Military history of Russia

Part of a series on the
History of Russia
Periods Prehistory  • Antiquity  • Early Slavs Rus' people pre-9th century     Rus' Khaganate     Arthania     Garðaríki 879–1240: Ancient Rus' Rurik • Baptism of Rus' • Russkaya Pravda Novgorod Land 882–1136 Principality of Polotsk 987–1397 Principality of Chernigov 988–1402 Rostov-Suzdal 1093–1157     full list... 1240–1480: Feudal Rus' Council of Liubech • Council of Uvetichi • Mongol conquest • Battle of Kulikovo Novgorod Republic 1136–1478 Vladimir-Suzdal 1157–1331 Principality of Moscow 1263–1547     full list... 1480–1917: Tsarist Russia Great Stand on the Ugra River • Time of Troubles • Zemsky Sobor • Treaty of Nystad • Petrovian reforms • 1812 Patriotic War • Decembrist Revolt • Emancipation reform • Russo-Japanese War • 1905 Revolution • October Manifesto • Second Patriotic War Tsardom of Russia 1547–1721 Russian Empire 1721–1917      Russian America 1799–1867      Grand Duchy of Finland 1809–1917      Congress Poland 1867–1915      Russian Manchuria 1900–1905      Uryankhay Krai 1914–1921 1917–1923: Russian Revolution February Revolution • Provisional Government • Dvoyevlastiye • July Days • Kornilov affair • Directorate • Constituent Assembly (election) • Bolshevik Coup • Civil War • White Guard • Red Army • Soviet-Polish War • Priamurye Govt. • War Communism • USSR • Emigrants Russian Republic 1917–1918      General Secretariat of Ukraine 1917–1918 Russian SFSR 1917–1922      Ukrainian SSR 1919–1922      Byelorussian SSR 1920–1922      Transcaucasian SFSR 1922–1922 Russian State 1918–1920      Provisional Priamurye Govt. 1921–1923     full list... 1923–1991: Soviet Era NEP • Cultural revolution • Korenization • Stalinism • Collectivization • Industrialization • GULAG • Great Purge • Great Patriotic War • Cold War • Warsaw Pact • Comecon • Crimea transfer • Era of Stagnation • Afghan War • Perestroika • Chernobyl disaster • Karabakh War • Parade of sovereignties (War of Laws) Soviet Union 1922–1991      Russian SFSR 1922–1991      Karelo-Finnish SSR 1940–1956         full list... Tannu Tuva 1921–1944 since 1991: Modern Russia August Coup • Belavezha Accords • Alma-Ata Protocol • USSR dissolution • CIS • "Near abroad" • Constitutional crisis • Privatization • CSTO • Chechen wars (1st • 2nd) • Oligarchy • Putinism • Five-Days War • Presidential terms amendments • Eurasian Economic Union • Annexation of Crimea • War in Donbas • 2020 amendments • Invasion of Ukraine (Prelude • Mass emigration • Debt default • Sanctions • Mobilization • 2022 annexation) Russian Federation 1991–present      Republic of Tatarstan 1994–present      Chechen Republic 2000–present      Republic of CrimeaA 2014–present      Donetsk People's RepublicAB 2022–present      Luhansk People's RepublicAB 2022–present      Kherson OblastAB 2022–present      Zaporizhzhia OblastAB 2022–present         full list... ^A Not internationally recognized. ^B Not fully controlled.
Timeline 860–1721 • 1721–1796 • 1796–1855 1855–1894 • 1894–1917 • 1917–1927 1927–1953 • 1953–1964 • 1964–1982 1982–1991 • 1991–present
Russia portal
v t e

Russian Armed Forces
Ministry of Defence
Staff
General Staff of the Armed Forces
Services (vid)
Russian Ground Forces Russian Aerospace Forces Russian Navy
Independent troops (rod)
Strategic Rocket Forces Russian Airborne Forces
Special operations force (sof)
Special Operations Forces
Other troops
Logistical Support
Military districts
Leningrad Military District Moscow Military District Southern Military District Central Military District Eastern Military District
History of the Russian military
Military history of Russia History of Russian military ranks Military ranks of the Soviet Union
v t e

The military history of Russia has antecedents involving Kievan Rus' and the Rus' principalities that succeeded it, the Mongol invasion of the early 13th century, Russia's numerous wars against Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Sweden, and Ottoman Empire, Prussia (Seven Years' War), France (especially the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War). The 20th century saw Russia's involvement in two world wars, as well as smaller military conflicts. During the Cold War, the greatly enlarged armed forces suppressed rebellions in Eastern Europe and became a nuclear superpower hostile to NATO, as well as China after 1960. The post-Cold War military history of the Russian Federation began in 1991.

