The First World War began for the Russian Empire on August 1, 1914 and ended on December 15, 1917, when the Bolsheviks who came to power signed an armistice agreement. On March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was concluded, according to which Russia renounced its rights to Poland, Estonia, Ukraine, part of Belarus, Latvia, Transcaucasia and Finland. Ardagan, Kars and Batum went to Turkey. In total, Russia has lost about one million square kilometers of land. In addition, she was obliged to pay Germany an indemnity of six billion marks.

© RIA Novosti / At the beginning of the war, Russian troops sought to fulfill their obligations to the French and pull the German forces from the Western Front. During the East Prussian operation and the Battle of Galicia, the Russian army defeated the Austro-Hungarian troops, occupied Lvov and pushed the enemy back to the Carpathians.

3 out of 10

At the beginning of the war, Russian troops sought to fulfill their obligations to the French and pull the German forces from the Western Front. During the East Prussian operation and the Battle of Galicia, the Russian army defeated the Austro-Hungarian troops, occupied Lvov and pushed the enemy back to the Carpathians.

© RIA Novosti / In 1915, Germany shifted its main efforts to the Eastern Front, intending to defeat the Russian army and withdraw Russia from the war. As a result of the Gorlitsky breakthrough in May 1915, the Germans inflicted a heavy defeat on the Russian troops, who were forced to leave Poland, Galicia and part of the Baltic states.

5 out of 10

In 1915, Germany shifted its main efforts to the Eastern Front, intending to defeat the Russian army and withdraw Russia from the war. As a result of the Gorlitsky breakthrough in May 1915, the Germans inflicted a heavy defeat on the Russian troops, who were forced to leave Poland, Galicia and part of the Baltic states.

© RIA Novosti / By the end of 1915, German and Austro-Hungarian troops had driven the Russians out of almost all of Galicia and most of Russian Poland. In 1916, the Russian army in the southwest managed to break through the Austro-Hungarian front in Galicia and Volhynia. The failures of the German fleet led to the fact that at the end of 1916, Germany and its allies for the first time started talking about the possibility of a peace agreement, but the Entente rejected this proposal.

6 out of 10

By the end of 1915, German and Austro-Hungarian troops had driven the Russians out of almost all of Galicia and most of Russian Poland. In 1916, the Russian army in the southwest managed to break through the Austro-Hungarian front in Galicia and Volhynia. The failures of the German fleet led to the fact that at the end of 1916, Germany and its allies for the first time started talking about the possibility of a peace agreement, but the Entente rejected this proposal.

© RIA Novosti / The patriotic upsurge that gripped Russia at the beginning of the war had by this time been replaced by deep disappointment. This was due both to the huge human losses and to the food crisis that engulfed the country. Bread, which formed the basis of the diet of the general population, on average rose 16 times during the war.

7 out of 10

The patriotic upsurge that gripped Russia at the beginning of the war had by this time been replaced by deep disappointment. This was due both to the huge human losses and to the food crisis that engulfed the country. Bread, which formed the basis of the diet of the general population, on average rose 16 times during the war.

© RIA Novosti / During February-November 1917, almost one and a half million people deserted from the army. At the same time, the costs of waging war in the 17th turned out to be more than in 1914-1916 combined. About half of the national income had to be spent on covering them. At this time, in Moscow and Petrograd, bread rations were reduced to 0.5 pounds per person.

8 out of 10

During February-November 1917, almost one and a half million people deserted from the army. At the same time, the costs of waging war in the 17th turned out to be more than in 1914-1916 combined. About half of the national income had to be spent on covering them. At this time, in Moscow and Petrograd, bread rations were reduced to 0.5 pounds per person.

© RIA Novosti / By 1917, the total grain harvest in Russia had dropped by almost a third. The main reason is the lack of manpower. Every year, millions of peasants left their native villages and went to military service. Women, children and the elderly had to do hard men's work.

October 01 (September 18), 1917 of the year

Message from the rate

northern front

On the Riga direction, 5 versts south of the railroad, in the area of ​​the village of Spitali, our forward units pressed the enemy outposts and advanced 800-1000 paces.

Western, Southwestern and Romanian fronts

Shootout.

Caucasian front

Nothing significant.

