scholarly journals The Battle of Preussisch-Eylau: The Fate of Trophy French Flags (1807)

2019 ◽  
pp. 583-594
Author(s):  
Vadim V. Kinshin
Keyword(s):  
Military History ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Reliable Information ◽  
Complete Disappearance ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Temporary Storage ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Preservation And Restoration ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The Military

The article presents results of the study of the fate of Napoleon’s army flags taken by Russian troops in the bloody battle of Preussisch-Eylau on January 26-27, 1807. These trophies were considered especially valuable in the Russian Empire. As the eternal symbol of the glory of the Russian arms, they were placed in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg on February 3, 1807. However, from October 1812 they were thought to have been transferred to an unknown location and fate. Lack of reliable information, confirmed by archival documents, gave birth to several unreasonable inferences and hypotheses. Although the very possibility of a complete disappearance of valuable trophies is dubious, the issue has remained unstudied. The article is to establish the fate of the trophy flags. The study of scholarship on the Russian Imperial army, memories of the participants in the battle and regimental histories allow to establish the circumstances of the French flags capture and their exact number, while Kammerfurier journals provide information on their delivery to the cathedral. Documents found in the archives have illuminated the fate that befell these flags. Contrary to conventional belief, six trophy flags were brought to the capital with an escort of two platoons of the Horse Guards Regiment. It has been established that the Preussisch-Eylau trophies had not been transferred from the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1812, but remained there until October 1906. As careful preservation and restoration was then needed, they were transferred to the Museum of Artillery History for temporary storage, until the Military History Museum was built. In March 1918, together with other museum valuables, they were evacuated to Yaroslavl, where four were burned during the suppression of the White Guard uprising. The vestiges of the remaining two were transferred to the State Hermitage Museum in 1948.

PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN OF UKRAINE IN MILITARY FORMATIONS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR: CURRENT HISTORIOGRAPHY

2019 ◽  
pp. 46-52
Author(s):  
Mariia Huk
Keyword(s):  
Military History ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The Military ◽  
First World ◽  
The Way

The article is focuses on the study of the issues of participation of women of Ukraine in military formations in the First World War by modern Ukrainian historiography (1991-2016). Based on the topic, the author tried to solve the following research tasks: to identify which aspects of women's military history are within the interest of historians, to analyze the scale, character and level of research of the topic. The author found that the study of women's military history is gaining momentum. Historians are actively searching women's stories in the sources of those times; they are in the process of gathering information. They call military history “personal” because research on the subject is partially based on reports of the press about women volunteers and mainly on participants' personal documents, memoirs and letters. In the letters, women wrote about the way to the front, military life, a little about participation in battles, relations with soldiers; they also left information about each other. At the same time, each of the women had personal experience of war, own motives and results. Therefore, historians concluded that "this experience is quite difficult to summarize ". Modern researchers approach the study of women's stories not only in terms of heroism but trying to understand the causes and consequences of women's actions. The authors mention such main reasons as boredom of everyday life, escape from duties and national impulse. Inspired by the new fashionable views on life, the girls tried to escape from their everyday duties; they wanted to overcome social barriers and to prove that women were capable to cope with any work. The escape to the front was an attempt to change the way of life. Women who came to the front and participated in hostilities had to adapt quickly to difficult conditions and trials; they had to fight and to protect their own lives. The authors also analyze how society perceived the phenomenon of women in the war. Military commanders heroized their actions with the reason to raise the fighting spirit. However, the views of military men varied: the village guys welcomed and supported the girls; on the contrary, the men from the intelligent circle condemned women regarding them as competitors. Civil women believed that the girls had forgotten their traditional duty, they could have been more helpful in hospitals and doing charity. The author of the article also found that the participation of women in the military unit of the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen was better studied. The researchers concluded that the Ukrainian women who lived in the Russian Empire supported the call in 1917 of the Provisional Government and Maria Bochkareva to form women's combat battalions. Women were motivated to go to the front by the same reasons as women in the ranks of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen: failures in love, the desire to escape from violence and humiliation in the family, domestic problems, the desire to avenge the dead relatives and loved ones. In big cities such as Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, Poltava, the Ukrainian women willingly enrolled in the army. Anyway, the inclusion of women in the combat units of the army of the Russian Empire was found out fragmentary, there are almost no names and characteristics of the activity of the women's battalions. Only a few researchers pay attention to the messages in the then newspapers about escapes and the heroic deeds of girls in the war. These issues require the search of information and detailed study. The author came to the conclusion that most of the questions remain scientifically open requiring the search for information about women in the ranks of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and the army of the Russian Empire for the generalization of information and creation of a coherent picture of the military service of women at the front of the First World War.

