Soldiers of the Tsar John L. H. Keep, Soldiers of the Tsar - Army and Society in Russia 1462-1874 Clarendon Press, Oxford | 1985 | ISBN 019822575 | 432 pgs. | PDF | 129MB This is the study of the armed forces' role in sustaining autocratic government and shaping social life in Russia. For about four hundred years the realm of the tsars was a 'service state': that is to say, the most important element in the experience of most of its inhabitants was the performance of duties designed to bolster the country's external and internal security. Nowhere else in medieval or early modern Europe was the principle of service to the Crown pressed so far as it was in Russia. The position which Russia enjoyed in European affairs owed a good deal to fear of her armed might.Code:
