The composition of the alliances opposing the nation in the imperialist war. Gloomy afternoon XXI century
In the First World War, the Entente (France, Great Britain, Russia) and the powers of the Triple Alliance - Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, which were joined by Bulgaria and Turkey during the hostilities - opposed each other.
The war was the result of acute contradictions that arose between the leading capitalist countries of the world, whose interests collided in various regions of the globe, and primarily in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The contradictions between these countries turned into a fierce struggle for dominance in the world market, for the seizure of foreign territories and the establishment of their economic dominance.
A month after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The First World War began. The Western Front stretched more than 700 km from Switzerland to the Belgian coast; in addition, military operations were carried out in eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the oceans.
In the most general form, two stages of the First World War can be distinguished.
In the face of economic difficulties in the rear, as well as in connection with the entry of the United States into the war on the side of the Entente, the war became increasingly hopeless for Germany. Under these conditions, the German command came to the conclusion that it was necessary to end the war. On September 20, 1918, Field Marshal Hindenburg and General Ludendorff told the Kaiser that it was necessary to immediately conclude a truce, since a strategic breakthrough of the Western Front was possible at any moment.
November Revolution
The Germans in those days hardly understood what was happening. Posters were hanging everywhere predicting an imminent victory, possible territorial acquisitions of Germany were discussed, the soldiers felt like people who had fulfilled their duty to the end. Columns of returning front-line soldiers were showered with flowers. The news of Germany's military defeat, coming from the official authorities, became one of the reasons for the revolution that swept away the Kaiser's system. In a matter of days, November 8-9, 1918, the country was swept by revolution. On the night of November 10, 1918, Wilhelm II emigrated to Holland. The events that took place in Germany were called the November Revolution.
Woodrow Wilson's 14 points
On January 8, 1918, US President William Wilson spoke at a meeting of the House of Congress with a question about American war goals, which were set out in the “14 points.” Eight points were “mandatory”: 1) open diplomacy, 2) freedom of navigation, 3) elimination of trade barriers, 4) general disarmament, 5) impartial resolution of colonial disputes, 6) re-establishment of an independent Belgium, 7) withdrawal of troops from Russian territory, 8) establishment of the League of Nations.
Other “desirable” points were: the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France, the acquisition of autonomy for the national minorities of Austria-Hungary and Turkey, the revision of the borders of Italy, the withdrawal of foreign troops from the Balkans, giving the Dardanelles the status of an international zone and the creation of an independent Poland with access to to the sea.
First Truce of Compiègne
The truce between Germany and the Entente was concluded in the Forest of Compiegne November 11, 1918 After an exchange of notes with Germany, US President William Wilson proposed a truce based on the “14 points” he developed, which rejected annexations and indemnities. It was on these conditions that Germany agreed to lay down its arms. At the time the armistice was signed, the Germans did not know that French and British leaders had expressed their doubts and objections to Wilson's plan. They were recorded in a separate commentary, which was not shown to the Germans. The comment essentially crossed out the terms of the armistice proposed by Wilson, which suited both Germany and Austria-Hungary.
The First World War ended the liberal era, the beginning of which dates back to the French Revolution of 1789.
Economic losses
The English historian Neil Fergusson noted: “The Entente between 1914 and 1918. spent 140 billion dollars, and the powers of the Center - 80 billion dollars. To kill one enemy soldier, the Entente countries spent 36,485 dollars and 48 cents, and the countries of the Center - 11,344 dollars and 77 cents. The price of each killed soldier was $1,414 in the USA and Great Britain, $1,354 in Germany, and $700 in Russia and Turkey.”
Victims
The First World War became the bloodiest, most brutal and longest cataclysm at that time in the history of mankind. About 10 million people died on the battlefields, and about 10 million more died from hunger and epidemics. For example, Serbia lost 37% of those mobilized, France - 16.8%, Germany - 15.4%.
The decades-long accumulation of imperialist contradictions resulted in a grandiose clash of two military-political blocs. There was so much combustible material in international politics that the flames of war, which broke out at the end of July 1914 between Austria and Serbia, spread throughout Europe within a few days, and then, continuing to grow, engulfed the whole world.
1. The beginning of the war. Collapse of the Second International
The beginning of the war. Making it global
Despite the fact that the plans of the German General Staff included the opening of military operations primarily against France, the German government decided to first declare war on Russia in order to use the slogan of the fight against Russian tsarism to deceive the masses. The ruling circles of Germany knew that France would immediately take the side of Russia, and this would give the German army the opportunity, in accordance with the Schlieffen plan, to strike the first blow in the west.
On the evening of August 1, 1914, the German ambassador to Russia, Count Pourtales, came to Foreign Minister Sazonov for a response to an ultimatum demanding the cancellation of Russian mobilization. Having received a refusal, Pourtales handed Sazonov a note declaring war. Thus, with the rise of two major imperialist powers - Germany and Russia - the world imperialist war began.
In response to the general mobilization of Germany, France made the same decision. However, the French government did not want to take the initiative to declare war and sought to shift responsibility to Germany.
On the day the ultimatum was presented to Russia, the German government demanded that France maintain neutrality in the Russian-German war. At the same time, it prepared the text of a declaration of war on France, in which it referred to the fact that French military aircraft allegedly flew over German territory (later it was forced to admit that no one had seen these aircraft).
Germany declared war on France on August 3, but even the day before, on August 2, it sent an ultimatum to the Belgian government to allow German troops to pass through Belgium to the French border. The Belgian government rejected the ultimatum and turned to London for help. The English government decided to use this appeal as the main reason for entering the war. “Excitement in London is increasing from hour to hour,” the Russian ambassador to England telegraphed to St. Petersburg on August 3. On the same day, the British government sent Germany an ultimatum note demanding not to violate Belgium's neutrality. The English ultimatum expired at 11 pm London time. At 11:20 a.m., First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill announced at a cabinet meeting that he had sent out a radiogram across all seas and oceans ordering British warships to begin military operations against Germany.
After the outbreak of the war, Bulgaria, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Spain, Portugal, as well as Italy and Romania, allies of the Central Powers, declared their neutrality. Of the non-European countries, the United States of America and a number of Asian and Latin American countries declared neutrality. But the declaration of neutrality did not mean that all these countries intended to remain aloof from the war. The bourgeoisie of many neutral countries sought to participate in the war, hoping in this case to realize their territorial claims. On the other hand, the warring powers took into account that the inclusion of new states in the war could have an impact on its duration and final outcome. Therefore, each of the two warring coalitions made every effort to win these countries over to their side or to ensure their benevolent neutrality until the end of the war.
Already in August, the Japanese imperialists decided that a favorable situation had been created for establishing their dominant position in China and the Pacific. On August 15, Japan presented Germany with an ultimatum demanding the immediate withdrawal of German armed forces from Chinese and Japanese waters and the transfer of the “leased” territory of Jiaozhou with the port of Qingdao to the Japanese authorities no later than September 15, 1914. Germany rejected the ultimatum, and on August 23 Japan declared war on it.
Turkey, having formally declared neutrality, signed a secret treaty with Germany on August 2, under which it undertook to act on its side and actually transfer its army to the disposal of the German General Staff. On the day of signing this treaty, the Turkish government announced general mobilization and, under the guise of neutrality, began preparing for war. Relying on the most influential pro-German pan-Turkist group in the Young Turk government, led by War Minister Enver and Interior Minister Talaat, German diplomacy sought to quickly involve Turkey in the war.
The German cruisers Goeben and Breslau sailed through the Dardanelles to the Sea of Marmara, and the German Rear Admiral Souchon, who arrived on the Goeben, was appointed commander of the Turkish naval forces. Trains with weapons, ammunition, officers and military specialists continuously arrived in Istanbul from Germany. There were still hesitations in the ruling circles of Turkey on the issue of entering the war, but mutual imperialist contradictions in the Middle East prevented Russia, England and France from using these hesitations and developing a common political line of behavior in negotiations with the Turkish and government.
Meanwhile, German pressure on Turkey continuously increased. In an effort to confront the country with a fait accompli, German military circles and Turkish militarists led by Enver resorted to provocation. On October 29, the German-Turkish fleet attacked Russian ships in the Black Sea and bombarded Odessa, Sevastopol, Feodosia, and Novorossiysk. Turkey thus entered the war on the side of Germany. By the end of 1914, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Turkey, Russia, France, Serbia, Belgium, Great Britain (together with its empire), Montenegro, and Japan were in a state of war. Thus, the military conflict that arose in Europe quickly spread to both the Far and Middle East.
Treason of the Second International. Revolutionary platform of the Bolsheviks
In the alarming days of the July crisis, the proletarian masses pinned all their hopes on the International. But contrary to the solemn declarations of the Stuttgart and Basel congresses, the leaders of the Second International did not organize protests against the imperialist war and betrayed proletarian internationalism.
The leadership of the largest party of the Second International - the German Social Democracy, which numbered about a million members in its ranks, completely capitulated to the right, openly chauvinist wing, whose leaders made a backroom deal with Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg and promised him their unconditional support in the event of war. On the day Germany declared war on Russia, August 1. 1914, the entire German Social Democratic press actively joined the unbridled chauvinist campaign of the bourgeois-Junker press, calling on the masses to “defend the fatherland from Russian barbarism” and fight “to the bitter end.” On August 3, the Social Democratic faction of the Reichstag, by an overwhelming majority of votes (14 against), decided to approve the government’s proposal to allocate funds for the war, and on August 4, the Social Democrats, together with the deputies of the bourgeoisie and the Junkers, unanimously voted in the Reichstag for war loans. The unheard-of betrayal committed by the Social Democratic leaders at such a terrible hour demoralized the German working class, upset its ranks, and made it impossible to provide organized resistance to the policies of the imperialists. The apparatus and press of German Social Democracy and the “free” trade unions put themselves at the service of the imperialist war. The editors of the Social Democratic newspaper “Vorwärts” gave a signature to the commander of the Brandenburg Military District that the newspaper would not touch upon issues of “class struggle and class hatred.”
The French Socialist Party also changed international proletarian solidarity. On July 31, 1914, as a result of a provocative campaign by reactionary circles, Jean Geres, who opposed the outbreak of war, was killed. The workers expected the leaders to call them to fight. However, on August 4, at the funeral of Jaurès, the workers heard from the leaders of the Socialist Party and the General Confederation of Labor a treacherous call for “national unity” and an end to the class struggle. French social chauvinists insisted that the Entente countries were supposedly the “defensive side”, “bearers of progress” in the fight against aggressive Prussianism. The investigation revealed that even before the murder of Jaurès, the government had given instructions not to use repression against several thousand of the most prominent socialists and leaders of trade unions, whom it had previously planned to arrest if war broke out. The government was confident that the opportunists had a fairly strong grip on the leadership threads both in the Socialist Party and in the General Confederation of Labor. Soon after the declaration of war, the socialists Jules Guade, Marcel Sambat, and later Albert Thomas took ministerial positions. In Belgium, the leader of the Workers' Party, Emile Vandervelde, chairman of the International Socialist Bureau, became Minister of Justice.
The Austrian Social Democracy also took a treacherous position. In the anxious days after the Sarajevo murder, the leaders of the Austrian Social Democratic Party, while declaring their readiness to defend peace, at the same time argued that Austria should be provided with “guarantees” from Serbia. This manifestation of chauvinism was followed by approval of the military measures of the Austrian government.
English Labor voted in parliament for war loans. The Russian Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries took a “defensive”, social-chauvinist position; under the guise of pseudo-socialist phraseology, they called on the workers to “defend” tsarist Russia and to civil peace with “their” bourgeoisie.
Serbian Social Democrats voted against war loans. The correct position towards the war was also taken by the Bulgarian oppressors, the leftists in the leadership of the Romanian Social Democratic Party, the German leftists led by K. Liebknecht and R. Luxemburg, and leftist internationalist elements in other socialist parties.
The Bolsheviks pursued a consistent, truly internationalist line. The Bolshevik faction in the IV State Duma courageously voted against the military budget; for their revolutionary activities, the Bolshevik deputies were put on trial and exiled to Siberia.
When the war broke out, the leader of the Bolshevik Party, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, lived in the small Galician town of Poronin, near the Russian border. On August 7, Lenin’s apartment was searched by order of the Austrian authorities, and the next day he was arrested and imprisoned in the provincial town of New Targ. After the intervention of Polish and Austrian Social Democrats, the police authorities had to release Lenin on August 19, and the Austrian authorities gave him permission to travel to Switzerland.
Arriving in Bern, Lenin at the beginning of September presented the theses “Tasks of revolutionary Social Democracy in the European War.” On September 6-8, 1914, a meeting of the local group of Bolsheviks took place in Bern, at which Lenin’s report was heard and Lenin’s theses on the war were adopted. Soon after this, the theses were sent to Russia and foreign sections of the Bolshevik Party.
In these theses, as well as in the manifesto of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), written at the beginning of October 1914, “War and Russian Social Democracy,” Lenin, with the genius of a great proletarian strategist, outlined the tasks facing the proletariat of Russia and the whole world.
While the right-wing leaders of the socialist parties argued that the outbreak of war was defensive for their countries, V.I. Lenin showed that the war was of an imperialist nature for both warring coalitions.
“The seizure of lands and the conquest of foreign nations,” wrote V.I. Lenin, “the ruin of a competing nation, the plunder of its wealth, the diversion of the attention of the working masses from the internal political crises of Russia, Germany, England and other countries, the disunity and nationalistic fooling of the workers and their extermination vanguard in order to weaken the revolutionary movement of the proletariat - this is the only real content, significance and meaning of modern war” (V.I. Lenin, War and Russian Social Democracy, Works, vol. 21, p. 11.).
The Bolshevik Party, led by V.I. Lenin, firmly, without any hesitation, established its attitude towards the imperialist war. The position developed by the Bolsheviks corresponded to the interests of the working class of all countries. Having condemned the treacherous slogan of civil peace and class cooperation put forward by the social chauvinists, the Bolshevik Party put forward the revolutionary internationalist slogan of transforming the imperialist war into a civil war. This slogan presupposed the implementation of specific measures: an unconditional refusal to vote for war loans; mandatory withdrawal of representatives of socialist parties from bourgeois governments; complete rejection of any agreement with the bourgeoisie; the creation of illegal organizations in countries where they did not yet exist; support for the fraternization of soldiers at the front; organization of revolutionary actions of the working class. In contrast to the call of the social chauvinists to defend the landowner-bourgeois fatherland, the Bolsheviks put forward the slogan of the defeat of “their” government in the imperialist war. This meant that the working class must use the mutual weakening of the imperialists to strengthen the revolutionary struggle, to overthrow the ruling classes.
Having branded with enormous force the betrayal of the cause of socialism committed by the leaders of the socialist parties, V.I. Lenin advocated a complete break with the collapsed Second International. Analyzing the ideological and political content of social chauvinism, Lenin revealed its immediate, direct connection with opportunism in pre-war social democracy.
A hypocritical position was occupied by hidden social chauvinists - centrists who tried to embellish social chauvinism with an orthodox “Marxist” phrase. Kautsky advocated a “mutual amnesty” for the social-chauvinists of all warring countries and for their “equal right” to defend “their” bourgeois fatherland, and made every effort to hide the bankruptcy of the Second International from the workers. As V.I. Lenin emphasized, the “subtle” opportunism of the centrists was especially dangerous for the working class. Calling for an irreconcilable struggle against him, Lenin wrote in October 1914 that Kautsky “is now the most harmful of all” (V.I. Lenin to A. Shlyapnikov, 17. X. 1914, V.I. Lenin, Works, vol. 35, p. 120.).
Despite the enormous casualties and losses caused by government terror, the Bolshevik Party in Russia moved to illegal work in an organized manner, rallying the working class to fight against the imperialist war.
Having decisively broken with the Second International, whose leaders were actually in alliance with the imperialist bourgeoisie of their countries, the Bolshevik party, led by V.I. Lenin, put forward the task of organizing and uniting all the revolutionary forces of the international working class, the task of creating a new, Third International.
2. Military actions in 1914
Deployment of armies of warring powers
By the time of the first decisive operations, huge armies had been mobilized: the Entente - 6179 thousand people, the German coalition - 3568 thousand people. The Entente artillery consisted of 12,134 light and 1,013 heavy guns, the German coalition had 11,232 light and 2,244 heavy guns (not counting fortress artillery). As the war progressed, opponents continued to increase their armed forces.
In the Western European theater of operations, German troops (seven armies and four cavalry corps) occupied a front of about 400 km from the Dutch border to the Swiss. The nominal commander-in-chief of the German armies was Emperor Wilhelm II; their actual leadership was exercised by the chief of the general staff, General Moltke the Younger.
The French armies stood between the Swiss border and the Sambre River on a front of about 370 km. The French command formed five armies, several groups of reserve divisions; The strategic cavalry was united into two corps and several separate divisions. General Joffre was appointed commander-in-chief of the French armies. The Belgian army under the command of King Albert deployed on the Jet and Dyle rivers. The English expeditionary force, consisting of four infantry and one and a half cavalry divisions under the command of General French, concentrated in the Maubeuge area by August 20.
Deployed in the Western European theater of war, the Entente armies, consisting of seventy-five French, four English and seven Belgian divisions, had against them eighty-six infantry and ten German cavalry divisions. Almost none of the sides had the necessary superiority of forces to ensure decisive success.
Russia deployed the 1st and 2nd armies (seventeen and a half infantry and eight and a half cavalry divisions) on the Northwestern Front against Germany; The Germans deployed their 8th Army against them, consisting of fifteen infantry and one cavalry divisions. The four armies of the Russian Southwestern Front were opposed by three Austrian armies, reinforced by an army group and a corps consisting of three infantry and one cavalry divisions. One Russian army was formed to cover Petrograd and the Baltic coast, and one to cover the Romanian border and the Black Sea coast; the total strength of these two armies was twelve infantry and three cavalry divisions. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies, and General Yanushkevich was appointed Chief of Staff (later, from 1915, the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief was taken by Nicholas II, and General Alekseev became Chief of Staff). The Austro-Hungarian armies were led by Chief of Staff General Konrad von Götzendorf.
The Western European and Eastern European theaters were the main ones throughout the war; actions in other theaters were of secondary importance.
Naval forces
By the beginning of the war, the Entente had a decisive superiority of naval forces. It had, in particular, 23 battleships against 17 battleships of the Austro-German bloc. Even more serious was the Entente's superiority in cruisers, destroyers and submarines.
English naval forces were concentrated mainly in ports in the north of the country, mainly in Scapa Flow, French - in the ports of the Mediterranean Sea, German - near Helgoland, in Kiel, Wilhelmshaven.
The maritime forces of the Entente dominated the oceans, as well as the North and Mediterranean seas. In the Baltic Sea, since the Russian naval construction program was not completed, the German fleet had some advantage. In the Black Sea, the German-Turkish fleet, which included the high-speed cruisers Goeben and Breslau (received the Turkish names Sultan Selim Yavuz and Midilli), also had an advantage at the first stage of the war.
The naval plans of both sides followed from the balance of naval forces. The German fleet was forced to abandon active operations; only a few German cruisers were sent for operations on the ocean routes. Anglo-French naval forces, predominantly the English fleet, were able to blockade the German coasts, German naval bases and ensure their numerous communications. This superiority at sea played a major role in the further course of the war.
Operations in the Western European Theater of Operations
The fighting in the Western European theater began on August 4 with the invasion of German troops into the territory of Belgium and the attack on the Belgian border fortress of Liege. Somewhat earlier, on August 2, the advanced units of the German army occupied Luxembourg. The German army violated the neutrality of these two countries, although at one time Germany, along with other European states, solemnly guaranteed it. The weak Belgian army, after twelve days of stubborn defense of Liege, retreated to Antwerp. On August 21, the Germans took Brussels without a fight.
