In the first comprehensive institutional and operational history of the Imperial Russian Army during the crucial period of its modernisation, Bruce W. Menning surveys the development of organisation, doctrine, and strategy from the aftermath of Russia's defeat in the Crimean War through the wars against Turkey in 1877-1878 and Japan in 1904-1905, to the eve of World War I. Menning weaves analysis of reforms in technology and military art with lively accounts of combat operations and portraits of the personalities involved. Enhanced by superb battlefield maps, operational diagrams, and rare photographs of the leading Russian military commanders, Bayonets before Bullets offers a fascinating account of the Russian Army's struggle to modernise during a critical era of change.