The actions of the pilots

On September 15, in the Kovel direction, our light aircraft dropped 20 pounds of bombs into the enemy’s rear facilities, and in the Buchach direction, Muromets dropped 6 pounds of bombs. It was additionally established that on September 13, our pilot, senior officer Sapozhnikov shot down an enemy plane near the village of Bollovets (southwest of the town of Radauta).

Russian front

SERVICE ARMY, 17 Sept. Leaving the 3rd Army, General Tsitovich issued a farewell order in which he thanked the command staff, soldiers, army committees, noting the activities of the latter on the path to creating a disciplined army and the calm they brought to the soldiers on Wednesday during the anxious days of late August. In conclusion, General Tsitovich says in his order that the freedoms won can be preserved only on the condition of military success at the front.

MINSK, 17 Sept. Today, the case of seven officers and 38 soldiers of the H-th Infantry Regiment was scheduled for hearing in the military district court on charges of refusing to move to a combat position and an uprising, to suppress which artillery was used. All the officers and one soldier appeared at the trial. The rest of the defendants refused to appear. The commandant stated that, due to the circumstances of the moment, he could not bring the soldiers who had been arrested.

The court decided to report the incident to the commander-in-chief of the army and the western front. At the request of the defense counsel, those who appeared in court were released from custody. The remaining defenders of the defendants who did not appear, members of the council of military-criminal defenders of the Western Front, petitioned the court to release them from the duties of a defender.

- The divisional committee of one of the cavalry divisions. . . Army, noting the opposite of the resolution of the Petrograd Soviet of Deputies and the Central Executive Committee, finds that the All-Russian Soviet is the real spokesman for the desires of Russian democracy, and the Petrograd Soviet has a random composition.

SERVICE ARMY, 17 Sept.- Over the past day, the enemy on the southwestern front has shown a very lively activity, expressed in intense artillery fire on many sectors of our front and in an intensified search for scouts. For our part, our artillery in the Lutsk direction conducted a successful fire with chemical shells on enemy batteries.

In the area of ​​the village of S., the enemy heavily shelled the forest they occupied with mines at night and fired a significant number of large-caliber shells at it, but after the return fire of our artillery, the enemy’s fire ceased. In the same area, we blew up a camouflage.

SERVICE ARMY, 17 Sept.- In the Molodechno region, raids by German airplanes resumed, mainly for reconnaissance purposes. Bombing is carried out only in the areas of railways. Eight bombs were dropped on the Prudy station.

SERVICE ARMY, 17 September. On the southwestern front in the area north of Skalat, as a result of the intensified activity of our scouts, the enemy fired heavily at the line of our outposts. In the area south of Skalat, a party of our scouts, led by three officers, surrounded the German field guard, threw hand grenades at it, and took two wounded Germans into captivity.

SERVICE ARMY, 17 September.- Yesterday, our aviators, reconnaissance of the rear of the enemy, dropped more than 20 pounds of bombs on the convoys and enemy troops. Successful hits were seen. In addition, several of our airships flew out specifically for bombing, which dropped more than 6 pounds of bombs into the village of Lichkovtse, 15 miles northeast of Buchach.

SERVICE ARMY, 17 September.- The enemy apparatus raided the station M., dropping bombs on the hospital located here. Explosions injured 6 people of the hospital staff.

Romanian front

SERVICE ARMY, 16 September. In accordance with the decision of the front congress, the newspaper "Bulletin of the Romanian Front" is transferred from the jurisdiction of the executive committee of the district headquarters of the Romanian front to the executive committee of the Romanian front, the Black Sea coast and the Odessa district. The executive committee protested not recognizing the opinions of the front conference as legislative force and indicating that the results of the vote were received thanks to obviously demagogic methods and information, obviously inconsistent with the truth - information, representatives of the executive committee of the Romanian army of the Black Sea coast and the Odessa district.

UNGENI, September 17.—The American sanitary mission arrived in Romania via Ungeni with a special train from Vladivostok. The press is raving about her. The sanitary organization is starting to work one of these days. Together with the mission, the former American ambassador to Bucarest, Votik, arrived at the front, who remained for some time in Bucarest after it was occupied by the Germans. The American ambassador made a report on the activities of the Germans in Romania.

Allied actions

French front

The Germans did not take a single counterattack today. The actions of the infantry were limited to skirmishes of patrols and small detachments. We took over 100 prisoners. Early this morning, our units were firing shells, gunfire and machine-gun fire to the east of the Polygon forest on large units that were trying to get closer to our positions. Many were killed, the survivors were taken prisoner.

