Military history of Russia

Russian infantry marching to the front during First World War

Part of a series on the

History of Russia

Periods

Prehistory • Antiquity • Early Slavs |  Rus' people|  pre-9th century

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Rus' Khaganate|
Arthania|
Garðaríki|

* * *

879–1240: Ancient Rus'

* Rurik • Baptism of Rus' • Russkaya Pravda

Novgorod Land|  882–1136

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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History of the Russian military

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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

## See also

[edit]

* 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

## Further reading

[edit]

* 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).

## External links

[edit]

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

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