‘The Russian Frankenstein and His Monster’ in Punch, or the London Charivari

Creator

Date

1854

Identifier

Storage Journal AP 101 P8 1853-55

Type

Publisher

London: Published at the Office

Abstract

The Crimean War began in 1853, when Tsar Nicholas II invaded the Ottoman-controlled territories of Moldavia and Wallachia. The Ottomans won early victories at Kalafat and Oltenitza (see the article opposite, ‘Heartsease for the Czar’), and Britain and France joined the fray on the side of the Ottomans. John Leech’s image captures a moment when the British public believed that Nicholas’s belligerence was about to backfire on him. The reality was less simple: though the Russians eventually sued for peace in 1856, the British suffered some 40,000 casualties, and the Charge of the Light Brigade ensured that the Crimean War long stood as a symbol of British bungling.

Files

Cab 18- Punch3.jpg

Citation

John Leech, “‘The Russian Frankenstein and His Monster’ in Punch, or the London Charivari,” ourheritage.ac.nz | OUR Heritage, accessed March 29, 2024, https://ourheritage.ac.nz/items/show/10852.