“Russian army, non-Russians, non-Slavs, non-Orthodox: the risky construction of a multiethnic army. Russia, USSR”

Abstract

Why examine the non-Orthodox, non-Russian, non-Slav soldiers in the Russian and Soviet army from a historical perspective? In what way did non-Russians have a specific relationship with the Imperial and Soviet Army and how did the military institution maintain a specific relationship with these recruits? Who may be defined as non-Russian, non-Slav or non-Orthodox, when they were all subjects of the Tsar or Soviet citizens? This categorisation is an unsatisfactory classification by default, be...