Having passed through Belgium, German troops, in accordance with the Schlieffen plan, invaded the northern departments of France with their right wing and began a rapid attack. advance towards Paris. However, the French troops, retreating, put up stubborn resistance and prepared a counter-maneuver. The maximum concentration of forces on this strike sector of the front, which was planned by the German plan, turned out to be impossible. Seven divisions were taken to siege and guard Antwerp, Givet and Maubeuge, and on August 26, at the height of the offensive, two corps and one cavalry division had to be transferred to the Eastern European theater of operations, since the Russian high command, without even finishing concentrating its forces, undertook at the urgent request of the French government, offensive operations in East Prussia.
From September 5 to 9, a grand battle unfolded on the plains of France, between Verdun and Paris. Six Anglo-French and five German armies took part in it - about 2 million people. Over six hundred heavy and about 6 thousand light guns resounded with their cannonade along the banks of the Marne.
The newly created 6th French Army attacked the right flank of the 1st German Army, whose task was to encircle Paris and link up with German troops operating south of the capital. The German command had to remove corps from the southern sector of its army and throw it to the west. On the rest of the front, German attacks were vigorously repulsed by French troops. The German high command did not have the necessary reserves, and it actually did not control the course of the battle at that moment, leaving the commanders of the individual armies to decide. By the end of September 8, German troops had completely lost their offensive initiative. As a result, they lost the battle, which, according to the plans of the General Staff, was supposed to decide the fate of the war. The main reason for the defeat was the German military command's overestimation of its forces - a miscalculation that underlay the Schlieffen strategic plan.
The withdrawal of the German armies to the Aisne River occurred without much difficulty. The French command did not take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves to further develop their success. The Germans tried to get ahead of the enemy and occupy the northern coast of France in order to complicate the further landing of British troops, but they also failed in this “race to the sea”. After this, major strategic operations in the Western European theater ceased for a long time. Both sides went on the defensive, marking the beginning of positional forms of warfare.
Eastern European Theater of Operations
Events in the Eastern European theater of war played an important role in the collapse of the German strategic plan. Active operations were launched here on both sides. The actions of the Russian troops were influenced by the later periods of mobilization readiness, strategic concentration, deployment of armies, as well as the dependence of the Russian command on the terms of the Franco-Russian military convention.
This last circumstance led to the fact that the Russian command was forced to divert large forces to directions that were less important from the point of view of Tsarist Russia’s own strategic and political interests. In addition, military obligations to France forced the start of decisive operations before the complete concentration of troops.
The first period of the 1914 campaign in the Eastern European theater was marked by two major operations - East Prussian and Galician.
Both armies of the Russian Northwestern Front (1st and 2nd), without completely finishing their concentration, began advancing into East Prussia on August 17 - during the German offensive in the West. The German corps, moving towards the 1st Russian Army, was defeated on August 19 in the battle of Stallupönen. On August 20, a major battle broke out between the 1st Russian and 8th German armies on the Gumbinnen-Goldap front. The Germans were defeated and forced to retreat; some German corps lost up to a third of their combat strength. Only an incorrect assessment of the situation and the passive tactics of the incompetent commander of the 1st Russian Army, General Rennenkampf, gave the German troops the opportunity to avoid final defeat.
The 2nd Russian Army under the command of General Samsonov crossed the southern border of East Prussia on a wide front and launched an offensive on the flank and rear of the 8th German Army west of the Masurian Lakes. The German command had already decided to withdraw troops beyond the lower Vistula and leave East Prussia. However, on August 21, having become convinced of Rennenkampf's inaction, it adopted another plan - to direct almost all its forces against the Russian 2nd Army. This maneuver was carried out by the new command - generals Hindenburg and his chief of staff Ludendorff, who replaced Prittwitz, who was removed from command.
While German units were being transferred to the south, the Russian 2nd Army was being drawn deep into East Prussia. The conditions of the offensive were difficult: the poorly prepared rear did not provide supplies, the troops were tired and scattered on a wide front, the flanks were poorly secured, reconnaissance was weak, and there was discord in the management between the commands of the army and the front, as well as headquarters. Using a developed network of railways, the German command concentrated strong strike groups on the flanks of the 2nd Russian Army and attacked it. Two Russian corps, advancing in the center, were surrounded and largely died. By mid-September the Russian army was driven out of East Prussia.
The offensive operation of the Russian northwestern front thus ended in failure. Russian losses were enormous - about a quarter of a million soldiers and a large amount of weapons. At this price, the Russian command pulled German troops to the East, intended for attacks in the West.
The battles on the Russian Southwestern Front also occupied an important place in the general course of the war in 1914. More than 100 divisions took part in the battles on both sides. On August 18, the offensive of the Russian 8th Army under General Brusilov began, and on August 23, a grandiose battle unfolded on a front more than 300 km away. The Russian army defeated the Austro-Hungarian troops, occupied Lvov and forced them to retreat across the San River. Pursuing the enemy, Russian troops pushed him beyond the Dunajec River and to the Carpathians, blocking the largest Austrian fortress of Przemysl. The fact that soldiers of Slavic nationalities, especially Czechs and Slovaks, surrendered in the tens of thousands played a major role in the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian troops.
The Galician operation, which lasted more than a month, ended in victory for the Russian troops. At the end of September, the Russian command faced the question of a plan for further action. Initially, it was planned to complete the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian armies, cross the Carpathians and invade Hungary. However, failures in East Prussia created uncertainty about the success of offensive operations. The Allies, for their part, demanded that the Russian high command conduct an offensive not against Austria-Hungary, but against Germany, in order to force it to ease its pressure on the West. After some hesitation, the Russian command decided to send the main forces of its armies against Germany and, for this purpose, regroup them from the Sana River to the Middle Vistula, to Warsaw.
Meanwhile, the German command, fearing the defeat of its Austro-Hungarian ally and the creation of an immediate threat to the industrial centers of Silesia, decided to strike at the flank and rear of the Russian armies. The result of a new regrouping of both opponents was the Ivangorod-Warsaw operation, which unfolded on a front of 300 km. In the last days of September, the German command began an offensive towards the Vistula and sent a strong group of troops to Warsaw. Bloody battles took place under its walls, during which superiority in forces gradually passed to the side of the Russian troops. Pursuing the 9th German and 1st Austrian armies, Russian troops reached the river line by November 8th. Varta - Carpathian Mountains.
The possibility of a deep invasion of Germany opened before the Russian troops. The German command really sensed this danger and took appropriate measures.
“Young people capable of carrying weapons were evacuated from the border provinces,” Ludendorff writes in his memoirs. “The Polish mines in some places were already rendered unusable and measures were taken to destroy the German railways and mines of the border region.” These events, according to Ludendorff, "spread fear throughout the entire province." The Eastern European front again diverted large German forces from the West.
The Russian command, however, failed to invade Germany. The Austro-German armies, at the cost of heavy losses, managed to stop the advance of the Russian forces. The outcome of the operation was significantly influenced by major shortcomings in the operational and strategic leadership of the Russian command. By this time, the lack of weapons and ammunition also became acutely felt, which turned into a constant scourge of the Russian troops.
Austro-Serbian Front
On the Austro-Serbian front, Austrian troops launched an offensive on August 12; initially it was successful, but soon the Serbs launched a counter-offensive, defeated the Austro-Hungarian troops, capturing 50 thousand prisoners and numerous trophies, and drove them back from Serbian territory. In September, the Austro-Hungarian command again launched an offensive operation. By November 7, due to a lack of ammunition and the threat of encirclement, the Serbian army was forced to withdraw into the interior of the country, leaving Belgrade. In the first days of December, having received assistance from the Entente powers with artillery and ammunition, it again launched a counter-offensive, defeated the enemy and drove it back beyond Serbia.
Caucasian Front. Military operations in Iran
In Transcaucasia, Russian troops achieved significant successes in the Erzurum, Alashkert and Van directions during November. In December, Turkish troops under the leadership of Enver Pasha and German instructors launched a major operation in the Sarykamysh region, trying to defeat the Russian forces concentrated here. After a counter-maneuver by the Russian troops, the 9th Turkish Corps was surrounded, and its remnants, led by the corps commander and division commanders, capitulated; The 10th Turkish Corps was destroyed. Having been defeated, the Turkish troops retreated with significant losses. Thus, the 1914 campaign in the Caucasian-Turkish theater ended with major successes for the Russian troops.
The hostilities also spread to Iran. Despite the fact that the Iranian government made a special statement of neutrality, none of the warring coalitions was willing to take this into account. In November 1914, Turkish troops, simultaneously with the offensive on the Caucasian front, invaded Iranian Azerbaijan. Russia at that time was fighting fierce battles on its Western Front and therefore could not immediately transfer significant forces to a new front. In addition, the Western allies of Tsarist Russia objected to the transfer of Russian reinforcements to Iran. The British government was afraid that the successes of the Russian troops would lead to a strengthening of Russia's position in Iran due to the influence of England.
The occupation of Iranian Azerbaijan by Turkey was short-lived. The defeat of Turkish troops near Sarykamysh at the end of January allowed the Russian command to launch an offensive and occupy Iranian Azerbaijan; The Turks managed to retain only some areas of Western Iran.
War at sea
During the 1914 campaign, German ships conducted cruising operations in the Antilles zone, in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Initially, these operations were a success and caused serious concerns among the British and French naval commands.
The German cruiser squadron of Admiral Spee in the battle of Coronel on November 1, 1914 defeated the English squadron, sinking two English cruisers. But on December 8, the British managed to overtake the Spee squadron along with the cruiser Dresden that joined it near the Falkland Islands and defeat it. All of Spee's ships were sunk. The British sank the Dresden that escaped in March 1915.
In the North Sea, naval operations were limited. On August 28, the English cruiser squadron of Admiral Beatty launched a raid on Heligoland Bay. The clash with the cruising forces of the German fleet ended in favor of the British. Three German cruisers and one destroyer were sunk, and the British had one cruiser damaged. The Battle of Heligoland once again emphasized the superiority of the English fleet.
Already in the first months of the war, submarines played a major role in naval operations. On September 22, a German submarine managed to sink, one after another, three British armored cruisers on patrol duty. The importance of the new means of combat increased greatly after these operations.
On the Black Sea, on November 18, the Russian squadron entered into battle with the Goeben and Breslau and inflicted significant damage on the Goeben. This success provided the Russian fleet with superiority in the Black Sea.
The main result of the struggle at sea, however, was the establishment by England of a blockade of the German coast, which had a huge impact on the course of the war.
Results of the 1914 campaign
In general, the 1914 campaign ended in favor of the Entente. German troops were defeated on the Marne, Austrian troops in Galicia and Serbia, and Turkish troops at Sarykamysh. In the Far East, Japan captured the port of Jiaozhou in November 1914. The Caroline, Mariana and Marshall Islands, which belonged to Germany, also fell into the hands of Japan, and British troops captured the rest of Germany's possessions in the Pacific Ocean. Anglo-French troops in Africa captured Togo at the very beginning of the war. In Cameroon and German East Africa, the fighting became protracted, but in practice these colonies, cut off from the mother country, were lost to Germany.
By the end of 1914, the failure of German plans for a short-term, lightning-fast war, a war “before the autumn leaves fell,” became obvious. A long war of attrition began. Meanwhile, the economies of the warring countries were not prepared to wage war in the new conditions. The bloody battles of the 1914 campaign exhausted the troops, and replacements were not prepared. There were not enough weapons and shells. The military industry did not have time to satisfy the needs of the army. The position of the Russian army was especially difficult. Huge losses led to the fact that in a number of units only half of the personnel remained. The spent stocks of weapons and ammunition were almost never replaced.
The emergence of continuous fronts and positional forms of war prompted a search for new ways to solve strategic problems.
The German command adopted a plan to transfer the main military operations to the east - against Russia, with the goal of defeating and withdrawing it from the war. Thus, the Eastern European theater became the central site of the world war in 1915.
3. Military actions in 1915
Eastern European Theater of Operations
During the winter of 1914/15, the attention of both opponents was transferred to the Galician front, where Russian troops fought stubborn battles to capture the Carpathian passes and the Carpathian ridge. On March 22, Przemysl capitulated with its 120,000-strong garrison of Austro-Hungarian troops. But the Russian troops could no longer develop this success. There was an acute shortage of weapons and ammunition, especially shells. The enemy command, greatly concerned about the threat of an invasion of Russian troops beyond the Carpathians, managed to concentrate large forces. In mid-April, the exhausted Russian armies went on the defensive.
Soon, German troops launched a major operation on the right wing of the Russian Southwestern Front. Its initial goal, according to the German command, was to eliminate the threat of invasion of Russian troops on the plains of Hungary, but subsequently the operation developed as an integral part of the strategic “pincers”, which were supposed to envelop and crush the entire Russian group with a simultaneous blow from the Carpathians and East Prussia troops in Galicia and Poland. The best corps were transferred from the Western European fronts, and a new, 11th German army was formed from them. It was decided to make a breakthrough of the Russian front in the Gorlitsa area. German artillery in the breakthrough area outnumbered the Russians by six times, and in heavy guns by forty times. The Russian positions were poorly fortified, and the rear positions were not prepared at all. On May 2, German troops managed to break through the front. The difficult situation of the Russian armies was aggravated by the incorrect tactics of the command, which, instead of quickly withdrawing units to new lines, exhausted them in fruitless and bloody battles with superior enemy forces. As a result, Austro-German troops managed to push the Russian armies far to the east. At the end of May, Przemysl was recaptured, and on June 22, Russian troops surrendered Lviv. At the same time, the Germans went on the offensive on the northern wing of the Russian front, occupying Libau (Liepaja).
At the end of June, the German high command, trying to squeeze the Russian armies into pincers, planned to strike with its right wing between the Western Bug and the Vistula, and with its left wing on the lower Narew. But the Cannes project planned by Hindenburg and Ludendorff did not take place. The Russian high command decided to withdraw its armies from the impending attack and leave Poland. On July 13, German troops launched an offensive. In early August they occupied Warsaw, and then Novogeorgievsk (Modlin). In the second half of September, the German offensive began to run out of steam. By the end of the year, the front was established along the line Western Dvina - Lake Naroch - Styr River - Dubno - Strypa River.
Overall, the 1915 campaign in the Eastern European theater had significant consequences. Tsarism suffered a major defeat, which exposed all the vices of the military organization and the economic backwardness of the country. The masses of soldiers paid for this with colossal sacrifices: since the beginning of the war, Russia’s human losses amounted to over 3 million people, of which 300 thousand were killed. At the same time, as a result of the defeat, the process of revolutionizing the army accelerated.
However, the German imperialists did not achieve their main goal, which was dictated to them by the tense economic and political situation of Germany and its allies. Despite the fact that more than half of all German-Austrian troops were concentrated on the Russian front in 1915, Russia was not put out of action, and Germany and Austria-Hungary suffered very heavy losses.
In 1914-1915 A significant part of Poland became the scene of military action. Each of the warring powers - Germany, Austria-Hungary and Tsarist Russia - sought to seize all Polish lands. At the same time, the governments of these countries, with the help of false promises, hoped to attract the Polish people to their side and use them in the war. Associated with these calculations were the appeals of the army commanders of each of the three powers to the Polish population in 1914, which contained promises of “self-government”, unification of Polish lands, etc.
The bourgeoisie and landowners of Poland and Galicia relied not on the popular liberation movement, but on support from one or another of the imperialist powers. National Democrats (endeks) and some other bourgeois groups advocated the unification of Polish lands under the “scepter of the Russian monarch” and their autonomy within the Russian Empire. The bourgeois-landlord and petty-bourgeois elements of Galicia and certain political groups of the Kingdom of Poland, in particular the right-wing socialists and the Peasant Union, supported the program of creating a Polish state within the Habsburg Monarchy. The “Polish National Organization”, led by Pilsudski, was oriented toward Germany: it entered into a secret alliance with the command of the German army, which occupied part of the Kingdom of Poland, and created Polish legions that fought on the side of the Central Powers.
Western European Theater of Operations
At the end of winter and spring of 1915, the Anglo-French command undertook a series of strategic unsuccessful offensive operations. All of them were conducted with limited targets on narrow sectors of the front.
On April 22, near Ypres, German troops attacked Anglo-French positions. During this attack, violating the terms of the international convention prohibiting the use of toxic substances, they carried out a massive balloon release of chlorine. 15 thousand people were poisoned, of which 5 thousand died. The tactical success achieved by German troops as a result of the use of a new weapon of war was very small. Nevertheless, later the use of chemical means of warfare by both warring parties became widespread.
The attacks of the Entente armies in Artois in May and June, despite large losses, also did not bring any serious results.
The indecisive, limited nature of the Entente's offensive operations allowed the German command to significantly increase its forces against Russia. The resulting difficult situation for the Russian armies, as well as fears that tsarism might withdraw from the war, forced the Entente to finally address the issue of providing assistance to Russia. On August 23, Joffre outlined to the French Minister of War the reasons prompting him to undertake an offensive operation. “It is more profitable for us to launch this offensive as soon as possible, since the Germans, having defeated the Russian armies, can turn against us.” However, under pressure from generals Foch and Petain, the attack was postponed until the end of September, when the fighting on the Russian front had already begun to subside.
On September 25, French troops launched an offensive operation with two armies in Champagne and one army - together with the British - in Artois. Very large forces were concentrated, but it was not possible to break through the enemy front.
Dardanelles operation
In 1915, the Entente countries, mainly England, undertook sea and land operations with the aim of capturing the Black Sea straits - the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, as well as Istanbul.
In preliminary negotiations with the Russian government regarding these operations, the allies referred to the need to establish communications between them and Russia and to divert Turkish forces from the Caucasian and Suez directions; in addition, they pointed out that a strike on the straits and the Turkish capital would undermine the communications of the German coalition with the Middle East and would take Turkey out of the war. In reality, the British ruling circles, in particular the initiator of the Dardanelles expedition, Winston Churchill, pursued primarily a political goal: to occupy Constantinople and the straits before they had to, according to the secret treaty of 1915, go to tsarist Russia.
At first it was planned to capture the straits only by naval forces. On February 19, fleet operations began at the entrance to the Dardanelles. Having suffered heavy losses, the Anglo-French fleet was forced to retreat on March 18, 1915. After this, on April 25, the Anglo-French command carried out a major landing operation on the Gallipoli Peninsula (Gelibolu). But the Entente troops failed to achieve success here either. At the end of the year, the Anglo-French command decided to leave Gallipoli and stop operations to capture the straits.
Italy's entry into the war. Battles of the Isonzo
The ruling classes of Italy, at the very beginning, decided to use the current political situation to satisfy their imperialist demands. In August 1914, the Italian government entered into informal negotiations with Russia and England about its transition to the Entente side. The rapid advance of the German army towards Paris was hastily assessed in Rome as a defeat for France. This prompted Italy to break off negotiations with the Entente and begin secret soundings in the capitals of the Central Powers. German military and political circles believed that Italy's action against the Central Powers could seriously complicate the situation at the fronts. They therefore began to put strong pressure on the Austro-Hungarian government, demanding that it make territorial concessions in favor of Italy as payment for its neutrality. In the first half of December 1914, Italy began negotiations with Austria-Hungary on this basis, demanding the transfer of Trentino and part of Tyrol to it, as well as the granting of autonomy to Trieste. In response, Austria-Hungary offered Italy the French territories of Nice, Savoy, Corsica and Tunisia as compensation. The Italian government categorically rejected this proposal. The German government put pressure on Austria-Hungary and Italy in order to persuade them to agree, but all efforts were in vain.
At the beginning of March 1915, the Italian government confidentially informed England that it wished to find out the conditions under which Italy could join the Entente, and informed the British government of its political and territorial claims. During the negotiations that followed, Italy insisted that the Anglo-French fleet protect it from the Austrian fleet, and the Russian army chained the main fighting forces of Austria-Hungary to itself, depriving the latter, as stated in the Italian memorandum, “of the opportunity to concentrate its forces against Italy " Italy demanded huge territorial compensation. In Europe, she sought the transfer to her of Trentino and South Tyrol, Trieste and all of Istria (including all the Istrian islands), Dalmatia, the Dodecanese Islands, part of Albania, etc. In the event of the division of Turkey, Italy laid claim to the provinces of Antalya (Adalia) and Izmir, and in the case of the division of the German colonies in Africa - to “appropriate and equivalent compensation” in Eritrea and Somalia at the expense of the French and British colonies.
