Rogala in the Crimean War

Companion to The Orphan's Triumph

In 1850s Poland—partitioned and oppressed—22-year-old Michael Rogala, a brilliant Sorbonne-educated idealist, dreams of Polish independence. His heart lies in education, his spirit in resistance. Torn between staying home to teach Polish children their language and history, or joining the fight against Russian imperialism, he eventually enlists in the Sultan Cossacks, a ragtag legion of Poles, Ukrainians, and others under Ottoman command. With him go five local recruits—into the chaos of the Crimean War.

At the same time, thirteen-year-old Val Karnowski, Rogala's brilliant but sensitive protégé, struggles with loss, identity, and a brutal Prussian-run school system determined to stamp out Polish culture. Thru a moving exchange of letters, Michael teaches Val about the world—its architecture, politics, and ideals—while Val responds with his own intimate reflections on growing up from a boy into a man under occupation.

Their bond spans distance and danger, threading thru military training, battlefield action, and the small victories of simple village life. Historical events—from the Charge of the Light Brigade to Florence Nightingale's nursing efforts—are seamlessly woven with fictionalized accounts of Polish volunteers who believed that war might bring national resurrection.

You'll travel from the quiet farmlands around Łasin to the Crimean front—Inkerman, Eupatoria, Balaklava, and the siege of Sebastopol. You'll witness the clash of empires, the mingling of Catholics, Orthodox, and Muslims, and the forgotten efforts of exiles like Adam Mickiewicz to mobilize a Jewish army for freedom.

This is a novel of friendship, idealism, survival, and the aching hope for national rebirth. Told thru gripping prose and deeply human moments, Rogala in the Crimean War is both an enlightening journey through 19th-century Europe and an emotionally compelling story of two lives forever changed by war.

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