ernment has full control over its own military forces. These forces, built up in the Soviet era, are greatly diminished but still very large; their officer corps deeply dissatisfied by impoverishment and loss of prestige. Apart from the (probably unlikely) chance of a military coup, the real possibility remains that military adventurism might in effect sieze the actual conduct of Russian foreign policy, especially in the "near abroad" (the non-Russian territories of the former Soviet Union).
In view of this possibility, it is worth while to examine the past experience of military adventurism in Russia at times of stress and uncertainty in the civil government. Two possible instances of such adventurism may be offered in the twentieth century: first, Russia's drift into the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, and second, its entry into an offensive war against Poland in 1920. As will be seen below, the circumstances, both military and political, were quite different in these two situations, but they are united by a common thread of military leaders acting with minimal direction from the civil government. It is to these past episodes, then, that we may look for some guidance into the possible risks of a failure of the civil government of Russia to control its armed forces.
Russian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, and its letters do not correspond directly to those of the Roman alphabet as used in English. Especially for the Tsarist period, the transliterations of Russian names vary widely; for example, the name of the Russian viceroy of the Far East, a central figure in the Russo-Japanese War, is variously rendered as Alexieff and Alexiev. (In this study, the latter form will be used.) While individual names will be spelled consistantly here, save in direct quotations from sources where other spellings are used, no attempt is made here to follow any single overall set of transcription rules.
The title of the Russian ...