Imperial Russian Army

Organization

Napoleonic era

The Imperial Russian Army entered the Napoleonic Wars organized administratively and in the field on the same principles as it had been in the 18th century of units being assigned to campaign headquarters, and the "army" being known either for its senior commander, or the area of its operations. Administratively, the regiments were assigned to Military Inspections, the predecessors of military districts, and included the conscript training depots, garrisons and fortress troops and munitions magazines.

The army had been thoroughly reorganised on the Prussian model by the emperor's father Paul I against wishes of most of its officer corps, and with his demise immediate changes followed to remove much of the Prussianness from its character. Although the army had conventional European parts within it such as the monarch's guard, the infantry and cavalry of the line and field artillery, it also included a very large contingent of semi-regular Cossacks that in times of rare peace served to guard the Russian Empire's southern borders, and in times of war served as fully-fledged light cavalry, providing invaluable reconnaissance service often far better than that available to other European armies due to the greater degree of initiative and freedom of movement by Cossack detachments. The Ukrainian lands of the Empire also provided most of the Hussar and Ulan regiments for the regular light cavalry. Another unusual feature of the army that was seen twice during the period was the constitution of the Narodnoe Opolcheniye, for the first time since the coming to power of the Romanov dynasty.

In 1806, most of the Inspections were abolished, and replaced by divisions based on the French model although still territorially based. By 1809, there were 25 infantry divisions as permanent field formations, each organised around three infantry brigade and one artillery brigade. When Barclay de Tolly became the Minister of War in 1810, he instituted further reorganization and other changes in the army, down to company level, that saw the creation of separate grenadier divisions, and dedication of one brigade in each division to the jaeger light infantry for skirmishing in open order formations.

The Nikolaev General Staff Academy was established in 1832 with the involvement of Antoine-Henri Jomini, a Swiss officer in Russian service, to prepare General Staff officers, though it did not have a significant role in the army until the post-Crimean War reforms.

Imperial Guard

Guards units were tasked with protecting the Russian Emperor (the tsar) and the Imperial family. Throughout the Napoleonic Wars the Imperial Russian Guard was commanded by Grand Duke Konstantin. The guard grew from a few regiments to two infantry divisions combined into the V Infantry Corps commanded at Borodino by General Lieutenant Lavrov and two cavalry divisions with their own artillery and train by the conclusion of the 1814 campaign.

At Austerlitz in 1805 the artillery of the Guard included the Lifeguard Artillery Battalion under General Major Ivan Kaspersky. At Borodino in 1812 the artillery of the Guard included the Lifeguard Artillery Brigade (now a part of the Guard Infantry Division), the Lifeguard Horse Artillery under Colonel Kozen, attached to the 1st Cuirassier Division, and the Guard Sapper Battalion.

At Austerlitz in 1805 the Lifeguard Cossack regiment (five sotnias) was attached to the 1st Brigade of the Guard Cavalry Division. At Borodino in 1812 the Cossacks of the Guard included the Lifeguard Cossack regiment (five sotnias), the Black Sea Cossack Guard sotnia, and the Lifeguard Orel sotnia.

World War I

Administration and high command

The Emperor of Russia was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces while the Ministry of War was responsible for carrying out his orders. By 1913, the War Ministry included the Military Council that advised the Emperor and was headed by the War Minister; the General Staff responsible for military operations and divided into six branches, which included the Quartermaster-General's branch, military communications, military topography, organization and training, and mobilization; an administrative headquarters staff; a military technical directorate; and inspector-generals for infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineers, military training, and railway troops. In 1909 the infantry inspectorate was abolished and replaced with a musketry inspectorate.

The Russian General Staff originated during the Napoleonic Wars and the beginning of mass armies, but it did not develop into an important and prestigious institution within the military until after the Crimean War, and even more so after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, when General Staff officers had a major role in achieving victory. In 1865 the General Staff became the operations section of the Main Staff of the War Ministry, while the latter oversaw organization, training, intelligence, mobilization, and coordinating all branches of the army.

