Description:
Russia's Army reveals how the Imperial Russian Army and its successors, the Soviet Army and the army of the Russian Federation, confronted the state's foreign policy challenges--projecting power and defending the empire--and the domestic challenge of containing internal unrest generated by nationalism, competing ethnic and religious identities, and political discontent. These twin challenges, in turn, drove defense policy and the planning and conduct of war.
Brief description:
Roger R. Reese is Professor of History at Texas A&M University and has authored numerous articles and books on the Russian military, including Why Stalin's Soldiers Fought: The Red Army's Military Effectiveness in World War II, The Imperial Russian Army in Peace, War, and Revolution, 1856-1917 which won the Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Book Prize, and most recently A Social History of the Russians and their Army since 1690.
Review Quotes: "A first-rate treatment of the Russian army which combines the advantages of explaining the present as well as the past. Based on excellent scholarship, this relevant work is a significant contribution to military history."--Jeremy Black, author of War and Technology