An Age of Reform 371
The army authorities were quite understandably more concerned with im-
proving officers' education. l. fu!! account of this reform exists in English, J03
so that it need not be discussed here: suffice it to note that Milyutin tried to do
away with the exclusive cadet schools, which had given so much trouble in the
first years of Alexander H's reign (he described their influence as 'noxious')
and were clearly not cost-effective. He wanted future officers to obtain their
general education in a civilian institution-thereby reducing the military's
traditionally heavy involvement in this field-and then to undergo a brief
period of professional training in a so-called yunker school. This scheme
shocked conservatives in the military establishment, and in the event the cadet
corps survived in disguise as military gimnazii. There were 12 of them, sup-
plemented by four specialized colleges (uchilishcha) and three others.^104 The
yunker schools, which numbered 16 by 1874, remained inferior in status and
had limited budgets: training here cost only one-tenth as much per man as it
did in the higher schools. !Os Yet it was the yunker schools that continued to
supply the bulk of the officer intake.
In this way the reformers' purpose was largely thwarted. Nevertheless the new
system did permit a certain democratization of the officer corps. More NCOs
were commissioned after passing the examination that was now made
obligatory.^106 They comprised 48 per cent of all new officers in the quinquen-
nium 1866-70,^107 but it is not known how many of these NCOs were commoners
by origin.^108 The problem, as always, was the lack of vacancies. The reformers
insisted that those who qualified-the term was still 12 years (10 in the
guards)-could be commissioned only if a place existed. Deserving NCOs who
could not be promoted were given certain privileges and extra pay (100-150
t:oubles p.a.), which wuld be converted into a pension when they retired, as
they were now encouraged .to do.^109 One successful 'bourbon' (see above,
p. 240) has left memoirs which suggest that he was a man of limited intellect,
completely engrossed in barrack routine. 'In 32 years,' he wrote, 'I have grown
so accustomed to the service and love it so much that sometimes I feel I was
born into it.'^110
Although class barriers were not easily overridden, there were signs of a new
spirit in relations between officers and men. As was always the case in Russia,
those in positions of authority adjusted their attitudes to conform to those at
IOl Miller, Miliutin, pp. 92-141; Stein, 'Offizier', pp. 393-6.
104 Maksheyev, Voyenno-stat. oboueniye, pp. 222 ff.
105 VOVM 1870, pp. 49, 52-3; Miller, Miliutin, p. 135.
106 II PSZ xii. 42994, 43302 (10 Feb., 14 May 1866).
101 Bogdanovich, /st. ocherk, iii. 188, 194-5, app. 56-7.
108 In 1861 5.8 per cent of officers then serving had been promoted from the ranks: Miller,
Miliutin, p. 95. P. Brant put the proportion higher, at 9 per cent in the infantry and 8 per cent in
the cavalry: 'Proizvodstvo nizhnikh chinov', p. 475. For the regulations: II PSZ xniv. 34884
(8 Sept. 1859), II, § 2. There was a sudden influx of 2, 141 ex-NCOs (67 per cent of new entrants) in
1864, when the rules were relaxed, but later the proportion from this source declined.
109 II PSZ loc. cit., Ill, §§ 2-6; llllllviii. 39758 (19 June 1863).
110 'lz zametok starozhilogo', p. 295.