The Russian Empire was organized into 12 military districts for recruiting and mobilization. The head of a military district had both civil and military powers, and answered to the Minister of War. Recruiting was done throughout the military districts of the Empire on the basis of 208 recruiting districts, which corresponded to one of the 208 line infantry regiments. But this system was not entirely territorial, as it was estimated only 30 percent of recruits in each regiment came from their corresponding district.

Field organization

The forces in the field were led by a Supreme Commander appointed by the Emperor. He was assisted by a headquarters staff comprising a Chief of Staff, the Quartermaster-General's department, the Adjutant-General's department, and the railway department. The Quartermaster-General assisted with operations; the Adjutant-General assisted with organization and personnel, and also oversaw the medical services, chaplains, lines of communication, and military police; and the chief of the railway department organized the railways in the theater of war and assisted the lines of communication. The field army was the largest field command prior to World War I. In wartime, several armies could operate together under one command as an army group. An army consisted of 3–5 army corps, 1–2 cavalry corps, 3 batteries of heavy artillery, 1 squadron of field gendarmerie, 1 wireless telegraph company, and various support and technical units, such as hospitals, supply trains, artillery and siege parks, pontoon units, and an airplane detachment. Senior members of the field army headquarters besides the commander and his chief of staff were the Quartermaster-General, the Adjutant-General, the general of communications, the chief of supply, the inspectors of artillery and of engineers, the chief paymaster, and the chief controller.

There were a total of 37 army corps as of 1913, while cavalry corps did not exist in peacetime. In peacetime the corps included: 1st to 25th Army Corps, the Guard Corps, the Grenadier Corps, 1st to 3rd Caucasian Corps, 1st and 2nd Turkestan Corps, and the 1st to 5th Siberian Corps. The composition of each varied, though the normal army corps had 2 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry division, attached howitzers, a sapper battalion, and administrative troops. The Turkestan Corps had 2 or 3 rifle brigades and the Siberian Corps had 2 rifle divisions. When formed in wartime, a cavalry corps would consist of 2 cavalry divisions and a supply column. Some corps also had attached pontoon battalions, wireless telegraph companies, and an air squadron. A corps headquarters included, besides the commander and his chief of staff and aides-de-camp, the commandant of headquarters (head of military police), inspector of corps artillery, the corps supply chief, engineer, surgeon, veterinary surgeon, paymaster, and controller.

The regiment was considered the basic unit of the Russian Army and its most important social organization. One historian described this: "On joining it, the conscript and officer alike entered a 'family' with its own traditions, distinctive way of doing things, and corporate existence. Its connection with other similar units was based on particular instances of past glories, a common allegiance to the tsar and—despite religious diversity—the ideal of an Orthodox empire." A Russian infantry regiment consisted of about 4,000 men organized into four battalions, which had 16 companies of 250 men each. A cavalry regiment was organized into squadrons and companies, and an artillery brigade was organized into battalions and batteries. All administration was done at the regimental level, while battalions were only tactical units, and the regiment was commanded by a colonel for line infantry or a major general for the Imperial Guards. Regimental commanders had many responsibilities, which included managing the pay of the troops and other finances, promoting soldiers and recommending officers for promotion, granting leaves of absence, and training the individual soldier and the regiment as a unit. The majority of the regiments were stationed either on the borders of Prussia and Austria-Hungary or on the frontiers of Siberia, Central Asia, or the Caucasus Mountains, while a smaller number of them were in the Russian interior.

Personnel

The peacetime strength of the Imperial Army was estimated in 1913 to be around 1,300,000, including 811,000 infantrymen, 133,000 cavalrymen, 209,000 artillerymen (and 3,904 guns), 59,000 engineers, and 88,000 support and auxiliary troops. This made it the largest peacetime standing army in Europe on the eve of World War I. The war mobilization in 1914 increased this to 4,500,000 troops, while the officers were increased from 40,000 to 80,000. An estimate in 1913 put the total active and reserve troops of the Russian Army at 5,962,396, including first and second line reservists that were never on active duty.

