Claim: Valery Jacobi pursued an artistic career after retirement from the Russian Army where he participated in the Crimean War which was fought about the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, which Russia lost to the Ottoman Empire, France, the UK and Sardinia.
Evidence: In 1856 after retirement from the Army he decided to abandon his University studies and pursue an artistic career instead. Valery Jacobi was born to a family of an estate owner and started his education in the Kazan University, but broke off studying to enlist in the Russian Army (Siberian Volunteer Corps) during the Crimean War. The Crimean War was a military conflict fought from October 1853 to February 1856 in which  Russia lost to an alliance made up of the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom,  Sardinia and France. The immediate cause of the war involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, then a part of the Ottoman Empire.