Alexander B. Arbekov

PhD in History, Researcher

Tula State Arms Museum

(Tula, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2022-3-56-70

Abstract. This article discusses the Austro-Hungarian war plans against Russia in the late 70s – early 80s of the 19th century, obtained by Russian military intelligence, and the impact of the plans on Russian military strategic planning in the western direction. The basis of the study are records from the Military Scientific Committee of the Imperial Russian Army General Staff fonds and the Warsaw Military District headquarters from the Russian State Archive of Military History (RGVIA). Materials concerning the Habsburg monarchy military high command plans and the documents of the preparatory work for strategic war games at the Warsaw Military District headquarters make to trace specific changes in the plans of the Russian General Staff in case of war with Germany and Austria-Hungary, as well as the logic of decision-making in the military policy of Russian Empire. Results of the study show the correlation between the Russian military intelligence materials and the changes in current projects for the deployment of the Russian Empire armed forces on the western borders. The study proves that Russian high command had information about Austria-Hungary’s war against the Russian Empire and had the opportunity to compare them with their own war projects based on the simulation of armed conflict using strategic war games. This made it possible to optimize the mechanism of Russian military strategic planning and determine the vector of development of the defense capability of the Russian Empire on the western direction. This helped optimize Russia's military strategic planning mechanism and increase the Russian Empire's defensive capabilities within its western borders.
Keywords: Eastern Question, Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary, military intelligence, military strategic planning, international crisis, General Staff, war games.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Arbekov, AB 2022, ‘"We must prepare the theaters of war of the Neman, Privislinsky and Volyn in all respects": military plans of Austria-Hungary and Russia at the turn of the 1870s – 1880s.', Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 3 (11), pp. 56–70, http://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2022-3-56-70 (in Russ.)

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