On April 26, 1915, a secret treaty was signed in London between Russia, England, France and Italy, according to which Italy undertook to start a war in a month, and the allies agreed to ensure the satisfaction of a significant part of the demands it made when concluding peace.
On the same day, four governments signed a declaration of non-conclusion of a separate peace. On May 4, Italy officially declared in Vienna that it considered the alliance treaty with Austria-Hungary annulled, and on May 23 declared war on it.
So at the end of May 1915, a new, Italian front was formed in Europe. Taking advantage of the diversion of Austro-Hungarian forces to the Russian front, the Italian command tried to undertake offensive operations. It deployed most of its forces on the Isonzo River. At the same time, Italian troops began offensive operations in Trentino, in the Cadorian and Carnic Alps. The first attack on the Isonzo, like attacks in other areas, did not yield serious successes. The Italians managed to move forward somewhat, but they were unable to defeat the enemy. In July, Italian troops again launched attacks on the Isonzo. In October and November they attacked the Austrians here for the third and fourth time, mainly in the Goritsky direction, but again achieved only local successes. The war on the Italian front took on positional forms.
Bulgaria's entry into the war. Balkan Front
Having declared “strict neutrality” at the end of July 1914, the Bulgarian government already at the beginning of August agreed with Germany and Austria-Hungary to switch to their side. The Central Powers promised to reward the Bulgarian bourgeoisie at the expense of Serbia, while the Entente powers, with whom the Bulgarian government was also negotiating, could not pay Bulgaria with the territory of their ally. The Entente's attempt to persuade Serbia to voluntarily cede the territories demanded by Bulgaria in exchange for future rich booty at the expense of Austria-Hungary encountered decisive resistance.
The Bulgarian government, however, delayed the final decision, waiting for decisive results on the main fronts of the world war. In 1915, Austro-German successes strengthened the belief in the invincibility of the Central Powers in the ruling circles of Bulgaria.
In order to put additional pressure on Bulgaria, the German government encouraged Turkey to cede to it a small but strategically important strip of Thrace on the left bank of the Maritsa River near Edirne. On September 3, 1915, Turkey and Bulgaria signed an agreement on this issue, and three days later, on September 6, the Austro-Bulgarian-German-Turkish Quadruple Alliance was formalized. According to a secret convention concluded on the same day, Bulgaria was promised the entire Serbian part of Macedonia and, in addition, the territory up to and including the right bank of the Morava. In the event of Greece and Romania going over to the Entente side, Bulgaria also received part of Greek Macedonia and Southern Dobruja. At the same time, a military convention was signed. On October 11, 1915, Bulgaria attacked Serbia.
The performance of Bulgaria put the small Serbian army in a difficult situation. It was now enveloped from the north and east by superior Austro-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian forces. Allied assistance was limited to the landing of two French divisions in Thessaloniki in October to secure the Serbian right flank and some support with artillery and ammunition.
In extremely difficult conditions, the Serbian army, repelling the advance of the German coalition troops, retreated to the shores of the Adriatic; a significant part of the Serbian population left along with her. The remnants of the Serbian army (about 120 thousand people) were evacuated to the island of Corfu.
As a result of the defeat of Serbia, unhindered communication between Germany and Turkey was established.
English and French troops continued to land in Thessaloniki and thus the Thessaloniki Front emerged in the Balkans.
Caucasian Front
In the summer of 1915, Turkish troops launched an offensive operation in the Alashkert direction. The Turks were driven back by the blow of the Russian troops, and then the Russian army went on the offensive in the Van direction.
Both coalitions conducted active military operations on Iranian territory. At the beginning of 1915, German agents managed to organize a tribal uprising in the south of the country. The rebellious Bakhtiari tribes destroyed part of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company's oil pipeline. Following this, Turkish troops began to advance towards the oil fields and by the autumn of 1915 they occupied Kermanshah and Hamadan.
England and Russia responded to the strengthening of German positions in Iran by sending new troops. The British managed to restore the oil pipeline and push the Turks and Bakhtiars away from the oil development area. In October 1915, the Russian expeditionary force of General Baratov landed in Enzelp. Having begun his advance towards Tehran, he occupied Qazvin. Then, pursuing German-Turkish detachments, Baratov’s troops occupied Hamadan, Qom, Kashan and approached Isfahan.
Fighting in Iraq, Syria and Africa
At the end of 1914, the English expeditionary force of General Townsend landed at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab. Having advanced into the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates and having initially achieved success, British troops approached Baghdad in November 1915, but in the battle near the ruins of Ctesiphon the Turks defeated them and drove them back to Kut el-Amara. Here the remnants of Townsend's corps were besieged. Thus, this attempt by England to take possession of Iraq failed.
At the beginning of 1915, Turkey sent an expeditionary army from the Beersheba region (southeast of Gaza), setting it the task of capturing the Suez Canal, advancing to Egypt and raising an uprising against England there. After an exceptionally difficult campaign through the Sinai Desert, the Turks attempted to seize the canal, but the attack was repulsed by British troops.
In July 1915, British troops captured German South-West Africa. In Cameroon, German troops were surrounded and capitulated in January 1916.
War at sea
In 1915, none of the warring parties undertook decisive operations at sea. The largest naval clashes were the battle between the British and German cruiser squadrons in the North Sea at the Dogger Bank, which ended in victory for the British, and the unsuccessful operation of the Entente fleet at the Dardanelles.
In February, the German command began the fight against the Entente through the so-called “merciless” submarine war.
When appearing in a certain zone, merchant ships, regardless of flag, were sunk without warning. The German government hoped in this way to quickly deprive its opponents, primarily England, of the supply of necessary materials and food and force them to capitulate. In May, the Lusitania was sunk, carrying more than a thousand passengers, including Americans.
The United States government lodged a strong protest against Germany. There was disagreement among the leaders of German politics regarding the application of the method of "ruthless" submarine warfare, and for a time more cautious tendencies prevailed. The German naval command was ordered to limit itself to actions against military vessels.
Results of the 1915 campaign. Plans of the parties by the beginning of 1916.
The main feature of the strategic situation at the turn of 1915 and 1916. was the increase in the military-technical power of the Entente. France and England, thanks to the shift in the center of gravity of military operations to the Russian front, received some respite and accumulated forces and means for a long struggle in the Western European theater.
By the beginning of 1916, they already had an advantage over Germany of 75-80 divisions and had largely eliminated their backlog in the field of artillery weapons. The English and French armies had new types of heavy artillery, large stocks of shells and well-organized military production.
The leaders of the Entente countries recognized the need to seek solutions to the war in coordinated offensive operations in the main theaters, without scattering efforts on secondary ones. The dates of offensive operations were clarified: in the Eastern European theater of military operations - June 15, in Western Europe - July 1. The delay in the offensive was a significant flaw in this plan; it made it possible for the German coalition to once again seize the initiative.
The position of the German command when developing the plan for the 1916 campaign was very difficult. It was impossible to think about conducting decisive operations on both fronts at once; the forces were also insufficient to conduct an offensive on several sectors of one front. In his report to Kaiser Wilhelm at the end of December 1915, Chief of the General Staff Falkenhain admitted that for an attack on Ukraine the forces “are insufficient in all respects,” an attack on Petrograd “does not promise a decisive result,” and the movement on Moscow “leads us into the boundless region.” " “For none of these enterprises,” Falkenhayn wrote, “we do not have sufficient forces. Therefore, Russia is excluded as a target for attacks.” It was not possible to defeat the main enemy - England - due to its island position and the superiority of the English fleet. That left France. Falkenhayn believed that “France, in its tension, has reached the limits of what is barely bearable” and that the task of defeating France can be achieved if it is forced to exhaust its forces in the fight for such an object, “for the protection of which the French command will be forced to sacrifice the last man.” Verdun was chosen as such an object.
A strike on the Verdun ledge, if successful, would upset the entire defense system on the right wing of the French front and open the way for the German armies to Paris from the east. The Verdun region could be a convenient starting base for the advance of the French army north along the Meuse. The German command knew that the Entente had such a plan, and hoped to complicate it by taking Verdun.
On the Italian front, the Austro-Hungarian command decided to strike a powerful blow in Trentino.
4. Military actions in 1916-1917.
Battle of Verdun Somme Operations
In the 1916 campaign in the Western European theater of the world war, two of the bloodiest and longest operations stood out: at Verdun and on the Somme. German troops at the end of February attempted to take Verdun with an accelerated attack, but were unable to break the French defense. General Galwitz, who took command of the western sector of the attack at the end of March, noted in his diary: “It seems that what I feared has happened. A major offensive has been launched with insufficient resources."
On July 1, French and British troops dealt a strong blow to the enemy on the Somme, and even earlier, the Russian armies of the Southwestern Front broke through the Austro-German positions. Meanwhile, the German army continued its attacks near Verdun, but they gradually died down and completely stopped by September. In October-December, French troops, having carried out a series of powerful counterattacks, drove the enemy out of the most important positions in the fortress area. The battle cost both sides hundreds of thousands of lives.
The operation on the Somme was prepared by the Entente command as the main operation of the 1916 campaign. It was intended that a powerful group of troops consisting of more than 60 French and British divisions would break through German positions and defeat German troops. The German offensive at Verdun forced the French command to divert some of its forces and resources to this fortress. Despite this, the operation began on July 1. Huge material and technical resources were concentrated. Just as many shells were prepared for the 6th French Army operating here as were in stock in 1914 for all French troops.
After local battles, English and French troops launched a powerful attack in September. In these battles, the British command used a new means of fighting - tanks. Used in small numbers and still technically imperfect, they ensured the achievement of local successes, but did not provide general operational success. The operational art of Western European military leaders did not create ways to break through the front. The armies were stationed in heavily fortified positions located one after another to a depth of 10-20 km. Numerous machine guns swept away the attacking manpower with their fire. The destruction of defensive positions by artillery required quite a long time, sometimes several days. During this time, the defending side managed to build new lines of positions and bring in fresh reserves.
October and November passed in heavy battles. The operation gradually came to a standstill. Its results boiled down to the Entente seizing 200 sq. km of territory, 105 thousand prisoners, 1,500 machine guns and 350 guns. The losses of both sides exceeded those of Verdun: both sides lost over 1,300 thousand people killed, wounded and captured.
Despite the failure to break through the front, the operation on the Somme, together with the breakthrough of the Austro-Hungarian front by Russian troops, not only forced the German command to abandon attacks at Verdun, but also created a turning point in the entire course of the campaign in favor of the Entente.
Russian offensive
The German onslaught at Verdun forced the French command to persistently ask for Russian assistance. On March 18, 1916, Russian troops of the Northwestern Front launched a vigorous attack in the area of Dvinsk (Daugavpils) and Lake Naroch. The offensive, which cost great casualties, was not successful, but German attacks against Verdun were suspended during this period.
The southwestern front, commanded by General Brusilov, was supposed to deliver an auxiliary strike. The difficult situation of the Italian army and persistent requests from the allies for help forced the Russian command to rush through the operation, and it began on June 4 (instead of June 15 according to the original plan). The offensive of the Russian troops in almost all sectors was successful. The greatest success fell to the 8th Army, which captured Lutsk, and the 9th Army, which advanced to Bukovina. By this time, an offensive operation was supposed to begin on the Russian Western Front. But the front commander, General Evert, limited himself to a weak attack on Baranovichi, postponing the general offensive until July.
In the second half of June, the armies of the Southwestern Front continued to build on their success and reached the line of the Stokhod River on the right wing of the front, and captured most of Bukovina on the left.
On July 3, the troops of the Western Front again launched an attack in the direction of Baranovichi, but failed to break through the enemy front. The failure of this offensive operation finally convinced the royal headquarters that there was no point in adhering to the outdated plan. The importance of the main one was recognized for the Southwestern Front, and the Western Front was entrusted with the task of the auxiliary order - to hold the enemy forces in front of it. But time was lost.
As a result of summer operations on the Southwestern Front, a significant part of the Austro-German armies was defeated. Russian troops captured about 9 thousand officers and over 400 thousand soldiers and occupied 25 thousand square meters. km of territory, including Bukovina and part of Eastern Galicia. At the most crucial moment of the battles near Verdun, the German command was forced to withdraw eleven divisions from the Western European theater and throw them to the east. The Austro-Hungarian command transferred six divisions from the Italian front, weakening the offensive in Trentino.
The Russian armies again showed their ability to deliver powerful attacks. The command of the Southwestern Front used a new method of breaking through the enemy's positions - simultaneous front-splitting attacks on a number of separate sectors. Austro-German troops lost up to one and a half million people killed, wounded and prisoners.
The offensive of the Russian armies did not bring decisive strategic results. One of the reasons for this was the incompetent leadership on the part of the high command. The headquarters failed to develop the success achieved. The backwardness of transport prevented the timely delivery of reserves and ammunition. Already at the end of July, offensive actions gradually gave way to a long, bloody battle on the Stokhod River.
Nevertheless, the breakthrough of the Austro-German positions by Russian troops of the Southwestern Front played a major role. Together with the offensive of the Anglo-French troops on the Somme, he nullified the initiative of the German command, which from the end of 1916 had to switch to strategic defense on the land fronts. Until the very end of the war, the Austro-Hungarian army no longer had the opportunity to conduct serious offensive operations.
Romania's entry into the war. Fighting on the Romanian front
The ruling circles of Romania believed that the war would provide them with the opportunity to satisfy their aggressive goals and create a “great Romania.” They laid claim, in addition to Transylvania, to a number of other territories that were part of Austria-Hungary, and to Bessarabia, which belonged to Russia. These plans had nothing to do with the aspirations of the Romanian people to complete the creation of the Romanian national state by uniting Transylvania with Romania. By declaring neutrality at the start of the war, the Romanian government left the door open to bargaining with both coalitions.
The Romanian government decided to delay the moment of action until the chances of victory for one of the warring factions were fully clarified. According to the secret Russian-Romanian agreement of October 1, 1914, Russia guaranteed the territorial integrity of Romania and recognized Romania’s “right to annex the regions of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy populated by Romanians at the moment it deems convenient.” Romania pledged to “maintain benevolent neutrality towards Russia.” Later, when the war became protracted, the ruling circles of Romania began to lean more and more towards the side of the Entente.
The tsarist command preferred that Romania remain neutral. It believed that, having opposed the Central Powers, Romania would not be able to provide significant military assistance to the Entente, but would itself demand help from Russia. However, despite Russian opposition, England and France insisted on Romania's entry into the war.
On August 27, 1916, Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary and began an independent operation to capture Transylvania. The Romanian army was initially successful, but then suffered a series of defeats in Dobruja and Transylvania. German troops invaded Romania and occupied Bucharest. An important source of food, as well as oil and other raw materials, fell into the hands of the German coalition. Only with the help of Russian troops was the Romanian front stabilized at the end of December along the line: the lower reaches of the Danube - Braila - Focsani - Ocna - Dorna Vatra. Thus, the front of the Russian armies extended by 500 km. The Russian command was forced to transfer 35 infantry and 11 cavalry divisions to Romania.
Italian and Balkan fronts
In March 1916, the Italian army, in order to help the French attacked at Verdun, carried out a new unsuccessful attack on the Isonzo. In May, the Austrian command launched a decisive offensive against the Italians in Trentino. Concentrating large forces (up to 18 divisions), the Austro-Hungarian army struck on May 15 between Lake Garda and the Brenta River. Having been defeated, the Italian army began to quickly roll back along a 60-kilometer front. Her situation became critical. The offensive of the Russian armies of the Southwestern Front, which forced the Austro-Hungarian command to transfer troops to the east and stop attacks in Trentino, saved the Italian troops from final defeat.
In the second half of 1916, Italian troops carried out four more attacks on the Isonzo. At the cost of heavy losses, they occupied Goritsa, but were unable to break through to Trieste.
There was relative calm on the Balkan front in 1916. In August, Bulgarian troops captured part of Greek territory in the lower reaches of the Struma River and launched attacks south of Monastir (Bitol). In September, the Allies, pushing back the Bulgarians, occupied Monastir. The Allied forces gradually increased; A continuous front was established from the coast of the Aegean Sea, along the Struma River, Lake Dojran, through Monastir, Ohrid to the coast of the Adriatic Sea, north of Vlora.
Extra-European fronts
In the Caucasian-Turkish theater of military operations, Russian troops achieved great success. In exceptionally difficult mountain conditions, with a frost of 30 degrees, they defeated the Turks on February 16, 1916. occupied Erzurum. The Russian command shifted its efforts to another important point, Trabzon (Trebizond), and on April 18, as a result of joint operations of ground and naval forces, this city was taken. At the same time, Russian troops advanced in the Urmia direction, where they occupied Ruvandiz. In the area of Lake Van, a successful offensive in the summer of 1916 led to the occupation of Mush and Bitlis.
In Iraq, England suffered a major setback in 1916: the English expeditionary force under the command of Townsend, besieged in Kut el-Amar, capitulated. On the Syrian front, the Turks again tried unsuccessfully to take Suez in the summer of 1916. In East Africa, German units were pushed back to the southern border of the colony.
Jutland fight
In 1916, the largest naval battle of the world war took place in the North Sea. During the previous years, the main forces of the English and German fleets remained at their bases, without risking a decisive clash. Of the two opponents, Germany was in the worst position: it was stifled by the blockade. In an effort to break the blockade, defeat England at sea and thereby somewhat improve its position, the German command decided to switch to active operations at sea.
On May 31-June 1, a battle took place off the coast of Jutland, which ended in England's favor, although its fleet suffered serious losses. The German plan to defeat the English fleet piecemeal failed. The hopes of the German command to break the naval blockade also collapsed. After the Battle of Jutland, the German fleet no longer risked going to sea for any significant operations.
Results of the 1916 campaign; plans of the parties for 1917.
In the difficult battles of 1916, the Entente failed to defeat its opponents. The most significant reason for this was the contradictions between the allies and the lack of necessary coordination of actions. However, the German plan to defeat the French at Verdun also failed. The Austro-Hungarian troops also failed to defeat Italy.
The overall results of the 1916 campaign were in favor of the Entente. The attacks of the Russian troops of the Southwestern Front and the exhausting battles at Verdun and the Somme put the German coalition in a difficult situation. The superiority of the Entente forces was clearly revealed. The wealth of human resources allowed it to increase the size of its armed forces, and the success of military-industrial production and American assistance allowed it to eliminate the gap in the field of artillery weapons and achieve superiority over the enemy in aviation and tanks. By the end of 1916, the Entente had 425 divisions on all fronts against 331 enemy divisions. The strategic initiative passed to her.
From the end of 1916, the German command, represented by Hindenburg and Ludendorff, was forced to switch to strategic defense on all fronts; it now intended to deal a powerful blow to the economy of its main enemy - England - through "unlimited submarine warfare."
The Entente was weakened by differences in the military leadership. This led to the fact that Germany not only paralyzed the advantages of the Entente, but sometimes put its opponents in a difficult position. The successful actions of the Austro-German troops against Romania showed how far the end of the war was still.
By the end of 1916, the armies of the states actively participating in the war numbered 756 divisions, whereas at the beginning of the war there were 363. Having increased in number and significantly increased their technical weapons, they, however, lost the most qualified and barracks-trained peacetime personnel. Under the influence of enormous losses and hardships, the chauvinistic frenzy of the first months of the war passed. The bulk of the soldiers were elderly reserves and young people on early conscription, poorly prepared in military-technical terms and insufficiently trained physically.
The rapid growth of the revolutionary movement in all the warring countries captured the masses of soldiers. Revolutionary-minded soldiers were dealt with mercilessly, but the protest movement against the imperialist war continued to grow.
