Born in Sumy, Ukraine, in 1805, Modest Ivanovich Bogdanovich was initially educated in the Noble Regiment, being commissioned into the artillery in 1823. Bogdanovich saw combat in the Polish campaign of 1831 and, upon his return in 1833, he entered the Imperial Military Academy, becoming its Director of Operations until 1839. Thereafter, he served on committees of the General Staff. He died in August, 1882 in Oranienbaum. General Bogdanovich is famed for a number of major works, making an invaluable contribution to Russian military historiography. His History of the Patriotic War of 1812 won the Demidov Prize for History in 1861.
Peter G.A. Phillips is a retired soldier and civil servant who worked for 27 years in the British Army Intelligence Corps (in Germany, the Falkland Islands, Northern Ireland, Hong Kong, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan), including working as a Russian, German, and Serbo-Croat linguist, before working for five years as part of a Civil Service team training UK military personnel to serve in diplomatic missions world-wide. He has been translating Russian military histories of the Coalition Wars since December 2019, initially as a hobby, having been encouraged by renowned Napoleonic historian Dr Alexander Mikaberidze following a chance encounter on social media. He now lives in the Philippines with his Filipina wife of 33 years. They have two adult daughters.
