History UsefulNotes / RussiansWithRifles

The first major international military victory that made Russia a great power was against Napoleon. Minister of War Barclay de Tolly used what some military historians call "strategical ju-jitsu": he lured Napoleon's army deep into Russia, waited for the supply lines to stretch thin, and counterattacked when winter was closing in. Europe's greatest army was reduced to freezing, hungry crowds of deserters fleeing Russia as fast as they could. [[note]] It wasn't the last time their enemies were so obsessed with tactics and indifferent to/incompetent at logistics that that kind of thing could actually ''work''. Long experience had taught the Russians that the size and low population of their country meant that they, unlike the small and densely-populated countries of western Europe, simply could not ignore logistics (in favour of raiding/'foraging') and expect their men to survive - let alone accomplish their missions. There is a witticism that goes round in amateur military/historical circles naming Russia's greatest strategist as "General Winter". 'General Ensures-His-Men-Are-Adequately-Fed-And-Clothed-Through-Judicious-Planning-And-Stockpiling' ''would be'' his arch-nemesis if only Russia's enemies ever saw fit to employ him. [[/note]]

Concerning the last Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II, opinions differ. Communists think he was a bloody tyrant. Monarchists think he was a saint. But two things can be stated about him as hard facts: he was weak-willed and indecisive, and most of the Russian government's problems at this time stemmed from the government not having the loyalty of any one demographic, but the enmity of many if not all of them. Russian involvement in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne was almost inevitable, unfortunately, and although the regime seemed to weather the first two years of war well enough the economic situation became critical in the winter of 1916; instead of taxing the population harder or using the war as an excuse to institute land-reform, Nicholas had instead 'abolished' the state liquor monopoly (which provided 1/4 of all 1913 government revenue) - to 'ensure' that the grain thus used would be used for bread instead[[note]] This was not unusual in times of shortage. In 1713, in the 'New England' region of British North America, a group of prominent landowners petitioned the local government to ban the use of Barley in Alcohol due to the food-shortages the region was experiencing. Part of this was due to poor agricultural management but also several bouts of ''the blight'', which struck at wheat in particular - and tried to fund the war through inflationary policies. Regular income (after the abolition of the liquor monopoly) was only enough to cover some 1/3 of expenses, the other 2/3 coming from the government creating money to pay/loan to itself[[/note]] - i.e. the budget was always, ''always'' written off as if it was balanced, even though throughout the war it ran at a massive deficit. The 'theoretical' money used to pay all those expenses didn't just 'go away' after the budget was presented, it became actual money as it trickled down the various accountancy chains until it made its way into the economy as a whole - and some of which ends up as wages paid into bank accounts and physically handed to people as cash.[[/note]] and printing money with which to pay its personnel. The inflation was made worse by the fact that before the war, the Russian government had insisted on a ridiculously low proportion of cash-in-the-economy-as-a-whole to precious-metals-in-Russian-banks-held-as-reserves ratio: 1:1. That is to say, the value of all the Russian money in the entire 1913 Russian economy was exactly equal to that of all the precious metals in Russia's banks.[[note]]This kind of tight-fisted-ness was just stupid, given that it would be physically impossible for anyone or anything, not even the Russian government itself, to panic and exchange ''all the money in the entire economy'' for ''all the gold and silver in the entire economy'' (save that held by private individuals). By comparison, the contemporary USA had a ratio of more than 2:1.[[/note]]

The Russo-Japanese War was forced upon Russia when Japan attacked, seemingly out of the blue but really for reasons of geopolitical security. Russia's minister of police, [[GermanRussians von Plehve]], stated that "Russia needs a small victorious war to stave off the threat of revolution". This was the time when UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia seemed to truly become a VestigialEmpire, losing international reputation, getting mired in civil unrest and not knowing what to do with their own future, and the [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions revolution]] lurked somewhere very close. So, as many people today see the matter, UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia tried to choose the weakest possible enemy to fight, and chose Japan: it was just a feudal Asian state that only recently got out of MedievalStasis, [[SchmuckBait what could possibly go wrong]]?