During the night, our machine-gun detachment overtook a detachment of enemy machine gunners and, having killed or captured most of them, seized the machine guns. Throughout the combat sector, our artillery developed vigorous activity, firing at the German infantry. On the rest of the front, nothing outstanding was noted.

Nothing outstanding happened at the front, except for the activity of the enemy artillery.

notes a number of successful raids by British vehicles on enemy locations and in particular on the airfields at Gontrode and Garnier. Enemy convoys and troops were successfully fired from the vehicles along the way. All devices returned unharmed.

During the air clashes that took place, four enemy vehicles were forced to descend. One enemy aircraft was shot down by special guns. Three British airplanes did not return.

reports on enemy attacks on 2 British posts north of Lans. The attacks were repulsed after a fierce battle. On the rest of the front, with the exception of an artillery exchange of fire, nothing outstanding happened.

In the area of ​​the ensuing battle, artillery fire was maintained from both sides during the night. The German infantry, which had been accumulating to the east of the Polygon forest, was dispersed by our fire. To the east of Loos we repelled an attack with hand bombs. We have taken a number of prisoners in the clashes of patrols south of Lans.

LONDON, 17 Sept. - The commander of the troops of the metropolis reports:

“The latest reports are of a simultaneous and stubborn attack made on London by three groups of enemy airplanes. Each of these groups, coming from different directions, were scattered by our special guns, and only two or three airplanes managed to penetrate the line of fortifications.

Bombs were dropped in the northern and northeastern quarters of the city. The fourth group of enemy vehicles, which tried to get as close as possible to London, was repelled, and not one of the vehicles managed to penetrate the line of the outer fortifications of the capital. Bombs were also dropped at various points in Kent and Essex.

Detailed reports of casualties and damage have not yet been received, but it is believed that both do not appear to be significant.

there is a repulse of a sudden attack of the enemy east of Oberiv. The French, for their part, succeeded in penetrating the enemy lines west of Mount Cornille and capturing booty.

On the front of the river Aisne, after artillery preparation, three enemy detachments tried in the morning to approach our lines north of Berry-au-Bac. The German detachment, which managed to penetrate into the part of our trench advanced forward, was immediately driven out of there. At other points the enemy was stopped by our fire and suffered significant losses.

The artillery fire remained very strong during the whole day on both banks of the Meuse, especially north of Hill 344 and in the direction of the forest of Les Chems. Throughout the rest of the front, artillery fire was maintained at intervals.

Pilot actions. The Germans bombarded the Dunkirk area on September 14, 15 and 16, with the first two bombings causing only material damage, and as a result of the last, the most fierce, there were civilian casualties. Two German airplanes were shot down on the afternoon of September 16 by our pilots. On the night of September 15/16, the railway station at Colmar and the enemy positions north of Soissons were attacked by our airplanes, which successfully dropped 4,000 kilograms of explosives.

The actions of the pilots

On the afternoon of September 10, naval airplanes raided Saint Den Westrem, dropping many shells and establishing several hits on hangars and tents. One of the bombs exploded between five airplanes standing in a row. All our airplanes are back.

LONDON, 17 Sept. Official Enemy airplanes are reported to have raided the coasts of Kent and Essex between 8 and 9 o'clock yesterday evening. London also came under several attacks. Bombs were dropped over the northeast and southeast London quarters and at various points in Essex and Kent. So far, no reports of casualties or damage have been received.

LONDON, 17 Sept. The Admiralty reports a raid on the port of Beirut by British pilots on 14 September. Moreover, bombs were successfully dropped on warehouses and other military facilities. After that, the pier and warehouses were bombarded by a cruiser, which caused fires. All devices returned unharmed.

Near East

“Between the lakes of Prespa and Ohrid, the enemy made two attacks, which were vigorously repelled. On our extreme flank, the Albanian troops, pushing back the Austrian forward posts, took possession of the village of Chesma, in the upper part of the Okumbi valley. For the rest of the front, medium-voltage fire."

“Our infantry guard dispersed a Bulgarian cavalry patrol near the Butkova River, taking several prisoners in the process. On the fronts of Struma and Vardar intermittent activity of artillery.

“In various places of the front, rifle and artillery skirmishes, clashes between reconnaissance parties and the activity of pilots.

