Stoletie Voennago Ministerstva 1802 - 1902. Istoricheskii Ocherk Razvitiia Voennago Upravleniia v Rossii I [A Century of the Ministry of War, 1802-1902. Historical Sketch of the Development of Military Governance in Russia I]

St. Petersburg: Tipografiia P. O. Panteleeva (Pechatano po Rasporiazheniiu Voennago Ministerstva), 1902. Softcover. First edition, 1 of 3300 copies; 9 x 11; pp. I-XI, [1], 1-679; wraps illustrated in gilt, red, and black by graphic artist Nikolai Samokish (1860 - 1944); stitching perished, gatherings mostly intact; wraps detached with some loss of paper to margins (more pronounced on back wrap); text clean; foxing mostly to tissue guards covering illustrations; numerous plates, diagrams, and colored maps (some large fold-out); good.An ambitious and massive undertaking, the book was published in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Russian Ministry of War. Created in 1802 as the Ministry of Ground Armed Forces during the Government Reform of Alexander the First. It was renamed in 1815. In May of 1900, Emperor Nicholas the Second declared that a historical work should be written through documents from all the different departments of the ministry. It soon became apparent that given the amount of material, housed at various institutions in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the cost of printing, and the scope of research needed would make the completion of the project in two years impossible. It was made even more difficult by the fact that to be fully appreciated, the work needed to include chapters on the development and growth of the Russian military before the Ministry of War was officially established in 1802. In the end, it was decided that a description of the development of the corresponding branch would precede each section and in turn each section would be divided into parts according to the ruling royal figure and the historic events associated with him/her. Later on, an appendix and more volumes would be published but none could outshine this first inaugural publication.Expenses were not spared illustrating the volume. The wraps illustrations, and the vignettes and engravings at beginning and end of each chapter were created by Nikolai Samokish - a respected artist who specialized in battle scenes. He was also a Professor at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in the early 1900s and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. The plates, some photographic and others engraved, depicted all the major royal and military figures of the times. The editor, compiler, and researchers were themselves prominent names and heads of military departments.