Wow, Kelly, long time! Aren't you amazed that we're still here? How are things with you?
It seems that here, as in the mid-80s of your home world, the internet has yet to find it's way to a public network. On top of that, although you see stores selling music CDs, the Beatles album your dad gave you is a vinyl LP.
You find yourself a library and research the Crimean War:
The Crimean War began in October 1853 and was basically a land grab by the major European powers for the territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. It was all started by Napoleon III bullying and bribing the Ottoman's into accepting France to the be the sovereign authority over the Holy Land. However Russia has treaties in the late 1700s stating that they were the protectors of the Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire. Britain joined forces with France to prevent Russian expansion. The war is where Florence Nightengale revolutionized the practice of nursing, and is known for the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade.
English forces ejected the Russians from their last toehold on the peninsula in 1975. It was seen as a major triumph against overwhelming odds. However, a state of deadlock has been maintained since those days and the country’s mood was summed up recently by Sir Gordon Duff-Rolecks at an anti-war rally in Trafalgar Square.
"What began as an excuse to curb Russia’s expansionism in 1854, has collapsed over the years into nothing more than an exercise to maintain the nation’s pride…there can be little doubt that the Czar Romanov Alexei IV does have overwhelming rights to sovereignty of the peninsula and I for one look forward to the day when we can withdraw our troops from what can only be described as an incalculable waste of human life and resources.”
You read your book. The guy who sold it to you said it was a first edition. It has no dust jacket and looks dark and old. The title, "The Tragic Historie of Doctor Faustas", and author, C. Marlowe is pressed into the cover in faded gold lettering. The paper is yellowed and quite thick, with typed lettering, in English. It is a play about a man (Dr. Faustus) who sells his soul to a devil (Mephistopheles) for power and knowledge. It is fairly short, only 1485 lines.
You are unable to Google your own name but you do have a librarian on staff at the library.
