| This dissertation examines the evolution and transformation of Russian military thought through the wars and revolutions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and evaluates its contribution to the maintenance of Russia's national security. The author places Russia's national security initiatives and military affairs in the context of the prevailing international environment to reveal the linkages among the Empire's military theory, operational planning, force development, and battlefield performance and the complex events of the period. The study examines the effectiveness of Russian military authorities and institutions in identifying the relevant aspects of the dramatic social, economic, and technological changes that were occurring, determining the impact of those changes on military affairs, and disseminating the assessed implications as revised military theory and guidance. In this context a specific point of interest is the consistency that tsarist military officials attained between their military theory and practice. The study begins with the broad military reforms that gave Russia a modern army and concludes with the disintegration of the Imperial Army and Russia's withdrawal from the First World War. This work lays the foundation for further research on the influence of Imperial military thought on the national security approach and military affairs of the successor Communist government.;Source materials for the study are the extensive body of military theoretical writings of Russian military historians and theoreticians, contemporary accounts and analyses by the participants themselves and foreign observers of Russia's planning for, preparation for, and conduct of its major wars and colonial military campaigns, and the memoirs of Russian military and state authorities. These materials are supplemented by modern treatments by Soviet and Western historians of specific episodes or events during the period of concern. |
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