Military writer, publicist, teacher and Prussian infantry general Baron Hugo Friedrich Philipp Johann von Freytag-Loringhoven (1855–1924) at the beginning of the twentieth century. was considered one of the leading German military thinkers, not only on historical problems, but also on current issues of military development. His work “The Art of Commandership” became the result of all the military-historical activities of the author and a kind of encyclopedia of military affairs of the 18th – early 20th centuries. The book describes in detail the development of operational and tactical art up to the beginning of the twentieth century, and provides comparative characteristics of military campaigns (Napoleonic Wars and the Patriotic War of 1812, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, the First world (Great) war). The manuscript was translated into Russian for the first time and provided with comments by a specialist in military history. The text is supplemented by original maps that provide a visual representation of the progress of the described campaigns.