#historynerd

[imamoodypotato]

"What could he do, should've been a father but he never made it to his twenties. What a waste, army dreamers. Ooh, what a waste of army dreamers" I've recently been watching some war films for research purposes for a short film project I'm hoping to complete by the end of the year, of course, All Quiet on the Western Front is my favorite movie, I've seen the 1930s one before but never gotten around to the 2022 one.It's possibly one of my favorite films ever and I've never sobbed as much, I've brought the book as well and will be reading it over the week. Volker Bertelmann will pay for my therapy bills because this movie's score is hauntingly beautiful and fills me with such grief. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it <3

[macrowitchphotography]

So there was a cool retro phone in a hotel I stayed at recently... So of course I took some pictures!

[stefanzl]

Just a meme I came up with: A 16th-century Western historian on his way to renaming the 'Eastern Roman Empire' to the 'Byzantine Empire' 🤔📜👨‍🏫💭

[mdomnt]

First post here

[roisy]

Of course Rebekah wanted to experience high school and take advantage of education. Think of all the ways the world had changed from the 1920s to 2010s. Especially concerning women. And her favourite subject was history??? I wish they explored that more. I could imagine her being such a nerd.

[sunflowerandlilly]

R.I.P Kevin Day, you would've loved Epic: The Musical

[garf64]

my oc valentine dressed as a 1920s flapper,, i should draw him more often but i always forget grr

[historicalsquid-blog]

🦑LIVE 🦑Like in the old times, I'm dying of a cold

[zeithforge]

Welcome to my corner of the internet! ✨

This is my writing blog, where I share my love for storytelling, worldbuilding, and all the creative chaos that comes with it. When I’m not writing, I'm outside capturing images through the camera lens, exercising, or sketching.

I have a curiosity that never sleeps—whether it’s history, philosophy, biology, or anything tech-related. I love diving into new ideas and exploring different perspectives.

Expect a mix of writing, creativity, and the occasional deep thought about the world around us.

Feel free to say hi—I love connecting with fellow creatives and deep thinkers! 😊

[ottooohhh]

I think I love history cos it’s just a load of amazing gossip about people who can’t get hurt and can’t hurt u

[illuminatingfacts]

Did you know? 🚶‍♂️🚗 "Jaywalking" was a term created by auto companies in the early 1900s to shift blame for accidents from drivers to pedestrians. 🤯 Clever or shady?

[crowofclassics]

A Brief History of music in Stalinist Russia

From 1946 to his death in 1953, Stalin banned jazz and many other forms of western music in the former Soviet Union. However many found ways around this and sold copies of records on the black market that were etched into the surface of old X-rays. Recordings of artists like Elvis Presley were etched over pictures of rib cages, skulls, or thigh bones. Used X-rays were a convenient replacement for an actual for vinyl records, and due to World War II, hospitals were overflowing with them. So there was no shortage of supply or demand.

The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 stunned the unready Soviet forces. Stalin's administration was forced to react quickly and devote all its resources into the war effort. As a result, Soviet music witnessed a relaxation of restrictions on expression. This period was a break from the policies of the 1930s. The Communist Party, seeing as it was allied with several Western powers, focused on patriotic propaganda rather than anti-Western rhetoric. With a restored connection to the west, Soviet music experienced a new wave of progressivism and experimentation.

Following the end of World War II, the communist party were persuaded to put an end to the patriotic propaganda and were encouraged to reinforce themes of the Russian revolution. In response to this, composers were desperate to find acceptable compositions. Some composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich turned to film music. Shostakovich did not publish his more expressive works until after Stalin's death.

Dmitri Shostakovich

Shostakovich was born just before the Russian revolution and grew up in the USSR. Many of Shostakovich’s pieces had to be re-composed or scrapped entirely as they did not fit with the slim criteria that the state wanted music to fit in the USSR. He had to wait until after Stalins death to compose the music he wanted. Many other Russian composers experienced this as well.

Shostakovich was known to display symptoms of anxiety, internalised stress and was said to have been a sensitive individual causing somatic symptoms. His negative relationship with the Soviet Union added to issues he faced in his life and with his mood. He spoke constantly about pain, describing his life under Stalin’s regime as “unbelievably mean and hard. Every day brought more bad news and I felt so much pain. I was so lonely and afraid.”

In 1936 he was denounced as an “enemy of the people” by the Soviet regime after Stalin attended and disliked the composer’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsenk District. Dmitri was “as white as a sheet” when he saw Stalin in the audience, an experience which increased his fears and paranoid thinking. He was known to have kept a small suitcase packed in case of arrest and slept in the stairwell out of fear. He reflected on this anxiety: “When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something.”

Sources:

https://hekint.org/2020/09/22/shostakovich-shrapnel-and-chronic-poliomyelitis/

[errantindy]

Came across one of my favorite Tumblr posts and had to reblog it.

Please make a post about the story of the RMS Carpathia, because it's something that's almost beyond belief and more people should know about it.

