Vermont Tiger

June 28th 1709 - The Battle of Poltava

By Daniel Foty

(I published this essay (elsewhere) two years ago on the potentially-troublesome 300th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava. Poltava remains little-known outside of the “region of involvement”; this is unfortunate, because Poltava is one of the most important watershed moments in history. And like most such watershed events, it didn’t just happen in isolation – but was the culmination of a very long series of events.

More importantly, the consequences of that watershed are with us still today – intertwined with some of the most thorny strategic and diplomatic challenges in the contemporary world. Ukraine is one of the places to which my work takes me regularly, and I’ve long had the country pegged as one of the most interesting – and most signal – places in the world. The endless argument about “Ukraine” – what it was, what it is, and what it will be – cannot be separated from the chain of events that began in 1648 and led on to Poltava.

And this is not a localized debate; Ukraine sits in a critical place in the world, and is forced by geography to serve as a crossroads – both in reality and metaphorically. Thus, our own interests simply cannot be separated from that region. In particular, one cannot even begin to grasp what is driving contemporary Russian strategy – with all the headaches and dangers that may pose – without understanding Poltava and the events preceding that day. We’ll come back to that at the end of the essay.)

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Some watershed events in history are generally well-known, while others remain obscure, perhaps known only in a particular geographic region. However, some of these seemingly-obscure events deserve more attention - as much of the present situation in many parts of the world owes a great deal to those events.

Today happens to be the 302nd anniversary of one of those little-known watersheds - the Battle of Poltava.

Poltava represents a critical breakpoint in the history of eastern Europe; it shattered forever the power of Sweden, marked the rise of Russia as a major power, provided a poignant note that Poland was in terminal decline, and sparked the rise of Prussia that would eventually lead to the emergence of Germany as the other major power in eastern Europe.

But getting to Poltava.... that was the culmination of an accumulation of events over a number of centuries - one of history's more chaotic stories.

We'll tell that story below the fold.

If The Law Supposes That ...

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Chipotle deprived

June 28th 1709 - The Battle of Poltava

By Daniel Foty

(I published this essay (elsewhere) last year on the potentially-troublesome 300th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava. Poltava remains little-known outside of the “region of involvement”; this is unfortunate, because Poltava is one of the most important watershed moments in history. And like most such watershed events, it didn’t just happen in isolation – but was the culmination of a very long series of events.

More importantly, the consequences of that watershed are with us still today – intertwined with some of the most thorny strategic and diplomatic challenges in the contemporary world. Ukraine is one of the places to which my work takes me regularly, and I’ve long had the country pegged as one of the most interesting – and most signal – places in the world. The endless argument about “Ukraine” – what it was, what it is, and what it will be – cannot be separated from the chain of events that began in 1648 and led on to Poltava.

And this is not a localized debate; Ukraine sits in a critical place in the world, and is forced by geography to serve as a crossroads – both in reality and metaphorically. Thus, our own interests simply cannot be separated from that region. In particular, one cannot even begin to grasp what is driving contemporary Russian strategy – with all the headaches and dangers that may pose – without understanding Poltava and the events preceeding that day. We’ll come back to that at the end of the essay.)

---

Some watershed events in history are generally well-known, while others remain obscure, perhaps known only in a particular geographic region. However, some of these seemingly-obscure events deserve more attention - as much of the present situation in many parts of the world owes a great deal to those events.

Today happens to be the 301st anniversary of one of those little-known watersheds - the Battle of Poltava.

Poltava represents a critical breakpoint in the history of eastern Europe; it shattered forever the power of Sweden, marked the rise of Russia as a major power, provided a poignant note that Poland was in terminal decline, and sparked the rise of Prussia that would eventually lead to the emergence of Germany as the other major power in eastern Europe.

But getting to Poltava.... that was the culmination of an accumulation of events over a number of centuries - one of history's more chaotic stories.

We'll tell that story below the fold.

Our Man In Washington

Senator Leahy, getting it done.

Say What?

Moreover, [John] Nelson [executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association] said budgets aren't formed 100 miles away by unknown administrators, then charged to local pockets - school board members live, work and suffer the same tax repercussions from the budgets as the people they work for.

"It's a process that benefits from being very local and very connected in terms of the relationship between the school and the local community," he said.
    Rutland Herald

Well, Actually ...

... the piece by Hugh Kemper that we posted yesterday was not the one that was submitted to the Herald for publication.  That piece appears below and is also worth your time and study.  We apologize for the confusion. gn

Increasing School Taxes – FY 11 Cost Drivers Are Clear

As FY11 education spending is expected to increase only modestly, Vermont property taxpayers are understandably perplexed why their equalized homestead tax rates are expected to increase by so much more than the increase in education spending. Let’s look first at the big picture and then drill down into the numbers to answer this question.

In preparation for the current legislative session, various state agencies collaborate on developing a “consensus view” on the outlook for the Education Fund. For FY11 the consensus view expects a 2% increase in education spending, a 1.6% decline in equalized pupils and a base homestead tax rate of $0.882, a 2.6% increase over FY10’s $0.86 rate.