scholarly journals The Russo-English Dispute over the Pamir Boundary: an Unfought War of 1902

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Б.О. Куценко
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Far East ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Strategic Balance ◽  
The Military

В статье анализируется военно-политическая ситуация, сложившаяся на территории Памира и в приграничных землях в период c 1885 по 1902 год. Проблемы, связанные с обострением англо-русского соперничества в Центральной Азии, как и с попытками держав установить свой контроль над пограничными территориями Туркестана, включая ханства Дарваз, Читрал, Рошан и другие, не потеряли своей актуальности в силу их недостаточной изученности. Наличие значительного числа белых пятен в освещении механизмов военно-политического давления на туземное население со стороны Российской и Британской империй, не позволяет в полной мере представить действительное состояние дел в Припамирье, без которого сложно оценить развитие международных отношений конца XIX — начала XX века в целом. На основе архивных документов, ряд из которых впервые вводится в научный оборот, предпринят анализ практических шагов британской и российской дипломатии в отношении пограничных азиатских ханств. Содержание архивных документов позволяет сделать вывод, что политика Великобритании и Российской империи в регионе Памира во многом была обусловлена стратегическими интересами держав как части глобальной политики по установлению своего влияния в регионе Центральной Азии. Автор приходит к выводу, что изменения в балансе военно-стратегического противостояния в регионе, произошедшие на рубеже XIX–XX веков, несли реальную угрозу прямого военного столкновения Российской и Британской империй, что могло стать прологом мировой войны. Несмотря на материальные потери, понесенные Великобританией в период решения памирского вопроса, британская дипломатия сумела извлечь выгоду из своего поражения, превратив памирский вопрос в инструмент давления на Петербург, что ограничило самостоятельность Российской империи при решении проблем в Юго-Восточной Азии и на Дальнем Востоке. The article analyzes the military and political situation in the Pamirs and adjacent regions in the period of 1885–1902. Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia and the countriesʼ attempts to establish control over the territories adjacent to Turkestan (including the Darvaz Khanate, the Chitral Khanate, the Roshan Khanate and other territories) remain largely underinvestigated, and therefore, relevant. The mechanisms of military and political influence exerted by the Russian Empire and the British Empire on the indigenous population of the Pamir region have never been subjected to rigorous analysis. Hence, we cannot properly assess the real situation in the Pamirs, nor can we appreciate the development of international relations in the late 19th — early 20thcenturies. The analysis of previously unstudied archival materials enables the author to investigate practical measures adopted by British and Russian diplomats in relation to the Pamir and the adjoining khanates. The analysis of archival documents enables the author to conclude that the political strategies of both Britain and Russia were largely predetermined by the necessity to establish their dominance over Central Asia. The author concludes that the change in the military and strategic balance in the region at the turn of the 19th– 20th centuries threatened to trigger off an open confrontation between the British Empire and the Russian Empire and could eventually lead to the global military conflict. Despite military losses sustained by Great Britain in an attempt to resolve the Pamir dispute, British diplomats managed to achieve gains by transforming the Pamir dispute into a tool of exerting influence over Russia, which significantly limited the influence of the Russian Empire in Southeast Asia and in the Far East.

Patents of Rank in Russia in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Патенты на чин в России XVIII–XIX вв.)

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-176
Author(s):  
И.А. Вознесенская
Keyword(s):  
Russian Empire ◽  
Petersburg Institute ◽  
Complete Collection ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
The Military

This article examines the history of patents of rank, not to be confused with patents of nobility, in Russia from their introduction in 1714 to their elimination as a result of the reforms of the 1860s. Patents of rank as a formal documentary credential confirming the holder’s rank is one of the largest coherent sets of documents available, yet has received very little interest from researchers until now. This article explores the development of the format and texts of these patents on the basis of legal acts published in the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire, various archival documents, and the texts of the patents themselves (drawn from collections in the Library of the Academy of Sciences, BAN; the Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers, and Communications Forces, VIMAIViVS; and the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, SPbII RAN). The article pays special attention to the decorative elements, the methods of producing the patents, and the costs of producing them. The cost for obtaining one of these patents depended on the rank being conferred: the higher the rank, the higher, naturally, the cost. The article also describes the basic steps in procuring a patent and its range of uses.

scholarly journals “To Prevent the Destruction of Precious Archives”: The Draft of the Instruction on the Caucasus Military Historical Department Activities (1900)

