Skis in the Art of War

K. B. E. E. Eimeleus, William D. Frank

• Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781501747403, 9781501747403
• eBook ISBN: 9781501747410
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Russian History
• Index: History

K. B. E. E. Eimeleus was ahead of his time with his advocacy of ski training in the Russian armed forces. Employing terminology never before used in Russian to describe movements with which few were familiar, Skis in the Art of War gives a breakdown of the latest techniques at the time from Scandinavia and Finland. Eimeleus's work is an early and brilliant example of knowledge transfer from Scandinavia to Russia within the context of sport.

Nearly three decades after he published his book, the Finnish army, employing many of the ideas first proposed by Eimeleus, used mobile ski troops to hold the Soviet Union at bay during the Winter War of 1939–40, and in response, the Soviet government organized a massive ski mobilization effort prior to the German invasion in 1941. The Soviet counteroffensive against Nazi Germany during the winter of 1941–42 owed much of its success to the Red Army ski battalions that had formed as a result of the ski mobilization.

In this lucid translation that includes most of the original illustrations, scholar and former biathlon competitor William D. Frank collaborates with E. John B. Allen, known world-wide for his work on ski history.

NOTES

INTRODUCTION: SKIING IN EUROPE PRIOR TO WORLD WAR I

1. William D. Frank, Everyone to Skis! Skiing in Russia and the Rise of Soviet Biathlon (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2013), 14–18.

2. Letter, Napoléon to [Hugues-Bernard] Maret, duc de Bassano, ministre des relations extérieures, Doutorna, 18 November 1812, in Napoléon Bonaparte, Correspondance Générale, publiée par la Fondation Napoléon, XII: La campagne de Russie 1812 (Paris: Fayard, 2012), 1260. On the okhotniki, see section XXXI, n. 24.

3. A. A. Zaitsev, Winter Sport (St. Petersburg: n.p., 1904) and O. K. Razgon, Running on Skis (Moscow: n.p., 1911) are two examples. See M. A. Agranovskii, Bibliograficheskii ukazatel’ nauchnoi i metodicheskoi literatury po lyzhnomu sportu (s 1896 g. po 1957 g.) (Moscow: Gosudarstvennyi tsentral’nyi ordena Lenina institut fizicheskoi kul’tury im. I. V. Stalina, 1957), 5. See also “Sources,” nn. 9, 10, and 11, below.

4. The two most recent are E. John B. Allen, The Culture and Sport of Skiing from Antiquity to World War II (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007); and Roland Huntford, Two Planks and a Passion: The Dramatic History of Skiing (London: Continuum, 2008).

5. Rune Flaten, “Hvem var skiguden Ull?,” Årbok (1999): 38–55; Flaten, “Skigudinnen Skade,” Årbok (2000): 58–71; Szerafim Paktanov, Die Irtysch-Ostjacken und ihre Volkspoesie (St. Petersburg: L’Académie Impériale des Sciences, 1897), 118–19; W. J. Raudonikas, Les gravures rupestres des bords du lac Onéga et de la mer Blanche, 2 vols. (Moscow and Leningrad: Izd. Akademii nauk SSSR, 1936, 1938); Shan Zhaojian and Wang Bo, eds., The Original Place of Skiing—Altay Prefecture of Xinjiang, China (Beijing: People’s Sports Publishing House, 2010); Shan Zhaojian and Ayiken Jiashan, eds., 2015 Altay, China International Ancient Skiing Cultural Forum Report (n.p., 2016). The latest analysis by Paul S. C. Taçon, Tang Huisheng, and Maxime Aubert concludes that a probable date lies between 5250 and 4000 BCE. See “Nationalistic Animals and Hand Stencils in the Rock Art of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Northwest China,” Rock Art Research 33, no. 1 (2016): 1–13.

6. Kaarle Krohn, “Der Hansakaufmann in der finnischen Volksdichtung,” Finnisch-ugrische Forschungen 16 (1923–1924): 103–45, especially 125–29. See also Erwin Mehl, “Der erste Skiläufer in der Weltliteratur war ein Deutscher,” Olympisches Feuer 3 (March 1957): 11–14.

7. Gösta Berg, Finds of Skis from Prehistoric Times in Swedish Bogs (Stockholm: Generalstabens Litografiska Anstalts Förlag, 1950). There are many articles on individual ski finds in Scandinavian ski journals.