- After a fierce artillery preparation, the enemy attacked the Russian troops twice, which put up stubborn resistance.

— September 17.—A British infantry patrol dispersed a Bulgarian cavalry patrol and took prisoners near Bukhov. Enemy artillery showed activity on the Struma-Vardar front. The pilots made a number of successful raids.

Mesopotamia

LONDON, September 17th. The commander of the troops in Mesopotamia, General Maud, telegraphs that he will not refute all the fabrications of the Turkish officers. reports of imaginary failures of the British in the Baghdad area. The latest example of such fabrications is the report of September 13 about the complete annihilation of one of the English cavalry units on the Euphrates. In reality, there was only a clash of cavalry patrols, during which the British had only three horses wounded.

LONDON, September 17th. According to official reports of hostilities in Mesopotamia, two British vehicles that had been reconnaissance north of Samarra on the Tigris did not return. In the theater of operations, the situation remains unchanged. The heat has subsided over the last week.

Enemy radio message

Western Front

On the front of Crown Prince Ruprecht:

on the coast of Flanders between the forest of Hulhuchster and Lys, the intensity of the combat activity of the artillery changed. After a strong drum fire in the evening east of Ypres, partial English attacks followed only at Tsoibeke; they were repulsed. On the Paschendils road, the enemy was driven out of the line of funnels, which he was still defending there. In the area of ​​the Isera flood, our scouts brought prisoners from skirmishes with the Belgians.

On the front of the German Crown Prince:

northeast of Soissons and at Verdun, the firefight at times intensified considerably; on the Meuse it remained lively even at night; many skirmishes of the advanced units, in which our shock units penetrated the French trenches, were a complete success.

On the front of Duke Albrecht:

at Bizel in Sungau, with one onslaught of the French, several prisoners were left in our hands. Our pilots bombarded London and some areas on the south coast of England.

MILITARY REVIEW

The probability of concentrating enemy efforts on the Bukovina sector of the Romanian front

Over the past month (from mid-August to mid-September), serious enemy activity, which led to major results unfavorable for us, manifested itself only on the Northern Front, where in the period from August 19 to 23 Riga was taken and assigned to the Germans, and on September 8 - the next regular short blow was made by available forces on the Jakobstadt bridgehead, which was also cleared of our troops.
The results obtained by the enemy in a month are quite sufficient to temporarily rest on their laurels and enjoy their triumph.

It is already the second week since the rally of hostilities near Jakobstadt. Such restraint on the part of the enemy shows (we repeat this once more and with complete conviction) that the German headquarters are at present incapable of undertaking a major operation on our Northern Front with a continuous, consistent solution of particular tasks arising from the common final task - the capture of Petrograd.

Combat operations on the Northern Front develop episodically and, upon reaching one particular task, go out for such a long time that they involuntarily lead to the conclusion that a major operation from the line of the river. Zap. The Dvina Germans do not set themselves aside, but are content with partial, it is true, very large successes, which cause us serious concern for Petrograd and do not allow us to freely dispose of the reserves of the Northern Front.

The indicated nature of the enemy's actions makes us again incline to the idea that the German headquarters is planning its main blow this autumn not on the Northern Front, where the time for a major operation is already irrevocably running out, but on the Romanian, all the conditions of the situation of which favor the conduct of a long-term operation. Here, apparently, the Germans will seek compensation for the failures that their weapons experienced on the Western European front and which cannot be completely erased in public opinion by private successes near Riga and at Jakobstadt.

Turning to the Rumanian Front, let us first of all recall that up to the present time there have been three areas in which the enemy has sought to achieve the solution of his active plans:

a) in the valleys of the upper reaches of the river. Prut, Seret, Suceava and Moldavia, bypassing the right flank of our armies of the Romanian Front,
b) in the Okna direction and
c) in the direction of Foksha, in order to reach the valley of the lower Seret.

The stubborn battles that developed on the Rumanian front, following our July retreat on the Southwestern Front, made it clear that the enemy was not in a position to develop his active aspirations equally intensively and with the desired result in all these areas.

The shortage of armed forces of the Central Powers, which became apparent on the Western European front during the current year's campaign, was not long in manifesting itself on our front as well.

