Bayonets Before Bullets
Subtitle: The Imperial Russian Army, 1861-1914 (Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian & East European Studies)
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: December 1999
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9780253213808
Subjects: History of specific subjects; Land forces & warfare; History; History - Military / War; History: World; Russia; Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union; Military Science; Military - General
Description: Bayonets before Bullets is the first comprehensive institutional and operational history of the Imperial Russian Army during the crucial period of its modernization, 1861-1914. Bruce W. Menning surveys the development of organization, doctrine, and strategy from the aftermath of Russia's defeat in the Crimean War through the wars against Turkey in 1877-1878 and Japan in 1904-1905, to the eve of World War I. Describing how the Russian army organized, trained, and armed itself to fight during a critical era of change, Menning weaves analysis of reforms in technology and military art with lively accounts of combat operations and portraits of the personalities involved. Enhanced by superb battlefield maps, operational diagrams, and rare photographs of the leading Russian military commanders, Bayonets before Bullets provides a fascinating account of how the Imperial Russian Army struggled to modernize in a Darwinian world that dealt harshly with those who failed to adapt to changes in technology and military art.