The Russo-Japanese War was forced upon Russia when Japan attacked, seemingly out of the blue but really for reasons of geopolitical security. Russia's minister of police, [[GermanRussians von Plehve]], stated that "Russia needs a small victorious war to stave off the threat of revolution". This was the time when UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia seemed to truly become a VestigialEmpire, losing international reputation, getting mired in civil unrest and not knowing what to do with their own future, and the [[RomanovsAndRevolutions revolution]] lurked somewhere very close. So, as many people today see the matter, UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia tried to choose the weakest possible enemy to fight, and chose Japan: it was just a feudal Asian state that only recently got out of MedievalStasis, [[SchmuckBait what could possibly go wrong]]?

The Russo-Japanese War was forced upon Russia when Japan attacked, seemingly out of the blue but really for reasons of geopolitical security. Russia's minister of police, [[GermanRussians von Plehve]], stated that "Russia needs a small victorious war to stave off the threat of revolution". This was the time when TsaristRussia seemed to truly become a VestigialEmpire, losing international reputation, getting mired in civil unrest and not knowing what to do with their own future, and the [[RomanovsAndRevolutions revolution]] lurked somewhere very close. So, as many people today see the matter, TsaristRussia tried to choose the weakest possible enemy to fight, and chose Japan: it was just a feudal Asian state that only recently got out of MedievalStasis, [[SchmuckBait what could possibly go wrong]]?

All this eventually led to the White armies' demise; Kornilov died in battle, Kolchak was arrested and shot, other White leaders eventually fled Russia and founded White Emigre military unions that existed for a long time after the revolution; many tens of thousands of Whites ended up working as mercenaries [[NoMoreEmperors for various factions of China's Warlord Era]], such as the Shandong-province Warlord Zhang Zongchang of the 'Three Don't Knows'[[note]]It was said that he didn't know how many concubines/mistresses he had, how much money he had, or how many men he had in his armies[[/note]] - he hired enough of them (c.5000) to form a cavalry regiment and an armoured-train corps. Some of them inexplicably ''helped'' their Red counterparts in the latter's invasion of Xinjiang province in China. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Invasion_of_Xinjiang]]

The regular Russian military was created by UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat. Before him, the Muscovite army was a patchwork of feudal levies, uncontrollable, wild [[{{Cossacks}} Cossack]] allies and a semi-regular, but quite small military organization of Streltsy (Musketmen) - the Moscow city guard. Under the tsars Alexis I and Feodor III a Western-esque, mostly mercenary army of "new formation regiments" was slowly formed in addition to this, but it was Peter who decided to ditch the whole thing and start to build a modern (by his times) regular army with a chain of command.

** Equivalent UsefulNotes/CommonRanks: Supreme (General of the Armies, Marshal of the Soviet Union (but not the [[JosephStalin Soviet Generalissimus]], who was [[SerialEscalation even higher]])

* The ''Model 1900 "Putilov"'' was a 76.2mm field gun used during the Boxer Rebellion and the Russo-Japanese War. It was a design that incorporated a series of rubber recoil rings in the carriage trail that absorbed the gun's recoil and then expanded again to return the barrel into firing position, making it a semi-quick-firing gun. As with many Austro-Hungarian and German designs introduced in this period, it was already obsolescent as the French Model 1897 75mm field gun had been introduced three years previously.

* ''Nagant'' revolver was the main reason why the government decided to pander to him. The Smith & Wesson revolver was beginning to grow obsolete (it used black powder), Nagant offered his revolutionary design for a quite reasonable price. Quite slow and difficult to reload (it didn't have a break-out cylinder and has thus to be reloaded one-by-one), this revolver, however, used a special cartridge that eliminated the gas breakout from the cylinder front, and was thus very powerful for its time. Still a lot of them in storage. There was a double-action version for officers and a single-action version for rank-and-file who used a pistol as part of the equipment.

