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35 Interestingly, the curriculum at the Nicholas Academy lacked any training in MI. Because of the strong belief that MI was an element of the general course of military statistics, the aged professors opposed teaching it as a special academic subject. Moreover, most officers originating from traditional Russian nobility regarded MI as a dishonest ‘filthy’ business inappropriate for a noble man. 36 Contemporaries often paid attention to other negative characteristics of this higher military school.

31 Apart from this, an annual Quartermaster Service budget of 149,420 roubles was designated to pay salaries to official military attachés accredited in the capitals of major states at an approximate calculated rate of 1,200 roubles per person. Naturally, such minuscule reimbursements of their annual expenditures strongly hampered the progress of business. A tremendous impediment to gathering data was the point of instruction maintaining that almost every item of current expenditures should have been sanctioned by the Viceroy and the Main Staff.

In Korea, the office was held by Lieutenant Colonel, later Colonel, Ivan Strel’bitskii in 1895–1902. This officer also graduated from the Nicholas High School of Cavalry and the Nicholas Academy. 51 Taking into account the irregularity of his reports to the Main Staff and his failure to set up a network of secret agents, most scholars are inclined to blame this military attaché for Russia’s unprepared position in the Far East. But a recently published article by Yelena Dobychina has revealed new details of his biography which somehow alter our impression of this officer.