Having won the Cross of St. George as a dashing young cavalry officer in the war of 1877 against the Turks, Sukhomlinov believed that military knowledge acquired in that campaign was permanent truth. As Minister of War he scolded a meeting of Staff College instructors for interest in such "innovations" as the factor of firepower against the saber, lance and the bayonet charge. He could not hear the phrase "modern war," he said, without a sense of annoyance. "As war was, so it has remained … all these things are merely vicious innovations. Look at me, for instance; I have not read a military manual for the last twenty-five years."
Sukhomlinov, a former cavalry officer who earned the Cross of St. George in the 1877 war against Turkey, held a firm belief that the military knowledge he gained then was timeless. As the Minister of War, he criticized Staff College instructors who showed interest in new methods that emphasized the importance of firepower over traditional tactics like cavalry charges. This resistance to change stemmed from his conviction that the nature of...
