People’s War, or War against the People?
Journal: Oxford University Press eBooks
Year: 2018

With the war going badly for Russia in the winter of 1854–1855, the tsar and his advisors debated the feasibility of partisan warfare. Top advisors debated the loyalty of populations along the imperial borderland as well as the use of scorched earth tactics. The new military leader of Crimea, M. D. Gorchakov, proved (in theory, at least) to be more sympathetic to the plight of civilians than his predecessor A. S. Menshikov. Terror against Tatars abated. Yet, others in the military administration