The first major international military victory that made Russia a great power was against Napoleon. Field Marshal Kutuzov (portrait on the page picture) used what some military historians call "strategical ju-jitsu": he lured Napoleon's army deep into Russia, waited for the supply lines to stretch thin, and counterattacked when winter was closing in. Europe's greatest army was reduced to freezing, hungry crowds of deserters fleeing Russia as fast as they could. [[note]] It wasn't the last time their enemies were so obsessed with tactics and indifferent to/incompetent at logistics that that kind of thing could actually ''work''. Long experience had taught the Russians that the size and low population of their country meant that they, unlike the small and densely-populated countries of western Europe, simply could not ignore logistics (in favour of raiding/'foraging') and expect their men to survive - let alone accomplish their missions. There is a witticism that goes round in amateur military/historical circles naming Russia's greatest strategist as "General Winter". 'General Ensures-His-Men-Are-Adequately-Fed-And-Clothed-Through-Judicious-Planning-And-Stockpiling' ''would be'' his arch-nemesis if only Russia's enemies ever saw fit to employ him. [[/note]]

[[caption-width-right:240:Mikhail Kutuzov, the field marshal who defeated UsefulNotes/{{Napoleon}}]]

** Equivalent CommonRanks: OF-6 (one star generals: US Brigadier General, UK Brigadier, 1930s Soviet Kombrig)

** Equivalent CommonRanks: OF-5 (colonels)

** Equivalent CommonRanks: OF-4 (Lt.Colonels)

** Equivalent CommonRanks: OF-3 (majors)

** Equivalent CommonRanks: OF-2 (captain)

** Equivalent CommonRanks: OF-1 Senior (1st lieutenants)

** Equivalent CommonRanks: OF-1 Junior (2nd lieutenants)

** Equivalent CommonRanks: equivalent to Soviet junior lieutenants, no Western equivalent

** Equivalent Common Ranks: the entire spectrum of OR.

[[caption-width-right:240:Mikhail Kutuzov, the field marshal who defeated Napoleon]]

The military part of the Table, containing the officer ranks, is listed here in comparison to the modern Common Ranks. Note that certain ranks have different terms than ones used today: for example, the rank of Lieutenant only was referred to as "leytenant" in the navy; in the other branches the Polish term ''poruchik'' was used instead. The rank ''praporschik'' (currently a Warrant Officer rank) was used for the EnsignNewbie, similar to the German rank Fahnrich.

** Equivalent CommonRanks: Supreme (General of the Armies, Marshal of the Soviet Union (but not the [[JosephStalin Soviet Generalissimus]], who was [[SerialEscalation even higher]])

** Equivalent CommonRanks: OF-10 (five star general: US General of the Army, UK Field Marshal, Soviet General of the Army)

** Equivalent CommonRanks: OF-9 (four star general: US and UK Generals, Soviet General-Colonel)

** Equivalent CommonRanks: OF-8 (three star general: US, UK and Soviet Lieutenant Generals)

** Equivalent CommonRanks: OF-7 (two star generals: US, UK and Soviet Major Generals)

It was a 'false' economic boom, however, because it was almost all related to war-industries. What's more, by 1916 the inflation and its effects began to bite and by March 1917 there were actually food shortages in Petrograd and Moscow, even though the country was producing a healthy surplus of grain; the dire economic situation, combined with all the tactical defeats and military setbacks, caused members of the Imperial Government and Duma/Parliament to effectively declare a coup in March 1917. The Provisional Government of the Republic under Alexander Kerensky wasn't much better than that the old regime, however, as the problems caused by inflation continued unabated. Several months of ''hyper''-inflation later, [[RedOctober the Communists executed a coup...]]

