Review: Russian Company Command
Musketeer Miniatures was formed with the goal of using years of experience in figure sculpting and painting to create complete ranges of miniatures that wargamers want.
All the staff at Musketeer Miniatures are keen wargamers and modelers. They hope that their love for the hobby shows in the quality of our products.
They make a point of contacting other wargamers and historians whilst planning their ranges, and listen keenly to their ideas during the design and manufacture of each product.
They feel there is no point in producing pretty figures if they are inaccurate or of no use in a game.
Their figures are available in small packs, as they know gamers dislike wasting money on unnecessary surplus figures. Furthermore, they specifically produce the figures required by rules and army lists.
We are sure you will find this helpful when planning your next army.
Contents
The review sample sent was a set of Russian Company Command, cast in white metal. The 3 miniatures shipped in a small clear plastic bag and included an officer, NCO and runner.
About
Russia entered the first world war with the largest army in the world, standing at 1,400,000 soldiers; when fully mobilized the Russian army expanded to over 5,000,000 soldiers (though at the outset of war Russia could not arm all its soldiers, having a supply of 4.6 million rifles).
The Russian Empire was a great colonial empire, covering about 1/6th of the globe. It was ruled by arguably the most intolerant, autocratic ruler class in the world – the Romanov Czars. The oppression of the common Russian people and the colonial populations was such that revolt was always near the surface. Russian losses in WWI were large both in manpower and money, putting great strain on this already crumbling system.
German leaders noted the shabbiness of the Russian government and took steps to hasten its demise, mainly by assisting Lenin in his return to Russia to lead the revolution.
With the Russian revolution in late 1917, peace was finally secured on the ‘eastern front’. Germany offered Russia very benign and generous terms in the treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
In this treaty Germany really asked for nothing from Russia except for her to stop shooting at Germans. Additionally Germany used her position to enable a few (but hardly all) of the enslaved colonial people of Russia a little freedom. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, and Ukraine all secured freedom from Russian tyranny due to the efforts of Germany.
Unfortunately, Germany quickly was faced with a new adversary, America. Instead of securing the political/military stalemate desired in the west, the Germans were forced into a hideous treaty that virtually guaranteed future conflict. Germany lost 15% of her land, land that was populated almost entirely by ethnic Germans. Her colonies were stripped away, not just a few as in Russia’s case, but 100%. Unlike Germany’s lenient treatment of Russia, Germany was forced to pay reparations, reduce her army, scuttle her navy, give up all patents and trademarks, and (incredibly) be forced to accept full responsibility for the war (the French and British knew that Serbian sponsored terrorists had triggered the war and that Russia was first to start the military movements, but they still insisted Germany sign this lie).
This left Germany in no position to enforce the Russian treaty of 1917. The Russian Red Army quickly crushed all opposition and swiftly moved to retake their lost colonies. Ukraine was first, seized in the 1920′s. It would not regain independence for 70 years. In 1939, Poland was stripped of 50% of her land by Russia. Finland was attacked and forced to cede huge amounts of land. Estonia, Latvia and Estonia were re-occupied using force.
The Russian empire of the Czars thus became the new Russian Empire of the Communists/Soviets. Its new rulers were just as bad or worse than before in the persons of Lenin and Stalin.
It is one of the great anomalies of history that the liberal thinking nations of France, Britain, and the USA allied themselves to this monster nation not just once in WWI, but twice, through WWII. Certainly, Germany in 1914 was one of the most progressive nations on earth. The alliance of democratic Britain with tyranical Czarist Russia to destroy the German nation remains to this day a very strange alliance, near without historical precedent.
The Good
There was no cleaning to be done with any of these minis aside from the basic clean-up with some washing-up liquid. There was no mold slippage.
From head to toe, these miniatures are sculpted with 100% authenticity and are quite impressive to behold.
The Bad
None.
The Ugly
None.
Scale: 28mm scale
Cost: £6
Rating