Gradually localizing their operations, the Austro-Germans consistently refused at first from a strike in the upper reaches of the river. Prut, Serst, Suceava and Moldova, and then reduced the pressure in the Okna direction. All enemy forces concentrated in the Foksha direction, where, mainly due to the instability of some of our military units and even entire divisions, the enemy managed to push back the combined Russian-Romanian troops on the river. Sushitsu, in the position indicated in the diagram. However, here, too, the enemy's recent successes have faded.

The gradual weakening of operations in the Okna and Foksha directions is most plausibly explained by the fact that the German headquarters, taking into account the generally low success of operations in these areas and the impossibility of dragging out actions for too long without a noticeable decisive result, intends to shift the direction of the strike to another area.

Such an area on the Romanian front is Bukovinsky, that is, a section south of the Dniester, intercepting the valleys of the river. Prut, Seret, Suceava and Moldova.

In view of the impossibility of conducting strong blows in several directions, the Austro-Germans, I think, will now choose the Bukovina sector for their autumn operations, because, if successful, they can force the Russian-Romanian armies to withdraw with this blow alone.

In fact, a blow only from the south, from the lower Danube and the lower Seret, would have thrown us back from the Black Sea, but we would have retained the opportunity, losing the Black Sea coast, to retreat with our left flank to the north. In this way - our manpower, our army - would not be in danger of being cut off from our other armed forces deployed north of the Dniester, and would avoid the danger of defeat, even if the retreat turned into the same disorderly flight as it was in July on the southwestern front.

Meanwhile, the enemy strike directly south of the Dniester, partly along its valley to Mogilev-Podolsky, and partly along the river valleys. Prut and Seret, if successful, will lead to a break in our common strategic front, to the throwing of the right flank of our armies of the Rumanian Front to the south and, with a delay and timely withdrawal of the center and left flank, to their isolation on the Black Sea coast, with all the sad consequences this event.

These considerations, in connection with the impossibility for the enemy to conduct several strong blows, with the success of his operations on the Okna and Foksha directions, with a persistent desire to achieve the desired result on the Romanian front, make us tend to think that in the near future we should expect the development of more intense combat enemy actions in the Bukovina sector of the Romanian Front.

In the following review, we present a number of more detailed considerations that tangibly confirm our idea.

More

By the end of 1916, the superiority of the Entente was clearly revealed, both in the number of armed forces and in military equipment, especially in artillery, aircraft and tanks. The Entente entered the military campaign of 1917 on all fronts with 425 divisions against 331 enemy divisions. However, disagreements in the military leadership and the selfish goals of the Entente participants often paralyzed these advantages, which was clearly manifested in the inconsistency of the actions of the Entente command during major operations in 1916. Turning to strategic defense, the Austro-German coalition, still far from being defeated, confronted the world with the fact of a protracted, exhausting war.

And every month, every week of the war entailed new colossal victims. By the end of 1916, both sides had lost about 6 million people killed and about 10 million people wounded and maimed. Under the influence of enormous human losses and hardships at the front and in the rear, the chauvinistic frenzy of the first months of the war passed in all the warring countries. Every year the anti-war movement grew in the rear and on the fronts.

The prolongation of the war inevitably affected, among other things, the morale of the Russian army. The patriotic upsurge of 1914 has long been confused, the exploitation of the idea of ​​"Slavic solidarity" has also exhausted itself. The stories about the cruelty of the Germans also did not give the desired effect. The fatigue from the war affected more and more. Sitting in the trenches, the immobility of the positional war, the absence of the simplest human conditions in the positions - all this was the background of the soldiers' unrest becoming more frequent.

To this we must add a protest against cane discipline, abuses of superiors, embezzlement of the rear services. Both at the front and in the rear garrisons, there were more and more cases of non-compliance with orders, expressions of sympathy for the striking workers. In August - September 1915, during a wave of strikes in Petrograd, many soldiers of the capital's garrison expressed solidarity with the workers, there were performances on a number of ships of the Baltic Fleet. In 1916, there was an uprising of soldiers at the Kremenchug distribution point, at the same point in Gomel. In the summer of 1916, two Siberian regiments refused to go into battle. There were cases of fraternization with enemy soldiers. By the autumn of 1916, a significant part of the 10 millionth army was in a state of fermentation.