* ''Mosin-Nagant'' was the five-shot bolt-action rifle that replaced the Berdan and became famous in both the [[RedOctober Russian Civil War]] and [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo the Great Patriotic War]]. It is now sold to private citizens as a hunting weapon. About the only things that connects it to the famous Belgian weaponsmith is basically a lawsuit, as the only detail that Captain Mosin borrowed from Nagant's competing design was present only in the prototype, was completely redesigned in the trials and refinement stage and wasn't even all that important to begin with -- it simply prevented some possible malfunctions. But the Tsar's government decided to placate a famous foreigner and paid him the same amount as to Mosin. Nagant then felt that it was a proof of his copyright and ran with it, advertising himself as one of the rifle's co-designers — which is why the rifle is called as such in the West.

Milyutin also oversaw the army's rearmament. Initially, muzzle-loading rifles replaced the old smoothbore muskets used since Peter the Great's time. When the [[AustroPrussianWar Austro-Prussian War]] showed that breech-loading rifles were superior, the Russians chose to adopt new rifles and turn their existing rifles into breech-loaders. The weapons adopted (Austrian Krenk, American Berdans 1 and 2) would be Russia's main rifles until the 1890s. The Russians also adopted a Smith and Wesson revolver as their main pistol. For artillery, rifled breech-loading field guns were adopted in 1867, which were made of bronze and used the German Krupp breech system.

* The ''Model 1900 "Putilov"'' was a 76.2mm field gun used during the Boxer Rebellion and the Russo-Japanese War. It was a design that incorporated a series of rubber recoil rings in the carriage trail that absorbed the gun's recoil and then expanded again to return the barrel into firing position, making it a semi-quick-firing gun. It was already obsolete as the French Model 1897 75mm field gun was introduced three years before.
* The ''1877 Baranovsky 2.5-inch gun'' was an experimental quick-firing field gun that employed a spring-based recoil mechanism. Its creator died when he mishandled a fuse during gun testing, but the Baranovsky gun was employed in the Russo-Turkish War and in certain mountain artillery batteries in the 1880s.

* ''Licorne'' (The Unicorn Gun) was a Russian model of howitzer that was all the rage from the late XVIII century to the Crimean War but lingered on until replaced by rifled artillery (some of them were still in service during the UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar!). It was called such because it was decorated with a cast iron figurine of an unicorn.

Concerning the last Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II, opinions differ. Communists think he was a bloody tyrant. Monarchists think he was a saint. But two things can be stated about him as hard facts: he was weak-willed and indecisive, and most of the Russian government's problems at this time stemmed from the government not having the loyalty of any one demographic, but the enmity of many if not all of them. Russian involvement in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne was almost inevitable, unfortunately, and although the regime seemed to weather the first two years of war well enough the economic situation became critical in the winter of 1916; instead of taxing the population harder or using the war as an excuse to institute land-reform, Nicholas had instead 'abolished' the state liquor monopoly (which provided 1/4 of all 1913 government revenue) - to 'ensure' that the grain thus used would be used for bread instead[[note]] This was not unusual in times of shortage. In 1713, in the 'New England' region of British North America, a group of prominent landowners petitioned the local government to ban the use of Barley in Alcohol due to the food-shortages the region was experiencing. Part of this was due to poor agricultural management but also several bouts of ''the blight'', which struck at wheat in particular - and tried to fund the war through inflationary policies. Regular income (after the abolition of the liquor monopoly) was only enough to cover some 1/3 of expenses, the other 2/3 coming from the government creating money to pay/loan to itself[[note]]i.e. the budget was always, ''always'' written off as if it was balanced, even though throughout the war it ran at a massive deficit. The 'theoretical' money used to pay all those expenses didn't just 'go away' after the budget was presented, it became actual money as it trickled down the various accountancy chains until it made its way into the economy as a whole - and some of which ends up as wages paid into bank accounts and physically handed to people as cash.[[/note]] and printing money with which to pay its personnel. The inflation was made worse by the fact that before the war, the Russian government had insisted on a ridiculously low proportion of cash-in-the-economy-as-a-whole to precious-metals-in-Russian-banks-held-as-reserves ratio: 1:1. That is to say, the value of all the Russian money in the entire 1913 Russian economy was exactly equal to that of all the precious metals in Russia's banks.[[note]]This kind of tight-fisted-ness was just stupid, given that it would be physically impossible for anyone or anything, not even the Russian government itself, to panic and exchange ''all the money in the entire economy'' for ''all the gold and silver in the entire economy'' (save that held by private individuals). By comparison, the contemporary USA had a ratio of more than 2:1.[[/note]]

