Boredom in Military History

Abstract

The quotation is taken from an article on how Russian Roulette was invented in the trenches during the Russian–Turkish Wars in the late nineteenth century. The article claims that it resulted from a combination of acute boredom and military inactivity, often ‘aggravated by unreasonable consumption of vodka’. Boredom may of course express itself in less desperate forms. It seems, however, to have accompanied military life and military operations throughout history.

Smith & Wesson (revolver) was the father. Boredom was the mother. What kind of offspring you would expect from such parents? But that’s how the game was born: the man gambled with death and his life was his only stake.

(Edge and Cup, undated)