The main obstacle to victory was now not material shortcomings (weapons and supplies, military equipment), but the internal state of society itself. Deep contradictions covered the layers. The main one was the contradiction between the tsarist-monarchist camp and the other two - the liberal-bourgeois and the revolutionary-democratic. The tsar and the court camarilla grouped around him wanted to retain all their privileges, the liberal bourgeoisie wanted access to government power, and the revolutionary-democratic camp, led by the Bolshevik Party, fought to overthrow the monarchy.

Fermentation involved the broad masses of the population of all the warring countries. More and more working people demanded immediate peace and condemned chauvinism, protested against merciless exploitation, shortages of food, clothing, fuel, and against the enrichment of the top of society. The refusal of the ruling circles to meet these demands and the suppression of protests by force gradually led the masses to the conclusion that it was necessary to fight against the military dictatorship and the entire existing system. Anti-war speeches grew into a revolutionary movement.

In this situation, anxiety grew in the ruling circles of both coalitions. Even the most extreme imperialists could not ignore the mood of the masses, who yearned for peace. Therefore, maneuvers were undertaken with "peaceful" proposals in the expectation that these proposals would be rejected by the enemy, and in this case it would be possible to shift all the blame for the continuation of the war on him.

So on December 12, 1916, the Kaiser's government of Germany offered the Entente countries to start "peace" negotiations. At the same time, the German "peace" proposal was calculated on a split in the Entente camp and on the support of those layers within the Entente countries who were inclined to achieve peace with Germany without a "crushing blow" against Germany by force of arms. Since Germany's "peace" proposal did not contain any specific conditions and absolutely hushed up the fate of the territories of Russia, Belgium, France, Serbia, Romania occupied by the Austro-German troops, this gave the Entente a reason to respond to this and subsequent proposals with specific demands for the liberation by Germany all the occupied territories, as well as the division of Turkey, the "reorganization" of Europe on the basis of the "national principle", which in fact meant the refusal of the Entente to enter into peace negotiations with Germany and its allies.

German propaganda noisily announced to the whole world that the Entente countries were to blame for the continuation of the war and that they were forcing Germany to take "defensive measures" by means of a ruthless "unrestricted submarine warfare."

In February 1917, the bourgeois-democratic revolution triumphed in Russia, and a movement for a revolutionary way out of the imperialist war was widely developed in the country.

In response to the unrestricted German submarine war that began in February 1917, the United States severed diplomatic relations with the latter, and on April 6, having declared war on Germany, entered the war in order to influence its results in their favor.

Even before the arrival of American soldiers, the Entente troops launched an offensive on the Western Front on April 16, 1917. But the attacks of the Anglo-French troops, following one after another on April 16-19, were unsuccessful. The French and British lost more than 200 thousand killed in four days of fighting. In this battle, 5 thousand Russian soldiers from the 3rd Russian brigade, sent from Russia to help the allies, died. Almost all 132 British tanks that participated in the battle were hit or destroyed.

Preparing this military operation, the command of the Entente persistently demanded that the Provisional Government of Russia launch an offensive on the Eastern Front. However, it was not easy to prepare such an offensive in revolutionary Russia. Nevertheless, the head of the Provisional Government, Kerensky, began to intensively prepare an offensive, hoping, in case of success, to raise the prestige of the bourgeois Provisional Government, and in case of failure, to shift the blame on the Bolsheviks.

The Russian offensive launched on July 1, 1917 in the Lvov direction developed successfully at first, but soon the German army, which received 11 divisions transferred from the Western Front as reinforcements, launched a counteroffensive and pushed the Russian troops far beyond their original positions.

Thus, in 1917, on all European fronts, despite the superiority of the Entente in manpower and military equipment, its troops failed to achieve decisive success in any of the offensives undertaken. The revolutionary situation in Russia and the lack of necessary coordination in military operations within the coalition thwarted the implementation of the strategic plans of the Entente, designed for the complete defeat of the Austro-German bloc in 1917. And in early September 1917, the German army launched an offensive on the northern sector of the Eastern Front with the aim of capturing Riga and the Riga coast.

The choice by the Germans of the moment for the offensive near Riga was not accidental. It was a time when the Russian reactionary military elite, preparing a counter-revolutionary coup in the country, decided to rely on the German military. At a state conference convened in Moscow in August, General Kornilov expressed his "suggestion" about the imminent fall of Riga and the opening of ways to Petrograd, the cradle of the Russian revolution. This served as a signal for the advance of the German army on Riga. Despite the fact that there were every opportunity to keep Riga, it was handed over to the Germans by order of the military command. Clearing the way for the Germans to revolutionary Petrograd, Kornilov began his open counter-revolutionary rebellion. Kornilov was defeated by the revolutionary workers and soldiers under the leadership of the Bolsheviks.