8. Grigoriy M. Burov, “Some Mesolithic Wooden Artifacts from the Site of Vis 1 in the European North East of the U.S.S.R.,” in The Mesolithic in Europe: Papers Presented at the Third International Symposium, Edinburgh 1985, ed. Clive Bonsall (Edinburgh: John Donald, [1985?]): 392–95.

9. See the preface.

10. Dr. H. von Auer, “Beitrag zur Geschichte des Militär-Skilaufs,” in Ski [Jahrbuch des Schweizerischer Ski-Verbandes] 9 (1913): 44.

11. Johan Georg Gmelin, Voyage en Sibérie: contenant la description des mœurs & usages des peuples de ce Pays, le cours des rivières considérables, la situation des chaînes de montagnes, des grandes forêts, des mines, avec tous les faits d’Histoire Naturelle qui sont particuliers à cette contrée, trans. Louis-Félix Guynement de Keralio (Paris: chez Desaint, 1767); P. S. [Peter Simon] Pallas, Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs (St. Petersburg: Kaiserliche Academie der Wissenschaften, 1776; repr., Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1967); Adolf Erman, Reise um die Erde durch Nord-Asien und die beiden Oceane in den Jahren 1828, 1829 und 1830: Vol II: Reise von Tobolsk bis zum Ochozka Meere im Jahr 1829 (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1838); also in English: Erman, Travels in Siberia (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1848). See Frank, Everyone to Skis!, 22–24.

12. Fridtjof Nansen, Paa Ski over Grønland (Kristiania: Aschehoug, 1890), 18.

13. F. Wedel Jarlsberg, Reisen gjennem livet (Oslo: Gyldendal, 1932), 109.

14. Nansen, Paa Ski over Grønland, 78.

15. Åke Svahn, “Idrott und Sport. Eine semantische Studie zu zwei schwedischen Fachtermini,” Stadion 5 (1979): 20–41; Allen, Culture and Sport, 18–19.

16. Bernt Lund’s poem first published in Nytaarsgave for Illustreret Nyhedsblad Abbonnenter 1861 (Christiania: H. J. Jensen, 1861).

17. Letter, Cecil Spring-Rice to Lady Helen Ferguson, Stockholm, 31 March 1909 in Spring-Rice, The Letters and Friendships of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice: A Record, ed. Stephen Gwyn (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1929), 2:134–35. On the Nordiska Spelen, see the introduction “The Life and Times of ‘K. B. E. E. Eimeleus,’” n. 40, below.

18. V. A. Serebriakov, “Teoria i Praktika Fizicheskoi Kultury,” 3–4, cited in Iwona Grys, “Foreign Influences on Russian Sport in the 19th Century,” Studies in Physical Culture and Tourism 6 (1999): 70. For Nansen’s 1898 grand tour of Russia (the same year Leon Trotsky was sentenced to prison for union-organizing activities), see Frank, Everyone to Skis!, 25–26. The Romanovs ruled for three centuries from 1613 to 1917.

19. Jackie Rosenhek, “The Coldest War,” Doctor’s Review (December 2013), www.doctorsreview.com/history/history-medicine-frostbite/.

20. Carl Luther had talked to a pioneering Norwegian who claimed to have instructed Spanish officers. Carl J. Luther, Schneeschuhläufer im Krieg (Munich: Lindauer, 1915), 48. No Spanish source gives any information of this encounter. On Luther, see the conclusion, n. 14, below.

21. Vladimir Littauer, Russian Hussar (London: A. J. Allen, 1965), 23–24; E. John B. Allen, “L’avventurosa vita del marchese Nicolò degli Albizzi,” Aquile in Guerra 25 (2017): 40–58.

22. The military in France especially, but also elsewhere, was impressed by the philosopher Henri Bergson who published Évolution créatrice in 1907. It was translated into English as Creative Evolution and published in 1911.

23. Capitaine Henri Clerc, “Rapport des expériences de skis exécutées dans les environs de Briançon par le 159me. Reg. D’inf. au cours des hivers 1900–1901 et 1901–1902,” handwritten document in Musée Dauphinois, Grenoble, p. 67; Commandant G. Bernard, Guide du Skieur; fabrication et théorie du ski, le ski dans la montagne (Paris: R. Chapelot, 1910).

