Historical Description of the Clothing and Arms of the Russian Army, Vol 10a (Organization) & 10b (Uniforms), 1851, St. Petersburg, Military Typography Office, by Viskovatov, A.V., translated by Mark Conrad, Privately Published, 1994. Available only from the author (3 Hampton Rd, Eatontown, NJ 07724-2122.) $17.00 per volume.

Here it is, the definitive work on the Russian army, produced by the direction of the Czar in 1851 on the uniforms and organization of the Russian army. It is quite similar to Gayda & Krijitsky, L'Arme'e Russe sous le Tsar Alexandre ler de 1805 a 1815, but far more detailed. In comparing the two works, I strongly suspect that Viskovatov was the source document used by Gayda and Krijitsky. For those who recall earlier discussions in EE&L concerning Zwegintzov, this is the principal source he used.

Both volumes cover the period of 1801 to 1825. Volume 10a, Organization, spends the first 50 pages discussing the infantry organization from the regiment upwards through the army. It talks about the reserve divisions and the formation of all other large scale organizations including permanent standing divisions, corps, and armies.

On page 50 it starts the discussion of the organization of the Russian cavalry and spends the next 17 pages discussing large scale organizations for the Russian cavalry. From there it goes into a discussion of every other formation in the Russian army, addressing the raisings and reorganizations of every regiment, battalion, and battery as it goes. Units covered include the train, garrison formations, invalid formations, gendarme battalions, engineer commands, the Guard, instructional troops, military educational institutions, cossacks, military orphan detachments, mine troops, etc., etc.

Volume 10b (uniforms) takes the same approach, discussing the uniforms in great depth to the point of giving the dimensions of the various standard aspects of the uniforms, i.e. cuffs, collars, etc. It also discusses the assignment of weapons. Each section of the uniform discussion is supported with excellent black and white line drawings that show the uniforms or uniform details in question.

Volume 10a contains 153 pages and Volume 10b, though not numbered, probably contains about 200 pages. Both volumes are GBC bound xerox copies of a laser print out. Their quality is higher than that which I produce with my dot matrix, but the works are of the same general nature.

The translator produces these documents on demand and maintains little inventory. Because this is a labor of love by an aficionado and not a major publishing house it suffers from the total lack of color plates. This is, however, completely understandable and not surprising considering the cost of such plates and the size of the investment necessary to provide them to the public.

The only omissions from the manuscript and I do not know if they are part of another volume or if Viskovatov did not address them, are flags and the internal structures of the regiments, battalions, and companies. At no point are the theoretical strengths of any of the regimental or smaller units discussed. However, such is not part of the scope of the two volumes presented and does not diminish the marvelous collection of data that is provided.

This is a must for the library of anyone interested in the organization of the Russian army from 1801 to 1825. I strongly endorse Mr. Conrad's efforts and recommend it to you without reservation. Bravo Zulu Mark!

Other Book Reviews:

Napoleon Conquers Austria
Napoleon and the Grand Army in Russia (excerpt only)

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com