The 1917 campaign was characterized by further attempts by the belligerents to overcome the positional stalemate, this time through the massive use of artillery, tanks and aircraft.

Saturation of the troops with technical means of struggle significantly complicated the offensive battle, it became in the full sense of the combined arms battle, the success of which was achieved by coordinated actions of all branches of the military.

During the operation of the campaign, there was a gradual transition from dense skirmish lines to group formations of troops. Tanks, escort guns and machine guns became the core of these formations. Unlike rifle formations, groups could maneuver on the battlefield, destroy or bypass the firing points and strongholds of the defender, and advance at a faster pace.

The growth of the technical equipment of the troops created the preconditions for a breakthrough of the positional front. In some cases, the troops managed to break through the enemy defenses to the entire tactical depth. However, on the whole, the problem of breaking through the positional front was not solved, since the attacker could not develop tactical success to an operational scale.

The development of means and methods of conducting an offensive led to the further improvement of defense. The depth of defense of the divisions increased to 10-12 km. In addition to the main positions, they began to build forward, cut-off and rear positions. There has been a transition from tough defense to maneuvering forces and means in repelling an enemy offensive.

The military campaign of 1917 began in conditions favorable to the powers of the Entente. They had an almost 40 percent superiority in manpower. The Entente was ahead of the countries of the Quadruple Union in the production of ammunition and military equipment. The command of its powers finally began to coordinate the actions of their armies. The campaign plan provided for a general offensive already at the beginning of the year in order to seize the initiative. The decisive blow was to be struck in the summer.

Hindenburg Plan

The German leadership learned from the 1916 campaign in its own way. On August 29, 1916, command of the army was transferred to Field Marshal von Hindenburg, who had previously led troops on the Eastern Front. In the fall, he prepared a plan of operations for 1917. First of all, it was decided to abandon offensive operations and carry out the withdrawal of troops to previously prepared positions in order to reduce the front line. At the same time, it was planned to take measures to further regulate the economy in order to increase the production of equipment and ammunition. All control over the economy was transferred to the military department. Strikes were equated with desertion.

The decisive blow was supposed to be struck against England, unleashing an unlimited submarine war against her. This made the US entry into the war inevitable. If we bear in mind that Germany had only 40 submarines ready for military action, then the plan to defeat England did not look sufficiently justified. But the German command believed that England would be brought to its knees even before the US entered the war. On February 1, 1917, an unlimited submarine war began, all ships on the way to England were ruthlessly drowned. More ships were sunk in three months than in the whole of 1916.

US entry into the war

The United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany the very next day after it launched an unrestricted submarine war. The interception by the Americans of a letter from the German government to the President of Mexico with a proposal to attack the United States if they declared war on Germany provided the desired pretext. On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany. The first American units arrived in France on June 26 of that year, and a year later 2 million American soldiers were fighting on the Western Front. The entry of the United States into the war, bearing in mind their economic potential and human resources, turned out to be one of the decisive factors in the victory of the Entente. And this was all the more important because her successes in 1917 did not become particularly significant.

Offensive on the Western Front

The plan of the offensive of the Anglo-French troops on the Western Front had to be changed on the go. First, because after the outbreak of the revolution in Russia, she was unable to launch an offensive in April. The Russian government proposed to postpone the general offensive to the summer, but the Anglo-French command refused to change plans. This gave Germany the opportunity to maneuver forces. Secondly, shortly before the beginning of the offensive of the Anglo-French troops, the German troops, in accordance with the Hindenburg plan, began to retreat to previously prepared and more convenient positions. Nevertheless, the Entente offensive, which began almost everywhere, was of a traditional nature: first many hours of artillery preparation, then a slow advance of infantry with tanks. All this seemed to warn the enemy in advance about the place of attack, allowing him to transfer reserves and create additional barriers. The battles, as a rule, ended in minor victories that did not change the situation as a whole, and huge losses. The failure of the offensive for the first time caused unrest in the French army: the soldiers refused to follow the orders of the commanders and go on a senseless, in their opinion, attack.

