A propos de cet article
First edition, presentation copy inscribed by the author, "à Monsieur le Général Langermann hommage de l'auteur"; with the accompanying letter in which Tanski presents this work on our "shared enemy, which by its subject cannot fail to be of interest to a military man as distinguished as yourself, and one who is moreover a Polish patriot". The Polish soldier, patriot, and poet Jozef Tanski (1805-1888) was exiled from his homeland after his participation in the November Uprising of 1830-1. He later served in the French Foreign Legion in the Crimea. His book is a detailed study of the organization, equipment, and morale of the Russian Army, described by William C. Fuller in his study of Strategy and Power in Russia 1600-1914, as "undeservedly obscure [and] extraordinary not least because it is the work of a former Polish officer who knew the Russian military system of the time from the inside". The recipient's story is still more extraordinary. Langermann was in fact a Finn of Swedish extraction, Alexander Maximillian Myrhberg, described in his obituary in the Pall Mall Gazette as "a man who had been for half his life a knight errant of freedom. For 30 years of the last half century Major Myhrberg was to be found fighting wherever the cause of liberty appealed to the sword". In 1823 he had served in Spain in the revolt against Ferdinand VII but was captured and deported to France. In 1825, he joined the struggle for Greek independence. Wounded several times, he was described by Thomas Gordon as "the best and bravest of the Philhellenists". In the November Uprising of 1830, fighting as Langermann, "he commanded a brigade in Rubinski's division of the Polish army, and took part in all desperate and hazardous enterprises of the war. Mieroslawski lauds enthusiastically the behaviour of Langermann's brigade in the fatal battle of Ostrolenka. Myhrberg had two horses killed under him and his sabre shattered by a musket shot" (Pall Mall Gazette). Captured by the Russians and sentenced to exile in Siberia, he escaped en route and was rumoured to have joined the Carlists in Spain. In later life, he received a pension from the Swedish government and served in the administration of the Antilles. He died in 1867. Octavo (200 x 124 mm). Folding table, tables to text. Contemporary green diced half russia, matching paper-covered boards, spine lettered in gilt, mid-blue endpapers, edges sprigged in red. Autograph letter signed tipped in before title, Langermann's ownership stamp on title page. A little rubbed, corners worn, front inner hinge a little cracked, light browning and a scatter of foxing, but a very good copy.
N° de réf. du vendeur 88287
Contacter le vendeur
Signaler cet article
