World War I: The Soča-Isonzo Front and Slovenia
By Dr. Vladimir Rus
Cleveland State University The Center for Slovenian Studies & The Department of Modern Languages
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
3:00 p.m. Main Classroom 134
During the First World War, the 12 battles of the Soča-Insonzo Front were fought on unbelievably beautiful, yet treacherous territory in present-day Slovenia and Italy. Flanked by high mountains, through which flowed the crystal green alpine river Soča (in Italian, Isonzo), this was not a prime location for any combat, let alone 12 hard-fought battles.
Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms was based on the author’s personal experiences as an ambulance driver in one of the battles. Surprisingly, besides this novel, very little else has been written in English on the topic of the Italian Front, where both sides lost a combined 300,000 soldiers.
The distinguished lecturer will be Dr. Vladimir Rus, a graduate of the University of Trieste and Western Reserve University in Political Science and the University of Michigan in Slavic Languages and Literature. Dr. Rus has taught at Cleveland State University, John Carroll University and the University of Michigan and was Assistant Professor of Russian at Case Western Reserve University.
Light refreshments will be served. For more information, please contact:
The Center for Slovenian Studies
Ivana Majer Yuko, Program Liaison
(216) 687-4859, (440) 221-4889
i.yuko@csuohio.edu