HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

218 Reviewsof that officer corps which, far more than simply supporting Jászi's thesis on thearmy, succeeds in understanding and explaining what that thesis actually meanswhen removed from the realm of sociological generalization and endowed with thesubstance of social history. Deák concludes that "an enormous number of JointArmy officers had, for all intents and purposes, no nationality," but it is above all hisapproach to the question—through a complex methodology which combines the statisticalanalysis of official records with a more impressionistic synthesis of personalmemoirs—that makes this book such an innovative and important contribution tounderstanding the Habsburg monarchy as a multinational entity.Deák begins with the interesting, semi-paradoxical formulation of the monarchyas both essentially "militaristic" and yet fundamentally "unwarlike." Through thebook he uncovers the related paradoxes of an army overglorified and underfinanced,an officer corps whose fictional paragons were celebrated in operetta while its actualmembers wrestled with problems of pay and promotion. On the one hand, Deáktakes a broad view of the complete corps, employing statistical samplings to analyzeissues of class and confession, as well as the supremely problematic issue ofnationality. On the other hand, he takes an intimate view of the officers' lives, consideringsuch subjects as homoerotic friendship at the military academy and theconversational complications of using Du as the mandated mode of address betweenofficers.The chronological scope of the book reaches back to the early efforts toward aprofessional Habsburg army in the reigns of Maria Theresa and Joseph Π, and forwardto the post-Habsburg careers of the officers inherited by the twentieth-centurysuccessor states of Central and Eastern Europe. The heart of the book, however,focuses on the army created by the military arrangements and reforms of 1868, followingthe Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. Deák considers the nature of thejoint army in the dual monarchy, and the evolving balance between Cis- and Trans-Leithania in an army conceived as a central institution. The place of the Hungariansin the officer corps is analyzed with great subtlety, as is that of the Jews.Considering the apparent underrepresentation of Galicia's Ukrainians amongHabsburg officers, Deák suggests that their presence may have been masked by theidentification of Ruthenians as Poles, all the more likely in an army which generallydeemphasized national identification. Ukrainian was one of the languages which themultilingual officers were supposed to use with the relevant rank and file, thoughDeák also makes the interesting observation that Czech may have come to servegenerally "as a language for communication with all Slavic soldiers." Galiciaemerges from the officers' memoirs as an undesirable posting, perceived as "a placeto get drunk and to stay drunk; to spend the night in shabby cafés, gambling andwhoring; to long for civilization; and to make pilgrimages to the railroad station towatch the passing through of the Lemberg-Cracow-Vienna express."Such a passage might remind one of the fictional world of Joseph Roth'sRadetzky March, and in fact there is a special relation between Deák's history andRoth's novel—also of sixty years ago. Deák is fully aware of the special significanceof the Habsburg officer in Austrian literature, and he refers to Robert Musil's YoungTörless on military schooling and Arthur Schnitzler's Lieutenant Gustl on military