Concerning the last Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II, opinions differ. Communists think he was a bloody tyrant. Monarchists think he was a saint. But two things can be stated about him as hard facts: he was weak-willed and indecisive, and most of the Russian government's problems at this time stemmed from the government not having the loyalty of any one demographic, but the enmity of many if not all of them. Russian involvement in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne was almost inevitable, unfortunately, and although the regime seemed to weather the first two years of war well enough the economic situation became critical in the winter of 1916; instead of taxing the population harder or using the war as an excuse to institute land-reform, Nicholas had instead 'abolished' the state liquor monopoly (which provided 1/4 of all 1913 government revenue) - to 'ensure' that the grain thus used would be used for bread instead - and tried to fund the war through inflationary policies. Regular income (after the abolition of the liquor monopoly) was only enough to cover some 1/3 of expenses, the other 2/3 coming from the government creating money to pay/loan to itself[[note]]i.e. the budget was always, ''always'' written off as if it was balanced, even though throughout the war it ran at a massive deficit. The 'theoretical' money used to pay all those expenses didn't just 'go away' after the budget was presented, it became actual money as it trickled down the various accountancy chains until it made its way into the economy as a whole - and some of which ends up as wages paid into bank accounts and physically handed to people as cash.[[/note]] and printing money with which to pay its personnel. The inflation was made worse by the fact that before the war, the Russian government had insisted on a ridiculously low proportion of cash-in-the-economy-as-a-whole to precious-metals-in-Russian-banks-held-as-reserves ratio: 1:1. That is to say, the value of all the Russian money in the entire 1913 Russian economy was exactly equal to that of all the precious metals in Russia's banks.[[note]]This kind of tight-fisted-ness was just stupid, given that it would be physically impossible for anyone or anything, not even the Russian government itself, to panic and exchange ''all the money in the entire economy'' for ''all the gold and silver in the entire economy'' (save that held by private individuals). By comparison, the contemporary USA had a ratio of more than 2:1.[[/note]]

The first major international military victory that made Russia a great power was against Napoleon. Field Marshal Kutuzov (portrait on the page picture) used what some military historians call "strategical ju-jitsu": he lured Napoleon's army deep into Russia, waited for the supply lines to stretch thin, and counterattacked when winter was closing in. Europe's greatest army was reduced to freezing, hungry crowds of deserters fleeing Russia as fast as they could. [[note]] It wasn't the last time their enemies were so obsessed with tactics and indifferent to/incompetent at logistics that that kind of thing could actually ''work''. Long experience had taught the Russians that the size and low population of their country meant that they, unlike the small and densely-populated countries of western Europe, simply could not ignore logistics (in favour of raiding/'foraging') and expect their men to survive - let alone accomplish their missions. There is a witticism that goes round in amateur military/historical circles naming Russia's greatest strategist as "General Winter". 'General Ensures-His-Men-Are-Adequately-Fed-And-Clothed-Through-Judicious-Planning-And-Stockpiling' would be his arch-nemesis, but Russia's enemies never seem to see fit to employ him. [[/note]]

The first major international military victory that made Russia a great power was against Napoleon. Field Marshal Kutuzov (portrait on the page picture) used what some military historians call "strategical ju-jitsu": he lured Napoleon's army deep into Russia, waited for the supply lines to stretch thin, and counterattacked when winter was closing in. Europe's greatest army was reduced to freezing, hungry crowds of deserters fleeing Russia as fast as they could. [[note]]It wasn't the last time they made use of that strategy. There is a witticism that goes round in military/historical circles, naming Russia's best military asset as "General Winter".[[/note]]

The regular Russian military was created by PeterTheGreat. Before him, the Muscovite army was a patchwork of feudal levies, uncontrollable, wild [[{{Cossacks}} Cossack]] allies and a semi-regular, but quite small military organization of Streltsy (Musketmen) - the Moscow city guard. Under the tsars Alexis I and Feodor III a Western-esque, mostly mercenary army of "new formation regiments" was slowly formed in addition to this, but it was Peter who decided to ditch the whole thing and start to build a modern (by his times) regular army with a chain of command.

