Following the military defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and the political upheaval of the Revolution of 1905, the tsarist regime began a campaign to create a new, embedded patriotic culture within society that would recognize the historical legitimacy of the ruling regime and fervently support that regime in times of crisis. Many in the army's senior ranks as well as in the civilian ministries of the regime believed that an almost complete lack of ideological connection between the regime and the people caused both the revolution and the military disaster in Manchuria In 1906, the regime began to shape a coordinated and aggressive campaign of cultural transformation that would help mobilize popular attitudes in support of the empire. This effort consisted of three programs. In 1908, the Ministry of Education introduced compulsory military education to Russia's schools to teach drill and gymnastics as preparation for devoted service to the Fatherland. In that same year, the regime began encouraging the growth of paramilitary youth groups throughout the empire. Most striking, however, was the general staff's decision to make use of three immediately forthcoming national anniversaries to drive home the lessons of patriotism, national glory and civic duty. The celebrations of these anniversaries were unprecedented in scale and purpose and introduced a new type of national patriotic festival to Russian culture By bringing the efforts to instill a new patriotic and civic consciousness into focus, this dissertation expands our understanding of the late imperial period. It reveals tsarist institutions as active agents of change attempting to revitalize the relationship between the regime and the population. The results, they hoped, would be increased social stability and enhanced military might. These objectives were traditional. Yet the methods employed to achieve them were new. In its twilight, the regime grasped the importance of mobilizing popular attitudes and reacted by crafting a sophisticated effort to shape the identities of its subjects. Instead of being immobilized by revolution and military defeat, this study has documented how the tsarist regime responded to the events of 1905 with an impulse to innovate that can only be characterized as modern
