How much credit should Rozhestvensky receive for holding the Russian fleet together before Tsushima?
Short answerHe deserves credit as a competent officer, but court connections and officer culture constrained discipline in ways a Royal Navy admiral would not have faced to the same degree.
NotesRozhestvensky was a competent officer who tried to train his crews, but Russian court politics limited what he could do to misbehaving officers. Royal Navy admiralty authority and peer discipline made it harder for officers to shortchange crews on food and treatment. The discussion of impressment distinguishes coerced service from slavery by pointing to pay, provisions, prize money, and rights that sailors retained. These institutional limits and reciprocal obligations complicate crude caricatures of Russian incompetence.