4. The infantry units formed from reserve troops.
According to the opinion of competent officers who served in the war (which I fully share), other conditions being equal, the more regular soldiers there were in a unit, the more it could be relied on in battle. The best troops we had were the East Siberian Rifle Regiments, and after them the brigades of the 31st and 35th Divisions. In the case of the army corps, which proceeded to the front direct from Russia, sufficient care was not taken to regulate the proportion of regulars to reservists. Some units—the 10th Army Corps, for instance—arrived at the front 20 per cent. below strength in men, and more in officers. In the first fight in which it was engaged, several companies of this corps had only sixty regular soldiers—thirty trained men and thirty recruits—who had not even passed their recruit’s musketry course. All the remainder were reservists, among whom were a large number of 2nd Category men. These regular units consequently were, to all intents and purposes, nothing but reserve units. Finally, our reserve units arrived almost without any permanent peace cadres, so swallowed up were they in the great mass of reservists. In the early fighting these reservists, particularly those of the 2nd Category, were vastly inferior to the regulars; many of them took advantage of every opportunity to leave the ranks with or without permission. There is little doubt that if the war had been a national one, and if the country had supported its sons at the front instead of doing the opposite, these men would have done better in the first fights; but it is also quite certain that, other conditions being equal, the man with the colours must be better than the other as a soldier. He is not torn from his family at a time when he has begun to think that his military liability is over; he is better trained, and possesses esprit de corps. Therefore, the best way of improving our infantry is to maintain it with a stronger peace establishment than at present.
In Manchuria a peace establishment of 100 men per company became so weak from the various causes incidental to active service that companies went into action with one-third regulars to two-thirds reservists. Nominally regular forces, they were in reality more like reserve troops. Regulars should be in the majority in every company, but the great difficulties and expense of maintaining troops on a strong peace footing compel us to pay special attention to the question of improving our reserve men. Modern war must be fought mainly with men temporarily called up from amongst the people.
The only thing that will insure devotion to their country among reservists proceeding to the front is the existence of a spirit of patriotism in the nation. Discontent and feelings of oppression among the people are naturally reflected in the minds of those of them leaving for war. But, independent of such all-important general considerations, there are certain definite things that can be taken to improve the tone of the reservists. According to the present system, when a man passes from the colours into the reserve his connection with his own unit—in fact, with the Service generally—almost ceases. The practice concentrations are not carried out on a large enough scale, and though valuable, are often dispensed with altogether on account of financial considerations. So it happens that a man passing into the reserve takes his uniform with him, but, with rare exceptions, never even wears his forage-cap; this he generally gives to some neighbour or relation—hardly ever a soldier—to wear out. The reservist himself only too gladly dons peasant’s clothes or other mufti; he is glad to feel that he is a peasant again. He starts in business, takes up peaceful occupations, and raises a family. When he reaches the age of forty, he begins to put on flesh. And it is under these conditions that he is suddenly torn from the bosom of his family, and sent to fight in a strange, “hired”[35] land for a cause for which he feels no sympathy, and which he does not understand. To this are added the general discontent all around him, and a flood of revolutionary proclamations. The separation of the reservist from all touch with the army once he has left it does not tend to his rapid retransformation from “mujik” into trained soldier. In the case of Manchuria he certainly became a good man after some months in the school of war, but so long a period of grace cannot be counted on in the future.
Coming here into the heart of the country as I did nine months ago, and staying here continuously, I have been in a position to observe our reservists returning from the war. When the return stream first began in March, April, and May, there were large numbers. Sometimes when I passed they would fall in—in line—and receive me after the military fashion. They wore fur caps, very often military great-coats, and looked, as they were, a fine body of young soldiers. Nine months of hard work in the fields soon turned them again into peasants, and now, when they come to me, on business or otherwise, instead of saluting, they take off their caps and call me “Barin.”[36]
In Japan mothers counted it a dishonour if their sons were rejected as medically unfit to go to the front. With us how different it was! Women often came to thank me heartily for having “had pity” on their sons and husbands, because these latter happened to have been told off for duty with transport units or with hospitals, etc., instead of being sent into action,[37] and they did the same when their men returned safe and sound. In Japan, Germany, and other countries, some endeavour is made in education to inculcate patriotism into the people. A love of country and pride in the Fatherland is created in the children. As has been said before, the schools in Japan do everything they can to create and foster a martial spirit in the youth of the nation, and to practise them in military matters. There and in other countries the formation of various patriotic societies is approved, and all kinds of physical sport are encouraged. The authorities are not afraid to issue thousands of rifles to the people for rifle practice, etc. We do not do this; we are afraid for political reasons. Little is done to inculcate patriotism by education in our schools, and the great gulf between Church, rural, and Government schools makes matters worse. Students in the highest educational establishments have long ago abandoned study for politics; it has for long been the fashion to abuse everything Russian, and military service is thought to be dishonourable. Our infantry soldier is undersized and overloaded; he is usually untidy, often dirty, and wears an ugly and ill-fitting uniform. Is it a wonder that, as he slouches along, he excites more pity than pride in the man in the street? And yet it is on this undersized man that the integrity of the Empire depends. Money is tight, as we all know, but still, we do not keep the soldier clean and smart enough when he is serving, and when we pass him into the reserve we give him a dress which he can display with no pride to his neighbours or even his own family. Under such conditions, how can we hope that he will then suddenly turn into a martial warrior?
Only by the reformation of our schools, and the introduction into the life of the lower classes of reforms, which, besides increasing their comfort, will develop in them a love for, and pride in, their country, and a deep sense of the necessity for some sacrifice for it, shall we get in the reserve a thorough soldier of the right sort. The attainment of such a result cannot depend entirely on any actions of the War Department, which must, after all, be secondary; but the things that can be effected by it are nevertheless important, and I will enumerate those which seem to be the most pressing.
In an army discipline is the foundation of all efficiency; but to maintain discipline in an army is impossible when the mass of the nation have no respect for authority, and where the authorities actually fear those under them. The term of service with the colours is now so short that there is no time to overcome in the soldier the disorderliness of the people from whom he comes, yet to effect improvement in the reservist demands an iron military discipline. It must not be allowed for a moment that a soldier need not be afraid of his officer. The present greatest enemy to discipline is the employment of soldiers in the political struggle now going on. On the one hand, the force is corrupted by propaganda; on the other, men are taken away from military duties and detailed for almost continual police work, in putting down disorder not only of a military nature, such as mutiny, where the situation can only be saved by the assistance of reliable troops, but riots which should be dealt with by the police and the gendarmes. Officers are taken away to sit on field courts,[38] to judge, shoot, and hang political and other criminals. These duties make the populace hate the troops, and among the soldiers who suffer in killed and wounded it arouses a feeling of hatred not only for the civilians who shoot at them, but against the officers who order them to kill the civilians. The result is demoralizing to a degree. What impression can the man passing into the reserve take home with him if, during the two or three years of his colour service, he has been “maintaining order” in various ways with the aid of his rifle? The army can and must do all that is necessary to suppress mutinies, and to break down all organized opposition, but it should then return at once to its ordinary work. If this sort of duty becomes frequent, if the soldier sees that the Government is powerless to restore order even with the aid of troops, doubts will creep into his mind as to the expediency of the Government’s policy and as to his own commanders. According to what I hear, it seems that the heavy task which has recently fallen to the lot of the army is now coming to an end, and that order is beginning once more to be restored in our great country. Please God may it soon be the case, as otherwise the force must deteriorate instead of improving.
Under ordinary conditions our work should tend to make the man passed into the reserve arrive in his native village or town well disciplined, knowing his work, taking a pride in his old corps, and respecting those under whom he has served. We must therefore endeavour to prevent him from losing touch with the Service and quickly forgetting what he has learned in it. In some armies to obviate this they have what is called the territorial system, by which reservists maintain touch to the end of their term with those units in which they have served. This system is not possible for us in its entirety, but it might be applied partially and adopted on a fairly large scale. One of its great advantages would be that reservists would on mobilization at once join the units in which they had previously served. They would not be strangers, but would be known to the cadre of time-expired, but still serving, non-commissioned officers and the officers, and would soon settle down. Men of the same district would be more inclined to hold together under fire, and every man would feel that if he behaved badly his comrade would send news of it to his home. Units territorially connected with the people would be more dashing than corps collected from anywhere. There would, of course, be many difficulties, which would have to be overcome before the system could be adopted. For instance, men taken from a certain locality would, if employed to suppress disorders in that place, be more likely to waver than men from another unit and district. Cases have been known where non-commissioned officers who had been strict with their men have requested, on being passed into the reserve, not to be sent off in the same compartment of a train with their late subordinates, who had threatened to “make things even” so soon as they both passed into the reserve together. With us such a settling up of old scores might easily be effected under a territorial system, by which both officers and soldiers would, after their service, come together in one district.