The second edition of Illusions of Glory: The Great War on the Eastern Front (“IoG”) is currently on the P-500 list.
Links to prototype unit counters, player aid cards, mapboard, and playbook can be found on the IoG webpage.
Pete Chadwick posted in BGG that he’s planning to buy “Illusions of Glory, 2nd Edition” but had issues with a number of place names on the mapboard. I used The West Point Atlas of World War I to name those spaces (see below).
Mr. Chadwick says:
- Kowel should be spelled Kovel. Kowel with “w” is a Polish version of the name and the city is now in Ukraine (it was in Poland until 1939 but Poland didn’t exist during the period portrayed in the game). It should be spelled using Ukrainian/or Russian alphabet, Ковель which translates to Kovel. “W” is native for the Polish language but not Ukrainian/Russian.
- Wolkowysk comes from 1939 maps as the Polish version of this city name with a “w” (Wolkowysk was part of Poland 1920s-1930s, there was even a Polish “Wolkowysk” Cavalry Brigade in 1939). The proper Russian name at the time was Volkovysk. The Russian/Belorussian name for Brest-Litovsk is used and not the Polish name of Brześć Litewski.
- Luniniec is a typical Polish version pronunciation (it was part of Poland in 1939), so the Russian version should be Luninets (or Belorussian: Luninyets), especially when the Russian version Baranovichi (instead of the Polish name Baranowicze) is used just north of it.
- Lomza is the Polish version of the city name. The Russian version is Lomzha.
- Bialystok is the Polish version of the city name. The Russian one is Belostok (or Byelostok as the more Belorussian version).
- Kalisz is the Polish version. The Russian one is Kalish.
- Siedlce had a “Russified” version of its name (Седльце) which is converted from Cyrillic to Sedltse (similar to how Luniniec’s “c” should become Luninets’ “ts”).
- Czenstochov is a really puzzling one since the Polish name of the city is Czestochowa and the modern Russian version is Ченстохова, which translates to Chestochova or the more Polish-like version Czestochova. The historical Russian name of the city seems to be Ченстохов (Chenstokhov). Some historical sources (Russian newspaper from the period) confirm it as the correct Russian name to be used. The Russian name should be used because of Ivangorod (whose Polish version is Deblin).
- Katowice should be the German name Kattowitz since all the other cities on the German side of the mapboard have German versions of their names. Also, Katowice was built after WW1 when the borders were changed and it ended up on the Polish side. It had to be rapidly developed in the 1920s because its importance suddenly grew.
- Krakow should be the Austrian name Krakau since an Austrian version for Jaroslau is used instead of the Polish version of Jaroslaw, and the Austrian version for Stanislau is used instead of the Polish version of Stanislawow.
- Tarnow should be the Austrian name Tarnau if Krakau is used on the mapboard since the same word formation logic is used for both.
- Gorlice should be Görlitz, which is typically Silesian (not natively German).
- Ivangorod has the Polish name of Deblin, but this is sort of correct as long as the names Chenstokhov, Kovel, Luninets, and Volkovysk are fixed. Ivangorod should be changed to Deblin if keeping the names Lomza, Kalisz, and Bialystok.
- Przemysl has many different versions, such as Premissel/Premißel, Prömsel, and Premslen, but the Austrians used the original Polish name of Przemysl on all its maps.
- Bratislava is also known by the correct Austrian name of the time as Pressburg or Preßburg. Even more accurate is the name Pozsony because it was a county in the Kingdom of Hungary until 1923.
- Petrograd was still called St. Petersburg at the game’s start and was renamed on September 1, 1914. 16. Kronshtadt is Кроншта́дт in Russian, which translates as Kronstadt. The “sh” is for German pronunciation purposes, if you want to pronounce it as in the German language.
- Jakobshtadt should be Jakobstadt for the same reason.
What do you think? Let me know.
Previous Illusions of Glory InsideGMT Articles
Author: Perry Silverman
I would avoid getting involved in the Central and East European geographic name wars. And the recommendation to use Cyrillic lettering for a place name in a game published in the US for a primarily English-speaking audience is frankly bizarre. How many people even read Cyrillic characters?
