East versus West?

Historical anthropology rejects superficial patriotic and heroic narratives of war. It understands war primarily as a harsh, immediate and transformative experience of the particular people who are deployed in it: they're fighting, they're hurting and dying, working in the backroom, they treat and cure the wounded, provide comfort and spiritual service, or are connected to the war in some other similar way. Such people sometimes leave behind so-called egodocuments: their diaries, letters to friends or families, autobiographies or personal notes. It is mainly through these sources, which provide a very personal view of the war and war violence, that the author views the Crimean War (1853-1856), the first war that took on a completely unexpected dimension thanks, among other things, to the application of many technical innovations of the Industrial Revolution. The author goes beyond the usual schematic way of looking at the Crimean War as a religiously motivated civilizational conflict, taking no sides and analyzing the experience and culture of the war, especially during the Great Siege of Sevastopol (1854-1855), through the eyes of a total of 137 participants from the Russian and British sides. The author analyses key elements of the "historical mythology" of both sides, including the concept of Sevastopol-the city of the hero or the narrative of the Thin Red Line and the Light Brigade attack, and finds in their background much more significant cultural traumas and configurations shaping the course of the conflict. This is a unique approach in the field of military historiography, with no parallels in the Czech or international environment.