ABSTRACT
The central role of military forces and the notion of Russia as an armed camp are familiar concepts. This chapter determines what were the most important demands made on society by the military. It discusses to what extent did these demands change over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The chapter shows how did these changes affect Russia's position as a great power, and particularly what were the consequences for Russia of the "industrialization of warfare" in the late nineteenth century. For about a century and a half, from Peter the Great's defeat of Charles XII at Poltava in 1709, until the Crimean War ended in defeat in 1856, Imperial Russia emerged successful from almost every conflict. The chapter also discusses what were the basic characteristics of land warfare in the era of Russian success (1709–1856).
