Old Time Bikes of the Russian Military

My paternal German ancestors had left the Volga River colonies in Russia (where they had been living for more than a century) a handful of years before the illustration shown above was made. The year was 1904 and Russia was embroiled in a brutal war (yes, redundant) with Japan. The war was being carried out in Russia's distant eastern frontier, far from the nation's heartland. Communication between the two divergent regions was a difficult and lengthy proposition.

A few years earlier, the United States Army had experimented with the use of bicycles to facilitate the movement of troops and to speed communications. As the illustration of a "Russian staff officer patrolling [the] TransSiberian Railway on an electric tricycle to receive reports" shows, Russia too discovered that bicycles could be used to aid in communication. Such rail-riding bicycles, with an extra third wheel for stability were also used in the US, though I don't recall reading accounts of any being electric assist bikes.