Imperial Russia Tsarist officers and orthodox religion

[Pete A]

An interesting point came up over at the imperial German forum. It concerned the fact that Russian officers were required to belong to the Orthodox religion. Of course, there was some loopholes. Quoting Rick Research:

There WAS a "Protestant exception," which was put in for Baltic Germans and thus allowed SOME Finns to sneak in. I haven't got the Orders and times any more.

Polish Catholics? No way!!! Rebels and traitors, sayeth the Tsars!

Now, can somebody with more knowledge give any details about this issue? When this orthodox-only thing came effective? Was it a 19th century panslavistic thing or some older decree?

The thing about Poles seems logical. The uprising of 1830-31, or that of 1863-64 at least, must have made them look pretty unreliable. But did this mean that after 18XX there was no Polish-born officers in the imperial Russian army? Taken the size and population of Poland that seems quite odd. Jews were briefly discussed over that other thread, but maybe there is more information about them too?

Also, there must have been officers from the asiatic parts of the empire, who were muslims. What about them? Another exception maybe?

And if some protestants were allowed, then why not all of them?

-- Pete

Oh, almost forgot the patriotic (?) part: Some Finns? Come on, Rick.. more than 3000 officers during 1809-1917, and nearly 400 of them reached a general or admiral grade rank.

[Chuck In Oregon]

<<Russian officers were required to belong to the Orthodox religion. >>

Are you quite sure that such a requirement existed? I asked an historian in Tbilisi about this the other day and he said that there was no such requirement, citing the religious affiliations of so many nationalities that served under the tsars' banners. He is fallible, of course, and could not prove a negative, but I thought I'd pass along his comment.

Chuck

[Pete A]

<<Russian officers were required to belong to the Orthodox religion. >>

Are you quite sure that such a requirement existed? I asked an historian in Tbilisi about this the other day and he said that there was no such requirement, citing the religious affiliations of so many nationalities that served under the tsars' banners. He is fallible, of course, and could not prove a negative, but I thought I'd pass along his comment.

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

and thanks for your input. No, personally - and for the same reasons as your friend - I doubt there was such a requirement, that's why I started this topic. The question originally came up in this thread: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=8217.

But there must be at least some partial truth behind that claim, since after all, the orthodox religion (in particular) played a big part in the imperial Russian military life.

Pete

[Steen Ammentorp]

While I am sure that Pete already know it I just want to give a link to a website that I learned of yesterday.

Finnish Generals & Admirals in the Russian Armed Forces between 1809 - 1917

http://dbgw.finlit.fi/kenraalit/?p=haku

Sadly it is only in Finnish but nevertheless an interesting site.

Kind Regards

Steen Ammentorp

The Generals of World War II

Edited June 21, 2006 by Steen Ammentorp

[Pete A]

Thanks Steen!

You're right, I found out about that excellent site couple of weeks ago (it's actually brand new). I posted the link on Finnish Awards forum, but not here, because of the language.

The database, compiled by the Biographical Center of the Finnish Literature Society, gives family relations, assignments, awards etc. biographical information of all the Finnish-born men who reached general or admiral rank in the Russian service between 1809 and 1917. Also, those generals/admirals who weren't Finnish, but whose families were introduced in the Finnish House of Knights are included. That makes almost 500 biographies. It is a "living" database, meant to be corrected / completed by historians, genealogists and researchers. A wonderful thing if I may say so, and something I've personally waited for long time.

The language is an issue though, especially when everything (names, ranks, units, awards) is in Finnish. However, I'm more than willing to help with the translation if you ever need.

Pete