Politics and the Russian Army: Civil-Military Relations, 1689-2000

by Brian D. Taylor

Overview

This comprehensive overview of the political role of the Russian military (from Peter the Great's time in 1689 to the present) reveals why Russia has not experienced a successful military coup in over two centuries. Including materials from archives and interviews, the book covers the Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods through detailed analysis of some of the most important events in Russian political history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521816748
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/09/2003
Pages:	374
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.98(d)

Table of Contents

1. Explaining military intervention; 2. Cultural change in the Imperial Russian Army, 1689–1914; 3. The army and revolution, 1917; 4. From revolution to war, 1917–41; 5. From victory to stagnation, 1945–85; 6. Gorbachev, Perestroika, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, 1985–91; 7. Yeltsin and the New Russia, 1992–2000; 8. Organizational culture and the future of Russian civil-military relations.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This is a thorough, methodologically sound, and generally convincing piece of empirical research. The theoretical issues are set out succinctly, and Taylor meticulously examines the available evidence in each of his cases, judiciously evaluating the merits of each explanation. [A] fine piece of scholarship." Ian Roxborough, Stony Brook University, American Journal of Sociology

"Brian Taylor offers an insightful analysis of the Russian army's willful subordination to the state, whether it be tsarist, Soviet, or democratic, even when there were strong reasons to intervene. This book deserves a place on the bookshelf of every student of civil-military relations." Roger R. Reese, Texas A&M University, Slavic Review

"Politics and the Russian Army is the only study that covers the entire period of Russian civil-military relations from the seventeenth century to the present. Rarely do works in the field of comparative and international politics combine theoretical engagement and sensible research design with such state-of-the-art historical research. Taylor's book will remain the definitive account of Russian and Soviet civil-military relations for the foreseeable future." Matthew Evangelista, Cornell University

"Better than any other previous work, Brian Taylor's rich combination of conceptual clarity and historical insight explains a great mystery—why the mighty army of an authoritarian empire has intervened so little in domestic politics for the last two centuries, even when the empire collapsed around it, as happened in 1988-91." Dominic Lieven, London School of Economics

"This important book combines solid social science theory, painstaking historical research, and carefully structured explanations of a fascinating phenomenon: the absence of successful military coups in Russia, seemingly 'against all odds.' Anyone interested in civil-military relations will read it with profit." Zoltan Barany, University of Texas

Editorial Reviews

Taylor, in this unique account of Russian civil-military relations from pre-Soviet times to the post-Soviet era, asks why such a powerful military did not intervene in government even when political turmoil invited it to do so. Although Taylor's attempts at social science are rather tortuous, with a lot on "organizational norms" and little on political ideology, his actual descriptions of civil-military relations over the course of Russian history are readable and consistently interesting, particularly for the Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin periods. His basic thesis, persuasive as far as it goes, is that a well-established organizational culture dating from the nineteenth century discouraged coups even when the opportunity arose. Taylor avoids "monocausal explanations" and recognizes the significance of changing political structures. In a story that includes multiple revolutions, two world wars, and the dead hand of Stalinism, the civil half of the equation is just as important as the military.

Foreign Affairs

"This is a thorough, methodologically sound, and generally convincing piece of empirical research. The theoretical issues are set out succinctly, and Taylor meticulously examines the available evidence in each of his cases, judiciously evaluating the merits of each explanation. [A] fine piece of scholarship." Ian Roxborough, Stony Brook University, American Journal of Sociology

"Brian Taylor offers an insightful analysis of the Russian army's willful subordination to the state, whether it be tsarist, Soviet, or democratic, even when there were strong reasons to intervene. This book deserves a place on the bookshelf of every student of civil-military relations." Roger R. Reese, Texas A&M University, Slavic Review

"Politics and the Russian Army is the only study that covers the entire period of Russian civil-military relations from the seventeenth century to the present. Rarely do works in the field of comparative and international politics combine theoretical engagement and sensible research design with such state-of-the-art historical research. Taylor's book will remain the definitive account of Russian and Soviet civil-military relations for the foreseeable future." Matthew Evangelista, Cornell University

"Better than any other previous work, Brian Taylor's rich combination of conceptual clarity and historical insight explains a great mystery—why the mighty army of an authoritarian empire has intervened so little in domestic politics for the last two centuries, even when the empire collapsed around it, as happened in 1988-91." Dominic Lieven, London School of Economics

"This important book combines solid social science theory, painstaking historical research, and carefully structured explanations of a fascinating phenomenon: the absence of successful military coups in Russia, seemingly 'against all odds.' Anyone interested in civil-military relations will read it with profit." Zoltan Barany, University of Texas

From the Publisher