Russia's Army

A History from the Napoleonic Wars to the War in Ukraine

By Roger R. Reese, and Reviewed by Gene M. Harding

Article published on: April 29, 2026 in the Winter 2026 edition of Army History

Read Time: < 5 mins

University of Oklahoma Press, 2023
Pp. xiv, 225. $34.95

Perhaps no book could be timelier in its publication than Russia’s Army: A History from the Napoleonic Wars to the War in Ukraine by Roger R. Reese. Currently a professor at the University of Texas A&M, Reese has written several works on the Russian Army, with the majority focusing on the Soviet era. All students of military history or current events will benefit from reading any of his works, but Russia’s Army is where they should begin their journey. In its entirety, Russia’s Army covers a little over two centuries of military history, focusing on the continuous changes that led to today’s modern Russian Army.

The book begins in 1801 with an examination of the reigns of Tsar Alexander I and his brother and successor, Nicholas I. During this time, the empire’s military was still in its infancy. The tsar, when visible on the battlefield, was in sole command, with the aristocracy forming the officer class. Conscripted serfs made up the soldiery. Unlike in many of the Western armies, these soldiers were forced to serve twenty-five years in the army, and often never saw their homes again because of the high mortality rate on the battlefield. In short, they were forced to exchange a life of servitude in support of the Russian state for one fighting its wars.

By beginning his work here, Reese illustrates the Russian Army’s state prior to the Napoleonic Wars (13). He also sets the stage for a series of ongoing military reforms that would continue well into the twentieth century (160). This history is told throughout the book, and the story of the serfs and their struggle also reemerges across chapters, emerging as the catalyst that ultimately leads to the revolution and overthrow of the Romanov dynasty.

Throughout the first four chapters of the book, we see a series of incidents in which the Russian Army, believing in victory because of its numerical superiority, fails (76). At first glance, leadership and a lack of planning appear to be the army’s undoing. Upon deeper inspection, logistics, multiple fronts to defend, a lack of modernization, and internal strife were chief contributors to this failure. For any army invading Russia, the timeless challenge has always been the country’s size. What is not stated is that this size was also a constant Achilles’ heel for the Russians themselves (81). At critical moments during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the immense size of Russia tested its leadership’s governance abilities to the near breaking point. The strain, in turn, led to widespread civil unrest.

This civil unrest eventually led to the most dynamic change for the Russian people. As Western ideology spread to the East, the Russian people experienced a philosophical awakening (103). Education became increasingly standard for the officer class. This awareness then spread to the rank and file of the army and led to growing animosity against the tsar and the ruling class.

After the period of the tsars, Reese gives a powerful overview of the army during the years leading up to and through the Soviet era. The final three chapters are dedicated to the telling of this part of Russian history. Building on the foundation of unrest and awakening, here we again see the story of the serf. This class had been oppressed for the past two centuries, and the Bolshevik movement in 1917 sought to bring about equality. The toll of the First World War was great, and enthusiasm to follow the new philosophy fell short. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was the result (105). Though the treaty was humiliating for Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, it produced a sort of reset for the future Soviet Army. Reese again takes the reader through a seemingly dark period of history, where the mettle of the newly established Russian Communist Party and the military is tested. This testing lasts through a civil war and conflicts with neighboring nations. It is during the 1920s and 1930s when, Reese argues, the Army experienced a major transformation. This transformation was a major leap forward before Josef Stalin imposed the Great Purge on the military. Though the purge had lasting effects, the Second World War became the catalyst that would guide military thinking for the duration of the Soviet era.

Following the Allied powers’ victory in the Second World War, Reese makes a subliminal argument that the Soviet Union clung to its laurels and always referred to its victories to validate its future (135). As history tells us, however, this all came to an end in the 1990s when the Soviet Union fell apart, and from its ashes came the Russian Federation. The irony is that the status of the common Russian soldier reverted to what it had been before 1917. Once again, the rank and file largely were composed of people from the countryside, who were poor and without prospects.

Reese makes his final argument in showing that the Russian military has not truly learned from its often turbulent history. The army that fights today is not too different from the army of one or two hundred years ago. He reinforces this fact through his analysis of the latest wars and conflicts in which Russia has been involved.

In closing, this book is an incredible work that should be read for several reasons. Whether readers want to learn the history of the Russian Army in its transformative years or attempt to understand the culture and mindset of the modern Russian soldier, they will not be displeased. Reese does an expert job of not bogging the reader down in the details, instead taking them through the highlights of the Russian Army and its history. Finally, he leaves the reader with an expert analysis of the burden borne by the common soldiery. It was, after all, their efforts that allowed the land we know as Russia to be in existence to this day.