2020 ◽  
pp. 1020-1033
Author(s):  
Tatiana A. Kolosovskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Military History ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Military Studies ◽  
Caucasus Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
Russian Military ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The Military

This is the first publication of the draft of the instruction on Military Historical Department of the Caucasus Military District Stuff activities. It was worked out by the Head of the District Headquarters Major General N.N. Belyavsky in 1900. The document helps to establish the area of responsibility of the institution that was a party in the foundation of the archival fund in the Caucasus region of the Russian Empire. It shows that the main concern of the Military Historical Department was research. Its members collected materials on military history, thus providing the source base for writing academic papers on the history of the Caucasus integration in the Russian Empire. Its areas of work included archiving, museum activities, and publishing. The published document provides valuable data on the problem of perished materials of regional military archives on the example of the Caucasus Military District. It is important that all Caucasus regional military archives were given into the management of the Military Historical Department. According to the instruction its stuff oversaw documents storage, compiling scientific reference apparatus, and destruction of the expired papers. Thus, the Military Historical Department was the institution that was directly responsible for the destruction of old files in the archives of regimens, directorates, and headquarters in the Caucasus Military District. The document may interest those who study the history of military institutions of the Russian Empire or preservation of cultural heritage. The instruction secured to the department such activities as sorting out, description, and control of safekeeping of documents kept in Caucasus military archives, as well as their publication and acquisition, which helped to set the scientific base for Caucasus military history studies. In its functions, the Military Historical Department was the predecessor of the Russian Military Historical Society. The published document is stored in Russian Archive for Military History (Moscow) in the fond of the Imperial Committee for Military Studies.

scholarly journals The ‘Turkestan Generals’ and Russian Military History

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Morrison
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Military History ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
History Of ◽  
Collective Biography ◽  
Russian Military ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The Military

This article is a short collective biography of six so-called ‘Turkestan Generals’, all of whom played a prominent role in the Russian conquest and administration of Central Asia. These campaigns are usually seen as marginal to the military history of the Russian empire in the nineteenth century, but they were central to the reputations of three of the most prominent generals of the period, who became important public figures – Cherniaev, Skobelev, and Kuropatkin. The article shows that this was not accidental, but the product of a carefully constructed narrative in Russian military historiography.

Transition of the Rusins of Austria-Hungary to the bosom of Orthodoxy in the end of 19th - beginning of 20th century: Lost perspective for Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-4) ◽  
pp. 196-205
Author(s):  
Vadim Mikhailov ◽  
Konstantin Losev
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
World War ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Military ◽  
Church Policy

The article is devoted to the issue of Church policy in relation to the Rusyn population of Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire. In the second half of the 19th century, the policy of the Austro-Hungarian administration towards the Rusyn Uniate population of the Empire underwent changes. Russia’s victories in the wars of 1849 and 1877-1878 aroused the desire of the educated part of the Rusyns to return to the bosom of the Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, even during the World War I, when the Russian army captured part of the territories inhabited by Rusyns, the military and officials of the Russian Empire were too cautious about the issue of converting Uniates to Orthodoxy, which had obvious negative consequences both for the Rusyns, who were forced to choose a Ukrainophile orientation to protect their national and cultural identity, and for the future of Russia as the leader of the Slavic and Orthodox world.

К ПРОБЛЕМЕ ПЕРЕВОСПИТАНИЯ ВОЕННОСЛУЖАЩИХ В ДИСЦИПЛИНАРНЫХ ВОИНСКИХ ЧАСТЯХ РОССИЙСКОЙ ИМПЕРИИ

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitaliy Voronov ◽  
Timur Slivin
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Military Personnel ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Variable Composition ◽  
Negative Aspect ◽  
Actual Problem ◽  
Military Organization ◽  
Moral Influence ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The Military

