Stanislav S. Yudin

Candidate of History, Contractor for the Grant

Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University

(Tula, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2023-4-64-72

Abstract. This article describes and analyzes the case of Intendant General Fyodor Karlovich Satler (1805 – 1876), which unfolded following the Crimean War. Although corruption during this conflict is considered a well-known fact, the only court case opened as a result of abuses in Crimea has not yet been investigated. This neglect is partly due to the limited source base. The main sources revealing the course and motives of the Satler case come from the person involved in the trial. Nevertheless, on the basis of Satler's journalistic works and the testimonies of contemporaries (with a clear understanding of the limitations that these sources impose on the researcher), some valuable conclusions can be reached. The Satler case took place in the context of a struggle between the supreme combatant command and the central military administration (War Ministry) for decisive influence on the management of the entire military department. Prince V. I. Vasilchikov, who had ambitions to become Minister of War, took an active role in the persecution of the Intendant General. His efforts were supported by repre-sentatives of the aristocracy and the highest officials of the Russian Empire. Although it is not possible to establish the real degree of Satler's guilt according to available sources, it should be noted that the court failed to convincingly prove his guilt. The opinions of contemporaries about this case varied: some were convinced of the fairness of the indictment, others tried to speak out in defense of Satler and get him acquitted. In any case, the conviction was an important victory for the War Ministry on the way to establishing its hegemony in the manage-ment of the army and paved the way for military reforms in the 1860s and 1870s. The transformations that followed the Satler case in 1858, carried out by the War Minister D. A. Milyutin (the introduction of military districts and a new regulation on the management of the army in wartime in 1868), strengthened the position of the War Ministry at the head of the general structure of the command of the troops of the Russian Empire.
Keywords: Zatler F. K., Crimean War, 1860 – 1870s military reforms.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Yudin, SS 2023, ‘The Intendant´s Mistake: the Zatler Case and Reforms after the Crimean War’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 4 (16), pp. 64–72, http://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2023-4-64-72 (in Russ.)

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