Funnily enough the morale of Russia's troops had been alright up 'til 1916, and her equipment was - though slightly dated - pretty good actually, because it was standardised and thus all the ammunition and equipment was compatible (unlike, say, in Austria-Hungary). Though 1914 and 1915 had seen shortages of weapons and a critical shortage of ammunition, this problem was entirely solved by 1916 and the economy was booming, having grown by a full 'fifth' during the course of the war (by Alexander Keresnky's own reckoning).

The first major international military victory that made Russia a great power was against Napoleon. Field Marshal Kutuzov (portrait on the page picture) used what some military historians call "strategical aikido": he lured Napoleon's army deep into Russia, waited for the supply lines to stretch thin, and counterattacked when winter was closing in. Europe's greatest army was reduced to freezing, hungry crowds of deserters fleeing Russia as fast as they could. [[note]]It wasn't the last time they made use of that strategy. There is a witticism that goes round in military/historical circles, naming Russia's best military asset as "General Winter".[[/note]]

The regular Russian military was created by PeterTheGreat. Before him, the Muscovite army was a patchwork of feudal levies, uncontrollable, wild [[{{Cossacks}} Cossack]] allies and a semi-regular, but quite small military organization of Streltsy (Musketmen) - the Moscow city guard. Under the tsars Alexis I and Feodor III a Western-esque army of "new formation regiments" was slowly formed in addition to this, but it was Peter who decided to ditch the whole thing and start to build a modern (by his times) regular army with a chain of command.

The regular Russian military was created by PeterTheGreat. Before him, the Muscovite army was a patchwork of feudal levies, uncontrollable, wild [[{{Cossacks}} Cossack]] allies and a semi-regular, but quite small military organization of Streltsy (Musketmen) - the Moscow city guard. Peter decided to ditch this ragtag army and started to build a modern (by his times) regular army with a chain of command.

The Turkish Army by the beginning of the war was a mess; while in theory 400,000 men could be called to arms, the Ottoman military lacked the organization and institutions to equip and mobilize such an army into war. Though the Turks did manage to get some excellent weapons like the Peabody-Martini rifle and Krupp field gun (some of the pieces Turkey bought proved themselves in the [[FrancoPrussianWar Franco-Prussian War]].

'''Once Again Into the Breach: RussoJapaneseWar '''

Concerning the last Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II, opinions differ. Communists think he was a bloody tyrant. Monarchists think he was a saint. But two things can be stated about him as hard facts: he was weak-willed and indecisive, and most of the Russian government's problems at this time stemmed from the government not having the loyalty of any one demographic, but the enmity of many if not all of them. Russian involvement in WorldWarOne was almost inevitable, unfortunately, and although the regime seemed to weather the first two years of war well enough the economic situation became critical in the winter of 1916; instead of taxing the population harder or using the war as an excuse to institute land-reform, Nicholas had instead 'abolished' the state liquor monopoly (which provided 1/4 of all 1913 government revenue) - to 'ensure' that the grain thus used would be used for bread instead - and tried to fund the war through inflationary policies. Regular income (after the abolition of the liquor monopoly) was only enough to cover some 1/3 of expenses, the other 2/3 coming from the government creating money to pay/loan to itself[[note]]i.e. the budget was always, ''always'' written off as if it was balanced, even though throughout the war it ran at a massive deficit. The 'theoretical' money used to pay all those expenses didn't just 'go away' after the budget was presented, it became actual money as it trickled down the various accountancy chains until it made its way into the economy as a whole - and some of which ends up as wages paid into bank accounts and physically handed to people as cash.[[/note]] and printing money with which to pay its personnel. The inflation was made worse by the fact that before the war, the Russian government had insisted on a ridiculously low proportion of cash-in-the-economy-as-a-whole to precious-metals-in-Russian-banks-held-as-reserves ratio: 1:1. That is to say, the value of all the Russian money in the entire 1913 Russian economy was exactly equal to that of all the precious metals in Russia's banks.[[note]]This kind of tight-fisted-ness was just stupid, given that it would be physically impossible for anyone or anything, not even the Russian government itself, to panic and exchange ''all the money in the entire economy'' for ''all the gold and silver in the entire economy'' (save that held by private individuals). By comparison, the contemporary USA had a ratio of more than 2:1.[[/note]]

