ABSTRACT
Historians of imperial Russia have agreed unanimously and confidently that Russia's humiliation in the Crimean War led directly to the emancipation of the serfs and to wide-ranging social, economic, political, and military changes of enormous historical significance. Marxists were emphasizing pressures of a "revolutionary situation" in a country in transition from feudalism to capitalism, the reforms of the Russian army introduced by D. A. Miliutin, war minister throughout most of Alexander II's quarter-century long reign. Miliutin was appointed war minister only in November 1861, however, more than six and one half years after Alexander II acceded to the imperial throne, leaving an apparent gap at a time when preparations for reform were begun in most other spheres of government and society. Indeed, the period after the Crimean War is so well known as a time of change of enormous historical significance for the future of Russia that inactivity in the military seems remarkable, especially in the aftermath of military defeat.