I completely don’t agree with this, it’s not about name wars and politics at all, it’s about historical accuracy and the names should be from that period of time. Nobody is asking for Cyrillic names anywhere, where did I ask for them? It’s about transcripts to Latin which the West Point map bizarrely uses in places (for example: Russian version – Chenstokhov, transcribed from Cyrillic). Sometime it does, sometimes it doesnt, bad research. I am just asking for consistency and authenticy. It’s a historical fact that the territories shown on the map were partitioned between the three empires, if you use modern/current names for them you make the game less authentic. If someone wants to use all modern names for places then they should be at least consistent and rename cities in Pommern and Masuria to their current equivalents (to avoid politics). Example: Thorn should be Torun, to as you said, avoid politics. Point me to a region on the map and I will show you inconsistency there. Nothing to do with politics. I am just asking for usage of historical names from that period or modern names but not a mix. There are so many examples: how come Miskolcz is used if it’s Germanised name and other Hungarian names are not Germansied when at that time Hungarians had autonomy (since 1860s), is that not politics? Is that not inconsistency?
To elaborate a bit more on my brief response above: this is the essence of the problem, demonstrated by Mr. Chadwick:
“Ivangorod has the Polish name of Deblin, but this is sort of correct as long as the names Chenstokhov, Kovel, Luninets, and Volkovysk are fixed. Ivangorod should be changed to Deblin if keeping the names Lomza, Kalisz, and Bialystok. ”
What does “fixed” even mean? “Made consistent with a particular language?” Because Ivangorod uses the Russian term, you need to replace rest of the names for some meaningless sense of consistency? The entire history of this region is one of various imperial powers imposing their place names on subjugated populations. To take just one example from Mr. Chadwick’s suggestions above: Kalisz is a city in the heart of what could be called Wielkopolska (“Greater Poland”, as opposed to Malopolska, “Lesser Poland”). Inhabited at the time (as now) by people who by a large majority considered themselves Polish. Yes, it has a Russian name. But then the Russian Empire had a history of increasingly harsh attempts to eradicate education in native languages on the territory of its imperial subjects. The large majority of the inhabitants of Kalisz at the time of the game very likely called it Kalisz. To simply replace the Polish versions of place names on Polish territory (despite the absence of an independent Polish state at that time) seems to be the kind of needless name changing that caused the problems in the first place. Many of the place names had a tension between the imperial, the local, and the global names. Why is “Warsaw” not “Warszawa?” It goes on and on.
Then you go to another level. For this next statement, I frankly disagree: “Kronshtadt is Кроншта́дт in Russian, which translates as Kronstadt. The “sh” is for German pronunciation purposes, if you want to pronounce it as in the German language.” I don’t know how it “translates” as Kronstadt at all. Кронштaдт transliterates from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet with a “sh” for the letter “ш”. That sounds like “sh” to me. Yes, the word is originally German. When you transliterate the Cyrillic form of the German word it comes out as you have it.
You see where this leads? Utter madness. Choose a single reasonable source in the language of the game being published, such as the West Point Atlas of World War I (which you already did) and leave it at that.
About Ivangorod: I shouls explain in more detail, maybe my post was not clear, fixed as in: as long as there is consistency in the naming convention and historical accuracy. The West Point map is inaccurate, it mixes names and changes from pre ww1 with pre ww2. If you use Russian names for territories belonging to them in 1914 then it needs to be consistent so if Chenstokhov, Luniniets, Volkovysk, Kovel then use Ivangorod. For someone interested in that period I guarantee to you historical accuracy is a big deal. And it currently sort of portrays Russian partition of Poland in a better light as someone might think harsh russification was not a thing and the population got it lightly. Your argument about ethnicity is not valid as well, Posen was majority Polish so why on the map it is not called Poznan? Again, inconsistency. German and Russian imperialism was equally harsh and should be portrayed accurately.
