ABSTRACT
When the Russo-Japanese War ended officially in August of 1905 with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth, the task confronted the army of demobilizing more than 1.1 million reserves and thousands of other troops who became eligible for release from active duty either during the conflict or shortly after its conclusion. The festering discontent among the soldiers of the garrison manifested itself in a number of minor incidents throughout the fall, but no large-scale, open defiance occurred until the last part of November. The Rostov mutiny is virtually a case study of the problems within the Moscow garrison, and it aptly illustrates why the revolutionaries failed to turn any of the local outbreaks to their advantage. The Grand Duke Nikolai was commander-in-chief and in a position to determine whether troops would or would not be sent to Moscow was unfortunate for the local authorities in the city.
