SUMMARY:

The article reconstructs the ever-intensifying process of creating national units in the Russian imperial army during World War I. In the summer of 1917, this process reached the stage in which whole army corps were “nationalized,” and after September 1917, the entire army started being rearranged on the principle of homogeneous national units.
On the one hand, this dynamic was a paradoxical continuation of the Russian authorities’ policies over several previous decades, framed by the project of the nationalizing empire. Just as Russia was to be turned into a nation-state of ethnoconfessional Russians, with other peoples considered as minorities with limited civic rights, the imperial army was to evolve into a Russian national army. The heavy losses of the war’s first months, which had almost obliterated the well-trained, thoroughly nationalized and indoctrinated prewar military cadres, compelled the Russian high command to expand their nation-centered, nationalist perspective. Pragmatic considerations made them embrace the idea of creating non-Russian national military units, particularly those staffed by the residents of borderlands at risk of foreign invasion. These units demonstrated exceptional motivation for combat and, after the February Revolution of 1917, they were seen as the least susceptible to revolutionary pacifist propaganda.
On the other hand, the narrow pragmatic considerations of the high command seeking reliable and motivated troops had crucial political ramifications that were already obvious in 1915: national military units were a first step toward Russia’s federalization. Since September 1917, the Provisional Government had embraced this perspective, moving from the spontaneous nationalization of individual military units to a comprehensive reform of the army and to sharing authority with various “military-national organizations.” The resources invested in the nationalization of the troops greatly contributed to the strengthening of non-Russian national movements.