The military command of the Entente countries, drawing up their strategic plan for 1917, again decided to defeat the German coalition with coordinated attacks in the main theaters of the war.
At the end of 1916, General Nivelle was placed at the head of the French armies. It was planned to attack the English and French armies in the Arras-Bapaume sector, as well as between the Somme and Oise, to pin down German forces and carry out a surprise offensive on the Aisne River, between Reims and Soissons, with the aim of breaking through the German front.
According to the plan developed by the General Staff of the Tsarist Army, the main blow was to be delivered by the troops of the Southwestern Front in the Lviv direction, i.e., against the most vulnerable link of the German coalition - Austria-Hungary.
Italy, having improved the material and technical equipment of its army, outlined a plan of active action for 1917. The commander-in-chief of the Italian army, General Cadorna, sought to capture Trieste with attacks on the Isonzo front, and then* penetrate the Sava River valley.
Military operations in 1917
Between 15 and 20 March 1917, the German command withdrew its troops from the dangerous Noyon salient to a pre-fortified position known as the Siegfried Line. Thus, the preparations carried out by the Anglo-French command for the main operation of the strategic plan of 1917 were largely in vain.
Nevertheless, the British and French armies began this operation on April 16, with the goal of defeating the enemy in the Western European theater of operations. Its scope was enormous for that time. More than 100 infantry and 10 cavalry divisions, more than 11 thousand guns of all types and calibers, as well as up to a thousand aircraft and about 130 tanks were supposed to participate in it.
During the general attack of the Entente forces on April 16, the interaction of the infantry with the artillery was disrupted, the mobile artillery barrage broke away from the infantry, and German machine gunners began to shoot the attackers from their shelters. Only two corps managed to capture the second line. Tanks were thrown into the attack. They had to deploy under fire from enemy artillery (including special anti-tank artillery) on very uncomfortable terrain, pockmarked with shell craters. As a result, out of 132 tanks, 11 returned, the rest were destroyed or damaged. It was not possible to break through the positions of the German troops.
On April 17, General Nivelle decided to continue the attack and regrouped his artillery for this purpose, but on most of the front almost all attacks remained ineffective. Then Nivelle brought new troops into battle. On April 18 and 19, the French corps occupied the southern slope of the Chemin des Dames ridge and Fort Condé, but were unable to advance further. At the insistence of the French government, the operation was stopped. Nivelle's plan was a complete failure. The English and French armies paid dearly for this unsuccessful operation.
The French army lost 122 thousand killed and wounded, including more than 5 thousand Russians from the 3rd Russian brigade, which fought as part of the 32nd French Corps, the British - about 80 thousand. The Germans also suffered heavy losses.
In connection with this senseless massacre organized by Nivelle, unrest began among the French soldiers. At this time, the bourgeois-democratic revolution that took place in Russia began to influence them. The soldiers' performances were mercilessly suppressed by the command, but still the French and British governments, taking into account the mood of the mass of soldiers, were forced to abandon major offensive operations for a long time.
Until the end of 1917, the Anglo-French command carried out only a few operations of purely tactical significance. One of them was undertaken by British troops in the area of Ypres with the aim of clearing North Flanders and the Belgian coast of the Germans. British maritime circles especially insisted on this, fearing that Germany would make even more widespread use of submarine bases on the Flemish coast. The operation began with an attack on July 31. The attack was supported by powerful artillery - 2,300 guns (153 guns per kilometer of front) - and 216 tanks. For almost four months, the English troops, drowning in the mud of the Flemish swamps, slowly moved forward. The operation stopped in November. It was not possible to break through the German front. As a result of these battles, the British lost 400 thousand killed and wounded, and the Germans lost 240 thousand people.
Another operation was carried out by the French at Verdun. On August 22, French troops, supported by powerful artillery, attacked German positions. 6 tons of shells were thrown onto a linear meter of the front. As a result of well-organized interaction between infantry, artillery and tanks, the offensive was successful.
The last operation of the Entente armies in the Western European theater during the 1917 campaign was the operation at Cambrai. In it, the British command had in mind to test, in cooperation with other branches of the military, the combat value of tanks and with spectacular success to soften the heavy impression of failure in Flanders. In addition, the military leaders of the Entente hoped to pin significant forces of the German army to Cambrai and thereby ease the situation for the Italians. On the morning of November 20, unexpectedly for the Germans, without the usual artillery preparation, the British launched an attack. Numerous aircraft attacked German artillery and headquarters. By noon, the German defensive line was broken through. Within 6-8 hours, the British army achieved a result that could not be achieved in a number of previous operations. However, she was unable to develop her success. On November 30, the German command, having concentrated large forces, also suddenly launched a counterattack and pushed the British back from most of the positions they had captured.
The operation at Cambrai had neither a strategic nor an operational result. But it confirmed the value of a new means of combat - tanks, and laid the foundation for tactics based on the interaction of infantry, artillery, tanks and aviation operating on the battlefield.
Italian troops suffered a serious defeat in the 1917 campaign. According to the general plan of the Entente, they were supposed to attack simultaneously with the Anglo-French armies. Belatedly, on May 12, the Italians launched their next, tenth attack on the Isonzo, but again failed to break through to Trieste. In August they carried out their eleventh offensive in the same area, also with very limited results and huge losses. Nevertheless, according to Ludendorff, “responsible military and political leaders of Austria-Hungary were convinced that she would not be able to endure the continuation of the battle and the 12th attack on the Isonzo.” The German command, forced to help its ally, allocated seven divisions for this, which, together with eight Austrian divisions, formed a new, 14th Austro-German army.
This army concentrated against the section of the Italian front between Plezzo and Tolmino in order to disrupt the twelfth offensive on the Isonzo with a blow in the Caporetto area. The mountainous terrain was little conducive to the actions of the troops, and the Italians did not expect an attack from large enemy forces from here.
On the night of October 24, the Austro-German artillery opened powerful fire with chemical shells. At dawn the infantry attack began. The front of the Italian army was broken through, and the Austrian-German troops penetrated deeply into its position.
The attempt of the Italian troops to hold on to the rear positions failed. The retreat was organized so ineptly that the army lost all its heavy artillery on the eastern bank of the Isonzo River. On October 28, the Italians evacuated the important railway junction of Udine and continued their panicked retreat to the Tagliamento River. Troop control was disrupted. Soldiers shouting “Down with war!”, “Down with officers!” rushed to the west.
Thus, the operation of Austrian and German troops at Caporetto, initially designed only to disrupt the impending Italian offensive, led to a serious defeat of the Italian army. The Italians lost over 335 thousand prisoners, 130 thousand killed and wounded. 3,152 guns, over 3 thousand machine guns, a huge amount of equipment and all kinds of supplies were left to the enemy. The front rolled back almost a hundred kilometers to the west. Most of the Venetian region was occupied by Austro-German troops. Only after the Anglo-French command began to hastily transfer their divisions to help the Italians, and the Italian authorities took brutal measures against the retreating soldiers, did the pace of retreat begin to slow down.
On the Balkan front, the commander of the French army, General Sarrail, even on the eve of the big April offensive of the Entente, prepared an offensive operation in the section of the Struma River - Doiran - the bend of the Cerna River - Monastir. At the end of April - beginning of May, he tried to implement it, but failed. This led to an outbreak of unrest among the troops and complications in relations between the allies. Sarrail's failure also prompted Entente diplomacy to redouble its efforts to bring Greece into the war. On June 10, the Entente presented the Greek government with an ultimatum to oppose the Quadruple Alliance. The Germanophile-minded King Constantine abdicated the throne and was exiled to Switzerland. Entente supporter Venizelos came to power.
In the Eastern European theater of operations, the most significant event was the summer offensive of Russian troops, undertaken after the overthrow of the autocracy in Russia.
Under pressure from the Entente and the Russian imperialist bourgeoisie, the Provisional Government, headed by Kerensky, ordered an offensive. On June 18 (July 1), the armies of the Southwestern Front began military operations in the Lvov direction. The offensive was soon stopped by enemy counterattacks; Russian units retreated to their original positions, the contradictions between the mass of soldiers and the counter-revolutionary command staff became even more acute. At the beginning of September, the German command undertook an operation to capture Riga and the Gulf of Riga in order to strengthen the position of its left flank and at the same time test the combat effectiveness of the Russian army before beginning the transfer of divisions to the Western European theater. Contrary to the expectations of the Germans, the revolutionary-minded Russian units steadfastly defended themselves, but the front-line command, having not exhausted all possibilities of resistance, ordered the surrender of Riga on September 3. After this, the position of the Russian armies on the approaches to Petrograd deteriorated significantly.
On the Caucasian-Turkish front in 1917, only the offensive of Baratov’s corps continued in the Mosul and Baghdad directions. Russian troops entered into contact with the British in Kizil-Rabat.
On the Iraqi front, the British corps, after careful preparation, launched an offensive in the Baghdad direction. On March 10, Baghdad passed into the hands of the British. An attempt by German-Turkish forces to push back the enemy failed. Advancing towards Mosul, the British troops by the end of the campaign fortified themselves on the Qara Tepe-Tekrit line, halfway between Baghdad and Mosul.
On the Palestinian-Syrian front, British troops unsuccessfully attacked Gaza twice, in March and April. Only in late autumn, after careful preparation, did they begin active operations again.
As a result of the operations of 1917, German troops were completely driven out of East Africa.
Military operations at sea were characterized by the widespread use of submarines (mainly by the German bloc). In February 1917, Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare. These actions initially brought success to Germany. The total tonnage of Entente ships sunk in February was 781.5 thousand (while for the entire 1916 ships with a displacement of 1125 thousand tons were sunk), in March - 885 thousand, in April - 1091 thousand. More than half of this tonnage belonged to England. England's position became threatening. Admiral Jellicoe said that if the pace of submarine warfare did not change, then the limit of England's endurance would be reached by November 1, 1917. The Entente countries took a number of vigorous measures against submarine warfare: they armed merchant ships, created a system for escorting them with naval ships, laid mines and nets barriers. The intensified blockade of Germany led to an almost complete cessation of the supply of materials it needed from neutral countries.
These were the results of military operations in 1917. The February bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia had a serious impact on the military-strategic and political position of the participants in the war. It also influenced the position of the United States of America on the issue of its entry into the war. American imperialist circles feared that if Russia left the war, the position of the Entente would sharply worsen, and therefore decided to speed up the act that had been prepared for a long time. On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress declared war on Germany; The American army, however, actively intervened in the hostilities only in 1918.
In 1917, China, Greece, Brazil, Cuba, Panama, Liberia and Siam also entered the war on the side of the Entente.
The world war continued, drawing new states and peoples into its orbit. The working people of dozens of countries shed streams of blood and made unprecedented sacrifices in the war for the interests of a handful of imperialists.
The world imperialist war began. 38 states with a population of over 1.5 billion people took part in World War I. The main opponents: England, France, Russia, Serbia, Japan, later Italy, Romania and the USA - on the one hand; Germany, Austria-Hungary, Türkiye and Bulgaria - on the other. By its nature, the war was unjust, aggressive on both sides. It brought enormous disasters to the peoples of the world: 9.5 million people were killed or died from wounds, 20 million people were wounded, of which 3.5 million were left crippled. A large number of civilians died. The economies of many countries were undermined. The war lasted from 1914 to November 1918. Two fronts emerged in Europe - Western (in France and Belgium) and Eastern (against Russia). Germany planned to defeat France with a lightning strike and then transfer troops against Russia, which would allow it to avoid a war on two fronts. However, Russia, immediately acting at the request of the allies, thwarted the strategic plan of the German General Staff. During military operations on the Eastern Front, there are four campaigns. In 1914, military operations on the eastern front began with Russia's intervention in East Prussia and Galicia. The East Prussian operation initially developed successfully for the Russian army. Germany was forced to transfer some troops from the western front, which prevented the fall of Paris. Reinforced German units, taking advantage of the lack of coordination between the 1st and 2nd Russian armies in East Prussia, inflicted a heavy defeat on them. The situation on the Southwestern Front was more successful for the Russian army. The 1914 campaign did not bring decisive success to either side. In 1915, the Western Front in Europe stabilized, and there was a positional struggle. Germany's spring-summer offensive on the Eastern Front ended in Russia's defeat. As a result of heavy fighting, she lost Poland, part of the Baltic states, Western Belarus and Ukraine. However, Germany's strategic task - to take Russia out of the war - was not fulfilled. In 1916, Germany again directed the main blow against France. In February 1916 there were fierce battles near the Verdun fortress. To assist the allies, Russia launched an offensive on the Southwestern Front. Army of General A.A. Brusilova broke through the front and defeated the Austro-Hungarian troops. The Russian offensive helped the defenders of Verdun, as Germany was forced to once again transfer its units from the Western Front to save Austria-Hungary. On the Caucasian Front, formed in 1915 against Turkey (an ally of Germany), Russian troops carried out a number of successful operations and occupied Trebizond and Erzurum. In 1916, Germany lost the strategic initiative. In 1917, the victory of the February bourgeois-democratic revolution did not lead to Russia's withdrawal from the war. The Provisional Government declared its allegiance to its allied duty and ordered the continuation of hostilities. Two military operations (June - in Galicia, July - in Belarus) ended in failure. German troops captured the city of Riga and the Moonsund archipelago in the Baltic. The Russian army was completely demoralized by this time. At the front, fraternization with the enemy began. The whole country demanded an end to the war. In this regard, the Bolsheviks, having come to power, adopted the Peace Decree and began negotiations with Germany. Soviet Russia emerged from the war by concluding the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and its allies in March 1918. The fighting on the Western Front ended after the Armistice of Compiegne in November 1918. Germany and its allies were defeated. The final results of the war were summed up by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Soviet Russia did not take part in its signing.
Chapter XXVI. World Imperialist War. Progress of military operations (August 1914 - November 1917)
The decades-long accumulation of imperialist contradictions resulted in a grandiose clash of two military-political blocs. There was so much combustible material in international politics that the flames of war, which broke out at the end of July 1914 between Austria and Serbia, spread throughout Europe within a few days, and then, continuing to grow, engulfed the whole world.
1. The beginning of the war. Collapse of the Second International
The beginning of the war. Making it global
Despite the fact that the plans of the German General Staff included the opening of military operations primarily against France, the German government decided to first declare war on Russia in order to use the slogan of the fight against Russian tsarism to deceive the masses. The ruling circles of Germany knew that France would immediately take the side of Russia, and this would give the German army the opportunity, in accordance with the Schlieffen plan, to strike the first blow in the west.
On the evening of August 1, 1914, the German ambassador to Russia, Count Pourtales, came to Foreign Minister Sazonov for a response to an ultimatum demanding the cancellation of Russian mobilization. Having received a refusal, Pourtales handed Sazonov a note declaring war. Thus, with the rise of two major imperialist powers - Germany and Russia - the world imperialist war began.
In response to the general mobilization of Germany, France made the same decision. However, the French government did not want to take the initiative to declare war and sought to shift responsibility to Germany.
On the day the ultimatum was presented to Russia, the German government demanded that France maintain neutrality in the Russian-German war. At the same time, it prepared the text of a declaration of war on France, in which it referred to the fact that French military aircraft allegedly flew over German territory (later it was forced to admit that no one had seen these aircraft).
Germany declared war on France on August 3, but even the day before, on August 2, it sent an ultimatum to the Belgian government to allow German troops to pass through Belgium to the French border. The Belgian government rejected the ultimatum and turned to London for help. The English government decided to use this appeal as the main reason for entering the war. “Excitement in London is increasing from hour to hour,” the Russian ambassador to England telegraphed to St. Petersburg on August 3. On the same day, the British government sent Germany an ultimatum note demanding not to violate Belgium's neutrality. The English ultimatum expired at 11 pm London time. At 11:20 a.m., First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill announced at a cabinet meeting that he had sent out a radiogram across all seas and oceans ordering British warships to begin military operations against Germany.
After the outbreak of the war, Bulgaria, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Spain, Portugal, as well as Italy and Romania, allies of the Central Powers, declared their neutrality. Of the non-European countries, the United States of America and a number of Asian and Latin American countries declared neutrality. But the declaration of neutrality did not mean that all these countries intended to remain aloof from the war. The bourgeoisie of many neutral countries sought to participate in the war, hoping in this case to realize their territorial claims. On the other hand, the warring powers took into account that the inclusion of new states in the war could have an impact on its duration and final outcome. Therefore, each of the two warring coalitions made every effort to win these countries over to their side or to ensure their benevolent neutrality until the end of the war.
Already in August, the Japanese imperialists decided that a favorable situation had been created for establishing their dominant position in China and the Pacific. On August 15, Japan presented Germany with an ultimatum demanding the immediate withdrawal of German armed forces from Chinese and Japanese waters and the transfer of the “leased” territory of Jiaozhou with the port of Qingdao to the Japanese authorities no later than September 15, 1914. Germany rejected the ultimatum, and on August 23 Japan declared war on it.
Turkey, having formally declared neutrality, signed a secret treaty with Germany on August 2, under which it undertook to act on its side and actually transfer its army to the disposal of the German General Staff. On the day of signing this treaty, the Turkish government announced general mobilization and, under the guise of neutrality, began preparing for war. Relying on the most influential pro-German pan-Turkist group in the Young Turk government, led by War Minister Enver and Interior Minister Talaat, German diplomacy sought to quickly involve Turkey in the war.
The German cruisers Goeben and Breslau sailed through the Dardanelles to the Sea of Marmara, and the German Rear Admiral Souchon, who arrived on the Goeben, was appointed commander of the Turkish naval forces. Trains with weapons, ammunition, officers and military specialists continuously arrived in Istanbul from Germany. There were still hesitations in the ruling circles of Turkey on the issue of entering the war, but mutual imperialist contradictions in the Middle East prevented Russia, England and France from using these hesitations and developing a common political line of behavior in negotiations with the Turkish and government.
Meanwhile, German pressure on Turkey continuously increased. In an effort to confront the country with a fait accompli, German military circles and Turkish militarists led by Enver resorted to provocation. On October 29, the German-Turkish fleet attacked Russian ships in the Black Sea and bombarded Odessa, Sevastopol, Feodosia, and Novorossiysk. Turkey thus entered the war on the side of Germany. By the end of 1914, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Turkey, Russia, France, Serbia, Belgium, Great Britain (together with its empire), Montenegro, and Japan were in a state of war. Thus, the military conflict that arose in Europe quickly spread to both the Far and Middle East.
Treason of the Second International. Revolutionary platform of the Bolsheviks
In the alarming days of the July crisis, the proletarian masses pinned all their hopes on the International. But contrary to the solemn declarations of the Stuttgart and Basel congresses, the leaders of the Second International did not organize protests against the imperialist war and betrayed proletarian internationalism.
The leadership of the largest party of the Second International - the German Social Democracy, which numbered about a million members in its ranks, completely capitulated to the right, openly chauvinist wing, whose leaders made a backroom deal with Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg and promised him their unconditional support in the event of war. On the day Germany declared war on Russia, August 1. 1914, the entire German Social Democratic press actively joined the unbridled chauvinist campaign of the bourgeois-Junker press, calling on the masses to “defend the fatherland from Russian barbarism” and fight “to the bitter end.” On August 3, the Social Democratic faction of the Reichstag, by an overwhelming majority of votes (14 against), decided to approve the government’s proposal to allocate funds for the war, and on August 4, the Social Democrats, together with the deputies of the bourgeoisie and the Junkers, unanimously voted in the Reichstag for war loans. The unheard-of betrayal committed by the Social Democratic leaders at such a terrible hour demoralized the German working class, upset its ranks, and made it impossible to provide organized resistance to the policies of the imperialists. The apparatus and press of German Social Democracy and the “free” trade unions put themselves at the service of the imperialist war. The editors of the Social Democratic newspaper “Vorwärts” gave a signature to the commander of the Brandenburg Military District that the newspaper would not touch upon issues of “class struggle and class hatred.”