Before the start of World War I the intake of conscripts was around half a million annually. For instance, in 1911 a total of 455,000 men were called up for service, out of which 10,000 went to the navy, 14,500 to the border guard, and the remaining 430,500 to the army.

Enlisted

The decree of 14 January 1874 mandated military service across the Russian Empire for men between the ages of 21 and 43, with a few exceptions: the Grand Duchy of Finland was exempt from conscription entirely in exchange for an annual financial payment, Cossacks served on their own separate terms, and Muslim populations in territories like Dagestan or Turkestan were also exempt, though they could volunteer in special units and the militia. The Christian inhabitants of those lands were still subject to the draft like the Russian population elsewhere. Some other small territories were exempt: certain tribes or districts in Arkhangelsk, Orenburg, Stavropol, Astrakhan, and Eastern Siberia. Only a few units were recruited using volunteers, otherwise conscription provided most of the troops. The post-Crimean War reforms extended conscription to the nobility as enlisted soldiers unless they chose to become an officer. Conscripts who were called up in the annual lottery could serve for a term of one, two, three, or six years, depending on their education level. The 1874 conscription law replaced earlier practice of drafting peasants into lifetime service. Having short-term conscripts also created a pool of reservists that could be mobilized in wartime.

The Russian Army had a regimental system that is sometimes compared to the British Army, but there were significant differences. Soldiers were mostly conscripts rather than volunteers and were frequently assigned to regiments that were not in their home region. Non-commissioned officers were promoted from among the conscripts and were relatively few, as they tended to not stay in the army. The ethos of the army was summarized by its motto "for faith, tsar, and fatherland," and the main value that was instilled in the soldiers was obedience to the officers and ultimately to the Emperor. Much less emphasis was placed on other military values, such as camaraderie or accomplishing missions. With the end of serfdom, by the end of the 19th century peasant conscripts were being joined by a growing number of working-class men from urban areas. Nobles were slightly less than one percent of conscripted soldiers during this time. The soldiers were expected by their officers to be accepting of bad living conditions and were often looked down on by the noble-born officers because of class differences, though some others saw themselves as "father-commanders" of their troops. Military regulations regarded soldiers to be second-class citizens. By the end of the century, as conscripts entering the army were no longer serfs, and with some being from urban areas and literate, they started having higher expectations for how they were treated and a stronger conception of their rights.

Basic training for Russian soldiers included weapons training, drill, and fieldcraft, followed by small unit tactics, and then by larger maneuvers involving formations from several military districts. Rifle shooting from a distance was particularly emphasized during the training. The majority of the troops were Orthodox Christian ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians, with smaller numbers of Lutheran Estonians and Baltic Germans, Catholic Poles and Lithuanians, Eastern Catholic Ukrainians, Muslim Tatars, or Jews. A soldier's religious affiliation was immediately established once he arrived at the regiment because that determined how he was sworn in. The regimental priest was always Russian Orthodox, but there were also Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, and Muslim imams or prayer leaders who were brought in to administer the oath to the non-Orthodox.

Officers

Officers in the Imperial Army were commissioned from either the Page Corps, one of the 29 cadet corps, or one of the 20 junker and military schools. In 1910 the junker (pronounced yunker) schools were re-designated as military schools. As of 1913 the schools included 11 infantry, 2 Cossack, 3 cavalry, 3 artillery, and 1 engineer school. When they were founded in the 1860s there were 11 infantry, 2 cavalry, 1 Cossack, and 2 mixed infantry-cavalry schools. The entry requirements and the length of training depended on the individual school and the specialty. After being commissioned for at least four years, interested officers also had the opportunity to apply to the Nikolaev General Staff Academy, which required passing the competitive entrance examinations. General Staff officers, who became a branch within the army with their own title and insignia after the Milyutin reforms, were the only officers in the army devoted to the intellectual study of war. They became an elite within the officer corps, even rivaling the prestigious status of the Imperial Guard officers.

