User:White Guard

During my time with Wikipedia I have prefered to remain strictly anonymous; so this page never turned from Red to Blue. As a last act, and for the sake of MartinDK, and for no other reason, I supply a little, just a little, biographical information for the historical record. My user name, first of all, comes from the novel The White Guard by the great Mikhail Bulgakov. It has nothing to do with my politics, my racial preferences or any other consideration of the kind. I have degrees in history, including a PhD in German history, and have published extensively on various historical topics, monographs, articles and academic papers. English is my native language, but I also speak German, Spanish and French with a reasonable degree of fluency, and read and understand Russian with some competence. I can also read Latin and Ancient Greek. My politics are conservative, but of a moderate variety, and I hate extremism of all kinds, which I have done my best while here to fight. I do not suffer fools gladly which, I think, is probably my chief failing. There is too much on Wikipedia which is both extreme and foolish. I would like to thank all those who have helped and understood, and I wish enlightenment to all the rest. Farewell. White Guard 22:50, 19 October 2006 (UTC)