The French Socialist Party also changed international proletarian solidarity. On July 31, 1914, as a result of a provocative campaign by reactionary circles, Jean Geres, who opposed the outbreak of war, was killed. The workers expected the leaders to call them to fight. However, on August 4, at the funeral of Jaurès, the workers heard from the leaders of the Socialist Party and the General Confederation of Labor a treacherous call for “national unity” and an end to the class struggle. French social chauvinists insisted that the Entente countries were supposedly the “defensive side”, “bearers of progress” in the fight against aggressive Prussianism. The investigation revealed that even before the murder of Jaurès, the government had given instructions not to use repression against several thousand of the most prominent socialists and leaders of trade unions, whom it had previously planned to arrest if war broke out. The government was confident that the opportunists had a fairly strong grip on the leadership threads both in the Socialist Party and in the General Confederation of Labor. Soon after the declaration of war, the socialists Jules Guade, Marcel Sambat, and later Albert Thomas took ministerial positions. In Belgium, the leader of the Workers' Party, Emile Vandervelde, chairman of the International Socialist Bureau, became Minister of Justice.
The Austrian Social Democracy also took a treacherous position. In the anxious days after the Sarajevo murder, the leaders of the Austrian Social Democratic Party, while declaring their readiness to defend peace, at the same time argued that Austria should be provided with “guarantees” from Serbia. This manifestation of chauvinism was followed by approval of the military measures of the Austrian government.
English Labor voted in parliament for war loans. The Russian Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries took a “defensive”, social-chauvinist position; under the guise of pseudo-socialist phraseology, they called on the workers to “defend” tsarist Russia and to civil peace with “their” bourgeoisie.
Serbian Social Democrats voted against war loans. The correct position towards the war was also taken by the Bulgarian oppressors, the leftists in the leadership of the Romanian Social Democratic Party, the German leftists led by K. Liebknecht and R. Luxemburg, and leftist internationalist elements in other socialist parties.
The Bolsheviks pursued a consistent, truly internationalist line. The Bolshevik faction in the IV State Duma courageously voted against the military budget; for their revolutionary activities, the Bolshevik deputies were put on trial and exiled to Siberia.
When the war broke out, the leader of the Bolshevik Party, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, lived in the small Galician town of Poronin, near the Russian border. On August 7, Lenin’s apartment was searched by order of the Austrian authorities, and the next day he was arrested and imprisoned in a provincial town
New Targ. After the intervention of Polish and Austrian Social Democrats, the police authorities had to release Lenin on August 19, and the Austrian authorities gave him permission to travel to Switzerland.
Arriving in Bern, Lenin at the beginning of September presented the theses “Tasks of revolutionary Social Democracy in the European War.” On September 6-8, 1914, a meeting of the local group of Bolsheviks took place in Bern, at which Lenin’s report was heard and Lenin’s theses on the war were adopted. Soon after this, the theses were sent to Russia and foreign sections of the Bolshevik Party.
In these theses, as well as in the manifesto of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), written at the beginning of October 1914, “War and Russian Social Democracy,” Lenin, with the genius of a great proletarian strategist, outlined the tasks facing the proletariat of Russia and the whole world.
While the right-wing leaders of the socialist parties argued that the outbreak of war was defensive for their countries, V.I. Lenin showed that the war was of an imperialist nature for both warring coalitions.
“The seizure of lands and the conquest of foreign nations,” wrote V.I. Lenin, “the ruin of a competing nation, the plunder of its wealth, the diversion of the attention of the working masses from the internal political crises of Russia, Germany, England and other countries, the disunity and nationalistic fooling of the workers and their extermination vanguard in order to weaken the revolutionary movement of the proletariat - this is the only real content, meaning and meaning of modern war" ( V. I. Lenin, War and Russian Social Democracy, Soch., vol. 21, p. 11.).
The Bolshevik Party, led by V.I. Lenin, firmly, without any hesitation, established its attitude towards the imperialist war. The position developed by the Bolsheviks corresponded to the interests of the working class of all countries. Having condemned the treacherous slogan of civil peace and class cooperation put forward by the social chauvinists, the Bolshevik Party put forward the revolutionary internationalist slogan of transforming the imperialist war into a civil war. This slogan presupposed the implementation of specific measures: an unconditional refusal to vote for war loans; mandatory withdrawal of representatives of socialist parties from bourgeois governments; complete rejection of any agreement with the bourgeoisie; the creation of illegal organizations in countries where they did not yet exist; support for the fraternization of soldiers at the front; organization of revolutionary actions of the working class. In contrast to the call of the social chauvinists to defend the landowner-bourgeois fatherland, the Bolsheviks put forward the slogan of the defeat of “their” government in the imperialist war. This meant that the working class must use the mutual weakening of the imperialists to strengthen the revolutionary struggle, to overthrow the ruling classes.
Having branded with enormous force the betrayal of the cause of socialism committed by the leaders of the socialist parties, V.I. Lenin advocated a complete break with the collapsed Second International. Analyzing the ideological and political content of social chauvinism, Lenin revealed its immediate, direct connection with opportunism in pre-war social democracy.
A hypocritical position was occupied by hidden social chauvinists - centrists who tried to embellish social chauvinism with an orthodox “Marxist” phrase. Kautsky advocated a “mutual amnesty” for the social-chauvinists of all warring countries and for their “equal right” to defend “their” bourgeois fatherland, and made every effort to hide the bankruptcy of the Second International from the workers. As V.I. Lenin emphasized, the “subtle” opportunism of the centrists was especially dangerous for the working class. Calling for an irreconcilable struggle against him, Lenin wrote in October 1914 that Kautsky “is now the most harmful of all” ( V. I. Lenin - A. Shlyapnikov, 17. X. 1914, V. I. Lenin, Soch., vol. 35, p. 120.).
Despite the enormous casualties and losses caused by government terror, the Bolshevik Party in Russia moved to illegal work in an organized manner, rallying the working class to fight against the imperialist war.
Having decisively broken with the Second International, whose leaders were actually in alliance with the imperialist bourgeoisie of their countries, the Bolshevik party, led by V.I. Lenin, put forward the task of organizing and uniting all the revolutionary forces of the international working class, the task of creating a new, Third International.
2. Military actions in 1914
Deployment of armies of warring powers
By the time of the first decisive operations, huge armies had been mobilized: the Entente - 6179 thousand people, the German coalition - 3568 thousand people. The Entente artillery consisted of 12,134 light and 1,013 heavy guns, the German coalition had 11,232 light and 2,244 heavy guns (not counting fortress artillery). As the war progressed, opponents continued to increase their armed forces.
In the Western European theater of operations, German troops (seven armies and four cavalry corps) occupied a front of about 400 km from the Dutch border to the Swiss. The nominal commander-in-chief of the German armies was Emperor Wilhelm II; their actual leadership was exercised by the chief of the general staff, General Moltke the Younger.
The French armies stood between the Swiss border and the Sambre River on a front of about 370 km. The French command formed five armies, several groups of reserve divisions; The strategic cavalry was united into two corps and several separate divisions. General Joffre was appointed commander-in-chief of the French armies. The Belgian army under the command of King Albert deployed on the Jet and Dyle rivers. The English expeditionary force, consisting of four infantry and one and a half cavalry divisions under the command of General French, concentrated in the Maubeuge area by August 20.
Deployed in the Western European theater of war, the Entente armies, consisting of seventy-five French, four English and seven Belgian divisions, had against them eighty-six infantry and ten German cavalry divisions. Almost none of the sides had the necessary superiority of forces to ensure decisive success.
Russia deployed the 1st and 2nd armies (seventeen and a half infantry and eight and a half cavalry divisions) on the Northwestern Front against Germany; The Germans deployed their 8th Army against them, consisting of fifteen infantry and one cavalry divisions. The four armies of the Russian Southwestern Front were opposed by three Austrian armies, reinforced by an army group and a corps consisting of three infantry and one cavalry divisions. One Russian army was formed to cover Petrograd and the Baltic coast, and one to cover the Romanian border and the Black Sea coast; the total strength of these two armies was twelve infantry and three cavalry divisions. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies, and General Yanushkevich was appointed Chief of Staff (later, from 1915, the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief was taken by Nicholas II, and General Alekseev became Chief of Staff). The Austro-Hungarian armies were led by Chief of Staff General Konrad von Götzendorf.
The Western European and Eastern European theaters were the main ones throughout the war; actions in other theaters were of secondary importance.
Naval forces
By the beginning of the war, the Entente had a decisive superiority of naval forces. It had, in particular, 23 battleships against 17 battleships of the Austro-German bloc. Even more serious was the Entente's superiority in cruisers, destroyers and submarines.
English naval forces were concentrated mainly in ports in the north of the country, mainly in Scapa Flow, French - in the ports of the Mediterranean Sea, German - near Helgoland, in Kiel, Wilhelmshaven.
The maritime forces of the Entente dominated the oceans, as well as the North and Mediterranean seas. In the Baltic Sea, since the Russian naval construction program was not completed, the German fleet had some advantage. In the Black Sea, the German-Turkish fleet, which included the high-speed cruisers Goeben and Breslau (received the Turkish names Sultan Selim Yavuz and Midilli), also had an advantage at the first stage of the war.
The naval plans of both sides followed from the balance of naval forces. The German fleet was forced to abandon active operations; only a few German cruisers were sent for operations on the ocean routes. Anglo-French naval forces, predominantly the English fleet, were able to blockade the German coasts, German naval bases and ensure their numerous communications. This superiority at sea played a major role in the further course of the war.
Operations in the Western European Theater of Operations
The fighting in the Western European theater began on August 4 with the invasion of German troops into the territory of Belgium and the attack on the Belgian border fortress of Liege. Somewhat earlier, on August 2, the advanced units of the German army occupied Luxembourg. The German army violated the neutrality of these two countries, although at one time Germany, along with other European states, solemnly guaranteed it. The weak Belgian army, after twelve days of stubborn defense of Liege, retreated to Antwerp. On August 21, the Germans took Brussels without a fight.
Having passed through Belgium, German troops, in accordance with the Schlieffen plan, invaded the northern departments of France with their right wing and began a rapid attack. advance towards Paris. However, the French troops, retreating, put up stubborn resistance and prepared a counter-maneuver. The maximum concentration of forces on this strike sector of the front, which was planned by the German plan, turned out to be impossible. Seven divisions were taken for the siege and protection of Antwerp, Givet and Maubeuge, and on August 26, at the height of the offensive, they had to be transferred to two corps and one cavalry division, since the Russian high command, without even finishing concentrating its forces, undertook, at the urgent request of the French government offensive operations in East Prussia.
From September 5 to 9, a grand battle unfolded on the plains of France, between Verdun and Paris. Six Anglo-French and five German armies took part in it - about 2 million people. Over six hundred heavy and about 6 thousand light guns resounded with their cannonade along the banks of the Marne.
The newly created 6th French Army attacked the right flank of the 1st German Army, whose task was to encircle Paris and link up with German troops operating south of the capital. The German command had to remove corps from the southern sector of its army and throw it to the west. On the rest of the front, German attacks were vigorously repulsed by French troops. The German high command did not have the necessary reserves, and it actually did not control the course of the battle at that moment, leaving the commanders of the individual armies to decide. By the end of September 8, German troops had completely lost their offensive initiative. As a result, they lost the battle, which, according to the plans of the General Staff, was supposed to decide the fate of the war. The main reason for the defeat was the German military command's overestimation of its forces - a miscalculation that underlay the Schlieffen strategic plan.
The withdrawal of the German armies to the Aisne River occurred without much difficulty. The French command did not take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves to further develop their success. The Germans tried to get ahead of the enemy and occupy the northern coast of France in order to complicate the further landing of British troops, but they also failed in this “race to the sea”. After this, major strategic operations in the Western European theater ceased for a long time. Both sides went on the defensive, marking the beginning of positional forms of warfare.
Eastern European Theater of Operations
Events in the Eastern European theater of war played an important role in the collapse of the German strategic plan. Active operations were launched here on both sides. The actions of the Russian troops were influenced by the later periods of mobilization readiness, strategic concentration, deployment of armies, as well as the dependence of the Russian command on the terms of the Franco-Russian military convention.
This last circumstance led to the fact that the Russian command was forced to divert large forces to directions that were less important from the point of view of Tsarist Russia’s own strategic and political interests. In addition, military obligations to France forced the start of decisive operations before the complete concentration of troops.
The first period of the 1914 campaign in the Eastern European theater was marked by two major operations - East Prussian and Galician.
Both armies of the Russian Northwestern Front (1st and 2nd), without completely finishing their concentration, began advancing into East Prussia on August 17 - during the German offensive in the West. The German corps, moving towards the 1st Russian Army, was defeated on August 19 in the battle of Stallupönen. On August 20, a major battle broke out between the 1st Russian and 8th German armies on the Gumbinnen-Goldap front. The Germans were defeated and forced to retreat; some German corps lost up to a third of their combat strength. Only an incorrect assessment of the situation and passive tactics of an incompetent commander
The Russian 1st Army under General Rennenkampf gave the German troops the opportunity to avoid final defeat.
The 2nd Russian Army under the command of General Samsonov crossed the southern border of East Prussia on a wide front and launched an offensive on the flank and rear of the 8th German Army west of the Masurian Lakes. The German command had already decided to withdraw troops beyond the lower Vistula and leave East Prussia. However, on August 21, having become convinced of Rennenkampf's inaction, it adopted another plan - to direct almost all its forces against the Russian 2nd Army. This maneuver was carried out by the new command - generals Hindenburg and his chief of staff Ludendorff, who replaced Prittwitz, who was removed from command.
While German units were being transferred to the south, the Russian 2nd Army was being drawn deep into East Prussia. The conditions of the offensive were difficult: the poorly prepared rear did not provide supplies, the troops were tired and scattered on a wide front, the flanks were poorly secured, reconnaissance was weak, and there was discord in the management between the commands of the army and the front, as well as headquarters. Using a developed network of railways, the German command concentrated strong strike groups on the flanks of the 2nd Russian Army and attacked it. Two Russian corps, advancing in the center, were surrounded and largely died. By mid-September the Russian army was driven out of East Prussia.
The offensive operation of the Russian northwestern front thus ended in failure. Russian losses were enormous - about a quarter of a million soldiers and a large amount of weapons. At this price, the Russian command pulled German troops to the East, intended for attacks in the West.
The battles on the Russian Southwestern Front also occupied an important place in the general course of the war in 1914. More than 100 divisions took part in the battles on both sides. On August 18, the offensive of the Russian 8th Army under General Brusilov began, and on August 23, a grandiose battle unfolded on a front more than 300 km away. The Russian army defeated the Austro-Hungarian troops, occupied Lvov and forced them to retreat across the San River. Pursuing the enemy, Russian troops pushed him beyond the Dunajec River and to the Carpathians, blocking the largest Austrian fortress of Przemysl. The fact that soldiers of Slavic nationalities, especially Czechs and Slovaks, surrendered in the tens of thousands played a major role in the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian troops.
The Galician operation, which lasted more than a month, ended in victory for the Russian troops. At the end of September, the Russian command faced the question of a plan for further action. Initially, it was planned to complete the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian armies, cross the Carpathians and invade Hungary. However, failures in East Prussia created uncertainty about the success of offensive operations. The Allies, for their part, demanded that the Russian high command conduct an offensive not against Austria-Hungary, but against Germany, in order to force it to ease its pressure on the West. After some hesitation, the Russian command decided to send the main forces of its armies against Germany and, for this purpose, regroup them from the Sana River to the Middle Vistula, to Warsaw.
Meanwhile, the German command, fearing the defeat of its Austro-Hungarian ally and the creation of an immediate threat to the industrial centers of Silesia, decided to strike at the flank and rear of the Russian armies. The result of a new regrouping of both opponents was the Ivangorod-Warsaw operation, which unfolded on a front of 300 km. In the last days of September, the German command began an offensive towards the Vistula and sent a strong group of troops to Warsaw. Bloody battles took place under its walls, during which superiority in forces gradually passed to the side of the Russian troops. Pursuing the 9th German and 1st Austrian armies, Russian troops reached the river line by November 8th. Varta - Carpathian Mountains.
The possibility of a deep invasion of Germany opened before the Russian troops. The German command really sensed this danger and took appropriate measures.
“Young people capable of carrying weapons were evacuated from the border provinces,” Ludendorff writes in his memoirs. “The Polish mines in some places were already rendered unusable and measures were taken to destroy the German railways and mines of the border region.” These events, according to Ludendorff, "spread fear throughout the entire province." The Eastern European front again diverted large German forces from the West.
The Russian command, however, failed to invade Germany. The Austro-German armies, at the cost of heavy losses, managed to stop the advance of the Russian forces. The outcome of the operation was significantly influenced by major shortcomings in the operational and strategic leadership of the Russian command. By this time, the lack of weapons and ammunition also became acutely felt, which turned into a constant scourge of the Russian troops.
Austro-Serbian Front
On the Austro-Serbian front, Austrian troops launched an offensive on August 12; initially it was successful, but soon the Serbs launched a counter-offensive, defeated the Austro-Hungarian troops, capturing 50 thousand prisoners and numerous trophies, and drove them back from Serbian territory. In September, the Austro-Hungarian command again launched an offensive operation. By November 7, due to a lack of ammunition and the threat of encirclement, the Serbian army was forced to withdraw into the interior of the country, leaving Belgrade. In the first days of December, having received assistance from the Entente powers with artillery and ammunition, it again launched a counter-offensive, defeated the enemy and drove it back beyond Serbia.
Caucasian Front. Military operations in Iran
In Transcaucasia, Russian troops achieved significant successes in the Erzurum, Alashkert and Van directions during November. In December, Turkish troops under the leadership of Enver Pasha and German instructors launched a major operation in the Sarykamysh region, trying to defeat the Russian forces concentrated here. After a counter-maneuver by the Russian troops, the 9th Turkish Corps was surrounded, and its remnants, led by the corps commander and division commanders, capitulated; The 10th Turkish Corps was destroyed. Having been defeated, the Turkish troops retreated with significant losses. Thus, the 1914 campaign in the Caucasian-Turkish theater ended with major successes for the Russian troops.
The hostilities also spread to Iran. Despite the fact that the Iranian government made a special statement of neutrality, none of the warring coalitions was willing to take this into account. In November 1914, Turkish troops, simultaneously with the offensive on the Caucasian front, invaded Iranian Azerbaijan. Russia at that time was fighting fierce battles on its Western Front and therefore could not immediately transfer significant forces to a new front. In addition, the Western allies of Tsarist Russia objected to the transfer of Russian reinforcements to Iran. The British government was afraid that the successes of the Russian troops would lead to a strengthening of Russia's position in Iran due to the influence of England.
The occupation of Iranian Azerbaijan by Turkey was short-lived. The defeat of Turkish troops near Sarykamysh at the end of January allowed the Russian command to launch an offensive and occupy Iranian Azerbaijan; The Turks managed to retain only some areas of Western Iran.
War at sea
During the 1914 campaign, German ships conducted cruising operations in the Antilles zone, in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Initially, these operations were a success and caused serious concerns among the British and French naval commands.
The German cruiser squadron of Admiral Spee in the battle of Coronel on November 1, 1914 defeated the English squadron, sinking two English cruisers. But on December 8, the British managed to overtake the Spee squadron along with the cruiser Dresden that joined it near the Falkland Islands and defeat it. All of Spee's ships were sunk. The British sank the Dresden that escaped in March 1915.
In the North Sea, naval operations were limited. On August 28, the English cruiser squadron of Admiral Beatty launched a raid on Heligoland Bay. The clash with the cruising forces of the German fleet ended in favor of the British. Three German cruisers and one destroyer were sunk, and the British had one cruiser damaged. The Battle of Heligoland once again emphasized the superiority of the English fleet.
Already in the first months of the war, submarines played a major role in naval operations. On September 22, a German submarine managed to sink, one after another, three British armored cruisers on patrol duty. The importance of the new means of combat increased greatly after these operations.
