A History of the Study of Eastern Languages in the Russian Imperial Army
The Russian Empire occupied a vast territory in Asia and shared an extensive land and sea border with eastern states stretching from the Ottoman Empire to Japan. The Russian Imperial Army was instrumental in ensuring the defence of the eastern borders of the Empire, the administrative management of the border areas and in ensuring Russia's foreign policy in the East. In order to prepare the Army and Navy for the conduct of the war in the East, the Russian General Staff paid considerable attention to the study of adjacent countries of the East and their armed forces. From the middle of the 19th century the theory and practice of “military statistics” (application of statistical analysis to military geography) had been developed in Russia, which in many ways contributed to the development of military-geographical and statistical studies of the countries of the East. The establishment of the military district system in Russia, on the eastern outskirts of the Empire, the deployment of military districts was accomplished, assuming the functions of military-administrative control of the borderlands and military planning and preparation of the troops for the war in the East. To implement military policy in Asia, the Russian Imperial Army required trained specialists familiar with Asian countries and armies, as well as with Eastern languages.
In the second half of the 19th century the system of training military orientologists with the knowledge of Oriental languages was established in Russia. The basis of this system were specialized military and civilian educational institutions, in which military orientologists and translators were trained. This system of personnel training had undergone continuous evolution, which was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. Training of officers with knowledge of Eastern languages was practiced at the time in the armies of the world mostly the British, French, German, and Japanese armies, but in no country had such a large-scale, multilevel and diversified system of training military orientologists been created, as it was in Russia.
The training of military specialists with knowledge of Eastern languages in the Russian Imperial Army was exercised on two major levels – academic and practical. Specialists with an academic military orientology education were trained in St. Petersburg at the Officers’ Courses in Eastern languages at the Asiatic Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (languages of the Middle East) and in Vladivostok at the Officers’ Department of the Eastern Institute (languages of the Far East). The training of officers with practical knowledge of Eastern languages for the needs of the Asian military districts and combat troops was carried out at different time in Orenburg, Omsk, Novocherkassk and Tashkent. After the military orientolоgy reform in the Russian Imperial Army (1905–1911) – in Tashkent, Tiflis and Vladivostok. In addition to the specialized orientology educational institutions, military interpreters were trained in a variety of courses at the headquarters of the Asian military districts, separate detachments and at the Kulja and Urga translation schools.