206 The Imperial Century, 1725-1825distrustful of generally accepted values. The idea that by deliberate propaganda
mel" could be persuaded to adopt sentiments which those in authority thought
desirable was still in its infancy. In Europe generally it developed under
Napoleon; in Russia it began with Catherine II, but still in a relatively benign
form. Paul set up a central military chaplaincy,^23 but it cannot be said to
have played a major morale-building or ideological role. This came only with
Alexander I's Ministry for Spiritual Affairs (1817), and more particularly with
Nicholas I (see below, p. 346).
Earlier rulers and commanders would have seen religious and patriotic
propaganda among the troops as superfluous. Certainly, in the 1760s Suvorov
compiled a catechism for men of the Suzdal · regiment, which was used as
instructional material in a school he established there.^24 But this was not done
with the object of manipulating their minds; it was a summary of what
Suvorov himself believed, mixed in with common-sense nostrums. It seems
to have been accepted as such, if we can believe the Tales of an Old Soldier
published in 1847 (although this work may have been falsified to make it con-
form to the official ideology of the Nicolaevan era).^25 According to this source
Suvorov urged soldiers 'to love heartily our Sovereign Mother, for she is our
first ruler on earth after God' and 'to obey your commanders blindly, not to
discuss orders but carry them out!'^26 In the last resort it does not matter much
whether this was truly Suvorov's teaching or not. Such ideas were .common-
place, and instilling them helped to reinforce the traditional world-view which
the soldier brought with him from his peasant past. This outlook was
dominated by paternalistic images and metaphors. It had as its key concept the
notion of a mighty and all-embracing vlas( which ordinary mortals disobeyed
at their cost-yet which they were naturally tempted to try to outwit by various
ruses and expedients.
In Alexander l's reign writers, some of them officers or ex-officers, began to
propagate a distorted and romanticized view of the common Russian soldier.
This was linked to the upsurge of national sentiment that followed the victory
over Napoleon. Sergey Glinka published in 1822 a collection of moral tales
designed to evoke appreciation and emulation of the heroic deeds performed
in bygone times. These exploits (podvigi) were selected in such a way as to
exemplify the characteristics which loyal servants of the autocratic state
-especially but not solely in the armed forces-were expected to display:
courage, Christian piety, simplicity, indifference to creature comforts,
21 TsGVIA, f. II, op. VIII, ed. khr. 18 (1800-1); H. Fil', 'Religion and the Russian Army',
J. G. Purves and D. A. West (eds.), War and Society in [the! Nineteenth-Century Russian
Empire, Toronto, 1972, p. 26.
24 Dubrovin, Suvorov, p. 73. The text has not survived. In 1794 this catechism (or presumably
an updated version of it) was read out daily to troops fighting Polish revolutionaries and included
a topical reference to 'French atheists': Kochetkov, 'K voprosu', p. 164.
2l Kochetkov, 'K voprosu', p. 178.
26 Dubrovin, Suvorov, pp. 73-4. He is also said to have used the phrase 'God is our general':
R. K. Dreyling, 'Voinskiy ustav i Suvorov', Zapiski Russkogo nauchnogo instituta v Belgrade 3
(1931), p. 345.