Friedrich Engels 
From the Crimea. May 31, 1855 

New-York Daily Tribune. 
Nr. 4416, 14. Juni 1855 

From the Crimea. 

The news by the Atlantic is full of successes gained by the Allies in the 
Crimea. The British journals fairly throb with exultation; and the British 
public, long despondent and hopeless of any profitable result from the 
present campaign, have suddenly regained the most joyous confidence. In 
imagination they behold the Crimea already conquered, Sevastopol laid 
in ruins, Russia suing for peace on any terms, and the war as brought to 
a triumphant and glorious termination. Let us see how far these antici- 
pations are justified by the facts. 

First among the events which have thus reversed the current of public 
feeling in Western Europe is the occupation of Kertch and the Sea of 
Azoff by the allied naval and land forces. This was all accomplished 
without any show of opposition on the part of the Russians. Neither at 
Kertch nor at Arabat were there any considerable fortifications or other 
means of resisting an attack. Indeed, with our present information, it is 
difficult to understand how the Russians could have neglected to fortify 
places of such importance, and so exposed as these were. The loss is 
certainly a serious blow to them. Not only is it accompanied by the 
destruction or capture of a great quantity of provisions and other stores, 
as well as of all their vessels in the sea of Azoff, but it cuts off the channel 
on which they have mainly relied for supplies. Henceforth they must 
draw everything of that nature, beyond what is furnished from the Cri- 
mea itself, by the more remote route of Perekop, or the road across the 
Sivash shallows. This will of course be a great inconvenience, but that it 
will at once reduce the Russian army to famine or force them to surren- 
der is not so certain. 

The British journals pronounce this affair to be glorious. In ordinary 
war glory is acquired by overcoming resistance and accomplishing an end 

h From the Crimea. May 31, 1855 

in the face of overwhelming difficulties and dangers. But since this Cri- 

{ mean campaign began many old notions have been unlearned, and many 
new ones have got an entrance into men's minds. Among the latter is the 
glory of leading 20,000 troops against a place with neither men nor forts 

i to defend it, and actually succeeding in its capture. To ourjudgment, on 
the other hand, the self-gratulations at this exploit in the sea of Azoff 
should rather be drowned in shame at its not having been consummated 
months ago. Why have the Russians been allowed to hold undisturbed 
possession of the straits of that sea till now? Why was no step ever taken 
10 to prevent their using the sea for the transportation of reénforcements 
and supplies? Why has no part of the allied fleet ever been sent there to 
interrupt the communications, clear the sea of every Russian vessel, and 
hold every port in blockade? It is a striking illustration of the imbecility 
which has marked the prosecution of this war on the part of the Allies 
that so obvious, so advantageous, and so easy a measure, for which with 
their great number of ships they have constantly had the means, should 
never have been undertaken before. It is true that it has not before been 
possible for them to spare 20,000 soldiers to garrison Kertch and Arabat; 
but that was not necessary; a few vessels and gunboats might have cut off 

20 the Russian communications quite as effectively without these garrisons 
as with them. Nor is it by any means clear that the Allies can even now 
afford to spare the division of Sir George Brown from the army with 
which they are now commencing operations in the field. Their superiority 
in numbers is far from being so great that they can wisely distribute 

25 themselves in this manner at remote points about the peninsula. 

The next great success is the capture of a place d'armes, which the 
Russians had prepared in front of the Redan and Malakoff bastions, 
between their lines and the French, to assemble in for important sorties. 

' As we have not heard of this before we must infer that it was a new 

; £30. construction, and of a purely offensive character. In other words, the 
besieged instead of being more and more weakened by the besiegers and 
restricted to defending themselves, are still in a position to extend their 
means of assailing and damaging the latter. This place was attacked by 
the French about 15,000 strong on the night of May 23, and, as Pélissier 

T- %35 reports, was partially carried; Gorchakoff says the Russians held it, but 
with a loss of 2,500 men. The next night the combat was renewed, when 
the Russians were driven out and the entire place occupied. But this 
appears to be a merely negative victory, depriving the Russians of a 
means of doing injury, but not doing anything toward silencing the de- 
fenses ofthe town. The allied trenches were not carried forward a yard by 
it, nor does it afford the least ground for expecting that assault forever 

3 promised, but never realized. 

Friedrich Engels 

The third new and victorious movement is that of 35,000 Frenchmen 
upon the line of the Chernaya. In respect of this we are also favored with 
some splendid exaggerations, which give it all the pretensions of a great 
triumph. The truth is that it is but the first step of the operations in the 
field which must now begin. This force is probably thrown forward to 
occupy the Russian army, while another allied division will march by 
Alupka and the paths of the hills to turn the Russian intrenched position 
now occupying the main road to Sympheropol. That the Russians would 
thus withdraw from the Chernaya was a matter of course. They must 
reserve themselves for the fight behind their intrenchments, where, ac- 
cording to an Austrian telegraphic dispatch, the Allies are about to at- 
tack them 100,000 strong—which we shall believe when we see it. A 
battle on the Chernaya would have been folly for them, especially if their 
numbers are so much inferior as they are represented. But we have little 
faith in these representations, and shall wait for facts to justify that san- 3. 
guine scorn with which The London Times speaks of the slight resistance 
which the Allies will probably have to encounter henceforth, before we 
admit its propriety. It remains to be seen whether the long disaster of the 
siege is now to be crowned by a brilliant and facile coup de main, ren-; 
dering the Western Powers at once masters of the entire Crimea. But at 2034 
any rate we may now expect exciting news from that quarter. If it does 
not now show us war on the grandest scale it will certainly be on the most 
active.