Military Review English Edition November-December 2015 | Page 10

(Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko, Associated Press)

Ukraine’s opposition leader, Viktor Yushchenko, addresses a crowd of more than ten thousand people 22 November 2004 in Kiev’s
Independence Square, accusing government officials of falsifying election results. Yushchenko's followers adopted the color orange as
a symbol of the mass movement opposing the legitimacy of the elected government. The use of bright colors as a symbol of rebellion
by other popular movements employing civil disobedience as a principal tactic gave rise to the term “color revolution.”

The Urban Individual

Unassailable Source of Power
in Twenty-First Century Armed
Conflicts
1st Place, 2015 DePuy Contest Winner

Lt. Col. Erik A. Claessen, Belgian Army

A

fter the battle of Borodino in September 1812,
Napoleon marched on Moscow. In this time
of crisis, most generals urged Field Marshal
Mikhail Kutuzov to defend the city at all cost. Kutuzov
refused because “the very act of giving up Moscow will
prepare us to defeat our enemy. As long as the army
exists and is capable of resisting the enemy, we are safe in
8

the hope that the war will conclude happily; but when
the army is destroyed, Moscow and Russia will perish.
I order the retreat!”1 Upon that command, the citizens
evacuated the city and set it on fire.
War is an act of violence to compel the enemy to do
our will by rendering the enemy powerless.2 Therefore,
the sources of power are of the utmost importance. Every
November-December 2015  MILITARY REVIEW