Vladimir Shirogorov. Quo Vadis. The Military Revolution in Eastern Europe (original) (raw)
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EASTERN EUROPE AND THE «MILITARY REVOLUTION» CONCEPT: SOME HISTORIOGRAPHICAL REMARKS
The concept of a «military revolution» was formulated in the British historiography in the mid-XXth century (The term «military revolution» for a designation of this overturn has been entered by the British historian M.Roberts in 1955). It includes the emergence of the large permanent professional armies with a predominance of infantry and artillery, new forms of organization, combat training and methods of warfare. The fire-arms wide circulation has led to the revolution in the art of war. It has caused serious changes in the political, economic, social spheres at first in the West European society, and then in the neighbor states. This concept had an extremely strong influence on the development of the research of the nature of the army, society and the state of Early Modern times. Studies discovering the development of military institutes in different regions of Europe, their influence on the formation of centralized states and the transcontinental expansion of European civilization have led to a series of heated discussions that continued till today. The problems of the influence of the «military revolution» on the historical fate of the countries of Eastern Europe and the peculiarities of its evolution hold a specific place. The article reflects the basic trends of studying of a concept of military revolution in Eastern Europe region and a present condition of a problem in the contemporary historiography.
Warfare in Eastern Europe, 1500-1800
Journal of Military History, 2013
Parrott advocates changing the current nomenclature from "absolute state" to "fiscal-military" state. The term captures more accurately the priorities of governments, that is, the need to raise money for military objectives, without the political baggage and implied notions of state centralization and modernity. Parrott follows here John Brewer's analysis of eighteenth-century English public finance.
The Role of the Cultural Context in the Russian Military Revolution
Quaestio Rossica, 2021
The article examines the process of military transformation in Russia between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries within the framework of the Military Revolution concept. This concept, introduced by British historian Michael Roberts in 1955, was originally used to link changes in the purely military sphere related to the introduction of gunpowder and the increased number of armed forces with changes in state structures in Western European countries. However, the Military Revolution concept can also be used to describe modernisation processes in non-European countries. Some historians have pointed out that military reforms often lead to a holistic transformation of the socio-economic system according to European model. Others, including those dealing with the issue of the Military Revolution in Russia, focus primarily on the role of economic, social, and educational backwardness, which resulted in the construction of a modern military system and a modern state different from that found in the West. This article attempts to compliment this historical perspective by highlighting the importance of the cultural context in the analysis of the military modernisation in Russia. Thus, it is based mainly on secondary sources, using a cultural perspective for analysing historical processes. It explores the traditional cultural narrative - rooted in Orthodoxy and patrimonial socio-political system - which resulted in the emergence of specific beliefs about waging war and achieving military victory, as well as, war practices which differed from those in the West. As a result, it is argued that the introduction of similar technological and organisational solutions as part of the Military Revolution process in the state of the tsars was accompanied not only by different political and socio-economic conditions but also by different values, which were reflected in the various ways of reforming the troops and their subsequent use on the battlefields.
Lexington Books, 2021
Eastern Europe circa 1450–1500 was an area of great change dictated by war. The Golden Horde, Eurasian super-empire, collapsed. Lithuania, the power from the Baltic to the Black Sea, fell into the Civil War. Poland, inspired by its vigour of the Christian bulwark, moved east. Moscow rose from the debris of its Dynastic War and moved west to merge all former Rus’. The Ottomans advanced north from the Black Sea in alliance with the Crimean Khanate. Sweden descended into the Eastern Baltic. The Kazan Khanate rose to the world-system position in Northern Eurasia. The rivals wrestled the territories for their nation-building and resources for the hegemonic struggle that was impending. That clash of enormous magnitude happened when the firearms in Eastern Europe were exotic, and the bureaucracy was primitive. Nonetheless, the East European forces produced the critical geopolitical changes usually ascribed to later armies packed with firearms and shaped by absolutist regimes. This book presents research on the conflict. The military models of contenders are confronted in action against each other and compared with the military transformation in Western Europe. It discovers an interaction between changes of warfare, technical, tactical, organizational, and social and political phenomena of nation-building and international relations. This book researches the armed conflict in Eastern Europe circa 1450–1500. It compares the military models of its participants with the transformation in Western Europe and discovers an interaction between warfare and phenomena of nation-building and international relations.
War on the Eve of Nations. Conflicts and Militaries in Eastern Europe, 1450–1500.
