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Soldiers of the Tsar: Army and Society in Russia 1462-1874. By John L. H. Keep. Oxford: Clarendon, 1985. vi, 432 pp. Maps. Figures. $55.00, cloth.

John Keep has given us a highly readable narrative that traces the development of the modern Russian army throughout an era broadly defined in terms of the Muscovite and imperial service states. His welcome work fills an obvious gap in our general knowledge of the social history of the army. Primarily a synthesis of printed sources, this book covers a sweeping range of important topics over more than 400 years. Keep of necessity takes a chronological approach to his subject matter. This organization allows him to examine events and issues specific to a particular period or reign (e.g., the reforms of Peter the Great, the Decembrist uprising, and the military settlements), as well as broader topics that can be treated continuously over a longer time span (recruitment, military justice, provisioning). The subjects covered are far too numerous to elaborate upon here, but to date no other work in English has examined in such detail the social life of the army. Keep's main purpose is to give us a sense of what life was actually like for the soldiers and officers of the Muscovite and imperial armies. For this purpose his descriptive approach works well. We learn much about the specifics of daily existence, the instruments of social control, the difficult economic conditions, and popular attitudes towards service. All of this information is then placed into a framework of institutional development that is more or less tied to the traditional chronological divisions of Russian history.