Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army or Russian Imperial Army (Russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, romanized: Rússkaya imperátorskaya ármiya) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of regular troops and two forces that served on separate regulations: the Cossack troops and the Muslim troops.[3]
For the modern term, see Russian Army.Russian Imperial Army
За Веру, Царя и Отечество
"For Faith, Tsar, and Fatherland"
2 November 1721
22 November 1917[a]
Grand Duke Nicholas (first)
Nikolay Dukhonin (last)
Pavel Gavrilovich Gagarin (first)
Vladimir Marushevsky (last)
21–43[3]
3–4 years; compulsory service[3]
325.6 million rubles (1902)[7]
In March 1917, the Imperial Army swore loyalty to the Russian Provisional Government after the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II.[8] Even after the February Revolution, despite its ineffectiveness on the offensive, the majority of the army remained intact and the troops were still at the front lines. The "old army" did not begin disintegrating until early 1918.[9]
Precursors: Regiments of the New Order[edit]
Russian tsars before Peter the Great maintained professional hereditary musketeer corps known as streltsy. These were originally raised by Ivan the Terrible;[10] originally an effective force, they had become highly unreliable and undisciplined. In times of war, the armed forces were augmented by peasants.
The regiments of the new order, or regiments of the foreign order (Полки нового строя or Полки иноземного строя, Polki novovo (inozemnovo) stroya), was the Russian term that was used to describe military units that were formed in the Tsardom of Russia in the 17th century according to the Western European military standards.[11]
There were different kinds of regiments, such as the regulars, dragoons, and reiters. In 1631, the Russians created two regular regiments in Moscow. During the Smolensk War of 1632–1634, six more regular regiments, one reiter regiment, and a dragoon regiment were formed. Initially, they recruited children of the landless boyars and streltsy, volunteers, Cossacks and others. Commanding officers comprised mostly foreigners. After the war with Poland, all of the regiments were disbanded. During another Russo-Polish War, they were created again and became a principal force of the Russian Army. Often, regular and dragoon regiments were manned with datochniye lyudi for lifelong military service. Reiters were manned with small or landless gentry and boyars' children and were paid with money (or lands) for their service. More than a half of the commanding officers were representatives from the gentry. In times of peace, some of the regiments were usually disbanded.
In 1681, there were 33 regular regiments (61,000 men) and 25 dragoon and reiter regiments (29,000 men). In the late 17th century, regiments of the new type represented more than a half of the Russian Army and at the beginning of the 18th century were used for creating a regular army.
Jews in the Russian Army[edit]
On August 26, 1827, Nicholas I of Russia declared the "Statute on Conscription Duty".[26] 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.[26] This was the first time that the massive Jewish population was required to serve in the Russian military.[27] 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."[26]
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."[28] "By the time the empire collapsed, around 1.5 million Jewish soldiers fulfilled what was often seen as a highly burdensome and intrusive obligation."[27] At first many Jews were hesitant, but by 1880 Russian Jews were fully integrated into the Russian military.[27]