The military history of Russia includes:

• the military history of Kievan Rus' (see also Military of Kievan Rus')
• the military history of the Rus' principalities (see also Armies of the Rus' principalities)
  • such as Muscovy (the Grand Duchy of Moscow, see also Landed Army)
• the military history of the Tsardom of Russia
• Military history of the Russian Empire
• Military history of the Soviet Union
• Military history of the Russian Federation

• History of Russia
• Foreign policy of the Russian Empire
• Russo-Turkish wars
• Russia and the Middle East
• Timeline of Russian history
• Timeline of Russian innovation
• List of wars involving Kievan Rus'
• List of wars involving the Grand Duchy of Moscow
• List of wars involving Russia

• Captivating History. The Eastern Front: A Captivating Guide to Soviet Union in World War 2, the Winter War, Siege of Leningrad, Operation Barbarossa and Battle of Stalingrad (2020) excerpt
• Dale, Robert. "Rats and Resentment: The Demobilization of the Red Army in Postwar Leningrad, 1945—50." Journal of Contemporary History 45.1 (2010): 113–133. online
• Davies, Brian L. "The Development of Russian Military Power 1453–1815." in Jeremy Black, ed., European Warfare 1453–1815 (Macmillan Education UK, 1999) pp. 145–179.
• De Madariaga, Isabel. Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great (2002).r, William C. Strategy and Power in Russia 1600-1914 (1998) excerpts
• Daugherty III, Leo J. "'Through a Looking Glass': The United States Army Looks at the Red Army of Workers and Peasants 1919–1926." Journal of Slavic Military Studies 22.1 (2009): 125–142.
• Dowling, Timothy. The Brusilov Offensive (Indiana UP, 2008).
• Duffy, Christopher. Russia's Military Way to the West: Origins and Nature of Russian Military Power, 1700–1800 (Routledge, 1981)
• Fuller Jr., William C. Strategy and Power in Russia, 1600–1914 (1992)
• Glantz, David M. and Jonathan M. House. When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (UP of Kansas, 1995)
• Hagen, Mark. Soldiers in the Proletarian Dictatorship (Cornell UP, 2019) on 1920s.
• Harrison, Richard W. The Russian Way of War: Operational Art, 1904-1940 (2001) excerpt
• Hartley, Janet M. Russia, 1762-1825: military power, the state, and the people (ABC-CLIO, 2008).
• Hughes, Lindsey (2000). Russia in the Age of Peter the Great. Yale UP. ISBN 978-0-300-08266-1. pp 63–91.
• Kagan, Frederick, and Robin Higham, eds. The Military History of Tsarist Russia (2008) excerpts
• Keep, John. Soldiers of the Tsar: Army and Society in Russia, 1462–1874 (Oxford UP, 1985).
• LeDonne, John P. The Russian Empire and the World, 1700–1917: The Geopolitics of Expansion and Containment (Oxford UP, 1997)
• LeDonne, John P. The Grand Strategy of the Russian Empire, 1650–1831 (Oxford UP, 2004).
• Lehrke, Jesse Paul. The transition to national armies in the former Soviet republics, 1988-2005 (Routledge, 2013).
• Lieven, Dominic. Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace (2011).
• Lincoln, W. Bruce. Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians in War and Revolution, 1914–1918 (1986), popular history.
• Lohr, Eric. "The Russian Army in World War I." Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 17.3 (2016): 688–697. online
• Menning, Bruce W. "Russian military innovation in the second half of the eighteenth Century." War & Society (1984) 2#1 pp. 23–41. online
• Miner, Steven M. "Military Crisis and Social Change in Russian and Soviet History." in Soviet National Security Policy Under Perestroika (Routledge, 2021) pp. 29–46.
• Overy, Richard. Russia's War (1998), on World War II
• Paul, Michael C. “The Military Revolution in Russia, 1550–1682,” Journal of Military History 68#1 (January 2004), pp. 9–46.
• Reese, Roger. The Soviet Military Experience: A History of the Soviet Army, 1917–1991 (Routledge, 2000)
• Riasanovsky, Nicholas V. and Mark D. Steinberg. A History of Russia (7th ed. 2004) 800 pages.
• Roberts, Geoffrey. Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953 (2008) excerpt and text search
• Robinson, Paul. "A Study of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich as Supreme Commander of the Russian Army, 1914–1915." Historian 75.3 (2013): 475–498.
• Sanborn, Josh. "The mobilization of 1914 and the question of the Russian nation: A reexamination." Slavic Review 59.2 (2000): 267–289. online
• Sanborn, Joshua. "The genesis of Russian warlordism: Violence and governance during the First World War and the Civil War." Contemporary European History 19.3 (2010): 195–213.
• Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, David, and Bruce Menning, eds. Reforming the Tsar's Army: Military Innovation in Imperial Russia from Peter the Great to the Revolution (Cambridge UP, 2004). scholarly essays
• Sirotkina, Irina. "7. The Politics of Etiology: Shell Shock in the Russian Army, 1914–1918." in Madness and the mad in Russian culture (University of Toronto Press, 2016) pp. 117–129.
• Steinberg, John W. "The military history of Romanov Russia." War & Society 40#2 (2021): 1–14.
• Steinberg, John W. et al. eds. The Russo-Japanese War in Global Perspective: World War Zero (Leiden: Brill, 2005).
• Stoff, Laurie. "They Fought for Russia: Female Soldiers of the First World War." in A Soldier and A Woman: Sexual Integration in the Military (2000).
• Stone, David. A Military History of Russia: From Ivan the Terrible to the War in Chechnya (2006) excerpts
• Stone, David R. The Russian Army in the Great War: The Eastern Front, 1914–1917 (University Press of Kansas, 2015)
• Stone, Norman. The Eastern Front 1914–1917 (Scribner's, 1975).
• Turner, Leonard Charles Frederick. "The Russian Mobilization in 1914." Journal of Contemporary History 3.1 (1968): 65–88.
• Wildman, Allan K. The End of the Russian Imperial Army (Princeton University Press, 1980).

• "Russias Military Modernisation An Assessment".
• "Russian Military History" a guide by Reina Pennington
• Mark Conrad's Home Page - Russian Military History