В статье рассмотрена актуальная проблема перевоспитания военнослужащих в дисциплинарных частях в Российской империи как организованного и структурированного процесса. Изучено использование их потенциала для поддержания дисциплины и правопорядка среди личного состава. Определено, что к военнослужащим предусмотрено применение специальных видов уголовных наказаний, кроме того, допускается изъятие в применении отдельных наказаний к данной категории лиц. Авторами раскрывается порядок реализации наказания в виде лишения свободы в частях с воинской организацией в отношении военнослужащих, совершивших преступления. Указывается на то, что перевоспитание осужденных военнослужащих было направлено на повышение уровня их военной и строевой подготовки, принуждение их к выполнению требований военной присяги и воинских уставов. В качестве негативного момента перевоспитания осужденных военнослужащих указывается отсутствие специальной подготовки у штатных офицеров и нижних чинов дисциплинарных частей. В статье рассматривается порядок реализации наказания в виде лишения свободы в арестантских частях, а также дисциплинарных частях. Раскрыто понятие арестантских рот, их руководящий и личный состав, а также порядок содержания осужденных. Показаны особенности комплектования дисциплинарных частей как постоянным составом, так и переменным (осужденными), а также прохождения ими службы. Авторами отмечается, что в перевоспитании осужденных военнослужащих превалировала принудительная функция в ущерб нравственному воздействию. Авторы приходят к выводу о том, что дисциплинарные и штрафные части со строевой организацией в целом справляются с задачей перевоспитания осужденных военнослужащих, а опыт функционирования дисциплинарных частей царской армии был использован при создании военно-карательного аппарата Советской армии.The article deals with the actual problem of re-education of military personnel in disciplinary units in the Russian Empire as an organized and structured process. The use of their potential for maintaining discipline and law enforcement among personnel was studied. It is determined that the use of special types of criminal penalties is provided for military personnel, in addition, exceptions are allowed in the application of certain penalties to this category of persons. The author reveals the order of realization of punishment in the form of imprisonment in re-lations with the military organization in relation to the military personnel who have committed crimes. It is pointed out that the re-education of convicted servicemen was aimed at increasing the level of their military and drill training, forcing them to fulfill the requirements of the military oath and military regulations. As a negative aspect of the re-education of convicted servicemen, the lack of special training of regular officers and lower ranks of disciplinary units is indicated. The article deals with the procedure for the implementation of punishment in the form of im-prisonment in prison units, as well as disciplinary units. The concept of convict companies, their leadership and personnel, as well as the order of detention of convicts is revealed. The peculiarities of completing disciplinary units with both permanent and variable composition (convicts), as well as their service are shown. The author notes that in the re-education of convicted servicemen, forced functioning prevailed to the detriment of moral influence. The author comes to the conclusion that disciplinary and penal units with drill organization in General cope with the task of re-education of convicted servicemen, and the experience of functioning of disciplinary units of the tsarist army was used in the creation of the military punitive apparatus of the Soviet army.

Due Process in Wartime? Secret Imperial Russian Police Files on the Forced Relocation of Russian Germans during World War I

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 589-611
Author(s):  
Cynthia M. Vakareliyska
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Foreign National ◽  
German Immigrants ◽  
Germans From Russia ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Russian Germans ◽  
The Military

In 1762 and 1763, manifestos were issued by Catherine II, and later were extended further by her son Paul I, inviting foreign artisans and others to settle in far-flung rural areas of the Russian Empire in order to help strengthen the economy. Under a policy somewhat similar to the later US Homestead Act, under the manifestos German and other foreign-national settlers and their descendants were offered Russian citizenship, land ownership after three years, religious tolerance (including, in the case of Germans, German clergy and German-language churches), and exemption from the military draft—although by the end of the nineteenth century the last of these had been rescinded. The call was not restricted to Germans, but Germans comprised the largest group to take advantage of it, settling for the most part in Ukraine, Bessarabia, and the mid-Volga region. Those who participated in the migration, known as the Auswanderung, and their descendants are often referred to in English as “Russian Germans” or “Germans from Russia” (rossiiskie nemtsy). A second wave of German immigration occurred in 1894, when some Germans who had settled in Prussia moved across the border into Russia. By 1897, there were over 2 million German immigrants and descendants in the Russian Empire.

Pyrrhic Victories

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Baberowski
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
The World ◽  
Red Army ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Military Victory ◽  
The Military

This chapter examines the aftermath of the Bolsheviks' victory over both the Whites, or counterrevolutionaries, and all rival socialists. The Bolsheviks broke the military resistance of the Whites, crushed the unrest and strikes of the peasants, and even restored the multiethnic empire, which, in the early months of revolution, had largely fallen apart. In spring 1921, when the Red Army marched into Georgia, the Civil War was officially over. For the Bolsheviks, however, military victory was not the end but rather the beginning of a mission, not simply to shake the world but to transform it. Although weapons may have decided the war in favor of the revolutionaries they had not settled the question of power. This chapter considers Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP) that would implement economic reforms, the Bolsheviks' failure to carry power into villages, and the dictatorship's lack of support from the proletariat. It also describes the nationalization of the Russian empire and Joseph Stalin's rise to power.

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