The Tsar's Colonels

This study demonstrates how the modernization of Russia's general staff during the second half of the 19th century reshaped its intellectual and strategic outlook and equipped the staff to play a strong , and sometimes dominant, role in shaping Russian foreign policy. David Rich shows how the increasingly sophisticated, scientific and positivistic work attitudes and habits of the general staff acculturated younger officers, redefining their relationship with, and responsibilities to, the state. This generation of officers projected their characteristic notions onto the state and onto autocracy; professional concern for the security of the state eclipsed traditional unquestioning loyalty to the regime. The book also shows how divergence between diplomatic and military aims among those responsible for making strategy cost the state dearly in terms of economic stability and international standing.