Carpathia received Titanic’s distress signal at 12:20am, April 15th, 1912. She was 58 miles away, a distance that absolutely could not be covered in less than four hours.

(Californian’s exact position at the time is…controversial. She was close enough to have helped. By all accounts she was close enough to see Titanic’s distress rockets. It’s uncertain to this day why her crew did not respond, or how many might not have been lost if she had been there. This is not the place for what-ifs. This is about what was done.)

Carpathia’s Captain Rostron had, yes, rolled out of bed instantly when woken by his radio operator, ordered his ship to Titanic’s aid and confirmed the signal before he was fully dressed. The man had never in his life responded to an emergency call. His goal tonight was to make sure nobody who heard that fact would ever believe it.

All of Carpathia’s lifeboats were swung out ready for deployment. Oil was set up to be poured off the side of the ship in case the sea turned choppy; oil would coat and calm the water near Carpathia if that happened, making it safer for lifeboats to draw up alongside her. He ordered lights to be rigged along the side of the ship so survivors could see it better, and had nets and ladders rigged along her sides ready to be dropped when they arrived, in order to let as many survivors as possible climb aboard at once.

I don’t know if his making provisions for there still being survivors in the water was optimism or not. I think he knew they were never going to get there in time for that. I think he did it anyway because, god, you have to hope.

Carpathia had three dining rooms, which were immediately converted into triage and first aid stations. Each had a doctor assigned to it. Hot soup, coffee, and tea were prepared in bulk in each dining room, and blankets and warm clothes were collected to be ready to hand out. By this time, many of the passengers were awake–prepping a ship for disaster relief isn’t quiet–and all of them stepped up to help, many donating their own clothes and blankets.

And then he did something I tend to refer to as diverting all power from life support.

Here’s the thing about steamships: They run on steam. Shocking, I know; but that steam powers everything on the ship, and right now, Carpathia needed power. So Rostron turned off hot water and central heating, which bled valuable steam power, to everywhere but the dining rooms–which, of course, were being used to make hot drinks and receive survivors. He woke up all the engineers, all the stokers and firemen, diverted all that steam back into the engines, and asked his ship to go as fast as she possibly could. And when she’d done that, he asked her to go faster.

I need you to understand that you simply can’t push a ship very far past its top speed. Pushing that much sheer tonnage through the water becomes harder with each extra knot past the speed it was designed for. Pushing a ship past its rated speed is not only reckless–it’s difficult to maneuver–but it puts an incredible amount of strain on the engines. Ships are not designed to exceed their top speed by even one knot. They can’t do it. It can’t be done.

Carpathia’s absolute do-or-die, the-engines-can’t-take-this-forever top speed was fourteen knots. Dodging icebergs, in the dark and the cold, surrounded by mist, she sustained a speed of almost seventeen and a half.

No one would have asked this of them. It wasn’t expected. They were almost sixty miles away, with icebergs in their path. They had a responsibility to respond; they did not have a responsibility to do the impossible and do it well. No one would have faulted them for taking more time to confirm the severity of the issue. No one would have blamed them for a slow and cautious approach. No one but themselves.

They damn near broke the laws of physics, galloping north headlong into the dark in the desperate hope that if they could shave an hour, half an hour, five minutes off their arrival time, maybe for one more person those five minutes would make the difference. I say: three people had died by the time they were lifted from the lifeboats. For all we know, in another hour it might have been more. I say they made all the difference in the world.

This ship and her crew received a message from a location they could not hope to reach in under four hours. Just barely over three hours later, they arrived at Titanic’s last known coordinates. Half an hour after that, at 4am, they would finally find the first of the lifeboats. it would take until 8:30 in the morning for the last survivor to be brought onboard. Passengers from Carpathia universally gave up their berths, staterooms, and clothing to the survivors, assisting the crew at every turn and sitting with the sobbing rescuees to offer whatever comfort they could.

In total, 705 people of Titanic’s original 2208 were brought onto Carpathia alive. No other ship would find survivors.

At 12:20am April 15th, 1912, there was a miracle on the North Atlantic. And it happened because a group of humans, some of them strangers, many of them only passengers on a small and unimpressive steam liner, looked at each other and decided: I cannot live with myself if I do anything less.

I think the least we can do is remember them for it.

[stefanzl]

One of my earlier posters/maps features Austria-Hungary. It highlights its borders, the internal divisions into provinces, and their respective capital cities.

[jaysgg]

History Students! This is a cool Notebook for YOU.

I Love History NOTEBOOK!

(As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

[theusaleaders]

Top 7 Youngest Presidents: How Are They More Than That?

Age doesn’t define power – the youngest presidents in history are proving this every day!

Age is often seen as a measure of experience, but the youngest presidents in history have proven that leadership knows no bounds. These individuals have not only made history with their youth but have also left an unforgettable mark through their achievements, values, and personalities.

In this blog, you will glance into the lives of seven of the youngest U.S. presidents beyond their time in the Oval Office, disclosing fascinating facts that show how they were much more than their titles. So, are you ready to be inspired by their incredible journeys? Let’s get started!

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