The Great Reforms' military architect, who forged Russia's army into a modern conscript force over twenty years as war minister
13 September 1877: after three failed assaults on Plevna, the Grand Duke and Tsar were ready to retreat. Milyutin alone argued for continuing the siege. His persuasion held the line; two months later Plevna fell.
War minister under Alexander II for twenty years (1861–1881), he led the fundamental reorganisation of the Imperial Russian Army. The Universal Conscription Act of 1874 replaced a 25-year levy that fell largely on the peasantry with six years of service for all classes; paired with fifteen military districts, modernised officer academies, and elementary schooling for recruits, the reforms turned the army into a modern standing force. Together with his brother Nikolai Milyutin he epitomised the liberal bureaucrats of the Great Reforms, yet his record is darkened by his advocacy of the mass deportation of the Circassians, which he justified as 'eliminating the Circassians… to cleanse the land of hostile elements.' In retirement he was made the last Field Marshal of the Russian Empire (1898).
Career Timeline
- 1836–1845Guards officer; serves in the Caucasian War, gravely wounded
- 1845–1856Professor at the Military Academy; Demidov Prize for his five-volume history of the 1799 campaign
- 1856–1860Chief of Staff, Caucasus Army; directs operations culminating in Shamil's capture
- 1861–1881War Minister: universal conscription, military districts, modernised officer academies, elementary schooling for recruits
- 1877–1878Russo-Turkish War: insists on continuing the siege of Plevna, securing victory
- 1878Made a count; establishes commission to investigate wartime supply corruption
- 1881–1912Resigns after Alexander III's accession; writes memoirs in Simeiz
- 1898Promoted Field Marshal — the last in Imperial Russian history