Autocracy Defeats Military Reform on Eve of First World War

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-157
Author(s):  
Mark von Hagen
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
World War ◽  
General Staff ◽  
Military Reform ◽  
German Model ◽  
History Of ◽  
Family Connections ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
First World ◽  
Industrial Revolutions

AbstractSteinberg reconstructs the history of the Russian Imperial General Staff during the final decades of the autocracy and highlights the reformist vision of War Minister Alexei Kuropatkin. The aim of the reformers was to create a general staff on the Prussian/German model that would allow Russia to fight the new wars of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, wars marked by increasingly large conscript armies and the application of ever more lethal weaponry made possible by Europe's industrial revolutions. The reforms also focused on officer education and aimed at creating leadership for the management and coordination of the troops in wartime. Unfortunately for Russia, these reforms foundered on the resistance of the autocrat himself and the structure of privilege that gave family connections and noble privilege power over merit and competence. They also met resistance from an older tradition of military leadership and education that favored elan over technical expertise with modern weaponry. The first test against a modern enemy during the Russo-Japanese War ended in humiliating defeat and the marginalization of the General Staff Academy by Nicholas II and his entourage, save for his uncle, the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. Even with the Grand Duke's encouragement of the reformers, what they could accomplish was too little and too late for the next large confrontation that sealed the fate of the Russian Empire, World War I.

scholarly journals During the first World War Germany and Austria –Hungary prisoners of the Aulie Ata county

2020 ◽  
pp. 83-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Apendiyev
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Living Will ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
First World War ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
First World

The First World War was the largest event in the history of mankind, which had a significant impact on the fate of many peoples, including states. One of the main factors was the capture of troops and individuals on the front of the war between warring states and the flight of soldiers as a result of the war. During the war, neighboring states, political allies captured each other's armies and citizens. The capture of citizens of each other took place between the Entente and the central powers. The Russian Empire, which was part of the Entente and was considered the main participant in the war, detained people from the central powers. Citizens of the central powers captured during the war were sent to all regions of the Russian Empire, which also extended to the steppe and Turkestan provinces. Based on this, the Turkestan Territory was considered one of the key regions of the Russian Empire, in which Europeans were accepted. In the era of the empire, European prisoners lived in the Aulie ata district of the Turkestan governor general in the SyrDarya region. Representatives of European nationality have lived in the region since the end of the nineteenth century, and this continued during the years of the First World War. During World War I, the Aulie atа district was considered one of the districts where European prisoners and refugees were received. Although the number of prisoners of war from the central powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary) in the Ayulie atа district is small, traces of political prisoners of war still remain from these states. The article discusses the history of prisoners of war deported to Aulie ata district during the war years. The socio-political status of the citizens of Germany and Austria-Hungary who arrived in Aulie atа County, their life is studied. The nationality and surname of the captives will be determined, and their standard of living will be determined.

scholarly journals DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR GERMANY AND AUSTRIA – HUNGARY PRISONERS OF THE AULIEATA COUNTY

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (383) ◽  
pp. 218-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Apendiyev T.А. ◽  
Abdukadyrov N.М.
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Living Will ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
First World War ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
First World

The First World War was the largest event in the history of mankind, which had a significant impact on the fate of many peoples, including states. One of the main factors was the capture of troops and individuals on the front of the war between warring states and the flight of soldiers as a result of the war. During the war, neighboring states, political allies captured each other's armies and citizens. The capture of citizens of each other took place between the Entente and the central powers. The Russian Empire, which was part of the Entente and was considered the main participant in the war, detained people from the central powers. Citizens of the central powers captured during the war were sent to all regions of the Russian Empire, which also extended to the steppe and Turkestan provinces. Based on this, the Turkestan Territory was considered one of the key regions of the Russian Empire, in which Europeans were accepted. In the era of the empire, European prisoners lived in the Aulieata district of the Turkestan governor general in the SyrDarya region. Representatives of European nationality have lived in the region since the end of the nineteenth century, and this continued during the years of the First World War. During World War I, the Aulieatа district was considered one of the districts where European prisoners and refugees were received. Although the number of prisoners of war from the central powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary) in the Aulieatа district is small, traces of political prisoners of war still remain from these states. The article discusses the history of prisoners of war deported to Aulieata district during the war years. The socio-political status of the citizens of Germany and Austria-Hungary who arrived in Aulieatа County, their life is studied. The nationality and surname of the captives will be determined, and their standard of living will be determined.

