East Europe and the «military revolution» concept: the historiographic remarks

• Main Author: Oleksii Sokyrko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Department of Modern and Contemporary History of Foreign Countries 2018-03-01
• Series: Європейські історичні студії
• Subjects: East Europe; «Military Revolution»; absolutism; armed forces; military skill; historiography
• Online Access: http://eustudies.history.knu.ua/oleksii-sokyrko-east-europe-and-the-military-revolution-concept-the-historiographic-remarks/

The concept of a «military revolution» was formulated in the British historiography in the mid-XXth century (The term «military revolution» for a designation of this overturn has been entered by the British historian M.Roberts in 1955). It includes the emergence of the large permanent professional armies with a predominance of infantry and artillery, new forms of organization, combat training and methods of warfare. The fire-arms wide circulation has led to the revolution in the art of war. It has caused serious changes in the political, economic, social spheres at first in the West European society, and then in the neighbor states. This concept had an extremely strong influence on the development of the research of the nature of the army, society and the state of Early Modern times. Studies discovering the development of military institutes in different regions of Europe, their influence on the formation of centralized states and the transcontinental expansion of European civilization have led to a series of heated discussions that continued till today. The problems of the influence of the «military revolution» on the historical fate of the countries of Eastern Europe and the peculiarities of its evolution hold a specific place. The article reflects the basic trends of studying of a concept of military revolution in Eastern Europe region and a present condition of a problem contemporary historiography.