Eastern Front. History of the First World War

The trenches of Flanders and Verdun are known to many, about the Eastern Front, where the fate of empires and the shape of our part of Europe was decided, we remember much less. We will talk about the war that forever changed the map of Central and Eastern Europe. The protagonists will be British military historian Nick Lloyd and his book “The Eastern Front. History of the First World War.”

Here empires fell apart, and a new order arose on their ruins. Western memory of the Great War focuses on the trenches of France and Belgium. Meanwhile, in the east, the fighting took place in a completely different rhythm and on an unprecedented scale. Armies traversed vast expanses, and the front was moving hundreds of kilometers. The effects of these struggles proved to be permanent: the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and German empires collapsed, and the borders in Central and Eastern Europe had to be redrawn. From this post-war order the Free City of Gdansk was also born.

In the book “The Eastern Front. History of the First World War” Nick Lloyd restores the war in the East to its rightful place. It gives voice to its participants, from generals to ordinary soldiers, and recalls campaigns that have fallen out of common memory. We will talk about the backstage of the creation of the book, about a new look at the forgotten front and about how the echoes of events of more than a hundred years ago are reflected in today's geopolitics.

Nick Lloyd will be interviewed by Dagny Kurdwanowska. Translation into Polish will be provided by Dr. Paula Gorszczyńska.

The book was published by Znak Horyzont Publishing House. During the meeting, it will be possible to acquire it and get the author's autograph.

organizer | Regional and Municipal Public Library in Gdańsk co-organizer | European Solidarity Centre

Guest Nick Lloyd | British military historian, professor at King's College London. Since 2007, he has taught at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in Shrivenham, where he trains senior military personnel. He specialises in the history of the First World War and the British Empire. He is the author of a trilogy about the Great War, the first volume of which, “The Western Front. History of the First World War”, published in Polish by Wydawnictwo Znak Horyzont. In his books, he combines working on sources with an accessible narrative and juxtaposes the decisions of the staffs with the experience of ordinary soldiers.

Host Dagny Kurdwanowska | Journalist and writer. Head of the Promotion, Marketing and Public Relations Department of the Provincial and Municipal Public Library in Gdańsk.