24. Henrik Angell, “Paa Ski in den franske Alpen,” Morgenbladet (27 March 1903).

25. J. F. Baddeley, Russia in the ‘Eighties’ (London: Longmans, Green, 1921), 38, 253. See also the hand-drawn map by Baddeley, in the Ski Club of Great Britain Archives at De Montfort University Special Collections, Leicester, England.

26. Der Schnee 7, no. 8 (2 December 1911): 5; “Sprungschanzen Ski Archiv,” www.skisprungschanzen.com; “Lyzhnaia sostiazaniia v Iukkakh, 19-go fevralia, na gor ‘Obshchestva poliarnoi zvezdy,’” Ogonek 9 (25 February [9 March] 1912); “Maslenitsa v Peterburge—katan’e s gor na sankakh i na lyzhakh v Iukkakh,” Ogonek 8 (24 February [9 March] 1913); Novoe vremia, 16 (29) January 1911, p. 7; Novoe vremia, 3 (16) February 1912, p. 7.

27. See section XXII.

28. Tor Hjelm, “En hærordning-forendring offentlig premiering av skiløpning, og opprinnelsen til den modern skisport for 200 år siden,” Hærmuseet Akershus Årbok (1965): 1–37.

29. Arthur T. Hatto, The World of the Khanty Epic Hero-Princes: An Exploration of a Siberian Oral Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 58n1.

30. Thor Gotaas, Skimakerne (Oslo: Gyldendal, 2011), 13.

31. Anterro Heikkanen, “Urheilijat ja heidän Yhteisönsä-Haapaveden hiihto menestyksen tausta Suomen hiihtourheilen alkuvaiheessa” (Sportsmen and their community—Background of their success in skiing in Haapavesi), Scripta Historica 5 (1977): 81–118 (English summary, p. 118).

32. Orvar Löfgren, “The Nationalization of Culture: Constructing Swedishness,” Ethnologia Europaea 19, no. 1 (1989): 5. Skis made by L. L. Frabritius of Uleåborg (Swedish name for Oulu) were advertised in Germany in 1894. See Der Schneeschuh 1, no. 2 (16 April 1894): n.p. That same year, Finnish skis competed with Norwegian and Swedish models at the exhibition held in conjunction with the ski races. The following year the Finns donated ten pairs of birch skis to the new Styrian Ski Association. See Katalog (of Winter Exhibition), 5–10 January 1894 (Mürzzuschlag, n.p.), in Mürzzuschlag Winter Sport Museum archives; “Schneeschuhen,” Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung 16, no. 4 (27 January 1895): 89. Here was an effort to capture a new market.

33. Patent, now hanging on the wall of the reconstructed Østbye workshop at the Norske Skieventyr in Morgedal. As early as 1761 a Lieutenant Hals in Om Skismøring recommended ister (t...

Table of contents

• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Skiing in Europe prior to World War I
• Introduction: The Life and Times of “K. B. E. E. Eimeleus”
• Dedication
• From the Editor
• Preface
• Sources
• I. The Hygienic and Physiological Significance of Skiing
• II. A Short Outline of Skiing History
• III. The Evolution of Skis
• IV. Various Types of Skis
• V. Material for Skis
• VI. Fabrication of Skis
• VII. Upkeep and Preservation of Skis
• VIII. Repairing Skis
• IX. The Effect of Snow on Skis and How They Run
• X. Poles
• XI. Methods of Attaching Skis and Footwear for Skiing
• XII. Clothing
• XIII. Ski-Running: Its History, Theory, Method, and Technique
• XIV. Riding behind a Horse
• XV. Riding with a Sail
• XVI. Turning in Place
• XVII. Hill Climbing
• XVIII. Mountain Descent
• XIX. The Pole as a Brake
• XX. Skis as a Brake
• XXI. Turns on the Move
• XXII. The Proper Execution of Jumps
• XXIII. A Chronicle of Ski Competitions
• XXIV. Systematic Instruction of Skiing in the Military
• XXV. Instruction of Ski Detachments with Marching and Company Battle Formation, Referencing “Infantry Drill Regulations”
• XXVI. Suggested Schedule of Ski Instruction in the Military
• XXVII. Essential Rules for Skiers on the March
• XXVIII. “Stunts” and Ski Games
• XXIX. General Setup of Ski Competitions
• XXX. Scoring and Rules of Ski Competitions
• XXXI. Significance and Application of Ski Detachments in Time of War
• Conclusion
• Main Gymnastics-Fencing School Press
• The “Sportsmen” Company St. Petersburg
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright