Changes in the Social Composition of the Officer Corps During World War I*

In the years of the First World War the composition of the Russian officer corps changed fundamentally. Between April 1914 and January 1917 the army expanded from 1.2 million men to 6.6 million, and in this period the number of officers increased from 40,590 to 145,916. ¹ The prevailing notions of heroism among junior officers and the recklessness of the High Command, which had not expected a protracted war and for a long time did not appreciate the value of reasonably well-trained officer corps, led to the casual sacrifice of thousands of officers, especially in the bloody campaigns of 1914 and 1915. By January 1917 the army had lost 62,847 officers. ² These figures mean that in the course of the war about 170,000 young men became officers and by the time of the March Revolution less than 10 percent of the officers were regulars.