsp;&nbsp; Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He has worked as a foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and spent seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps. <a href="https://schoolofwar.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Visit our Substack for episode transcripts</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/school.of.war/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Follow along on Instagram</a>