On the Black Sea, on November 18, the Russian squadron entered into battle with the Goeben and Breslau and inflicted significant damage on the Goeben. This success provided the Russian fleet with superiority in the Black Sea.
The main result of the struggle at sea, however, was the establishment by England of a blockade of the German coast, which had a huge impact on the course of the war.
Results of the 1914 campaign
In general, the 1914 campaign ended in favor of the Entente. German troops were defeated on the Marne, Austrian troops in Galicia and Serbia, and Turkish troops at Sarykamysh. In the Far East, Japan captured the port of Jiaozhou in November 1914. The Caroline, Mariana and Marshall Islands, which belonged to Germany, also fell into the hands of Japan, and British troops captured the rest of Germany's possessions in the Pacific Ocean. Anglo-French troops in Africa captured Togo at the very beginning of the war. In Cameroon and German East Africa, the fighting became protracted, but in practice these colonies, cut off from the mother country, were lost to Germany.
By the end of 1914, the failure of German plans for a short-term, lightning-fast war, a war “before the autumn leaves fell,” became obvious. A long war of attrition began. Meanwhile, the economies of the warring countries were not prepared to wage war in the new conditions. The bloody battles of the 1914 campaign exhausted the troops, and replacements were not prepared. There were not enough weapons and shells. The military industry did not have time to satisfy the needs of the army. The position of the Russian army was especially difficult. Huge losses led to the fact that in a number of units only half of the personnel remained. The spent stocks of weapons and ammunition were almost never replaced.
The emergence of continuous fronts and positional forms of war prompted a search for new ways to solve strategic problems.
The German command adopted a plan to transfer the main military operations to the east - against Russia, with the goal of defeating and withdrawing it from the war. Thus, the Eastern European theater became the central site of the world war in 1915.
3. Military actions in 1915
Eastern European Theater of Operations
During the winter of 1914/15, the attention of both opponents was transferred to the Galician front, where Russian troops fought stubborn battles to capture the Carpathian passes and the Carpathian ridge. On March 22, Przemysl capitulated with its 120,000-strong garrison of Austro-Hungarian troops. But the Russian troops could no longer develop this success. There was an acute shortage of weapons and ammunition, especially shells. The enemy command, greatly concerned about the threat of an invasion of Russian troops beyond the Carpathians, managed to concentrate large forces. In mid-April, the exhausted Russian armies went on the defensive.
Soon, German troops launched a major operation on the right wing of the Russian Southwestern Front. Its initial goal, according to the German command, was to eliminate the threat of invasion of Russian troops on the plains of Hungary, but subsequently the operation developed as an integral part of the strategic “pincers”, which were supposed to envelop and crush the entire Russian group with a simultaneous blow from the Carpathians and East Prussia troops in Galicia and Poland. The best corps were transferred from the Western European fronts, and a new, 11th German army was formed from them. It was decided to make a breakthrough of the Russian front in the Gorlitsa area. German artillery in the breakthrough area outnumbered the Russians by six times, and in heavy guns by forty times. The Russian positions were poorly fortified, and the rear positions were not prepared at all. On May 2, German troops managed to break through the front. The difficult situation of the Russian armies was aggravated by the incorrect tactics of the command, which, instead of quickly withdrawing units to new lines, exhausted them in fruitless and bloody battles with superior enemy forces. As a result, Austro-German troops managed to push the Russian armies far to the east. At the end of May, Przemysl was recaptured, and on June 22, Russian troops surrendered Lviv. At the same time, the Germans went on the offensive on the northern wing of the Russian front, occupying Libau (Liepaja).
At the end of June, the German high command, trying to squeeze the Russian armies into pincers, planned to strike with its right wing between the Western Bug and the Vistula, and with its left wing on the lower Narew. But the Cannes project planned by Hindenburg and Ludendorff did not take place. The Russian high command decided to withdraw its armies from the impending attack and leave Poland. On July 13, German troops launched an offensive. In early August they occupied Warsaw, and then Novogeorgievsk (Modlin). In the second half of September, the German offensive began to run out of steam. By the end of the year, the front was established along the line Western Dvina - Lake Naroch - Styr River - Dubno - Strypa River.
Overall, the 1915 campaign in the Eastern European theater had significant consequences. Tsarism suffered a major defeat, which exposed all the vices of the military organization and the economic backwardness of the country. The masses of soldiers paid for this with colossal sacrifices: since the beginning of the war, Russia’s human losses amounted to over 3 million people, of which 300 thousand were killed. At the same time, as a result of the defeat, the process of revolutionizing the army accelerated.
However, the German imperialists did not achieve their main goal, which was dictated to them by the tense economic and political situation of Germany and its allies. Despite the fact that more than half of all German-Austrian troops were concentrated on the Russian front in 1915, Russia was not put out of action, and Germany and Austria-Hungary suffered very heavy losses.
In 1914-1915 A significant part of Poland became the scene of military action. Each of the warring powers - Germany, Austria-Hungary and Tsarist Russia - sought to seize all Polish lands. At the same time, the governments of these countries, with the help of false promises, hoped to attract the Polish people to their side and use them in the war. Associated with these calculations were the appeals of the army commanders of each of the three powers to the Polish population in 1914, which contained promises of “self-government”, unification of Polish lands, etc.
The bourgeoisie and landowners of Poland and Galicia relied not on the popular liberation movement, but on support from one or another of the imperialist powers. National Democrats (endeks) and some other bourgeois groups advocated the unification of Polish lands under the “scepter of the Russian monarch” and their autonomy within the Russian Empire. The bourgeois-landlord and petty-bourgeois elements of Galicia and certain political groups of the Kingdom of Poland, in particular the right-wing socialists and the Peasant Union, supported the program of creating a Polish state within the Habsburg Monarchy. The “Polish National Organization”, led by Pilsudski, was oriented toward Germany: it entered into a secret alliance with the command of the German army, which occupied part of the Kingdom of Poland, and created Polish legions that fought on the side of the Central Powers.
Western European Theater of Operations
At the end of winter and spring of 1915, the Anglo-French command undertook a series of strategic unsuccessful offensive operations. All of them were conducted with limited targets on narrow sectors of the front.
On April 22, near Ypres, German troops attacked Anglo-French positions. During this attack, violating the terms of the international convention prohibiting the use of toxic substances, they carried out a massive balloon release of chlorine. 15 thousand people were poisoned, of which 5 thousand died. The tactical success achieved by German troops as a result of the use of a new weapon of war was very small. Nevertheless, later the use of chemical means of warfare by both warring parties became widespread.
The attacks of the Entente armies in Artois in May and June, despite large losses, also did not bring any serious results.
The indecisive, limited nature of the Entente's offensive operations allowed the German command to significantly increase its forces against Russia. The resulting difficult situation for the Russian armies, as well as fears that tsarism might withdraw from the war, forced the Entente to finally address the issue of providing assistance to Russia. On August 23, Joffre outlined to the French Minister of War the reasons prompting him to undertake an offensive operation. “It is more profitable for us to launch this offensive as soon as possible, since the Germans, having defeated the Russian armies, can turn against us.” However, under pressure from generals Foch and Petain, the attack was postponed until the end of September, when the fighting on the Russian front had already begun to subside.
On September 25, French troops launched an offensive operation with two armies in Champagne and one army - together with the British - in Artois. Very large forces were concentrated, but it was not possible to break through the enemy front.
Dardanelles operation
In 1915, the Entente countries, mainly England, undertook sea and land operations with the aim of capturing the Black Sea straits - the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, as well as Istanbul.
In preliminary negotiations with the Russian government regarding these operations, the allies referred to the need to establish communications between them and Russia and to divert Turkish forces from the Caucasian and Suez directions; in addition, they pointed out that a strike on the straits and the Turkish capital would undermine the communications of the German coalition with the Middle East and would take Turkey out of the war. In reality, the British ruling circles, in particular the initiator of the Dardanelles expedition, Winston Churchill, pursued primarily a political goal: to occupy Constantinople and the straits before they had to, according to the secret treaty of 1915, go to tsarist Russia.
At first it was planned to capture the straits only by naval forces. On February 19, fleet operations began at the entrance to the Dardanelles. Having suffered heavy losses, the Anglo-French fleet was forced to retreat on March 18, 1915. After this, on April 25, the Anglo-French command carried out a major landing operation on the Gallipoli Peninsula (Gelibolu). But the Entente troops failed to achieve success here either. At the end of the year, the Anglo-French command decided to leave Gallipoli and stop operations to capture the straits.
Italy's entry into the war. Battles of the Isonzo
The ruling classes of Italy, at the very beginning, decided to use the current political situation to satisfy their imperialist demands. In August 1914, the Italian government entered into informal negotiations with Russia and England about its transition to the Entente side. The rapid advance of the German army towards Paris was hastily assessed in Rome as a defeat for France. This prompted Italy to break off negotiations with the Entente and begin secret soundings in the capitals of the Central Powers. German military and political circles believed that Italy's action against the Central Powers could seriously complicate the situation at the fronts. They therefore began to put strong pressure on the Austro-Hungarian government, demanding that it make territorial concessions in favor of Italy as payment for its neutrality. In the first half of December 1914, Italy began negotiations with Austria-Hungary on this basis, demanding the transfer of Trentino and part of Tyrol to it, as well as the granting of autonomy to Trieste. In response, Austria-Hungary offered Italy the French territories of Nice, Savoy, Corsica and Tunisia as compensation. The Italian government categorically rejected this proposal. The German government put pressure on Austria-Hungary and Italy in order to persuade them to agree, but all efforts were in vain.
At the beginning of March 1915, the Italian government confidentially informed England that it wished to find out the conditions under which Italy could join the Entente, and informed the British government of its political and territorial claims. During the negotiations that followed, Italy insisted that the Anglo-French fleet protect it from the Austrian fleet, and the Russian army chained the main fighting forces of Austria-Hungary to itself, depriving the latter, as stated in the Italian memorandum, “of the opportunity to concentrate its forces against Italy " Italy demanded huge territorial compensation. In Europe, she sought the transfer to her of Trentino and South Tyrol, Trieste and all of Istria (including all the Istrian islands), Dalmatia, the Dodecanese Islands, part of Albania, etc. In the event of the division of Turkey, Italy laid claim to the provinces of Antalya (Adalia) and Izmir, and in the case of the division of the German colonies in Africa - to “appropriate and equivalent compensation” in Eritrea and Somalia at the expense of the French and British colonies.
On April 26, 1915, a secret treaty was signed in London between Russia, England, France and Italy, according to which Italy undertook to start a war in a month, and the allies agreed to ensure the satisfaction of a significant part of the demands it made when concluding peace.
On the same day, four governments signed a declaration of non-conclusion of a separate peace. On May 4, Italy officially declared in Vienna that it considered the alliance treaty with Austria-Hungary annulled, and on May 23 declared war on it.
So at the end of May 1915, a new, Italian front was formed in Europe. Taking advantage of the diversion of Austro-Hungarian forces to the Russian front, the Italian command tried to undertake offensive operations. It deployed most of its forces on the Isonzo River. At the same time, Italian troops began offensive operations in Trentino, in the Cadorian and Carnic Alps. The first attack on the Isonzo, like attacks in other areas, did not yield serious successes. The Italians managed to move forward somewhat, but they were unable to defeat the enemy. In July, Italian troops again launched attacks on the Isonzo. In October and November they attacked the Austrians here for the third and fourth time, mainly in the Goritsky direction, but again achieved only local successes. The war on the Italian front took on positional forms.
Bulgaria's entry into the war. Balkan Front
Having declared “strict neutrality” at the end of July 1914, the Bulgarian government already at the beginning of August agreed with Germany and Austria-Hungary to switch to their side. The Central Powers promised to reward the Bulgarian bourgeoisie at the expense of Serbia, while the Entente powers, with whom the Bulgarian government was also negotiating, could not pay Bulgaria with the territory of their ally. The Entente's attempt to persuade Serbia to voluntarily cede the territories demanded by Bulgaria in exchange for future rich booty at the expense of Austria-Hungary encountered decisive resistance.
The Bulgarian government, however, delayed the final decision, waiting for decisive results on the main fronts of the world war. In 1915, Austro-German successes strengthened the belief in the invincibility of the Central Powers in the ruling circles of Bulgaria.
In order to put additional pressure on Bulgaria, the German government encouraged Turkey to cede to it a small but strategically important strip of Thrace on the left bank of the Maritsa River near Edirne. On September 3, 1915, Turkey and Bulgaria signed an agreement on this issue, and three days later, on September 6, the Austro-Bulgarian-German-Turkish Quadruple Alliance was formalized. According to a secret convention concluded on the same day, Bulgaria was promised the entire Serbian part of Macedonia and, in addition, the territory up to and including the right bank of the Morava. In the event of Greece and Romania going over to the Entente side, Bulgaria also received part of Greek Macedonia and Southern Dobruja. At the same time, a military convention was signed. On October 11, 1915, Bulgaria attacked Serbia.
The performance of Bulgaria put the small Serbian army in a difficult situation. It was now enveloped from the north and east by superior Austro-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian forces. Allied assistance was limited to the landing of two French divisions in Thessaloniki in October to secure the Serbian right flank and some support with artillery and ammunition.
In extremely difficult conditions, the Serbian army, repelling the advance of the German coalition troops, retreated to the shores of the Adriatic; a significant part of the Serbian population left along with her. The remnants of the Serbian army (about 120 thousand people) were evacuated to the island of Corfu.
As a result of the defeat of Serbia, unhindered communication between Germany and Turkey was established.
English and French troops continued to land in Thessaloniki and thus the Thessaloniki Front emerged in the Balkans.
Caucasian Front
In the summer of 1915, Turkish troops launched an offensive operation in the Alashkert direction. The Turks were driven back by the blow of the Russian troops, and then the Russian army went on the offensive in the Van direction.
Both coalitions conducted active military operations on Iranian territory. At the beginning of 1915, German agents managed to organize a tribal uprising in the south of the country. The rebellious Bakhtiari tribes destroyed part of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company's oil pipeline. Following this, Turkish troops began to advance towards the oil fields and by the autumn of 1915 they occupied Kermanshah and Hamadan.
England and Russia responded to the strengthening of German positions in Iran by sending new troops. The British managed to restore the oil pipeline and push the Turks and Bakhtiars away from the oil development area. In October 1915, the Russian expeditionary force of General Baratov landed in Enzelp. Having begun his advance towards Tehran, he occupied Qazvin. Then, pursuing German-Turkish detachments, Baratov’s troops occupied Hamadan, Qom, Kashan and approached Isfahan.
Fighting in Iraq, Syria and Africa
At the end of 1914, the English expeditionary force of General Townsend landed at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab. Having advanced into the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates and having initially achieved success, British troops approached Baghdad in November 1915, but in the battle near the ruins of Ctesiphon the Turks defeated them and drove them back to Kut el-Amara. Here the remnants of Townsend's corps were besieged. Thus, this attempt by England to take possession of Iraq failed.
At the beginning of 1915, Turkey sent an expeditionary army from the Beersheba region (southeast of Gaza), setting it the task of capturing the Suez Canal, advancing to Egypt and raising an uprising against England there. After an exceptionally difficult campaign through the Sinai Desert, the Turks attempted to seize the canal, but the attack was repulsed by British troops.
In July 1915, British troops captured German South-West Africa. In Cameroon, German troops were surrounded and capitulated in January 1916.
War at sea
In 1915, none of the warring parties undertook decisive operations at sea. The largest naval clashes were the battle between the British and German cruiser squadrons in the North Sea at the Dogger Bank, which ended in victory for the British, and the unsuccessful operation of the Entente fleet at the Dardanelles.
In February, the German command began the fight against the Entente through the so-called “merciless” submarine war.
When appearing in a certain zone, merchant ships, regardless of flag, were sunk without warning. The German government hoped in this way to quickly deprive its opponents, primarily England, of the supply of necessary materials and food and force them to capitulate. In May, the Lusitania was sunk, carrying more than a thousand passengers, including Americans.
The United States government lodged a strong protest against Germany. There was disagreement among the leaders of German politics regarding the application of the method of "ruthless" submarine warfare, and for a time more cautious tendencies prevailed. The German naval command was ordered to limit itself to actions against military vessels.
Results of the 1915 campaign. Plans of the parties by the beginning of 1916.
The main feature of the strategic situation at the turn of 1915 and 1916. was the increase in the military-technical power of the Entente. France and England, thanks to the shift in the center of gravity of military operations to the Russian front, received some respite and accumulated forces and means for a long struggle in the Western European theater.
By the beginning of 1916, they already had an advantage over Germany of 75-80 divisions and had largely eliminated their backlog in the field of artillery weapons. The English and French armies had new types of heavy artillery, large stocks of shells and well-organized military production.
The leaders of the Entente countries recognized the need to seek solutions to the war in coordinated offensive operations in the main theaters, without scattering efforts on secondary ones. The dates of offensive operations were clarified: in the Eastern European theater of military operations - June 15, in Western Europe - July 1. The delay in the offensive was a significant flaw in this plan; it made it possible for the German coalition to once again seize the initiative.
The position of the German command when developing the plan for the 1916 campaign was very difficult. It was impossible to think about conducting decisive operations on both fronts at once; the forces were also insufficient to conduct an offensive on several sectors of one front. In his report to Kaiser Wilhelm at the end of December 1915, Chief of the General Staff Falkenhain admitted that for an attack on Ukraine the forces “are insufficient in all respects,” an attack on Petrograd “does not promise a decisive result,” and the movement on Moscow “leads us into the boundless region.” " “For none of these enterprises,” Falkenhayn wrote, “we do not have sufficient forces. Therefore, Russia is excluded as a target for attacks.” It was not possible to defeat the main enemy - England - due to its island position and the superiority of the English fleet. That left France. Falkenhayn believed that “France, in its tension, has reached the limits of what is barely bearable” and that the task of defeating France can be achieved if it is forced to exhaust its forces in the fight for such an object, “for the protection of which the French command will be forced to sacrifice the last man.” Verdun was chosen as such an object.
A strike on the Verdun ledge, if successful, would upset the entire defense system on the right wing of the French front and open the way for the German armies to Paris from the east. The Verdun region could be a convenient starting base for the advance of the French army north along the Meuse. The German command knew that the Entente had such a plan, and hoped to complicate it by taking Verdun.
On the Italian front, the Austro-Hungarian command decided to strike a powerful blow in Trentino.
4. Military actions in 1916-1917.
Battle of Verdun Somme Operations
In the 1916 campaign in the Western European theater of the world war, two of the bloodiest and longest operations stood out: at Verdun and on the Somme. German troops at the end of February attempted to take Verdun with an accelerated attack, but were unable to break the French defense. General Galwitz, who took command of the western sector of the attack at the end of March, noted in his diary: “It seems that what I feared has happened. A major offensive has been launched with insufficient resources."
On July 1, French and British troops dealt a strong blow to the enemy on the Somme, and even earlier, the Russian armies of the Southwestern Front broke through the Austro-German positions. Meanwhile, the German army continued its attacks near Verdun, but they gradually died down and completely stopped by September. In October-December, French troops, having carried out a series of powerful counterattacks, drove the enemy out of the most important positions in the fortress area. The battle cost both sides hundreds of thousands of lives.
The operation on the Somme was prepared by the Entente command as the main operation of the 1916 campaign. It was intended that a powerful group of troops consisting of more than 60 French and British divisions would break through German positions and defeat German troops. The German offensive at Verdun forced the French command to divert some of its forces and resources to this fortress. Despite this, the operation began on July 1. Huge material and technical resources were concentrated. Just as many shells were prepared for the 6th French Army operating here as were in stock in 1914 for all French troops.
