Military Reforms in Russia

Military Reform-

The end of the Crimean war in 1856 saw the army in Russia to be extremely weak and unfair on certain classes of people especially the peasants. It was badly in need of some sort of reform to make it modernised and stronger.

Problems with the Army
· The command structure and the administration were inflexible and inefficient.
· Punishment was severe and barbaric going completely over the top for small offences
· The period of service the soldiers had to serve was seen as a life sentence (25 years)
· People were managing to escape the system and avoid doing military service, which made the system extremely weak and corruptible.
· The soldiers were ineffective at fighting in a war situation and were not prepared fully in the training

Features of the Military Reform

In 1861, Alexander appointed Dimitry Milyutin as the minister of war; his job was to simply reform the military.
He covered many aspects that needed changing and was...