Mobilization of 1876–1877. The first experience of Imperial Russia

After the defeat of the Serbian army on October 29, 1876, near Junis, Emperor Alexander II, after much hesitation, decided to begin mobilizing the Russian army in order to force the Ottoman Empire to conclude an armistice with Serbia. Mobilization caught the army in a period of unfinished transformations. In 1874, universal conscription was introduced, in the same year the Empire's armory factories began producing Berdana rifles, their rearmament in 1877 was not completed. During the first mobilization of the mass army, all this affected the condition and combat capability of the troops. A particularly important and difficult problem was the condition of the railways, besides, the Russian command did not yet have the experience of transferring, concentrating, or supplying such a significant mass of troops by rail. All this had an impact on the war plans and the conduct of military operations beyond the Danube.