After local battles, English and French troops launched a powerful attack in September. In these battles, the British command used a new means of fighting - tanks. Used in small numbers and still technically imperfect, they ensured the achievement of local successes, but did not provide general operational success. The operational art of Western European military leaders did not create ways to break through the front. The armies were stationed in heavily fortified positions located one after another to a depth of 10-20 km. Numerous machine guns swept away the attacking manpower with their fire. The destruction of defensive positions by artillery required quite a long time, sometimes several days. During this time, the defending side managed to build new lines of positions and bring in fresh reserves.
October and November passed in heavy battles. The operation gradually came to a standstill. Its results boiled down to the Entente seizing 200 sq. km of territory, 105 thousand prisoners, 1,500 machine guns and 350 guns. The losses of both sides exceeded those of Verdun: both sides lost over 1,300 thousand people killed, wounded and captured.
Despite the failure to break through the front, the operation on the Somme, together with the breakthrough of the Austro-Hungarian front by Russian troops, not only forced the German command to abandon attacks at Verdun, but also created a turning point in the entire course of the campaign in favor of the Entente.
Russian offensive
The German onslaught at Verdun forced the French command to persistently ask for Russian assistance. On March 18, 1916, Russian troops of the Northwestern Front launched a vigorous attack in the area of Dvinsk (Daugavpils) and Lake Naroch. The offensive, which cost great casualties, was not successful, but German attacks against Verdun were suspended during this period.
The southwestern front, commanded by General Brusilov, was supposed to deliver an auxiliary strike. The difficult situation of the Italian army and persistent requests from the allies for help forced the Russian command to rush through the operation, and it began on June 4 (instead of June 15 according to the original plan). The offensive of the Russian troops in almost all sectors was successful. The greatest success fell to the 8th Army, which captured Lutsk, and the 9th Army, which advanced to Bukovina. By this time, an offensive operation was supposed to begin on the Russian Western Front. But the front commander, General Evert, limited himself to a weak attack on Baranovichi, postponing the general offensive until July.
In the second half of June, the armies of the Southwestern Front continued to build on their success and reached the line of the Stokhod River on the right wing of the front, and captured most of Bukovina on the left.
On July 3, the troops of the Western Front again launched an attack in the direction of Baranovichi, but failed to break through the enemy front. The failure of this offensive operation finally convinced the royal headquarters that there was no point in adhering to the outdated plan. The importance of the main one was recognized for the Southwestern Front, and the Western Front was entrusted with the task of the auxiliary order - to hold the enemy forces in front of it. But time was lost.
As a result of summer operations on the Southwestern Front, a significant part of the Austro-German armies was defeated. Russian troops captured about 9 thousand officers and over 400 thousand soldiers and occupied 25 thousand square meters. km of territory, including Bukovina and part of Eastern Galicia. At the most crucial moment of the battles near Verdun, the German command was forced to withdraw eleven divisions from the Western European theater and throw them to the east. The Austro-Hungarian command transferred six divisions from the Italian front, weakening the offensive in Trentino.
The Russian armies again showed their ability to deliver powerful attacks. The command of the Southwestern Front used a new method of breaking through the enemy's positions - simultaneous front-splitting attacks on a number of separate sectors. Austro-German troops lost up to one and a half million people killed, wounded and prisoners.
The offensive of the Russian armies did not bring decisive strategic results. One of the reasons for this was the incompetent leadership on the part of the high command. The headquarters failed to develop the success achieved. The backwardness of transport prevented the timely delivery of reserves and ammunition. Already at the end of July, offensive actions gradually gave way to a long, bloody battle on the Stokhod River.
Nevertheless, the breakthrough of the Austro-German positions by Russian troops of the Southwestern Front played a major role. Together with the offensive of the Anglo-French troops on the Somme, he nullified the initiative of the German command, which from the end of 1916 had to switch to strategic defense on the land fronts. Until the very end of the war, the Austro-Hungarian army no longer had the opportunity to conduct serious offensive operations.
Romania's entry into the war. Fighting on the Romanian front
The ruling circles of Romania believed that the war would provide them with the opportunity to satisfy their aggressive goals and create a “great Romania.” They laid claim, in addition to Transylvania, to a number of other territories that were part of Austria-Hungary, and to Bessarabia, which belonged to Russia. These plans had nothing to do with the aspirations of the Romanian people to complete the creation of the Romanian national state by uniting Transylvania with Romania. By declaring neutrality at the start of the war, the Romanian government left the door open to bargaining with both coalitions.
The Romanian government decided to delay the moment of action until the chances of victory for one of the warring factions were fully clarified. According to the secret Russian-Romanian agreement of October 1, 1914, Russia guaranteed the territorial integrity of Romania and recognized Romania’s “right to annex the regions of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy populated by Romanians at the moment it deems convenient.” Romania pledged to “maintain benevolent neutrality towards Russia.” Later, when the war became protracted, the ruling circles of Romania began to lean more and more towards the side of the Entente.
The tsarist command preferred that Romania remain neutral. It believed that, having opposed the Central Powers, Romania would not be able to provide significant military assistance to the Entente, but would itself demand help from Russia. However, despite Russian opposition, England and France insisted on Romania's entry into the war.
On August 27, 1916, Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary and began an independent operation to capture Transylvania. The Romanian army was initially successful, but then suffered a series of defeats in Dobruja and Transylvania. German troops invaded Romania and occupied Bucharest. An important source of food, as well as oil and other raw materials, fell into the hands of the German coalition. Only with the help of Russian troops was the Romanian front stabilized at the end of December along the line: the lower reaches of the Danube - Braila - Focsani - Ocna - Dorna Vatra. Thus, the front of the Russian armies extended by 500 km. The Russian command was forced to transfer 35 infantry and 11 cavalry divisions to Romania.
Italian and Balkan fronts
In March 1916, the Italian army, in order to help the French attacked at Verdun, carried out a new unsuccessful attack on the Isonzo. In May, the Austrian command launched a decisive offensive against the Italians in Trentino. Concentrating large forces (up to 18 divisions), the Austro-Hungarian army struck on May 15 between Lake Garda and the Brenta River. Having been defeated, the Italian army began to quickly roll back along a 60-kilometer front. Her situation became critical. The offensive of the Russian armies of the Southwestern Front, which forced the Austro-Hungarian command to transfer troops to the east and stop attacks in Trentino, saved the Italian troops from final defeat.
In the second half of 1916, Italian troops carried out four more attacks on the Isonzo. At the cost of heavy losses, they occupied Goritsa, but were unable to break through to Trieste.
There was relative calm on the Balkan front in 1916. In August, Bulgarian troops captured part of Greek territory in the lower reaches of the Struma River and launched attacks south of Monastir (Bitol). In September, the Allies, pushing back the Bulgarians, occupied Monastir. The Allied forces gradually increased; A continuous front was established from the coast of the Aegean Sea, along the Struma River, Lake Dojran, through Monastir, Ohrid to the coast of the Adriatic Sea, north of Vlora.
Extra-European fronts
In the Caucasian-Turkish theater of military operations, Russian troops achieved great success. In exceptionally difficult mountain conditions, with a frost of 30 degrees, they defeated the Turks on February 16, 1916. occupied Erzurum. The Russian command shifted its efforts to another important point, Trabzon (Trebizond), and on April 18, as a result of joint operations of ground and naval forces, this city was taken. At the same time, Russian troops advanced in the Urmia direction, where they occupied Ruvandiz. In the area of Lake Van, a successful offensive in the summer of 1916 led to the occupation of Mush and Bitlis.
In Iraq, England suffered a major setback in 1916: the English expeditionary force under the command of Townsend, besieged in Kut el-Amar, capitulated. On the Syrian front, the Turks again tried unsuccessfully to take Suez in the summer of 1916. In East Africa, German units were pushed back to the southern border of the colony.
Jutland fight
In 1916, the largest naval battle of the world war took place in the North Sea. During the previous years, the main forces of the English and German fleets remained at their bases, without risking a decisive clash. Of the two opponents, Germany was in the worst position: it was stifled by the blockade. In an effort to break the blockade, defeat England at sea and thereby somewhat improve its position, the German command decided to switch to active operations at sea.
On May 31-June 1, a battle took place off the coast of Jutland, which ended in England's favor, although its fleet suffered serious losses. The German plan to defeat the English fleet piecemeal failed. The hopes of the German command to break the naval blockade also collapsed. After the Battle of Jutland, the German fleet no longer risked going to sea for any significant operations.
Results of the 1916 campaign; plans of the parties for 1917.
In the difficult battles of 1916, the Entente failed to defeat its opponents. The most significant reason for this was the contradictions between the allies and the lack of necessary coordination of actions. However, the German plan to defeat the French at Verdun also failed. The Austro-Hungarian troops also failed to defeat Italy.
The overall results of the 1916 campaign were in favor of the Entente. The attacks of the Russian troops of the Southwestern Front and the exhausting battles at Verdun and the Somme put the German coalition in a difficult situation. The superiority of the Entente forces was clearly revealed. The wealth of human resources allowed it to increase the size of its armed forces, and the success of military-industrial production and American assistance allowed it to eliminate the gap in the field of artillery weapons and achieve superiority over the enemy in aviation and tanks. By the end of 1916, the Entente had 425 divisions on all fronts against 331 enemy divisions. The strategic initiative passed to her.
From the end of 1916, the German command, represented by Hindenburg and Ludendorff, was forced to switch to strategic defense on all fronts; it now intended to deal a powerful blow to the economy of its main enemy - England - through "unlimited submarine warfare."
The Entente was weakened by differences in the military leadership. This led to the fact that Germany not only paralyzed the advantages of the Entente, but sometimes put its opponents in a difficult position. The successful actions of the Austro-German troops against Romania showed how far the end of the war was still.
By the end of 1916, the armies of the states actively participating in the war numbered 756 divisions, whereas at the beginning of the war there were 363. Having increased in number and significantly increased their technical weapons, they, however, lost the most qualified and barracks-trained peacetime personnel. Under the influence of enormous losses and hardships, the chauvinistic frenzy of the first months of the war passed. The bulk of the soldiers were elderly reserves and young people on early conscription, poorly prepared in military-technical terms and insufficiently trained physically.
The rapid growth of the revolutionary movement in all the warring countries captured the masses of soldiers. Revolutionary-minded soldiers were dealt with mercilessly, but the protest movement against the imperialist war continued to grow.
The military command of the Entente countries, drawing up their strategic plan for 1917, again decided to defeat the German coalition with coordinated attacks in the main theaters of the war.
At the end of 1916, General Nivelle was placed at the head of the French armies. It was planned to attack the English and French armies in the Arras-Bapaume sector, as well as between the Somme and Oise, to pin down German forces and carry out a surprise offensive on the Aisne River, between Reims and Soissons, with the aim of breaking through the German front.
According to the plan developed by the General Staff of the Tsarist Army, the main blow was to be delivered by the troops of the Southwestern Front in the Lviv direction, i.e., against the most vulnerable link of the German coalition - Austria-Hungary.
Italy, having improved the material and technical equipment of its army, outlined a plan of active action for 1917. The commander-in-chief of the Italian army, General Cadorna, sought to capture Trieste with attacks on the Isonzo front, and then* penetrate the Sava River valley.
Military operations in 1917
Between 15 and 20 March 1917, the German command withdrew its troops from the dangerous Noyon salient to a pre-fortified position known as the Siegfried Line. Thus, the preparations carried out by the Anglo-French command for the main operation of the strategic plan of 1917 were largely in vain.
Nevertheless, the British and French armies began this operation on April 16, with the goal of defeating the enemy in the Western European theater of operations. Its scope was enormous for that time. More than 100 infantry and 10 cavalry divisions, more than 11 thousand guns of all types and calibers, as well as up to a thousand aircraft and about 130 tanks were supposed to participate in it.
During the general attack of the Entente forces on April 16, the interaction of the infantry with the artillery was disrupted, the mobile artillery barrage broke away from the infantry, and German machine gunners began to shoot the attackers from their shelters. Only two corps managed to capture the second line. Tanks were thrown into the attack. They had to deploy under fire from enemy artillery (including special anti-tank artillery) on very uncomfortable terrain, pockmarked with shell craters. As a result, out of 132 tanks, 11 returned, the rest were destroyed or damaged. It was not possible to break through the positions of the German troops.
On April 17, General Nivelle decided to continue the attack and regrouped his artillery for this purpose, but on most of the front almost all attacks remained ineffective. Then Nivelle brought new troops into battle. On April 18 and 19, the French corps occupied the southern slope of the Chemin des Dames ridge and Fort Condé, but were unable to advance further. At the insistence of the French government, the operation was stopped. Nivelle's plan was a complete failure. The English and French armies paid dearly for this unsuccessful operation.
The French army lost 122 thousand killed and wounded, including more than 5 thousand Russians from the 3rd Russian brigade, which fought as part of the 32nd French Corps, the British - about 80 thousand. The Germans also suffered heavy losses.
In connection with this senseless massacre organized by Nivelle, unrest began among the French soldiers. At this time, the bourgeois-democratic revolution that took place in Russia began to influence them. The soldiers' performances were mercilessly suppressed by the command, but still the French and British governments, taking into account the mood of the mass of soldiers, were forced to abandon major offensive operations for a long time.
Until the end of 1917, the Anglo-French command carried out only a few operations of purely tactical significance. One of them was undertaken by British troops in the area of Ypres with the aim of clearing North Flanders and the Belgian coast of the Germans. British maritime circles especially insisted on this, fearing that Germany would make even more widespread use of submarine bases on the Flemish coast. The operation began with an attack on July 31. The attack was supported by powerful artillery - 2,300 guns (153 guns per kilometer of front) - and 216 tanks. For almost four months, the English troops, drowning in the mud of the Flemish swamps, slowly moved forward. The operation stopped in November. It was not possible to break through the German front. As a result of these battles, the British lost 400 thousand killed and wounded, and the Germans lost 240 thousand people.
Another operation was carried out by the French at Verdun. On August 22, French troops, supported by powerful artillery, attacked German positions. 6 tons of shells were thrown onto a linear meter of the front. As a result of well-organized interaction between infantry, artillery and tanks, the offensive was successful.
The last operation of the Entente armies in the Western European theater during the 1917 campaign was the operation at Cambrai. In it, the British command had in mind to test, in cooperation with other branches of the military, the combat value of tanks and with spectacular success to soften the heavy impression of failure in Flanders. In addition, the military leaders of the Entente hoped to pin significant forces of the German army to Cambrai and thereby ease the situation for the Italians. On the morning of November 20, unexpectedly for the Germans, without the usual artillery preparation, the British launched an attack. Numerous aircraft attacked German artillery and headquarters. By noon, the German defensive line was broken through. Within 6-8 hours, the British army achieved a result that could not be achieved in a number of previous operations. However, she was unable to develop her success. On November 30, the German command, having concentrated large forces, also suddenly launched a counterattack and pushed the British back from most of the positions they had captured.
The operation at Cambrai had neither a strategic nor an operational result. But it confirmed the value of a new means of combat - tanks, and laid the foundation for tactics based on the interaction of infantry, artillery, tanks and aviation operating on the battlefield.
Italian troops suffered a serious defeat in the 1917 campaign. According to the general plan of the Entente, they were supposed to attack simultaneously with the Anglo-French armies. Belatedly, on May 12, the Italians launched their next, tenth attack on the Isonzo, but again failed to break through to Trieste. In August they carried out their eleventh offensive in the same area, also with very limited results and huge losses. Nevertheless, according to Ludendorff, “responsible military and political leaders of Austria-Hungary were convinced that she would not be able to endure the continuation of the battle and the 12th attack on the Isonzo.” The German command, forced to help its ally, allocated seven divisions for this, which, together with eight Austrian divisions, formed a new, 14th Austro-German army.
This army concentrated against the section of the Italian front between Plezzo and Tolmino in order to disrupt the twelfth offensive on the Isonzo with a blow in the Caporetto area. The mountainous terrain was little conducive to the actions of the troops, and the Italians did not expect an attack from large enemy forces from here.
On the night of October 24, the Austro-German artillery opened powerful fire with chemical shells. At dawn the infantry attack began. The front of the Italian army was broken through, and the Austrian-German troops penetrated deeply into its position.
The attempt of the Italian troops to hold on to the rear positions failed. The retreat was organized so ineptly that the army lost all its heavy artillery on the eastern bank of the Isonzo River. On October 28, the Italians evacuated the important railway junction of Udine and continued their panicked retreat to the Tagliamento River. Troop control was disrupted. Soldiers shouting “Down with war!”, “Down with officers!” rushed to the west.
Thus, the operation of Austrian and German troops at Caporetto, initially designed only to disrupt the impending Italian offensive, led to a serious defeat of the Italian army. The Italians lost over 335 thousand prisoners, 130 thousand killed and wounded. 3,152 guns, over 3 thousand machine guns, a huge amount of equipment and all kinds of supplies were left to the enemy. The front rolled back almost a hundred kilometers to the west. Most of the Venetian region was occupied by Austro-German troops. Only after the Anglo-French command began to hastily transfer their divisions to help the Italians, and the Italian authorities took brutal measures against the retreating soldiers, did the pace of retreat begin to slow down.
On the Balkan front, the commander of the French army, General Sarrail, even on the eve of the big April offensive of the Entente, prepared an offensive operation in the section of the Struma River - Doiran - the bend of the Cerna River - Monastir. At the end of April - beginning of May, he tried to implement it, but failed. This led to an outbreak of unrest among the troops and complications in relations between the allies. Sarrail's failure also prompted Entente diplomacy to redouble its efforts to bring Greece into the war. On June 10, the Entente presented the Greek government with an ultimatum to oppose the Quadruple Alliance. The Germanophile-minded King Constantine abdicated the throne and was exiled to Switzerland. Entente supporter Venizelos came to power.
In the Eastern European theater of operations, the most significant event was the summer offensive of Russian troops, undertaken after the overthrow of the autocracy in Russia.
Under pressure from the Entente and the Russian imperialist bourgeoisie, the Provisional Government, headed by Kerensky, ordered an offensive. On June 18 (July 1), the armies of the Southwestern Front began military operations in the Lvov direction. The offensive was soon stopped by enemy counterattacks; Russian units retreated to their original positions, the contradictions between the mass of soldiers and the counter-revolutionary command staff became even more acute. At the beginning of September, the German command undertook an operation to capture Riga and the Gulf of Riga in order to strengthen the position of its left flank and at the same time test the combat effectiveness of the Russian army before beginning the transfer of divisions to the Western European theater. Contrary to the expectations of the Germans, the revolutionary-minded Russian units steadfastly defended themselves, but the front-line command, having not exhausted all possibilities of resistance, ordered the surrender of Riga on September 3. After this, the position of the Russian armies on the approaches to Petrograd deteriorated significantly.
On the Caucasian-Turkish front in 1917, only the offensive of Baratov’s corps continued in the Mosul and Baghdad directions. Russian troops entered into contact with the British in Kizil-Rabat.
On the Iraqi front, the British corps, after careful preparation, launched an offensive in the Baghdad direction. On March 10, Baghdad passed into the hands of the British. An attempt by German-Turkish forces to push back the enemy failed. Advancing towards Mosul, the British troops by the end of the campaign fortified themselves on the Qara Tepe-Tekrit line, halfway between Baghdad and Mosul.
On the Palestinian-Syrian front, British troops unsuccessfully attacked Gaza twice, in March and April. Only in late autumn, after careful preparation, did they begin active operations again.
As a result of the operations of 1917, German troops were completely driven out of East Africa.
Military operations at sea were characterized by the widespread use of submarines (mainly by the German bloc). In February 1917, Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare. These actions initially brought success to Germany. The total tonnage of Entente ships sunk in February was 781.5 thousand (while for the entire 1916 ships with a displacement of 1125 thousand tons were sunk), in March - 885 thousand, in April - 1091 thousand. More than half of this tonnage belonged to England. England's position became threatening. Admiral Jellicoe said that if the pace of submarine warfare did not change, then the limit of England's endurance would be reached by November 1, 1917. The Entente countries took a number of vigorous measures against submarine warfare: they armed merchant ships, created a system for escorting them with naval ships, laid mines and nets barriers. The intensified blockade of Germany led to an almost complete cessation of the supply of materials it needed from neutral countries.
