The Methodological Foundations of Russian Military Science: The Case of V.A. Makhonin

In recent years, especially perhaps since 2022, more attention has been devoted to the evolution of Russian military thought in the Western research community (Persson: 2025). Thus, the purpose of the presentation and upcoming article is to address and analyse V.A. Makhonin’s article “O sostoianii otechestvennoi voennoi nauki i o voine [Reaktsiia na stat’iu S. A. Modestova ‘Krizis voennoi nauki i postneklassicheskie perspektivy ego preodoleniia’], who analyses the methodological foundations of Russian military science, and argues that the cycle between combat observation and codification has collapsed (published in 2025 in Vestnik Akademii voennykh nauk). A secondary purpose is to reflect briefly on the methodology of studying Russian military thought, and Western reactions to articles such as Makhonin’s. Therefore, Makhonin’s article “O sostoianii otechestvennoi voennoi nauki…” will also be discussed in relation to McDermott’s article The War Laboratory: Ukraine and the Future of Russian Warfighting, which also scrutinizes parts of Makhonin’s article, and “Krizis voennoi nauki i postneklassicheskie perspektivy ego preodoleniia” by S. A. Modestov. The tentative research questions are: what would the implications of Makhonin’s arguments and suggestions be for 1) Russian military science, and 2) the Russian Armed Forces?