Alexander B. Arbekov

Candidate of Sciences (History), Senior Lecturer of the Department of History and Archaeology

Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University

(Tula, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2024-3-50-64

Abstract. The article is devoted to the formation and transformation of Russian officers' views on the French army in the 1870s – 1880s. Addressing this issue helps to clarify the peculiarities of the Russian military affairs development in the period under consideration and allows identifying certain prerequisites for the formation of the Russian-French alliance in the first half of the 1890s. The source base of the present study was the reports of Russian military agents in France, as well as reports of high-ranking Russian officers sent to observe the annual maneuvers of French troops in the 1870s – 1880s. In addition, the work involved publications of Russian officers in the military press, namely, in the ‘Russky Invalid’ newspaper and the ‘Voenny Sbornik’ magazine, which broadcast information about foreign armies, including the French, and contributed to the formation of specific ideas in military class about the armed forces of European states. The author also uses sources of personal origin – contemporaries’ memoirs and diaries. On the basis of the conducted research the author concludes that due to the dynamically changing situation in Europe in the 1870 – 1880s and the gradual reforming of the French army, the attitude towards it in the Russian officers' environment underwent changes. In place of the initial skeptici sm about France's alliance after the events of the Franco-German War of 1870 – 1871, perceptions of the army of the Third Republic emerged as a formidable military force that could support Russia against the coalition of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Keywords: Russian army, French army, military maneuvers, Austria-Hungary, Germany, military intelligence, military strategic planning, General Staff.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Arbekov, AB 2024, ‘"Under the Command of a Talented Leader is a Fearsome Enemy... ". The French Army in the Perception of Russian Officers in the 1870 – 1880s’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 3 (19), pp. 50–64, http://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2024-3-50-64 (in Russ.)

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