Junker schools were created by Dmitry Milyutin's reforms after the Crimean War and became the largest source of officers, being open to both educated commoners and nobles who spent one year serving in a regiment first. They had a two-year course, with the first year being general education followed by military subjects in the second year. Candidates that failed the entrance exam were required to serve the rest of their enlistment as regular soldiers. Milyutin intended for junker schools to provide lower level officers who would not receive a command higher than battalion level, though some advanced to become generals, such as Mikhail Alekseyev and Anton Denikin. The graduates of junker schools often had a lesser nobility or commoner background.

The cadet corps provided a four- or five-year education to the sons of the wealthy landed nobility, which included both academics and military subjects. Cadets were given the option upon graduation to apply to a regiment, work in the civil service, go to a specialty military school (such as engineering or artillery), or to join the individual reserve. Those with the highest grades were able to be assigned to a Guards regiment. The Page Corps was the most elite and prestigious cadet corps. Cadets there were able to meet and serve members of the Romanov dynasty and had the option of being assigned to a Guards unit or to any other unit in the Imperial Army when they graduated.

Milyutin's post-Crimean War reforms expanded recruitment into the officer corps from the nobility to the peasantry, and the basis for becoming an officer was a candidate's education level rather than social class. The share of non-noble officers increased from 4 percent in the 1860s to 44.6 percent in the 1890s, and just over half of the officers below the rank of captain were commoners by 1912. The general ranks remained overwhelmingly dominated by hereditary nobles, who were 91.9 percent of generals in the 1890s. It took three decades for the public education system that was available for the commoners in Russia to become effective at preparing students to pass admission tests for military schools, so the nobility still had an advantage by having access to higher quality private education.

Before the Milyutin reforms, the only way for a peasant conscript to become an officer was by being promoted after demonstrating good conduct, intelligence, and potential ability to command. A soldier chosen to become an officer would first spend several years as an unteroffizier (non-commissioned officer) to be tested, then promoted to praporshchik, which represented the start of an officer apprenticeship. For nobles, the most common method would be to commission by joining a regiment directly as a junker, who served in the same role as NCOs, then to be promoted to praporshchik and begin their officer apprenticeship. Graduates of one of the cadet corps started off as a praporshchik. Another possibility was being commissioned by an imperial decree. About 75 percent of officers started by joining a regiment as a junker, and the remainder were cadet corps graduates. The Milyutin reforms ended the method of joining a regiment as a junker. Instead, a new role was created called one-year volunteer, by which both nobles and commoners could apply to serve in the role of an unteroffizier and a praporshchik over the course of one year before either becoming an officer in the reserve militia or going to a junker school. The volunteer option did not produce a large number of officers, but it was the main source of reserve officers, and many of them were university students with revolutionary views.

Reserve and auxiliary troops

The army reserve (zapas) was known as the state militia (opolcheniye) and consisted of two categories: first line reservists were men between the ages of 21 and 43 who either completed active service, or those who were not called up by the annual lottery but were fit for service. The second line reservists were men in the same demographic who were not considered fit enough for combat roles, but who were still able bodied. Some members of the first line reserve had an obligation of two trainings lasting six weeks each at most. Upon mobilization, the first line would be used to augment the standing army while the second line would form rear area and support units. Reserve officers were called volunteers and were men with a certain level of education who may serve a short term on active service and then join the reserve. They received the rank of ensign (praporshchik).

Ethnic and religious minorities

The Ministry of War had a policy to keep the soldiers of non-Orthodox Russian, Ukrainian, or Belarusian origin as no more than 30 percent of any regiment, and no more than 26 percent of the regiments that were stationed on the Empire's western border. Although the War Ministry preferred to keep regiments as at least two-thirds to three-quarters Orthodox Russian, an effort was made to ensure harmony in units by encouraging soldiers of all religions and backgrounds to treat each other with respect, as stated in the Russian Soldier's Catechism.

Among the cultural and religious groups, the Cossacks and the Muslims in particular served under unique sets of regulations.

