| Russian Imperial Army | |
|---|---|
| Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия (Russian) | |
 Badge | |
| Motto | За Веру, Царя и Отечество "For Faith, Tsar, and Fatherland"[5] |
| Founded | 2 November 1721[a] |
| Disbanded | 14 September 1917[b] |
| Service branches | |
| Headquarters | Imperial Main Headquarters[4] |
| Leadership | |
| Commander-in-chief | Emperor of Russia[4] |
| Governing body | General Staff[4]
|
| Supreme Commander (1914—17) | Grand Duke Nicholas (first) Nikolay Dukhonin (last) |
| Chief of the General Staff | Pavel Gavrilovich Gagarin (first) Vladimir Marushevsky (last) |
| Personnel | |
| Military age | 21–43[6] |
| Conscription | 2–6 years; compulsory service[7] |
| Active personnel | 1,000,000[8]–1,300,000[9] (1913) 15,000,000+ (total served; 1914–17)[8] |
| Expenditure | |
| Budget | 325.6 million rubles (1902)[10] |
| Related articles | |
| History | Military history of the Russian Empire |
| Ranks | Ranks of the Imperial Russian military |
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.[6]
A regular Russian army existed after the end of the Great Northern War in 1721.[11] During his reign, Peter the Great accelerated the modernization of Russia's armed forces, including with a decree in 1699 that created the basis for recruiting soldiers, military regulations for the organization of the army in 1716, and creating the College of War in 1718 for the army administration.[12] Starting in 1700 Peter began replacing the older Streltsy forces with new Western-style regiments organized on the basis of his already existing Guards regiments.[13]
After the Napoleonic Wars the active Russian Army was maintained at just over 1 million men, which was increased to 1.7 million during the Crimean War.[14] It remained at around this level until the outbreak of World War I, at which point Russia had the largest peacetime standing army in Europe,[15] about 1.3 million.[9] The wartime mobilization increased this to a strength of 4.5 million,[15] and in total 15 million men served from 1914 to 1917.[8]
In March [O.S. February] 1917 the Imperial Army swore loyalty to the Russian Provisional Government after the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II,[16] though the official status of the monarchy was not resolved until September 1917, when the Russian Republic was declared.[17] 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.[18]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ Ziemke 2004, p. 22.
- ^ Reese 2019, p. 411.
- ^ a b c d General Staff, War Office 1914, pp. 7–12.
- ^ a b c General Staff, War Office 1914, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Reese 2019, p. 99.
- ^ a b General Staff, War Office 1914, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Reese 2019, p. 41.
- ^ a b c Reese 2019, p. 316.
- ^ a b General Staff, War Office 1914, pp. 20–23.
- ^ Stepanov 2022, p. S728.
- ^ День Сухопутных войск России. Досье [Day of the Ground Forces of Russia. Dossier] (in Russian). TASS. 31 August 2015.
- ^ Anderson 1995, pp. 91–96.
- ^ Massie 2011, p. 298.
- ^ Brooks 1984, p. 64.
- ^ a b Stone 2015, p. 33.
- ^ Reese 2019, pp. 365–370.
- ^ Beevor 2022, p. 46.
- ^ Reese 2019, pp. 285–286.