The Russian Army in the First World War (Images of War)

A very good collection of rare photographs, with useful accompanying text, on the Tsar's army in the Great War (WW I). Read together with the other Images of War books on the Central Powers on the Eastern Front, and the Russian Revolution.

This appears to be a shortened version of an older book (my university library has both). The narrative is short but rather good, and the photographs range from same-old same-old to remarkable. Taken together, the photos give some visual depth to what I've read elsewhere. One reaction I have is that there is mud, everywhere. It must have been awful, when combined with wet, though probably better than cold.There isn't much action in the shots, because of technology of image making. Lots of officers but also a lot of the troops themselves. I look into the faces, now long gone, and try to see what they are like. It's a different world. The faces say no more or less than faces from photos of other wars. There's resignation, indications of comradeship, the glum faces of prisoners, the stern frozen faces of men getting medals.I found one short section to be fascinating, on the Caucasian front against the Turks. The backgrounds shows how rugged and difficult these mountains are. There are also some interesting bits in captions--one shows a woman's combat unit, and notes they suffered heavy casualties.Two other photos struck me. I had never heard before of a sea-going church, but there was at least one, replete with Orthodox architecture like onion domes. A second odd photo is of a model for a combat tank that was to have been called the Tsar tank; the thing was 27 feet high and would have been armed with 17 machine guns and 2 76mm guns. It never saw combat.

Good and rare photos of ww1 Russian imperial army. Photos were good but I think that theres still too much text and too less photos. But I still recommen this book.

good

The title of this book tells it like it is, as there are many photos taken during the war and of the fateful revolution year of 1917 in it that I have not seen in other books in my extensive Russian history library.