Skip to main content
Support
Book

All the Tsar's Men: Russia's General Staff and the Fate of the Empire, 1898-1914

All the Tsar's Men: Russia's General Staff and the Fate of the Empire, 1898-1914 by John W. Steinberg

Publisher

Woodrow Wilson Center Press with Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010

ISBN

978-0-8018-9545-6
All the Tsar's Men: Russia's General Staff and the Fate of the Empire, 1898-1914 by John W. Steinberg

Overview

Chapters

Reviews

All the Tsar’s Men examines how institutional reforms designed to prepare the Imperial Russian Army for the modern battlefield failed to prevent devastating defeats in both the 1905 Russo-Japanese War and World War I. John W. Steinberg argues that the General Staff officers who devised new educational and doctrinal reforms had the experience, dedication, and leadership skills to defend the empire in the new age of warfare but were continually impeded by institutionalized inefficiency and rigid control from their superiors. These officers, he explains, were operating within a command structure unwilling to grant them the autonomy necessary to effect significant reform, which proved disastrous for the army and—ultimately—the empire.

About the Author

John W. Steinberg

Former Research Scholar;
Professor of History, Austin Peay State University
Read More

Kennan Institute

The Kennan Institute is the premier US center for advanced research on Russia and Eurasia and the oldest and largest regional program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Kennan Institute is committed to improving American understanding of Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the surrounding region though research and exchange.  Read more