scholarly journals Manufacturing Germans: Singer Manufacturing Company and American Capitalism in the Russian Imagination during World War I

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
BENJAMIN SAWYER
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Business Model ◽  
International Business ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of Capitalism ◽  
American Capitalism ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Affiliation ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The Russian Empire

Just months after the outbreak of World War I, rumors spread throughout the Russian Empire that Singer Manufacturing Company’s wholly owned Russian subsidiary, Kompaniia Zinger, was a German company that was actively engaged in espionage on behalf of the German military. Even though these rumors were untrue, they unleashed a wave of actions against the company that Singer’s officials were unable to stop, ultimately leading to tremendous losses for the firm. The central argument of this article is that the power of the accusations of Singer’s German ties rested far more on the nature of the company’s business model than on the national affiliation of its personnel or evidence of espionage. In the context of World War I–era Russia, many Russians took Singer’s operations not as those of an international capitalist enterprise, but rather as evidence of the company’s questionable foreign character. This perspective helps us to understand why Singer’s management had such difficulty shaking the accusations of its German ties; if what was suspicious about the company was the very foundation of its business model, then its continued operation meant that it necessarily exhibited characteristics that reinforced the basis for said suspicion. These findings have implications for international business history, the history of late-Tsarist Russia, and the history of capitalism.

scholarly journals Rights and obligations of prisoners of war in the World War I and their observance in Lebedyn District of Kharkiv Province

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-14
Author(s):  
N.V. Lobko
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
World War ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Archives ◽  
The Russian Empire

History of World War I that due to its global consequences started a new stage of development of European civilization still draws attention of many researchers. One of the most interesting topics for researchers is the topic of war imprisonment during the World War I. Stay of prisoners of war in the territory of Ukraine is a scantily studied issue. The objects of this study are prisoners of war who were in Lebedyn district of Kharkiv province during the World War I (1914–1918). The subject of the research is the legal status of prisoners of war, the protection of their rights and the observance of their duties. The author analyzed norms of international law and Russian legislation for regulation conditions of war imprisonment during the period of war. Using materials of Lebedyn District of Kharkiv Province, being deposited in the archives of Sumy Region, the author examines the legal status of prisoners of war, the protection of their rights and the observance of their duties. The position of prisoners of war during the World War I on Ukrainian lands as part of the Russian Empire was determined by the norms of international law and Russian legislation for regulation conditions of war imprisonment during the period of war. Using the archival sources kept in funds of the State Archives of Sumy Region, it was found that the rights of prisoners of war were generally ensured on the territory of the Lebedyn District of Kharkiv Province. However, there were not a few cases when Austrian and German prisoners suffered from hunger, domestic inconvenience and abuse by employers. There were also repeated violations of their duties by prisoners of war. The most common violations were refusal to work, leaving the workplace.

scholarly journals Spanish Flu and the End of World War I in Southern Iranfrom 1917–1920

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-83
Author(s):  
Seyyed Alireza Golshani ◽  
Mohammad Ebrahim Zohalinezhad ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Taghrir ◽  
Sedigheh Ghasempoor ◽  
Alireza Salehi
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Southern Iran ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spanish Flu ◽  
First World

The Spanish Flu was one of the disasters in the history of Iran, especially Southern Iran, which led to the death of a significant number of people in Iran. It started on October 29, 1917, and lasted till 1920 – a disaster that we can claim changed the history. In one of the First World War battlefields in southern Iran in 1918, there was nothing left until the end of World War I and when the battle between Iranian warriors (especially people of Dashtestan and Tangestan in Bushehr, Arabs, and people of Bakhtiari in Khuzestan and people of Kazerun and Qashqai in Fars) and British forces had reached its peak. As each second encouraged the triumph for the Iranians, a flu outbreak among Iranian warriors led to many deaths and, as a result, military withdrawal. The flu outbreak in Kazerun, Firoozabad, Farshband, Abadeh, and even in Shiraz changed the end of the war. In this article, we attempt to discuss the role of the Spanish flu outbreak at the end of one of the forefronts of World War I.

