The Russian army at the end of the 18th century was probably the largest and arguably one of the strongest armies in Europe. During the reign of Catherine II the Great (1762-1796), she won several important victories in the course of the wars with Turkey, won the war with Poland in 1792 and was instrumental in suppressing the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794. Many of them were experienced by one of the best Russian leaders in the history of Russia - Alexander Suvorov, who relied on speed of action, skillful maneuvering with his own forces, but also put emphasis on training his own troops. Another thing is that he often won thanks to the advantage of his own troops. However, this good commander died in 1800, and the entire Russian officer corps was hardly famous for good training or a high level of professionalism. In general battles (at Austerlitz and at Frederick) Tsar Alexander I also had a negative influence on the command of the Russian army, who at Austerlitz did not accept the correct remarks of Mikhail Kutuzov who criticized the battle plan, and as a result of disagreements and personal injuries, did not entrust him with command of the Battle of Frederick . There are also many indications that the plan of the campaign of 1812, which involved drawing French troops deep into the tsarist state, was developed ad hoc and may not have been taken into account from the very beginning by the Russian command. However, these are only assumptions. Nevertheless, in the course of that campaign, the most important Russian officers were, for example, Mikhail Kutuzov, Matvei Platov and Mikhail Barclay de Tolly. In the course of this campaign of 1812, with the enormous and decisive support of "General Frost", the Russians won, but in the course of the 1813-1815 campaign, the Russian officer corps turned out to be quite good and was able to quite skillfully cooperate with its allies.
The training of lower and higher charge officers in the Austrian army was quite significantly changed after the defeats of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and after the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) - among others, from the 1850s the first war academies in Austria were established. However, despite the theoretically good teaching base, the Austrian officer corps on the brink of wars with revolutionary France (1792-1799) and the Napoleonic wars (1799-1815) did not look very well. In 1792, about 350 generals and 13 field marshals served in the Austrian army. Their average age was high, and many of them owed their promotions to family connections and courtly intrigues, not to leadership skills. All these shortcomings were concentrated in the course of the Italian campaign of 1796-1797, when the Austrian troops under the command of Field Marshal Wurmser (quite a good commander by the way) were smashed by the French in a series of battles - including at Castiglione (1796). The campaign of 1805, marked by a disgraceful defeat at Austerlitz (1805), also ended in a complete defeat. After 1805, the Austrian army underwent some reforms, and one of its most important officers was Archduke Charles - probably the best high-ranking officer of the Austrian army during the Napoleonic Wars, winner, for example, from Zurich (First Battle of Zurich, June 1799). However, in spite of this, in 1809 she was defeated again at the Battle of Wagram. After 1809, the most important high officers of the Austrian army were, for example, Schwarzenberg and Radetzky.
