Among the opinions and voices in this immense, restless, brilliant, and proud sphere, Prince Andréy noticed the following sharply defined subdivisions of tendencies and parties:

The first party consisted of Pfuel and his adherents⁠—military theorists who believed in a science of war with immutable laws⁠—laws of oblique movements, outflankings, and so forth. Pfuel and his adherents demanded a retirement into the depths of the country in accordance with precise laws defined by a pseudo-theory of war, and they saw only barbarism, ignorance, or evil intention in every deviation from that theory. To this party belonged the foreign nobles, Wolzogen, Wintzingerode, and others, chiefly Germans.