Mutiny Amid Repression: Russian Soldiers by John Bushnell (.ePUB)
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Mutiny Amid Repression: Russian Soldiers in the Revolution of 1905-1906 by John Bushnell
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Overview: This study began with the discovery of an anomaly: very large numbers of mutinies in the Tsarist armed forces took place in 1905 and 1906. There were, at last count, a minimum of 211 mutinies between October 17 and December 31, 1905, another 202 in 1906. Long before the full extent of the upheaval in the army became apparent, the evidence appeared to indicate that disaffection among soldiers had far surpassed the level that could be accommodated by the universally accepted assumption—my own assumption—that the principal role of the army during the 1905 Revolution was suppression of civil disorder. And the army had, indubitably, suppressed revolution. My first supposition was, therefore, that with perhaps a few exceptions the mutinies could not have been of much consequence. Presentation of a petition of service-related grievances—the high point of most of the disorders in the army—may have been mutiny as defined by law but appeared to be a feeble challenge to the military order, and no threat at all to the Tsarist regime. However, collation of mutinies with units garrisoned in European Russia in late 1905 disclosed that one-third of the infantry regiments with which the regime presumably crushed revolution had mutinied. Even had the mutinies been of little account individually, their number made them significant. A closer look at the mutinies showed that they were not individually inconsequential, and that they were the tangible issue of a military revolution that went far beyond mutiny and involved many more than mutinous units. The mutinies of 1905 could not be explained away and so presented something of a puzzle. The mutinies of 1906 were positively unsettling, because by 1906 revolution was supposed to have been over. This book, then, emerged from the questions raised by the soldiers’ behavior in 1905 and 1906.
Genre: Non-Fiction > History
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