The White Movement, founded by General Kornilov in 1918, was an anti-communist resistance consisting mainly of former Tsarist army officers. Most of them were made officers during WorldWarOne, with the pre-war, hardline Tsarist career military almost completely wiped. Most of them weren't monarchists, but rather democrats or social-democrats. But they adopted most of the Tsarist army structure, ranks, weapons and regulations and thus are usually viewed as a continuation of the Imperial army rather than a new structure.

* ''Licorne'' (The Unicorn Gun) was a Russian model of howitzer that was all the rage from the late XVIII century to the Crimean War but lingered on until replaced by rifled artillery (some of them were still in service during the RussoJapaneseWar!). It was called such because it was decorated with a cast iron figurine of an unicorn.

* ''Mosin-Nagant'' was the five-shot bolt-action rifle that replaced the Berdan and became famous in both the [[RedOctober Russian Civil War]] and [[WorldWarTwo the Great Patriotic War]]. It is now sold to private citizens as a hunting weapon. About the only things that connects it to the famous Belgian weaponsmith is basically a lawsuit, as the only detail that Captain Mosin borrowed from Nagant's competing design was present only in the prototype, was completely redesigned in the trials and refinement stage and wasn't even all that important to begin with -- it simply prevented some possible malfunctions. But the Tsar's government decided to placate a famous foreigner and paid him the same amount as to Mosin. Nagant then felt that it was a proof of his copyright and ran with it, advertising himself as one of the rifle's co-designers — which is why the rifle is called as such in the West.

At this time, Turkish forces were caught by surprise. The original Russian war plan envisioned a bold thrust straight to Constantinople, but the Russian field commanders decided to be more cautious and concentrated on securing enemy strongpoints that could flank and threaten the Russian advance. Consequently, the Russians slowed down their advance and gave the Turkish forces breathing space.

On the other hand, a combined detachment (5800 infantry, 5000 cavalry, 32 guns) led by General I.V. Gurko advanced south at the general's own initiative throughout July. In Bulgaria, the Balkan mountain range split the country horizontally on a north-south axis. There were four major passes through these mountains and any force that managed to cross them would be free to march straight to Constantinople. Gurko seized the major town of Turnovo on the north side with the intention of seizing a passage through the Balkan mountains. He then crossed the mountains through Hainkioi Pass in order to prepare for an attack to seize the bigger Shipka Pass (which was later abandoned by the Turks). Gurko wanted to continue his advance south, but the arrival of reinforcements under Suleiman Pasha made his plan unfeasible. But his cavalry managed to disrupt Turkish rail and telegraph lines, and cause panic in southern Bulgaria. To some observers, Gurko's actions demonstrated how cavalry retained their usefulness on a late 19th century battlefield.

As we've said before, the Russians were also fighting to eliminate Turkish strongpoints in northern Bulgaria. After Russian forces seized the riverside town of Nikopol (4 July) the next objective was Plevna. The Russians and Turks arrived in Plevna on the same day, but the Turks were faster and dug in to await the Russians. The Russians (later assisted by the Romanian Army) launched three attacks (first and second on July, third in August), but they all failed to dislodge the Turks. In combat that looked like something out of Port Arthur and World War I, massed infantry assaults were thrown against Turkish trenches and redoubts and all of them were driven back. While it is tempting to use Plevna as a case that all combat in the late 19th century was trench warfare, it must be noted that Russian tactics relied too much on the bayonet and fire support was absent.