Cossacks

The Cossacks, who originated as Slavs that chose to live on the steppe instead of integrate with either the tsardom of Russia or the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, were organized into several voisko (hosts) named after the regions of their location across the Russian Empire, whether along the Russian border, or internal borders between Russian and non-Russian peoples. After their rebellious early history, from the 18th century on the Russian Imperial government saw these cavalrymen as useful border guards and created new hosts on the Russian frontier as it expanded into Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Each new host developed its own traditions, and was led by a core of leaders taken from existing hosts, who presided over new Cossacks that were either peasants, discharged soldiers, or members of the local population. The Cossacks distinguished themselves in service to the Russian Empire during the French invasion of 1812, when they were effective at raiding French troops on the retreat from Moscow. After the Napoleonic Wars the Russian government created an image of Cossack loyalty to the Romanov dynasty, and in 1827 Emperor Nicholas I declared his heir, the tsarevich, the honorary ataman of all Cossacks. In 1832 the Cossack hosts were given ownership of their territories as Imperial lands in return for military service.

The 1875 law on military conscription defined all Cossack men between the ages of 21 and 33 as active duty soldiers. As they got beyond this age they served as first line and then second line reservists in the militia. Cossacks were required to provide their own uniform, horses, and saddles, though the Russian government began giving them subsidies as they faced financial problems in the late 19th century. The Cossack hosts east of the Ural Mountains never became economically self-sufficient, and increasingly the older hosts in southern Russia also needed government support. During the Russo-Japanese War all active Siberian, Transbaikal, Amur, and Ussuri Cossacks were mobilized and sent to Manchuria, along with some reservists. After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1905 the government used them as mounted police and mobilized nearly all Cossack regiments in the empire. Emperor Nicholas II praised them for their service and gave out medals and cash bonuses. A new unit, the Combined Cossack Life Guards Regiment, was created so that every Cossack host was represented among the Imperial Guard. Despite their popular image as janissaries of the tsarist government, some of them opposed being used to put down protests and wanted more autonomy.

Cossacks were mobilized at the outbreak of World War I. During the war the Cossacks made up two-thirds of Russian army cavalry, contributing over 500,000 men for the war effort. Out of these, 200,000 were Don Cossacks, while the rest were from other hosts. There were also some infantry battalions (plastun) from the Kuban Cossacks. All Cossacks were trained to fight both on horseback and on foot. Cavalry charges were used early in the war but became rare by the end of 1915. They were used to raid enemy positions and lines of communication, and also increasingly for duties behind the front line in rounding up deserters. During the Great Retreat in 1915 the Cossacks performed a scorched earth campaign in Polish and Ukrainian lands that were being abandoned and enforced the mandatory evacuation of hundreds of thousands of local peasants further east. In October 1916 Cossack regiments were used to put down a strike at a factory in Petrograd after regular soldiers refused. Additional Cossack units from the Northern Front were deployed to the capital after the incident. But during the February Revolution some Cossacks joined with the protestors.

During the October Revolution, two Don Cossack regiments led by Alexander Kerensky and Pyotr Krasnov tried to stop the Bolshevik takeover in Petrograd, but were defeated.

Muslims

The Muslim subjects of the Russian Empire were exempted from the military draft and were recruited on a voluntary basis into certain units. As of 1913 these were the Dagestan cavalry regiment and the Turkoman cavalry division. Before the start of World War I it was estimated there were about 400 Muslim officers in the Russian army, including 30 generals.

The Cossack institution recruited and incorporated Muslim Mishar Tatars. Cossack rank was awarded to Bashkirs. Muslim Turkics and Buddhist Kalmyks served as Cossacks. The Cossack Ural, Terek, Astrakhan, and Don Cossack hosts had Kalmyks in their ranks. Mishar Muslims, Teptiar Muslims, service Tatar Muslims, and Bashkir Muslims joined the Orenburg Cossack Host. Cossack non-Muslims shared the same status with Cossack Siberian Muslims. Muslim Cossacks in Siberia requested an Imam. Cossacks in Siberia included Tatar Muslims like in Bashkiria.

