Video: The Afghan Adventures of Dr. Watson: How Sherlock Holmes' Friend Got to War and Why the USSR "Forgotten"
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Stories, films and TV series about Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr. John Watson have thrilled the minds of readers from all over the world for 130 years. Already at the first meeting, the shrewd detective struck the doctor on the spot, indicating that he was in the war in Afghanistan. How the good-natured Watson ended up there, and why this fact was diligently hushed up in the USSR a hundred years later - further in the review.
In the 19th century, Great Britain was rightly called "the empire over which the sun never sets." At the time, Queen Victoria ruled over a quarter of the land mass and population of the Earth. But our Victorian era is better known thanks to the adventures of the genius detective Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson.
The famous couple from the pen of Arthur Conan Doyle met in London in 1881. And already from the first paragraph of the story "Study in crimson tones" the author tells how Dr. Watson got to the war:
In Afghanistan, located between the Russian Empire and British India, there were constant uprisings and power struggles. When anti-British sentiments once again intensified, the Empire urgently brought in troops. The soldiers occupied key cities: Kandahar, Kabul, Jalalabad. From the story of Dr. Watson we learn:
But in September 1879, after just a few months of an armistice, the Afghans attacked the British embassy, a resident was killed, and the war continued. British troops from India entered Afghanistan again and occupied key cities. All this time, dissatisfaction with the actions of foreigners grew in the country, large military forces of Muslim fanatics - ghazis - were grouped, numerous emirs tried to seize power.
The Battle of Maiwand on July 27, 1880 was one of the largest battles of that war. The British command, as if enchanted by previous victories, fell into a "sack" - a trap set up by 23-year-old Afghan commander Ayub Khan.
Near the village of Maiwand, 25,000 Afghans opposed 2,476 Britons. They surrounded the Europeans and destroyed half of their composition. In the 66th (Berkshire) Infantry Regiment, out of every three soldiers, only one survived. Miraculously, Dr. Watson, who served as a medical officer, survived:
According to John Watson, he missed the initial period of the war, when the British entered the country on a victorious horse and could distinguish themselves. On the contrary, he was in time for the bloodiest battle, in which the Englishman barely escaped. For his contribution to the war, the doctor was wounded, typhoid and sent home.
Barely returning to London, Watson meets an old friend of Stamford, who introduces him to Holmes:
When, a century after the events described in the USSR, the film "Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson" was filmed, this phrase caused quite a stir among the censors. Indeed, quite recently (in December 1979) a limited contingent of Soviet troops was introduced into Afghanistan, and an open mention of this was unacceptable. The scene had to be re-shot and now Holmes asks Watson: "How long have you been from the East?"
Many people still associate the Victorian era with the era of courtesy and strict morality. And some the rules of etiquette are puzzling today.
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