The Tsarist Russian Officer's Code of Honor

By Alexander Ryazantsev

• If you are abrupt and haughty, you will be despised by all. 
• Be polite and modest in your dealings with all people.
• Do not promise if you are not certain of your ability to follow through.
• Carry yourself simply, with dignity, but without exquisiteness.
• Be concise, accurate and tactful always, with all and everywhere.
• Be considerate and attentive but not intrusive and adulatory. Know how to leave in a timely manner and not be unwanted. 
• It is necessary to remember the boundary where dignified politeness ends and where sycophancy begins.
• Do not carouse, as this will not prove one brave but rather likely compromise you.
• Do be in a hurry to get familiar with someone you do not know well.
• Avoid keeping financial tabs for friends. Money always spoils relations.
• If you can, help out your comrade with money, but personally avoid accepting money, as it will demean you.
• If you cannot say anything nice about someone, also refrain from saying anything bad if you happen to know of such.

• Do not dismiss the advice of others – hear it out. You will always have the option to deciding whether to heed it.
• Knowing how to use the good advice of others is an art no less useful than being able to provide good advice yourself.
• Honor fortifies the heart and ennobles bravery. 
• Safeguard the reputation of any woman who has confided in you, regardless of who she is.
• There are times in life when one must forget the heart and heed reason.
• Be guided by instinct, a sense of fairness and duty to decency.
• Always be on guard and never slack off.
• May your words be soft but arguments be strong. Try to convince rather than annoy one’s opponent.
• When speaking avoid gesticulation and raising one’s voice.
• There is nothing worse than indecisiveness. A bad decision is better than hesitancy and inaction.
• A moment lost can never be returned. 
• The person who is not afraid is more powerful than the person whom everyone fears.
• When two people quarrel, they are always both wrong.
• The greatest delusions are those which go unquestioned.
• There is wisdom in keeping silent. 
• Modesty is not about being indifferent to praise so much as it is being attentive to reprimands.

Source:  Russian Mir Foundation