After the third attack failed the Russians decided to besiege Plevna under the command of CrimeanWar siege engineer Totleben and seal off the town by capturing three strongpoints (Dolni Dabnik, Gorni Dabnik, Telish) along the road to Sofia. The combat to seal the road resembled Plevna--bayonet assaults were launched with scant artillery support. Russian bayonet assaults were actually successful in taking Gorni Dabnik (albeit with heavy casualties) but they did not work at Telish. The Russians then concentrated ten artillery batteries on Telish and fired 3,000 rounds to force the Turks in the town to surrender. When the two towns fell the Turkish commander at Dolni Dabnik decided to abandon the town and join the forces at Plevna. By the end of November, the Turks at Plevna began to run low on supplies; the Turkish commander launched a breakout attack to the northwest but Russian counterattacks forced him back into the town. After the failure of the breakout Turks decided to surrender.

After Plevna, the Russian army was free of its troubles in northern Bulgaria. In December the Russians sent three columns to defeat the Turks south of the Balkan mountains. The western column under Gurko seized Sofia and joined up with the center column for an attack on Philippopolis; a third column exited the Shipka Pass and defeated a large Turkish force at Sheinovo. After the new year, Gurko's forces took Philippopolis after a battle and the Russian army was only fifteen kilometers from Constantinople before hostilities ended. The war resulted in Romania and Bulgaria regaining independence and Serbia increasing its territory. However, the war had drained Russian coffers, and the appearance of the Royal Navy south of Constantinople implied British intervention if the Russians attacked the Turkish capital.

Concerning the last Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II, opinions differ. Communists think he was a bloody tyrant. Monarchists think he was a saint. But two things can be stated about him as hard facts: he was weak-willed and indecisive, and most of the Russian government's problems at this time stemmed from the government not having the loyalty of any one demographic, but the enmity of many if not all of them. Russian involvement in WorldWarOne was almost inevitable, unfortunately, and although the regime seemed to whether the first two years of war well enough the economic situation became critical in the winter of 1916; instead of taxing the population harder or using the war as an excuse to institute land-reform, Nicholas had instead 'abolished' the state liquor monopoly (which provided 1/4 of all 1913 government revenue) - to 'ensure' that the grain thus used would be used for bread instead - and tried to fund the war through inflationary policies. Regular income (after the abolition of the liquor monopoly) was only enough to cover some 1/3 of expenses, the other 2/3 coming from the government creating money to pay/loan to itself[[note]]i.e. the budget was always, ''always'' written off as if it was balanced, even though throughout the war it ran at a massive deficit. The 'theoretical' money used to pay all those expenses didn't just 'go away' after the budget was presented, it became actual money as it trickled down the various accountancy chains until it made its way into the economy as a whole - and some of which ends up as wages paid into bank accounts and physically handed to people as cash.[[/note]] and printing money with which to pay its personnel. The inflation was made worse by the fact that before the war, the Russian government had insisted on a ridiculously low proportion of cash-in-the-economy-as-a-whole to precious-metals-in-Russian-banks-held-as-reserves ratio: 1:1. That is to say, the value of all the Russian money in the entire 1913 Russian economy was exactly equal to that of all the precious metals in Russia's banks.[[note]]This kind of tight-fisted-ness was just stupid, given that it would be physically impossible for anyone or anything, not even the Russian government itself, to panic and exchange ''all the money in the entire economy'' for ''all the gold and silver in the entire economy'' (save that held by private individuals). By comparison, the contemporary USA had a ratio of more than 2:1.[[/note]]

All this expansion raised alarm bells in Britain, when there was a real fear that the Russians would use their Central Asian gains as a springboard to conquer the British Raj. But that story is for another [[TheGreatGame page]]...