An officer must respect the human rights of his colleague of a lower rank: on the issue of official relations between officers and soldiers in the Russian army on the eve of World War I

The paper is devoted to the relations between the officers and other ranks of the Russian Army on the eve of World War I. The moral and psychological situation in the Russian ground forces is considered. The analyzed issue still is a matter of debates in historiography. An attempt is made to prove that at that time, officers mostly tried to overcome alienation between them and soldiers. The myth of physical violence of the Russian officers over their subordinates is disproved, and the author states that the system of punishments in the Russian Army was more humane than the ones used in German and Austro-Hungarian armies. The author demonstrates the main directions of humanizing relations in the army and reveals the measures of legal and moral influence on those officers who violated the statutory procedures.