The Making of Russian History: Society, Culture, & the Politics of Modern Russia. Essays in Honor of Allan K. Wildman

D. A. Miliutin's Impact on the Education of Russian Military Officers

D. A. Miliutin's Impact on the Education of Russian Military Officers John W. Steinberg In the middle of the 19th century Russia's ruling classes were confronted with what for them proved to be an unsolvable challenge. Because of the stunning military defeat in the Crimean War (1853-56) the new Tsar Alexander II (1855- 81) sought to stabilize his realm by restructuring Russian society, a process known to history as the Great Reforms.1 Although the sources and motivation of the Great Reforms remain a topic of debate among historians, little question exists that as a result of the defeat in the Crimea several press· ing issues had to be addressed in the war's aftermath. None, however, were as significant as an assessment of Russia's military establishment. Every aspect , from its administrative organization to the education and training of officers and soldiers in peacetime to the conduct of the operational army in wartime had to be reconsidered for the sake of the Empire's future security. If Russia were to remain a Great Power, then important questions about her failure in the Crimea had to be asked in order to identify and address the weaknesses that caused the humiliation suffered at the hands of the British, French, and Ottomans on the tsar's own territory. Fortunately, Alexander II had the good sense to appoint as war minister one of the most enlightened reformers of this epoch in Russian history, Dmitrii Alekseevich Miliutin. As a military officer with broad experience in both the administrative and operational sides of the army, Miliutin had the capabilities and vision to completely reform Russia's armed forces from the top down. At the time of the Great Reforms Miliutin was one of the few leaders in the Russian government who had an intellectual appreciation for the complex challenges that confronted all European military establishments in the age of emerging military technology, capabilities introduced by the products of the Industrial Revolution and put into the hands of soldiers serving in mass conscript armies. His goal was nothing short of providing Russia with a mass army commanded by a professional officer corps that was capable of defending the regime from all of its future enemies. 1 See Ben Eklof, John Bushnell, and Larissa Zaharova, eds., Russia's Great Reform s, 1855- 1881 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994); and W. Bruce Lincoln, The Great Reforms: Autocracy, Bureaucracy, alld the Politics of Challge ill Imperial Russia (Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1990). The Making of Russian History: Society, Culture, and the Politics of Modern Russia. Essa ys in Honor of Allan K. Wildman. John W. Steinberg and Rex A. Wade, eds. Bloomington, IN: Siavica Publishers, 2009, 23- 46. 24 JOHN W. STEINBERG Central to Miliutin's efforts to restructure the military educational institutions of Russia during the period of the Great Reforms were the cadet corps academies, which existed specifically to prepare Russia's aristocratic youth to become officers in the Imperial army. These schools had been created in the 18th century to reward Russia's aristocrats for their loyal service to the Romanovs . From their inception, the cadet corps academies embodied the military aspect of the relationship between the crown and the Russian nobility. These schools not only provided early military training to the children of the Russian nobility, they also indoctrinated young nobles into the customs and traditions of their world, their place in Russian society. The cadet corps academies existed to provide privileged members of tsarist society with the opportunity to easily gain a commission and rapidly rise through the ranks of the officer corps regardless of their capabilities. Cadet corps academies rewarded Russians for their social and economic status. To examine this reform and its place in the Great Reforms, this article will first look at the deep background necessary to understand the history and role of the cadet corps academies in Russia when Miliutin came to power. The article will then study how he reorganized the education offered at them through an examination of how he restructured the admissions process and their curriculum. Finally, this study will evaluate how well Miliutin's educational reforms survived the reaction that followed in the wake of Alexander II's assassination and his resignation as war minister through an examination of the social composition of the cadet corps academies in the post-1881 period. Without question Miliutin's educational reforms provided a vital contribution to the transformation of Russia's armed forces from a...