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

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. 

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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

Eastern Europe, 1914 and Planned Army Concentration Areas in Central Europe, 1914

 Operations on The Eastern Front to 20 September 1914