Looking for a Russian Navy historian-scholar
I am hoping someone on this Forum can help me. For the past year I have been editing a collection of scholarly research-essays from a team of internationally-based naval and military historians.
The title and topic are:
'Twixt Sea & Shore: Power-Projection Issues of the Pax Britannica
This is an expansion of a panel I chaired at the 2007 Naval History Symposium (US Naval Academy).
So far we have 2 American, 2 British, 1 Australian, 1 German and 1 French historian exploring various aspects of this central theme:
'How effective was naval power as a 'deterrent', or not, from roughly 1815-1914?'
For years, many leading naval historians have propounded the view that the British Royal Navy, for example, was able to 'keep the peace' primarily by holding out the explicit threat of coastal
assault/bombardment. This edited volume examines the theory more closely--and with the benefit of a variety of historical (and analytical) perspectives.
What we are missing in this volume--still--is a Russian naval historian. As editor I prefer a 'Russian' rather than an American or British naval
historian of Russian naval history, let's say. I'd like to know what they thought as 'straight from the horse's mouth' as possible. That of course means research familiarity with Russian naval archives/primary sources.
More specifically, I'd like to find a Russian historian who specializes in the period roughly 1850-1870; including the Crimean War but especially the changes in technology (steam propulsion, shell-guns,
ironclads, mines, etc.) which threatened the traditional 'balance of power' at sea--or at least along one's coast!
If he/she can contribute an original 7-10,000 word chapter (inclusive of footnotes) on this subject then this book is all but done...
Any ideas?
Very sincerely yours,
Dr. Howard J. Fuller
(author of Clad in Iron: The American Civil War and the Challenge of British Naval
Power)
University of Wolverhampton, UK