scholarly journals “Most of Them are Honourable”. Luigi Villari and the Armenians during the 1905-1906 Armenian-Tatar War

2021 ◽  
pp. 257-273
Author(s):  
Aldo Ferrari
Keyword(s):  
Russian Empire ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Popular Language ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
First World

Luigi Villari’s book Fire and Sword in the Caucasus, published in London in 1906, is widely quoted by scholars working on the history of Transcaucasia, in particular in respect to the Armenian-Tatar war. Yet neither this text nor its author have been so far studied in detail. The Italian Luigi Villari (1876-1959) is a figure of considerable interest; he was a diplomat, traveler, and journalist. His father, Pasquale Villari (1827-1917), was an accomplished historian and politician who played an important role in nineteenth-century Italy; Villari’s mother was the British writer Linda White (1836-1915). It is remarkable that the author wrote a book an English at a time when this was not a popular language in Italy. He wrote extensively both in English and Italian about different topics, mainly related to history and international politics. It has been shown that, after the First World War, Villari joined Fascism and contributed actively to the regime’s propaganda in Great Britain. The present paper examines Luigi Villari’s book on the Caucasus, especially the author’s attitude towards the Armenians. I shall demonstrate that in his work, he handles negative stereotypes of the Armenians (“one of the most unpopular races of the East”), which were common in the Russian empire at the beginning of the twentieth century, in a rather interesting way.

The Lost Sanjaq

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Nicolaus
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
World War ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sacred Image ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
East Anatolia ◽  
Detailed Picture

AbstractThe seven sanjaqs, or sacred images of Malak Tawus, are the most concrete expression of Yezidism and considered the holiest of the holy ritual objects of that religion. Only a handful of non-Yezidis have ever seen one, and very little is known about them. The latter holds, in particular, true with regard to the so-called Moskovi-sanjaq. Before World War I it was sent to the Russian Empire (East Anatolia and the Transcaucasus) every year, but was reported lost in 1914.Based on numerous interviews with Yezidis in Armenia, as well as on official correspondence between British, Iraqi, and Soviet authorities, the first part of the article reconstructs the odyssey of the Moskovi-sanjaq and the seven priests (qewwals) carrying it. It confirms that after 16 years of wandering through the Transcaucasus, five of the seven qewwals were eventually able to return via Odessa and London to the Yezidi heartland in Northern Iraq, but concludes that the Moskovi-sanjaq was ultimately lost in Georgia—confiscated by the Soviet authorities.The second part of the paper describes the history of a second sanjaq, which the author discovered in a village near Yerevan, secretly kept and protected from the prying eyes of non-Yezidis by a sheikhly family. Although all tales and myths, explaining how this second sanjaq arrived in Armenia, are examined and analysed, the origin of that sacred image remains mysterious. The article further paints a detailed picture of the cult, which evolved around the sacred image in Armenia as well as of the—sometimes savage—fights over its possession and the struggle of the keepers of the sanjaq with the Soviet authorities. In addition to interviews with eyewitnesses, the author bases his findings on court decisions and minutes of the councils of Yezidi elders, as well as information found at Yezidi graveyards.

scholarly journals The history of legal regulation of metallic monetary systems in Russia

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-179
Author(s):  
L. L. Arzumanova ◽  
A. O. Logvencheva
Keyword(s):  
Precious Metals ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
World War ◽  
Paper Money ◽  
Monetary Systems ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
First World ◽  
Bank Notes