These were the results of military operations in 1917. The February bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia had a serious impact on the military-strategic and political position of the participants in the war. It also influenced the position of the United States of America on the issue of its entry into the war. American imperialist circles feared that if Russia left the war, the position of the Entente would sharply worsen, and therefore decided to speed up the act that had been prepared for a long time. On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress declared war on Germany; The American army, however, actively intervened in the hostilities only in 1918.
In 1917, China, Greece, Brazil, Cuba, Panama, Liberia and Siam also entered the war on the side of the Entente.
The world war continued, drawing new states and peoples into its orbit. The working people of dozens of countries shed streams of blood and made unprecedented sacrifices in the war for the interests of a handful of imperialists.
First World War (1914 - 1918)
The Russian Empire collapsed. One of the goals of the war has been achieved.
Chamberlain
The First World War lasted from August 1, 1914 to November 11, 1918. 38 states with a population of 62% of the world took part in it. This war was quite controversial and extremely contradictory in modern history. I specifically quoted Chamberlain’s words in the epigraph in order to once again emphasize this inconsistency. A prominent politician in England (Russia's war ally) says that by overthrowing the autocracy in Russia one of the goals of the war has been achieved!
The Balkan countries played a major role in the beginning of the war. They were not independent. Their policies (both foreign and domestic) were greatly influenced by England. Germany had by that time lost its influence in this region, although it controlled Bulgaria for a long time.
- Entente. Russian Empire, France, Great Britain. The allies were the USA, Italy, Romania, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
- Triple Alliance. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire. Later they were joined by the Bulgarian kingdom, and the coalition became known as the “Quadruple Alliance”.
The following major countries took part in the war: Austria-Hungary (27 July 1914 - 3 November 1918), Germany (1 August 1914 - 11 November 1918), Turkey (29 October 1914 - 30 October 1918), Bulgaria (14 October 1915 - 29 September 1918). Entente countries and allies: Russia (August 1, 1914 - March 3, 1918), France (August 3, 1914), Belgium (August 3, 1914), Great Britain (August 4, 1914), Italy (May 23, 1915), Romania (August 27, 1916) .
One more important point. Initially, Italy was a member of the Triple Alliance. But after the outbreak of World War I, the Italians declared neutrality.
Causes of the First World War
The main reason for the outbreak of the First World War was the desire of the leading powers, primarily England, France and Austria-Hungary, to redistribute the world. The fact is that the colonial system collapsed by the beginning of the 20th century. The leading European countries, which had prospered for years through the exploitation of their colonies, could no longer simply obtain resources by taking them away from Indians, Africans and South Americans. Now resources could only be won from each other. Therefore, contradictions grew:
- Between England and Germany. England sought to prevent Germany from increasing its influence in the Balkans. Germany sought to strengthen itself in the Balkans and the Middle East, and also sought to deprive England of maritime dominance.
- Between Germany and France. France dreamed of regaining the lands of Alsace and Lorraine, which it had lost in the war of 1870-71. France also sought to seize the German Saar coal basin.
- Between Germany and Russia. Germany sought to take Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states from Russia.
- Between Russia and Austria-Hungary. Controversies arose due to the desire of both countries to influence the Balkans, as well as Russia's desire to subjugate the Bosporus and Dardanelles.
The reason for the start of the war
The reason for the outbreak of the First World War was the events in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Black Hand of the Young Bosnia movement, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, so the resonance of the murder was enormous. This was the pretext for Austria-Hungary to attack Serbia.
The behavior of England is very important here, since Austria-Hungary could not start a war on its own, because this practically guaranteed war throughout Europe. The British at the embassy level convinced Nicholas 2 that Russia should not leave Serbia without help in the event of aggression. But then the entire (I emphasize this) English press wrote that the Serbs were barbarians and Austria-Hungary should not leave the murder of the Archduke unpunished. That is, England did everything to ensure that Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia did not shy away from war.
Important nuances of the casus belli
In all textbooks we are told that the main and only reason for the outbreak of the First World War was the assassination of the Austrian Archduke. At the same time, they forget to say that the next day, June 29, another significant murder took place. The French politician Jean Jaurès, who actively opposed the war and had great influence in France, was killed. A few weeks before the assassination of the Archduke, there was an attempt on the life of Rasputin, who, like Zhores, was an opponent of the war and had great influence on Nicholas 2. I would also like to note some facts from the fate of the main characters of those days:
- Gavrilo Principin. Died in prison in 1918 from tuberculosis.
- The Russian Ambassador to Serbia is Hartley. In 1914 he died at the Austrian embassy in Serbia, where he came for a reception.
- Colonel Apis, leader of the Black Hand. Shot in 1917.
- In 1917, Hartley’s correspondence with Sozonov (the next Russian ambassador to Serbia) disappeared.
This all indicates that in the events of the day there were a lot of black spots that have not yet been revealed. And this is very important to understand.
England's role in starting the war
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 2 great powers in continental Europe: Germany and Russia. They did not want to openly fight against each other, since their forces were approximately equal. Therefore, in the “July crisis” of 1914, both sides took a wait-and-see approach. British diplomacy came to the fore. She conveyed her position to Germany through the press and secret diplomacy - in the event of war, England would remain neutral or take Germany's side. Through open diplomacy, Nicholas 2 received the opposite idea that if war broke out, England would take the side of Russia.
It must be clearly understood that one open statement from England that it would not allow war in Europe would be enough for neither Germany nor Russia to even think about anything like that. Naturally, under such conditions, Austria-Hungary would not have dared to attack Serbia. But England, with all its diplomacy, pushed European countries towards war.
Russia before the war
Before the First World War, Russia carried out army reform. In 1907, a reform of the fleet was carried out, and in 1910, a reform of the ground forces. The country increased military spending many times over, and the total peacetime army size was now 2 million. In 1912, Russia adopted a new Field Service Charter. Today it is rightly called the most perfect Charter of its time, since it motivated soldiers and commanders to show personal initiative. Important point! The doctrine of the army of the Russian Empire was offensive.
Despite the fact that there were many positive changes, there were also very serious miscalculations. The main one is the underestimation of the role of artillery in war. As the course of events of the First World War showed, this was a terrible mistake, which clearly showed that at the beginning of the 20th century, Russian generals were seriously behind the times. They lived in the past, when the role of cavalry was important. As a result, 75% of all losses in the First World War were caused by artillery! This is a verdict on the imperial generals.
It is important to note that Russia never completed preparations for war (at the proper level), while Germany completed it in 1914.
The balance of forces and means before and after the war
Artillery
Number of guns |
Of these, heavy guns |
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Austria-Hungary |
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Germany |
According to the data from the table, it is clear that Germany and Austria-Hungary were many times superior to Russia and France in heavy weapons. Therefore, the balance of power was in favor of the first two countries. Moreover, the Germans, as usual, created an excellent military industry before the war, which produced 250,000 shells daily. By comparison, Britain produced 10,000 shells per month! As they say, feel the difference...
Another example showing the importance of artillery is the battles on the Dunajec Gorlice line (May 1915). In 4 hours, the German army fired 700,000 shells. For comparison, during the entire Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), Germany fired just over 800,000 shells. That is, in 4 hours a little less than during the entire war. The Germans clearly understood that heavy artillery would play a decisive role in the war.
Weapons and military equipment
Production of weapons and equipment during the First World War (thousands of units).
Strelkovoe |
Artillery |
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Great Britain |
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TRIPLE ALLIANCE |
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Germany |
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Austria-Hungary |
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This table clearly shows the weakness of the Russian Empire in terms of equipping the army. In all main indicators, Russia is much inferior to Germany, but also inferior to France and Great Britain. Largely because of this, the war turned out to be so difficult for our country.
Number of people (infantry)
Number of fighting infantry (millions of people).
At the beginning of the war |
By the end of the war |
Casualties |
|
Great Britain |
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TRIPLE ALLIANCE |
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Germany |
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Austria-Hungary |
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The table shows that Great Britain made the smallest contribution to the war, both in terms of combatants and deaths. This is logical, since the British did not really participate in major battles. Another example from this table is instructive. All textbooks tell us that Austria-Hungary, due to large losses, could not fight on its own, and it always needed help from Germany. But notice Austria-Hungary and France in the table. The numbers are identical! Just as Germany had to fight for Austria-Hungary, so Russia had to fight for France (it is no coincidence that the Russian army saved Paris from capitulation three times during the First World War).
The table also shows that in fact the war was between Russia and Germany. Both countries lost 4.3 million killed, while Britain, France and Austria-Hungary together lost 3.5 million. The numbers are eloquent. But it turned out that the countries that fought the most and made the most effort in the war ended up with nothing. First, Russia signed the shameful Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, losing many lands. Then Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, essentially losing its independence.
Progress of the war
Military events of 1914
July 28 Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. This entailed the involvement of the countries of the Triple Alliance, on the one hand, and the Entente, on the other hand, into the war.
Russia entered World War I on August 1, 1914. Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov (Uncle of Nicholas 2) was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
In the first days of the war, St. Petersburg was renamed Petrograd. Since the war with Germany began, the capital could not have a name of German origin - “burg”.
Historical reference
German "Schlieffen Plan"
Germany found itself under the threat of war on two fronts: Eastern - with Russia, Western - with France. Then the German command developed the “Schlieffen Plan”, according to which Germany should defeat France in 40 days and then fight with Russia. Why 40 days? The Germans believed that this was exactly what Russia would need to mobilize. Therefore, when Russia mobilizes, France will already be out of the game.
On August 2, 1914, Germany captured Luxembourg, on August 4 they invaded Belgium (a neutral country at that time), and by August 20 Germany reached the borders of France. The implementation of the Schlieffen Plan began. Germany advanced deep into France, but on September 5 it was stopped at the Marne River, where a battle took place in which about 2 million people took part on both sides.
Northwestern Front of Russia in 1914
At the beginning of the war, Russia did something stupid that Germany could not calculate. Nicholas 2 decided to enter the war without fully mobilizing the army. On August 4, Russian troops, under the command of Rennenkampf, launched an offensive in East Prussia (modern Kaliningrad). Samsonov's army was equipped to help her. Initially, the troops acted successfully, and Germany was forced to retreat. As a result, part of the forces of the Western Front was transferred to the Eastern Front. The result - Germany repulsed the Russian offensive in East Prussia (the troops acted disorganized and lacked resources), but as a result the Schlieffen plan failed, and France could not be captured. So, Russia saved Paris, albeit by defeating its 1st and 2nd armies. After this, trench warfare began.
Southwestern Front of Russia
On the southwestern front, in August-September, Russia launched an offensive operation against Galicia, which was occupied by troops of Austria-Hungary. The Galician operation was more successful than the offensive in East Prussia. In this battle, Austria-Hungary suffered a catastrophic defeat. 400 thousand people killed, 100 thousand captured. For comparison, the Russian army lost 150 thousand people killed. After this, Austria-Hungary actually withdrew from the war, since it lost the ability to conduct independent actions. Austria was saved from complete defeat only by the help of Germany, which was forced to transfer additional divisions to Galicia.
The main results of the military campaign of 1914
- Germany failed to implement the Schlieffen plan for lightning war.
- No one managed to gain a decisive advantage. The war turned into a positional one.
Map of military events of 1914-15
Military events of 1915
In 1915, Germany decided to shift the main blow to the eastern front, directing all its forces to the war with Russia, which was the weakest country of the Entente, according to the Germans. It was a strategic plan developed by the commander of the Eastern Front, General von Hindenburg. Russia managed to thwart this plan only at the cost of colossal losses, but at the same time, 1915 turned out to be simply terrible for the empire of Nicholas 2.
Situation on the northwestern front
From January to October, Germany waged an active offensive, as a result of which Russia lost Poland, western Ukraine, part of the Baltic states, and western Belarus. Russia went on the defensive. Russian losses were gigantic:
- Killed and wounded - 850 thousand people
- Captured - 900 thousand people
Russia did not capitulate, but the countries of the Triple Alliance were convinced that Russia would no longer be able to recover from the losses it had suffered.
Germany's successes on this sector of the front led to the fact that on October 14, 1915, Bulgaria entered the First World War (on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary).
Situation on the southwestern front
The Germans, together with Austria-Hungary, organized the Gorlitsky breakthrough in the spring of 1915, forcing the entire southwestern front of Russia to retreat. Galicia, which was captured in 1914, was completely lost. Germany was able to achieve this advantage thanks to the terrible mistakes of the Russian command, as well as a significant technical advantage. German superiority in technology reached:
- 2.5 times in machine guns.
- 4.5 times in light artillery.
- 40 times in heavy artillery.
It was not possible to withdraw Russia from the war, but the losses on this section of the front were gigantic: 150 thousand killed, 700 thousand wounded, 900 thousand prisoners and 4 million refugees.
Situation on the Western Front
"Everything is calm on the Western Front." This phrase can describe how the war between Germany and France proceeded in 1915. There were sluggish military operations in which no one sought the initiative. Germany was implementing plans in eastern Europe, and England and France were calmly mobilizing their economy and army, preparing for further war. No one provided any assistance to Russia, although Nicholas 2 repeatedly turned to France, first of all, so that it would take active action on the Western Front. As usual, no one heard him... By the way, this sluggish war on Germany’s western front was perfectly described by Hemingway in the novel “A Farewell to Arms.”
The main result of 1915 was that Germany was unable to bring Russia out of the war, although all efforts were devoted to this. It became obvious that the First World War would drag on for a long time, since during the 1.5 years of the war no one was able to gain an advantage or strategic initiative.
Military events of 1916
"Verdun Meat Grinder"
In February 1916, Germany launched a general offensive against France with the goal of capturing Paris. For this purpose, a campaign was carried out on Verdun, which covered the approaches to the French capital. The battle lasted until the end of 1916. During this time, 2 million people died, for which the battle was called the “Verdun Meat Grinder”. France survived, but again thanks to the fact that Russia came to its rescue, which became more active on the southwestern front.
Events on the southwestern front in 1916
In May 1916, Russian troops went on the offensive, which lasted 2 months. This offensive went down in history under the name “Brusilovsky breakthrough”. This name is due to the fact that the Russian army was commanded by General Brusilov. The breakthrough of the defense in Bukovina (from Lutsk to Chernivtsi) happened on June 5. The Russian army managed not only to break through the defenses, but also to advance into its depths in some places up to 120 kilometers. The losses of the Germans and Austro-Hungarians were catastrophic. 1.5 million dead, wounded and prisoners. The offensive was stopped only by additional German divisions, which were hastily transferred here from Verdun (France) and from Italy.
This offensive of the Russian army was not without a fly in the ointment. As usual, the allies dropped her off. On August 27, 1916, Romania entered the First World War on the side of the Entente. Germany defeated her very quickly. As a result, Romania lost its army, and Russia received an additional 2 thousand kilometers of front.
Events on the Caucasian and Northwestern fronts
Positional battles continued on the Northwestern Front during the spring-autumn period. As for the Caucasian Front, the main events here lasted from the beginning of 1916 to April. During this time, 2 operations were carried out: Erzurmur and Trebizond. According to their results, Erzurum and Trebizond were conquered, respectively.
The result of 1916 in the First World War
- The strategic initiative passed to the side of the Entente.
- The French fortress of Verdun survived thanks to the offensive of the Russian army.
- Romania entered the war on the side of the Entente.
- Russia carried out a powerful offensive - the Brusilov breakthrough.
Military and political events 1917
The year 1917 in the First World War was marked by the fact that the war continued against the background of the revolutionary situation in Russia and Germany, as well as the deterioration of the economic situation of the countries. Let me give you the example of Russia. During the 3 years of the war, prices for basic products increased on average by 4-4.5 times. Naturally, this caused discontent among the people. Add to this heavy losses and a grueling war - it turns out to be excellent soil for revolutionaries. The situation is similar in Germany.
In 1917, the United States entered the First World War. The position of the Triple Alliance is deteriorating. Germany and its allies cannot effectively fight on 2 fronts, as a result of which it goes on the defensive.
The end of the war for Russia
In the spring of 1917, Germany launched another offensive on the Western Front. Despite the events in Russia, Western countries demanded that the Provisional Government implement the agreements signed by the Empire and send troops on the offensive. As a result, on June 16, the Russian army went on the offensive in the Lvov area. Again, we saved the allies from major battles, but we ourselves were completely exposed.
The Russian army, exhausted by the war and losses, did not want to fight. The issues of food, uniforms and supplies during the war years were never resolved. The army fought reluctantly, but moved forward. The Germans were forced to transfer troops here again, and Russia's Entente allies again isolated themselves, watching what would happen next. On July 6, Germany launched a counteroffensive. As a result, 150,000 Russian soldiers died. The army virtually ceased to exist. The front fell apart. Russia could no longer fight, and this catastrophe was inevitable.
People demanded Russia's withdrawal from the war. And this was one of their main demands from the Bolsheviks, who seized power in October 1917. Initially, at the 2nd Party Congress, the Bolsheviks signed the decree “On Peace,” essentially proclaiming Russia’s exit from the war, and on March 3, 1918, they signed the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty. The conditions of this world were as follows:
- Russia makes peace with Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey.
- Russia is losing Poland, Ukraine, Finland, part of Belarus and the Baltic states.
- Russia cedes Batum, Kars and Ardagan to Turkey.
As a result of its participation in the First World War, Russia lost: about 1 million square meters of territory, approximately 1/4 of the population, 1/4 of arable land and 3/4 of the coal and metallurgical industries were lost.
Historical reference
Events in the war in 1918
Germany got rid of the Eastern Front and the need to wage war on two fronts. As a result, in the spring and summer of 1918, she attempted an offensive on the Western Front, but this offensive had no success. Moreover, as it progressed, it became obvious that Germany was getting the most out of itself, and that it needed a break in the war.
Autumn 1918
The decisive events in the First World War took place in the fall. The Entente countries, together with the United States, went on the offensive. The German army was completely driven out of France and Belgium. In October, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria concluded a truce with the Entente, and Germany was left to fight alone. Her situation was hopeless after the German allies in the Triple Alliance essentially capitulated. This resulted in the same thing that happened in Russia - a revolution. On November 9, 1918, Emperor Wilhelm II was overthrown.
End of the First World War
On November 11, 1918, the First World War of 1914-1918 ended. Germany signed a complete surrender. It happened near Paris, in the Compiègne forest, at the Retonde station. The surrender was accepted by the French Marshal Foch. The terms of the signed peace were as follows:
- Germany admits complete defeat in the war.
- The return of the province of Alsace and Lorraine to France to the borders of 1870, as well as the transfer of the Saar coal basin.
- Germany lost all its colonial possessions, and was also obliged to transfer 1/8 of its territory to its geographical neighbors.
- For 15 years, Entente troops were on the left bank of the Rhine.
- By May 1, 1921, Germany had to pay members of the Entente (Russia was not entitled to anything) 20 billion marks in gold, goods, securities, etc.
- Germany must pay reparations for 30 years, and the amount of these reparations is determined by the winners themselves and can be increased at any time during these 30 years.
- Germany was prohibited from having an army of more than 100 thousand people, and the army had to be exclusively voluntary.
The terms of the “peace” were so humiliating for Germany that the country actually became a puppet. Therefore, many people of that time said that although the First World War ended, it did not end in peace, but in a truce for 30 years. That’s how it ultimately turned out...
Results of the First World War
The First World War was fought on the territory of 14 states. Countries with a total population of over 1 billion people took part in it (this is approximately 62% of the entire world population at that time). In total, 74 million people were mobilized by the participating countries, of whom 10 million died and another 20 million were injured.
As a result of the war, the political map of Europe changed significantly. Such independent states as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Albania appeared. Austria-Hungary split into Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Romania, Greece, France, and Italy have increased their borders. There were 5 countries that lost and lost territory: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey and Russia.
Map of the First World War 1914-1918
