Tsarist Officers Research Articles

Researching Chinese History in Russia: A Guide to Archives in Moscow and St. Petersburg

It is already a cliché that the fall of the Soviet Union is providing an archival bonanza to historians. Naturally most attention is on sensational revelations from previously-inaccessible collections about Russia's own past. Yet those interested in other nations can also profit from the new openness of Moscow's and St. Petersburg's archives. This is particularly true for specialists in nineteenth-century Chinese history: Tsarist diplomats, officers and geographers actively studied their Asian neighbour, and their documents provide a fascinating perspective on the latter years of the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, the years before 1917 mark the golden age of Russian Sinology. While their accomplishments are largely ignored in the West, St. Petersburg's Orientalists produced much original and important work.

The Tsarist Officer Corps, 1881-1914: Customs, Duties, Inefficiency

Two BEST-SELLING NOVELS OF RUSSIAN MILITARY LIFE illustrate the problem: in the years before World War I, tsarist officers sustained patterns behavior incompatible with their military mission. The publication Aleksandr Kuprin's Poedinok (The Duel) in May 1905 caused a literary and political sensation. Kuprin drew an unrelievedly bleak picture the lives tsarist officers in a small provincial garrison in the 1890s. Almost without exception, the officers in the novel are given to bouts solitary or collective drunkenness, and each has, in addition, his own personal vice. One cheats at cards, another despoils teenaged girls, others steal from their men or from company funds. All are bored to death (literally in some cases) military service, but they lack the talent to earn an honest civilian living and hold civilians in contempt. Only the fear disgrace at the annual review rouses them from cynical indifference to their vocation: in the weeks preceding they beat their men (again literally) into a suitable parade-ground semblance military efficiency. Apart from the review, only drink, cards, scandal, and violence punctuate the tedium the officers' lives. Appearing as it did in the midst the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 revolution, The Duel was read as an explanation the recent failures the tsarist army and a radical critique the principal institution propping up the tsarist regime-an indictment, as one reviewer put it, of the existing order things, bureaucratic [that is, autocratic] carrion. By the end the year, more than forty thousand copies had been sold.' The Duel fortuitously addressed the two great issues the day. Kuprin had begun work on the novel in 1902, before either war or revolution, and it was as much a literary reworking his own, obviously unhappy, military experience as a social expose. Kuprin had served as a junior officer in just such a provincial garrison as that in which The Duel was set, and his familiarity with military life lent force to his characterizations the tsarist officer corps. Although Kuprin's

The Tsarist Officer Corps, 1881-1914: Customs, Duties, Inefficiency

Two BEST-SELLING NOVELS OF RUSSIAN MILITARY LIFE illustrate the problem: in the years before World War I, tsarist officers sustained patterns of behavior incompatible with their military mission. The publication of Aleksandr Kuprin's Poedinok (The Duel) in May 1905 caused a literary and political sensation. Kuprin drew an unrelievedly bleak picture of the lives of tsarist officers in a small provincial garrison in the 1890s. Almost without exception, the officers in the novel are given to bouts of solitary or collective drunkenness, and each has, in addition, his own personal vice. One cheats at cards, another despoils teenaged girls, others steal from their men or from company funds. All are bored to death (literally in some cases) of military service, but they lack the talent to earn an honest civilian living and hold civilians in contempt. Only the fear of disgrace at the annual review rouses them from cynical indifference to their vocation: in the weeks preceding they beat their men (again literally) into a suitable parade-ground semblance of military efficiency. Apart from the review, only drink, cards, scandal, and violence punctuate the tedium of the officers' lives. Appearing as it did in the midst of the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 revolution, The Duel was read as an explanation of the recent failures of the tsarist army and a radical critique of the principal institution propping up the tsarist regime-an indictment, as one reviewer put it, "of the existing order of things," of "bureaucratic [that is, autocratic] carrion." By the end of the year, more than forty thousand copies had been sold.' The Duel fortuitously addressed the two great issues of the day. Kuprin had begun work on the novel in 1902, before either war or revolution, and it was as much a literary reworking of his own, obviously unhappy, military experience as a social expose. Kuprin had served as a junior officer in just such a provincial garrison as that in which The Duel was set, and his familiarity with military life lent force to his characterizations of the tsarist officer corps. Although Kuprin's

The Tsarist Officer Corps, 1881–1914: Customs, Duties, Inefficiency

The Tsarist Officer Corps, 1881–1914: Customs, Duties, Inefficiency

The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872-1916.

The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872-1916.

Anton I. Denikin. The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872–1916. An annotated translation from the Russian by Margaret Patoski. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1975. Pp. xxii, 333. $17.95

Anton I. Denikin. <italic>The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872–1916</italic>. An annotated translation from the Russian by Margaret Patoski. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1975. Pp. xxii, 333. $17.95

The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872-1916

The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872-1916

The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872-1916

The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872-1916

The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872–1916

The Career of a Tsarist Officer: Memoirs, 1872–1916

Party Controls in the Soviet Army

One of major and most immediate tasks of a totalitarian state is to establish an efficient system of coercion and self-defense. At same time due regard must be paid towards ensuring loyalty of such machinery to state itself. The Soviet Army was thus created, in words of one of its founders, to meet the requirements of self-defence of working class, which had taken power into its own hands.' Its duty was to serve and defend new proletarian state.2 To do this effectively its loyalty to cause of proletariat and to proletarian state must be unimpeachable. Hence a complex and penetrating system of political controls in Soviet Army had to be developed. One rather obvious method of ensuring loyalty of Army was to fill its ranks with loyal and trustworthy personnel. This naturally meant members of Communist Party. In early years Party leadership, when faced with prospect of defeat of Revolution, was forced to accept services of a great number of former Tsarist officers in order to provide revolutionary forces with qualified professional leadership. Following successful conclusion of hostilities, efforts were made to replace them with trained Communist commanders. Thus, by 1927, despite initial difficulties which for a while led to a sharp decline in number of Communists in Red Army, six War Colleges and forty-four officer training schools had been established, and Party members among commanding personnel began to outnumber non-Party commanding personnel.3 In terms of social origin, 22.4 per cent were workers