The Military History of Tsarist Russia by Frederick W. s> Kagan Robin Higham The Military History of the Soviet Union by Robin s> Higham Frederick W. Kagan (review)

Abstract

754 SEER, 82, 3, 2004 earliestarchivesand librariesof the region, the second the territoriesand their peoples. The book is divided into topical sections: six essays on books and libraries (book exchanges between Estonia and German from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries;printingin Reval in the I700s;the cathedrallibraryin Reval; the church library in Narva; Nikolaus Specht's donations to the Estonian national library;private librariesin Latvia);a miscellaneous group on Reval, the postal system,and connections to the Germansin Transylvania; three essays on cultural exchange with the Latvian and Estonian peoples (Gotthard Friedrich Stender and the development of the Latvian written language;Herder'scollection of Latvianfolksongsin I777-78; religioussongs in Estonian culture);seven on literaryfigures(BalthasarRussow;two on Paul Fleming; Reiner Brockmann; Henricus Stahell/Heinrich Stahl; Johannes Gutslaff);fouron Enlightenmentfiguresandthe nationalawakenings(Johann Georg Eisen; Friedrich Konrad Gadebusch; Johann Friedrichvon Recke, KarlEduardvon Napiersky;Johann VoldemarJannsen,Johann Kohler, Carl RobertJakobson andJakob Hurt);and two on the transitioninto the modern era (theliterarypicture of the Baltic to the end of the Romantic era;forms of memory in German Baltliterature). The qualityof the workis uniformlyhigh and the styleajoy to read. Monmouth College, Illinois WILLIAM URBAN Kagan, FrederickW. and Higham, Robin (eds). TheMilitay Histogy of Tsarist Russia.Palgrave, New York and Basingstoke, 2002. Vi + 266 pp. Maps. Bibliographies.Index. ?37.50. Higham, Robin and Kagan, FrederickW. (eds). TheMilitagy Histoy oftheSoviet Union.Palgrave,New Yorkand Basingstoke,2002. viii + 328 pp. Maps. Bibliographies.Index. ?37.50. As William Odom opines in the final chapter of these studies, the Russian militaryhas always occupied a central place in the Russian and Soviet state. However, despite an extensive literatureon differentperiods and aspects of Russia's military history, synthetic accounts covering the complete chronological spanarefew;thistwo-volume, end-loadedsurveyis thereforewelcome. Its twenty authors are almost all American (the exception isJohn Erickson), most well published (one has written 'overfiftybooks', but his contributionis serious nevertheless), and all either academics or attached to military institutions.Their goal, to cover the period 1453-2000 in some 6oo pages, is a tall order, especially as contributors were asked to consider battle and institutional history, infrastructuraldevelopment and doctrine, as well as 'strategyand structure,means and ends, the internationalmilieu, the armed forces and society, recruiting and training of officers and men, and [... .] procurementand the invisibleinfrastructure'(Soviet Union, p. I 0). Nevertheless the attempt is broadly successful,providing a valuable overview of historical fact togetherwith contextual analysisand interpretation.The formatadopted is somewhat unusual:notes are dispensedwith in favour of FurtherReading, but the authorswere also invited to identify areas requiringfurtherresearch. REVIEWS 755 Their suggestions range from the perfunctory (and nothing at all for the ImperialNavy and SovietAirForce)to the extensiveand detailed;thereseems atleastto be consensusthatthe new accessibilityof Russianarchiveswillbring radical revisions -only one contribution claims overtly to be based on archival sources. The firstvolume offerstwelve chapters, focused on specific wars or periods, in chronological order, starting with Muscovite military power I453- I613, including consideration of the Russian navy I696- I900, and concluding with F. Kagan's rumination on 'Russia's Geopolitical Dilemma and the Question of Backwardness'.The second, Soviet volume contains sixteen chapters, which include treatment of major wars (three chapterson the 'GreatPatrioticWar'and its antecedents)but alsorangemore widely, individual chapters focusing too on ideology, military doctrine, industrial development, as well as most military branches: navy, air force, rocket and special forces, besides the army as such. The book ends with William Odom's discussion of 'The Military and the State: Contemporary Russiain HistoricalPerspective'.This broadcoveragecatersto most concerns. Of particularinterestto thisrevieweris FrederickKagan's development of his revisionist thesis on Russia's nineteenth-century military situation: whereas before I8I5 Russia could distance herselfif necessaryfrom events elsewhere in Europe, thereafter she was unavoidably involved in them, a geopolitical situation leading ineluctably to overstretch on her far-flungborders and to insuccess against increasinglypowerful neighbours.This attractiveargument requiresfurtheranalysisof the accompanying economic and political context; nevertheless David Jones offers a rather positive assessment not only of the Russianperformancein WorldWarI, but also of Nicholas I's partin it. Some areas, inevitably, are weaker than others. The editors should think more critically about tired analytical categories such as 'backwardness','Westernizer ' or 'Slavophile'. Twelve maps are far too few for half a millennium of warfare. The social history of...