Język publikacji: angielski oraz rosyjski

The article examines the process of military transformation in Russia between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries within the framework of the Military Revolution concept. This concept, introduced by British historian Michael Roberts in 1955, was originally used to link changes in the purely military sphere related to the introduction of gunpowder and the increased number of armed forces with changes in state structures in Western European countries. However, the Military Revolution concept can also be used to describe modernisation processes in non-European countries. Some historians have pointed out that military reforms often lead to a holistic transformation of the socio-economic system according to European model. Others, including those dealing with the issue of the Military Revolution in Russia, focus primarily on the role of economic, social, and educational backwardness, which resulted in the construction of a modern military system and a modern state different from that found in the West. This article attempts to compliment this historical perspective by highlighting the importance of the cultural context in the analysis of the military modernisation in Russia. Thus, it is based mainly on secondary sources, using a cultural perspective for analysing historical processes. It explores the traditional cultural narrative - rooted in Orthodoxy and patrimonial socio-political system - which resulted in the emergence of specific beliefs about waging war and achieving military victory, as well as, war practices which differed from those in the West. As a result, it is argued that the introduction of similar technological and organisational solutions as part of the Military Revolution process in the state of the tsars was accompanied not only by different political and socio-economic conditions but also by different values, which were reflected in the various ways of reforming the troops and their subsequent use on the battlefields.