The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Tsar Peter I formed a modern regular army built on the German model, but with a new aspect: officers were not necessarily from nobility, talented commoners were given promotions that eventually included a noble title at the attainment of an officer's rank (such promotions were later abolished during the reign of Catherine the Great). Conscription of peasants and townspeople was based on quota system, per settlement. Initially it was based on the number of households, later it was based on the population numbers.

Army recruits or volunteers usually married only after their service years, at mature age. This explains typical for retired or in reserve army officers to be married first time at the age of 35 and later.

The terms of service:

• In the 18th century army service was for life. The soldiers were recruited from the peasants, and the officers from the nobles. Each rural or bourgeois community had to provide one able man aged 20 to 35 years from a certain number (usually 20) of households.
• In 1732 recruiting age for men changed to 15 to 30 years. Term of service reduced for lower ranks to 10 years. Peasant servicemen could be promoted to officers and thus gain the nobility.
• In 1736 a directive was issued allowing the only sons in the family not to serve in the army, in families of multiple sons one of the brothers was allowed to avoid recruitment.
• In 1762 service term was reduced to 25 years.
• In 1834 service term was reduced to 20 years plus five years in the reserve.
• In 1855 service term was reduced to 12 years plus three years in the reserve.
• From January 1, 1874, the universal military service replaced the old recruitment system. The entire able male population that has reached 21 years of age, without distinction of a social class, had to serve in the army for 6 years plus 9 years in reserve.

More about the terms or service please read here.

Please read more about Imperial Russian Army here.

By joining and participating in this project GENI users who have interest in the subject can find each other for collaboration and information sharing.

The purpose of this project is to make a list of GENI profiles - officers that served within Imperial Russian Army. This will allow managers of such profiles find and compare information, tag military officers in group photos, supplement information of people that, for example, were serving in the same regiment, in the photo are wearing same uniforms, based on documents were located for military service at the same area, etc. This project will also help research and explain timeline facts.

Russian Empire covered many nations, the list of officer names will consist of multiple languages. This project is intended to help resolve cultural and language differences.

For your research please use database of Generals of Russian Imperial Army and Navy.

If in your family tree you have persons who were Officers of the Imperial Russian Army, please add them to this project. It would be great if within the profile description there would be a brief biography added.

Within opened profile page use the 'Actions' button to "Add to project". Select this project - Officers of the Imperial Russian Army. You must be among collaborators within this project - in order to see it on the selection list. You can add to the project any public profile that you have permission to edit. If you do not have permission to edit a certain profile, the system will prompt you to transfer your adding to project request to other profile managers.

Note: Only public profiles may be added to projects.

Если в вашем древе есть профили офицеров русской императорской армии — пожалуйста, добавьте их к этому проекту. Было бы неплохо хотя бы кратко описать их личную биографию.

Откройте страницу профиля, нажмите кнопку «Действия» и выберите строчку «Добавить в проект». Выберите проект (вы должны быть в числе соавторов проекта, чтобы увидеть его в списке выбора). Вы можете добавить любой общедоступный профиль, на который у вас есть разрешение на редактирование. Если у вас нет разрешения на редактирование профиля, заявка будет отправлена менеджеру профиля.

Примечание: только общедоступные профили могут быть включены в проекты.