Lexington Books. The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2021
Eastern Europe circa 1450–1500 was an area of great change dictated by war. The Golden Horde, Eurasian super-empire, collapsed. Lithuania, the power from the Baltic to the Black Sea, fell into the Civil War. Poland, inspired by its vigour of the Christian bulwark, moved east. Moscow rose from the debris of its Dynastic War and moved west to merge all former Rus’. The Ottomans advanced north from the Black Sea in alliance with the Crimean Khanate. Sweden descended into the Eastern Baltic. The Kazan Khanate rose to the world-system position in Northern Eurasia. The rivals wrestled the territories for their nation-building and resources for the hegemonic struggle that was impending. That clash of enormous magnitude happened when the firearms in Eastern Europe were exotic, and the bureaucracy was primitive. Nonetheless, the East European forces produced the critical geopolitical changes usually ascribed to later armies packed with firearms and shaped by absolutist regimes. This book presents research on the conflict. The military models of contenders are confronted in action against each other and compared with the military transformation in Western Europe. It discovers an interaction between changes of warfare, technical, tactical, organizational, and social and political phenomena of nation-building and international relations. This book researches the armed conflict in Eastern Europe circa 1450–1500. It compares the military models of its participants with the transformation in Western Europe and discovers an interaction between warfare and phenomena of nation-building and international relations.
The Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe
2016
Europe has been described as the "mother of revolutions". Indeed, the political revolutions in British America, France, Russia and elsewhere in the last two centuries have greatly affected politics and statecraft. Even more profoundly the industrial revolution has kept the economies, societies and cultures of the world in its thrall since the eighteenth century. However, the previous three hundred years (1450-1750) saw their share of cultural, economic, social and political revolutions that laid the foundations of the subsequent changes in later modern Europe. Traditionally, graduate seminars in early modern Europe have concentrated on the cultural revolutions of early modern Europe (Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment). In other cases they have looked into the economic, social and political transformation of early modern Europe (Commercial Revolution, agricultural revolution, and the rise of the modern state). This seminar will address an area of relatively recent investigation and interpretation in the history of early modern Europe. For the past forty years, scholars have researched and debated the question of a military revolution in early modern Europe. They have discussed whether the transformation of European armies and the conduct of war in this period constitutes a historical revolution on the scale of the ones mentioned above. This online seminar will study the history of Early Modern Europe from the perspective of the growth and development of the military institutions between the 15th and the 18th century. The changes in military technology, corps or branches of service, recruitment, organization, tactics, and military theory transformed the armies of Europe in an unprecedented manner. This transformation would have a tremendous impact on the development of modern states, be they absolute monarchies, limited monarchies or commonwealths. It would also affect the economies and societies of Europe through the "total wars" of the 17th century and the "limited wars" of the 18th century. The transformation of European armies and navies would also contribute to European commercial and colonial expansion in the rest of the world. We will investigate such general problems as: the gunpowder revolution and its affect upon European and other states and societies; and the relationship of the modern armies to their societies, economies and cultures; the wars of religion as a crucible from which the early modern state emerged; and the question of the Military Revolution and its impact on European and World history. PURPOSES AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE: 1) To acquaint students with the problem of the rise of the modern military, and in so doing, give them an understanding of the history of Europe from the late 15th century to the early 18th century. 2) To sharpen the students' skills in: (a) extemporaneous discussion; (b) prepared speaking; (c) historical interpretation; (d) research; and (e) writing. CLASS SCHEDULE AND PROCEDURE 1) The class schedule will consist of one assignment each week. The format of each session will consist of: (a) reading of general studies of the history of war in its early modern phases; (b) reading of web secondary and primary sources on specific problems and issues relating to the week's topics; and (c) discussion of some of the issues of the week's readings and essays.
Stosunki Międzynarodowe/ International Relations , 2018
Military thought and military issues traditionally played an important role in Russia’s history. Even economic, political, social and educational reforms were mainly triggered by the needs related to military issues – preparation for wars or unsuccessful military campaigns of the Russian Empire (between the 17th and 19th centuries against Poland and Ottoman Turks and in the 20th century by Russia’s defeat in the war against Japan). It should be noted that the reforms during the reigns of Peter the Great and Catherine II and also in the 19th century, were introduced under military and external security challenges. In this regard, after the seizure of power, despite their tremendous critics on Tsarist government militarization policies, Bolsheviks hugely relied on military power too. The military affairs were doctrinalized during the Bolsheviks rule for the first time in Russian history.This paper analyzes the military thought in the Russian Empire in the end of the 19th century and its transformation during the first years of Soviet rule in the early 20th century. It also studies discussions among the Soviet political and military elite on theoretical and practical facets of the military and methods of waging war in 1920s as well as explores the creation of the Russian non-linear warfare theory, the only warfare concept of the Soviet Union which is recognized worldwide. The paper concludes that the thought dating back to those periods is also used in contemporary Russia.