Army The Russian Navy example essay topic

Military Reform- The end of the Crimean war in 1856 saw the army in Russia to be extremely weak and unfair on certain classes of people especially the peasants. It was badly in need of some sort of reform to make it modernised and stronger. Problems with the Army. The command structure and the administration were inflexible and inefficient...

Punishment was severe and barbaric going completely over the top for small offences. The period of service the soldiers had to serve was seen as a life sentence (25 years). People were managing to escape the system and avoid doing military service, which made the system extremely weak and corruptible... The soldiers were ineffective at fighting in a war situation and were not prepared fully in the training Features of the Military Reform In 1861, Alexander appointed Dimitri Milyutin as the minister of war; his job was to simply reform the military.

He covered many aspects that needed changing and was extremely enthusiastic about the job. He firstly attempted to sort out the set up of the army, his aim was to decentralize administration. By 1864 he had set up 10 regional commands that improved the efficiency greatly. In 1863 the more extreme forms of corporal punishment were ended and training regimes more relaxed. The Military Code was revised and equality was becoming more important. The privilege that the officers had previously had were stopped and no one could gain promotion or exemption from conscription on the grounds of class and wealth.

The Conscription law of 1874 made it necessary for all able bodied males to serve 6 years in the army and 9 years in the reserve which was only 15 years overall. This was a dramatic change from the 25 years. The educated youth were given a shorter term of service with university graduates serving only 3 to 6 months. However nobles and some merchants were still exempt from conscription but they did have to pay a special tax as compensation.

It was also later decided that at age 21 every male should sign up for the army but only 1/4 of them would ever be called up for military service. This meant a better and more skilled army. As well as the army the Russian navy was seen as very backward compared to the Western nations. Steam-powered ships replaced sailing ships and like the army the navy was humanise d meaning no corporal punishment. Was the Military reform an overall success or a huge failure? The army and navy were in desperate need of change if Russia was going to become a powerful nation.

Alexander realised the need for a reform and wanted it to drastically improve the backward state of the army and navy. Milyutin was a key figure in carrying this reform out along with Constantine, Alexander's brother. In some ways this reform was a success as it helped Russia break down its problems with equality and the class divide was not as noticeable. It brought about support for the Tsar and helped less-educated males become literate. A smaller and better-equipped army was also achieved.

It wasn't completely democratic in its implications as Alexander was adamant that defence was the only way forward for Russia and it was clear that he wouldn't stop at anything to make Russia like this. It was also limited in its success as the general staff were burdened with too many regulations and diverse tasks. Army doctors could be bribed to declare people unfit for service and the quality of the training and leadership was not as good as it could have been. The rich were still being benefited as the educated who only had to serve 3 to 6 months were the rich and so they managed to avoid doing a long time in the army. However, great improvements were made in the general performance of the army and these were clearly seen in the Russo-Turkish War of 1878. In the army the Russian democracy scored a modest but real success.