20th Century

Admiral: Russian Revolution Movie

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Admiral is the story of Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, and his fight against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution.

From Wikipedia:

Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak CB (Russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Колча́к, 16 November [O.S. 4 November] 1874 – 7 February 1920) was a polar explorer and commander in the Imperial Russian Navy, who fought in the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War. During the Russian Civil War, he established an anti-communist government in Siberia—later the Provisional All-Russian Government—and was recognised as the “Supreme Ruler and Commander-in-Chief of All Russian Land and Sea Forces” by the other leaders of the White movement from 1918 to 1920.[1] His government was based in Omsk, in southwestern Siberia.

For a year and a half, Kolchak was the internationally recognised leader of Russia. However, his effort to unite the anti-Bolshevik elements mostly failed; Kolchak refused to consider autonomy for ethnic minorities and refused to cooperate with non-Bolshevik leftists, and also heavily relied on outside aid. As his White forces fell apart, he was betrayed and captured by independent units who handed him over to local Bolsheviks, who executed him

Early 20th Century Color Photos

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Here’s a collection of color photos from around the world taken by French banker Albert Khan as he toured the world — in 1909!

Resistance In The Desert Site

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Ian Croxall has created an amazingly comprehensive site on France’s colonial adventures in North Africa (Morocco) at the turn of the century. There are maps, period illustrations, descriptions of actions, overviews of the native tribes, orders of battle and painting guides.

Ian writes:

At the dawn of the 20th century, an influential party of colonialists was obsessed with carving a colonial empire out of the barren wastes of the North African desert for their personal glory in the name of France. This was achieved through political manipulation and subtle subterfuge on the part of a handful of ambitious army officers. This activity led to a series of small unit actions in North Africa culminating in a full-scale invasion of Morocco in 1907. These actions are eminently suitable for colonial skirmishing on the wargames table.

Chinese Visual Sourcebook

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I like to make my wargaming terrain as authenthic as possible. I found the Chinese Visual Sourcebook to be useful when I was working on my 25mm Boxer Rebellion project.

Ten Days That Shook The World – Free EBook

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Available for free from Amazon, Ten Days That Shook The World is John Reed’s first hand account of the October 1917 Russian Revolution. It was the basis of the movie, Reds. Reed was a socialist American journalist who is buried at the Kremlin.

It is, as you might expect, politically explosive and the target of praise or criticism, depending upon which side of the spectrum you sit.