About Kalisz: Poznan is and always was the heart of Poland, try to tell them they are German, they had their Polish speaking units in the German Army that the Germans officers
had to tolerate (5th Army Corps: 9 & 10 Infantry Divisions from Glogow and Poznan respectively), they even started an upraising just after the ww1, Polish patriots. Tell me why the German name for that city is used on the map?! It shouldn’t be according to your logic.
About Kronstadt:
Russian names should be translations from the Russian language into Latin (the only exception on the map that I understand (the motivation behind) is known capitals (even if not capitals at the time) that use their English names eg. WARSAW, PRAGUE, MOSCOW). The name is derived from German Kronstadt (literally ’crown city’) and it was founded by Peter the Great, and we agree it was at the time and Russian city in Russian empire and Peter the Great was Russian tzar. So why it shouldn’t use the correct name from that period? It was only derived from the German language, it didnt use the German verison of its name. Why shouldn’t it use the version from the maps from that period? If you are saying we should use the German versions of the names for Russian owned cities at the time then Kalisz should be Kalisch and Luniniets should be Luninietz.
Doesn’t hurt to be as accurate as possible. Good luck with it all.
Cyril Methodius
Correctly using foreign names especially when mixed with historical accuracy is perilous at best. You will never please everyone. Number one, pick a rule set and stick with it, consistency. Its being printed in English so using the Latin alphabet makes sense in many ways. It is nice to be historically accurate but avoid confusion too. Vienna=Wien was startling to me when I traveled there. I know there are conventions for translating names from languages such as Arabic or Chinese to English, but that doesn’t seem to apply here.
I would try and be historically consistent so that if someone was reading the applicable books about the campaigns they could use the game maps to follow along. Might not work in this case, but I would use the names as they were in July 1914, and most of use will butcher the pronunciation of any spelling anyway.
Just use the names from the historical period. I’m not asking for names in Cyrillic, not sure where is everyone getting this impression from? Names are easy to find on the maps from the period, the West Point Atlas in this case is confusing at best. In a way it gives the false impression that russification and, to lesser degree, germanisation was a mild process, when indeed Russification was very aggressive, you can read about it in the latest book by Nick Lloyd (eg. how Lemberg was treated after capture by the Russians). There is an educational value in getting the names right on the map.
My take is to use the official names used at the time by the states that owned those places, for greater historical accuracy and immersion, so if the Russian Empire used the Russian versions of Polish cities, then you should be using those, Austria-Hungary used the Polish name for Przemysl so that is fine. We do talk of Kiev and Stalino during WW2, not Kyiv and Donetsk, after all.
As for St. Petersburg v. Petrograd, I would go with Petrograd, the name was changed just a few months into the war and stayed that way for most of it, plus Petrograd is the iconic WW1 name.
By the way, this approach shouldn’t just be limited to Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia area. Italian, Serbian, Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian and Turkish spaces should have their own local official names as well (unless they’re too “weird” and uncommon, like Bangkok’s official name): I’m talking of spaces such as Venice, Padua, Vienna, Belgrade, Athens, Bucharest, Constantinople, Moscow should all have their official local names (so Venezia, Padova, Wien, Beograd, Athina, Bucuresti, Konstantinyye, Moskva.
This gives much greater immersion, it’ll help players feel like they’re actually commanding armies in those places, not writing pieces for the New York Times.
There have been a lot of name changes since 1914, many of them political and contentious and remain so until this day!
I remember when I was in Kosovo in 2001 and NATO printed all place names were in duplicate; Serbian/Albanian. I was in Peja /Peć – one name offensive to Albanians, the other offensive to Serbs.
You could use the historical 1914 place names according as per US records – as that is a matter of historical fact and is a consistent methodology in terms of design choice.
I think you run into trouble using mixed methdology and names from different eras.
The list of the changes is slightly extended now and updates were made (based on historical maps from the period) for more historical accuracy and consistency. Especially Austro-Hungarian names suggestions changed based on some research. The author is aware of it. This map by West Point is confusingly mixing pre ww1 and pre ww2 world geo-political and demographic situation.