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Russo-Turkish War of Liberation 1877-1878 Chapter One - State of the countries, participating in the war, their armies and weapons at the start of the war Russia From the beginning of the 60s of the 19th century, Russia undertook a series of reforms, which led the country on to the way of capitalistic development. In the first place, this was the abolition of serfdom, which brought about the capitalist agrarian takeover. The financial loans concluded with France and Prussia and the tax increase in the country brought big investments to the agriculture, transport, metallurgy, and natural resources development. The construction of new plants and factories as well as the reorganization and re-equipment of already existing factories gave an impetus to the economic development. The reforms and class divisions in society further consolidated the positions of the emerging Russian bourgeoisie. All these factors as well as Russia's aspiration to restore its prestige from the period before the Crimean War by taking part in the settlement of the Eastern question, which was emerging anew, brought about reforms in the military as well. Those reforms, however, were slow due to shortage of funds. Moreover, the positions of the disappearing feudal class were not weakened enough by the new Russian bourgeoisie. In general, the military reforms were meant to re-man and re-arm the Russian army with the purpose of transforming it into an army of a new status. Dmitri A. Milyutin, Military Minister of Russia from 1861 until 1881, was a conceptual initiator of those reforms. The central and local institutions were reformed from 1864 until 1879. The country was divided into 15 military districts directly accountable to the Military Ministry. Army commanders in each district had civil and military power allowing them at a time of war, irrespective of other districts and at a short notice, to summon their troops and to make up separate army units as part of the Russian army. Russia introduced military service on January 1, 1874.1 All boys aged 20, irrespective of their social standing, were subject to conscription. The new law eliminated the possibility of paying off conscription or of exchanging people in the army. All men of age between 20 and 40 were obliged to serve 20 years altogether – 6 years in the acting army, 9 years in the reserve troops, and 5 years in the volunteers' army.2 The duration was different for some districts, types of military units and military personnel. The reform enabled Russia to double its army within short period of time. Three years after the reform was launched, the army had as many as 1,554,693 persons, out of which 722,193 were soldiers and officers in the acting army and 832,500 – in the reserve army.3 General Milyutin opened military and cadets' schools to provide the army with a corps of commissioned officers, which were much needed. Sons of richer Russian families were the first to be enrolled in those schools after graduating military high schools, which replaced the previously existing cadets' corps. Requirements at the cadets' schools were lower and children of lower social classes had greater chance of being accepted. It was envisaged that officers educated there would serve as junior commanders of acting and reserve units. 1500 officers were educated in the cadets' schools annually as compared to the much lower number of officers coming from military schools, which amounted to only 600 persons.4 As a whole, reforms related to the staffing of the Russian army had an impact on the education of both soldiers and officers. The troops in the Russian army fell into different categories: field, rear, reserve, and irregulars. Field troops were divided into infantry, artillery, cavalry, engineer, irregulars, and navy. The first three categories had Cossack units in their composition, which had the status of an irregular army due to the privileges they enjoyed. In the preparation for the war in 1877-1878, Bulgarian volunteers' units were enlisted. At the outset of military actions against the Ottoman Empire in June 1877, the Russian Danube Army numbered 180,000. For political reasons, two corps and several separate divisions had to be stationed along the Western border. Some of them remained there by the time the war ended. Poland was not at ease. The guards' army had not been involved in military activities after the war against Napoleon Bonaparte and it was mobilized at the beginning of the war.5 Taking note of the criticism that in the Russian-Turkish War in 1828-1829 Russia had started military actions with small numerical strength, it sought to avoid this mistake. That was the reason for the decision taken at the beginning of 1877 to include new units in the Danube Army – 13th and 14th corps, followed by the 4th corps. 2nd and 3rd infantry divisions were mobilized as well. This, however, was not enough.6 On the eve of the war, seven army corps were ready to head for the Danube. At the outset of the war, Russia had 300,000-strong army, including also irregular units, allied troops of Romania and Bulgaria's volunteers' army. There were 14 military districts on the territory of Russia – 9 were in the European part, 4 – in the Asiatic, and 1 – in the Caucasus. They had to provide 14 army corps. Depending of their population, some could have only one, while others could form two or three corps.7 Cossacks formed a separate military district. By the end of 1875, however, they had only a guards' corps. In the wake of the events on the Balkans and the escalation of the Eastern crisis in November 1876 and beginning of 1877, six other corps were set up, each one made up of two infantry and one cavalry divisions. In the course of the war, all other units were consecutively grouped into corps. The infantry brigade was made up of two regiments. The Russian regiment had three battalions of five companies – two infantry and one rifle (for the guards' unit). The infantry regiment had four battalions – three infantry and one rifle – each one of them having four companies. In war times, the Russian infantry regiment numbered 86 officers, 4057 sergeants and soldiers, and 234 irregulars.8 The guards' army had three cavalry divisions, while the army cavalry had 14 divisions staffed by approximately 40 Cossack regiments in war times. For the first time Cossack regiments were included in the regular army. Therefore, the cavalry had cuirassiers (only in the guards' army), uhlans, dragoons, hussars, and Don Cossacks. Each division was accompanied by a cavalry.
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