Bashkirs and Kalmyks in the Russian military fought against Napoleon's forces. They were judged suitable for inundating opponents but not for intense fighting. They were in a non standard capacity in the military. Arrows, bows, and melee combat weapons were wielded by the Muslim Bashkirs. Bashkir women fought among the regiments. Denis Davidov mentioned the arrows and bows wielded by the Bashkirs. Napoleon's forces faced off against Kalmyks on horseback. Napoleon faced light mounted Bashkir forces. Mounted Kalmyks and Bashkirs numbering 100 were available to Russian commandants during the war against Napoleon. Kalmyks and Bashkirs served in the Russian Army in France. A nachalnik was present in every one of the 11 cantons of the Bashkir host which was created by Russia after the Pugachev's Rebellion. Bashkirs had the military statute of 1874 applied to them.

From 1914 to 1917 the Caucasian Native Cavalry Division (later the Caucasian Native Cavalry Corps; often called the "Savage Division"), grouped together mainly Muslim volunteers from the Caucasus region.

Jews

On 26 August 1827, Nicholas I of Russia declared the "Statute on Conscription Duty". This statute made it mandatory that all Russian males ages twelve to twenty-five were now required to serve in the Russian armed forces for 25 years. This was the first time that the massive Jewish population was required to serve in the Russian military. The reasoning for Nicolas for mandatory conscription was because "in the military they would learn not only Russian but also useful skills and crafts, and eventually they would become his loyal subjects."

Many Jewish families began to emigrate out of the Russian Empire in order to escape the conscription obligations. Due to this, the government began to employ khappers who would kidnap Jewish children and turn them over to the government for conscription. It became known that "the khappers were not scrupulous about adhering to the minimum age of 12 and frequently impressed children as young as 8." "By the time the empire collapsed, around 1.5 million Jewish soldiers fulfilled what was often seen as a highly burdensome and intrusive obligation." At first many Jews were hesitant, but by 1880 Russian Jews were fully integrated into the Russian military. During and after the post-Crimean War reforms there was an effort to improve the treatment of Jews in the army, such as to assimilate them to become like other Russian soldiers and to even convert them to Orthodox Christianity. These policies were somewhat reversed during the reign of Emperor Alexander III.

Jews usually staffed no more than six percent of a Russian regiment.

Latvians

Starting on 16 August 1915 the Russian Stavka began forming Latvian Riflemen battalions in the Imperial Army. Initially there were eight battalions, each named after a city or region in Latvia. On 3 November 1916 the Latvian battalions were expanded into regiments, organized into the 1st and 2nd Latvian Rifle Brigades, with four regiments each. They notable took part in the Christmas Battles in late 1916 alongside other units of the Russian army and achieved a victory against German troops. After the Russian Revolution, the majority of them joined the Bolsheviks and became the Red Latvian Riflemen, while a smaller number, mostly officers or 1st Regiment soldiers, joined the White Russian movement.

Others

Titles, ranks, and insignia until 1917

See for a more detailed history, ranks, and insignia

In 1913 the army received a universal field grey (green-grey) service uniform for all regiments. The Imperial Guard, cavalry, Cossack, and horse artillery units continued to maintain a separate dress uniform in addition to the field uniform. Kuban and Terek Cossacks wore a type of coat called cherkesska instead of the field service uniform blouse, though it was a similar color to the field service uniform.

The main ways to distinguish between individual units and arms of service based on the shoulder strap were the color of the piping and buttons in the case of Imperial Guard units and the distinguishing marks of all other units. The distinguishing marks could include one or a combination of the following: the number of the regiment (or the number of the corps, division, or brigade for each of their staff officers), sometimes with letters that the indicated the region or the branch of service; the monogram or the initials of the titles of the monarch or other royalty that were the honorary colonel-in-chief of the regiment; a symbol for artillery or technical units, or small letters for medical, transportation, and other support units. The colors of the shoulder strap on the service uniform greatcoat were different colors, and these varied depending on the sub-type of infantry or cavalry, or the Cossack host, though artillery and engineers had scarlet shoulder straps and support units had blue. The same colors were used on the reverse side of the shoulder straps of the field service uniform blouse.

The form of address for generals was "Your High Excellency", for lieutenant and major generals "Your Excellency", for field grade officers "Your High Honor", for other officers "Your Honor", and for NCOs it was "Mister" (gospodin) followed by their rank.