"Notes of an Engineer on the Reasons for the Fall of the" Topic

…. Malakhov Kurgan.

"Who of us has not happened to hear judgments on the Malakhov Kurgan[*], or even himself taken part in various debates on the subject and its significance in our Sevastopol war, all phases of which are still fresh in our memory but at the same time so obscured for us when we want to examine the whole course of how it unfolded step by step. We still have not collected a sufficient amount of information for a true judgment of even the main facts regarding the siege of Sevastopol. Although the literature on the subject is already rich with innumerable official reports and several reliable accounts, among them there intrude verdicts which history does not recognize as accurate.

As an engineer and eyewitness, I could not remain unperturbed when in lively debates the main reason for the loss of the Malakhov Kurgan is identified as the existence of the gorge [gorzha][†] or rear defense work of this fortification. But now, when this opinion is accepted by most people and even expressed in print, as for example in Berg's work on the siege of Sevastopol where it is expressly stated that "we could not retake the Malakhov Kurgan because of the constricting gorge,"[‡] I consider it appropriate to likewise in print justify the construction of the gorge for the Malakhov and point out other facts which I am firmly convinced were true reasons for the loss of this most important point of our whole position.

First of all I will turn the reader's attention to those circumstances which prompted the construction of a gorge at the Malakhov Kurgan, and try to settle the question of whether it was necessary there…"
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Amicalement
Armand