The article presents a study of the history of the use of precious metals as the basis of metal monetary systems in Russia.The formation of metal monetary systems in Russia is associated with the need to ensure the release of paper money — notes. In the first part of the article, the use of precious metals for minting coins from the Х century is investigated. before the introduction of bank notes in 1768.Further, after analyzing the primary measures for providing bank notes with precious metals, it is substantiated that in the Russian Empire the regulatory consolidation of the transition to metal monetary systems occurred only in the ХIХ century. According to the results of the reforms: E. F. Kankrin, during which silver monometallism was established, then — S. Yu. Witte, in the framework of which the transition to the gold standard, which existed before the First World War in 1914, was carried out.

scholarly journals The centenary of World War I in Serbia: A war of monuments

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-149
Author(s):  
Alexey Y. Timofeev
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Republika Srpska ◽  
Memorial Sites ◽  
The Military ◽  
First World

The anniversary of the First World War in Serbia has become an oc-casion for exacerbating public discussion and drawing attention to the rise of revisionism in NATO countries. Fear of a revision of the history of World War I infl uenced Serbian society and elites on the eve of the centenary. The concerned Serb elites responded with a wide range of events organized in Serbia and Republika Srpska. Within the framework of the commemorative events dedicated to the anniversary, monuments, installed and restored by the Serbian authorities and their foreign part-ners, have received special signifi cance. These were monuments to the Serbian patriot G. Princip, to the famous Iron Regiment, to the woman volunteer-soldier Milunka Savic. They are traditional fi gures of the Ser-bian memory of the First World War. At the same time, Serbian authori-ties did not succeed in their attempt to perpetuate in monumental forms the head of the Serbian military intelligence D. Dimitrievic-Apis, the leader of the Serbian nationalist organization Black Hand, which patron-ized the Mlada Bosna organization that prepared the assassination on Franz Ferdinand. The Russian-Serbian monuments of the First World War in Serbia presenting Nicholas II and the military brotherhood of the two peoples were of special signifi cance. All new monuments have become memorial sites and at the same time attractive points for vari-ous political forces expressing their sympathies and antipathies through symbolic gestures towards them.

scholarly journals Islam in Global History

2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-134
Author(s):  
Niaz Erfan
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Global History ◽  
World War ◽  
Islamic History ◽  
Ibn Khaldun ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Last Two Millennia ◽  
First World

Islam in Global History, written in two volumes covering the period fromthe death of the Holy Prophet to the First World War, has the distinction ofbeing a book on history and the philosophy of history. This is because, as thereader discovers, it is not merely a chronicle of events of the Muslim worldfrom the advent of Islam to the end of the World War I; it is a book whichprovides insights into the causes of the victories and defeats of dynasties aswell as successes and failures of movements in Islamic history, and laysdown the laws for the rise and fall of civilizations.Certainly, he is not the first in the field of the philosophy of history. Thetwo stalwarts who made original and remarkable contributions in this fieldduring the last two millennia are Ibn Khaldun and Arnold Toynbee. Thebooks in which they propounded their theories of the interpretation of historyare not books on history as such. Historical data were, no doubt, usedand analyzed to substantiate their theses. lbn Khaldun proved his conceptof asabiyah (social group cohesion) in the context of the history of theArabs and the Berbers, which he was to write subsequently. Toynbee usedthe data from world history to prove his idea of "Challenge and Response"to be the detennining factor in the strength and decay of civilizations andsocieties. It is to the author's credit that such a comprehensive and coherentwork on Islamic history has been produced. At each critical stage hediagnosed the causes of the major events that went into making watershedsand turning points in Muslim history worldwide.Dr. Ahmed is an eclectic writer who has partially benefited from theconcepts of the interpretation of history expounded by lbn Khaldun andToynbee. For example, he agrees with lbn Khaldun when he says:The origins of the Ottoman Empire are to be found in a combination ofTurkish 'asabiyah, a term used by lbn Kha Idun to denote tribal cohesion,the force that holds together tribes through bonds of blood, a characteristicfound in abundance among peoples of the desert and the nomads offthe steppes.He concurs with Toynbee when he writes:Great civilizations measure up to their challenges and grow more resili entwith each crisis, turning adversity into opportunjty. Critical moments in ...

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