The collapse of the Eastern Front

The course of events on the Eastern Front was drastically changed by the revolution that began in February 1917 in Russia. The measures taken by the Soviets and the Provisional Government to democratize the army contributed to the decline in discipline. From April 1917, in order to further the expansion of the Eastern Front, the German command began to organize the so-called fraternization, urging Russian soldiers to stop hostilities. The summer offensive of the Russian army, which began under these conditions, almost immediately bogged down (either due to a lack of equipment, or because of the unwillingness of the soldiers to attack). Taking advantage of this, the German command launched a counteroffensive in September, which resulted in the capture of Riga.

The Bolsheviks, who came to power in Russia in October 1917, headed by V.I. Lenin declared their desire to end the war. On December 15, the Soviet government concluded a truce with the Austro-German command. Even earlier, on December 9, Romania also signed a truce, which soon went over to the side of the Quadruple Alliance. The entire Eastern Front froze.

Actions on other fronts

Since the Eastern Front in 1917 did not pose a danger to the powers of the Quadruple Alliance, Germany left only 1/3 of its forces there, having received the necessary reserves to repel an offensive on the Western Front. Moreover, having transferred additional forces to the Italian front, the German and Austrian troops broke through it at Caporetto and put the Italian army on the brink of defeat, which lost only 130 thousand prisoners. Only 14 British and French divisions, hastily transferred to the Italian front, made it possible to rule out a possible withdrawal of Italy from the war and stabilize the front.

Military operations on the Caucasian front in 1917 almost ceased. But on the Mesopotamian and Palestine fronts, British troops noticeably intensified. After relative failures in 1916, the British, having created a powerful stronghold in the lower reaches of the Tigris River, moved to Baghdad and took it in March 1917. In the summer they launched an offensive in Palestine from the territory of the Sinai Peninsula. At the same time, an uprising of Arab tribes began, excited by the skillful agitation of the English diplomat and intelligence officer Thomas Lawrence, nicknamed Lawrence of Arabia. In autumn, the Turks lost the entire Arabian Peninsula and part of Palestine.

Results of the 1917 campaign

The Entente countries in 1917 failed to realize their plans. Their superiority was neutralized by the revealed inability of the Russian army to take offensive actions, and then by the truce on the Eastern Front. But it cannot be said that the position of the powers of the Quadruple Alliance has drastically improved. The submarine war did not bring Britain to its knees, and the entry of the United States into the war made the situation of these countries simply hopeless. In addition to the United States, such large states as China and Brazil declared war on the Quadruple Alliance.

Depletion of Germany

The main force of the Quadruple Alliance - Germany - came to the limit of its capabilities. The entire population was mobilized. The lack of horses forced the German cavalry to dismount. Anti-war sentiments have already penetrated into the army itself. The Navy sailors formed a secret organization to fight for peace through a general strike in the navy. Even the always obedient Reichstag adopted a resolution on the need for peace.

However, the collapse of the Eastern Front, and then the conclusion of the Brest Peace, allowed the German command to indulge in illusions about possible success in 1918.

Kreder A.A. Recent history of foreign countries. 1914-1997

Causes of World War I, which began in July(according to the new calendar - in August) 1914, there were economic and military-political rivalry between two groups of states - a bloc of central powers led by Germany and Austria-Hungary and Entente led by England, France and Russia (finally developed to 1907). Germany's desire to redistribute the colonies already divided by other powers in Asia and Africa, to dominate the seas and the European continent, and the struggle of Austria-Hungary for dominance in the Balkan Peninsula were of primary importance.

Germany and its allies acted as aggressors and started the war. Russia's goals in this war were mainly defensive: to put an end to German expansion in Europe and Austrian expansion in the Balkans, the peoples of which she traditionally patronized. But along the way, Russia also pursued predatory goals - to seize the straits from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean (Bosporus and Dardanelles) and Constantinople, which were under the rule of Turkey (this was an old dream of Russian emperors).

Features The First World War, which fundamentally distinguished it from the wars of the past (including the pan-European ones), were:

1. It was the first ever total a war that caused a general mobilization of the male population and many millions of victims (a total of 10 million killed, including Russians - 2 million).

2. For the first time in history, a war brought about the complete subordination of the interests of the home front to the front and put the entire economy of the belligerent countries at its service.

3. A specific military feature was positional the nature of the trench warfare, stretching over thousand kilometers front line (on the Russian front - from the Baltic to the Black Sea). It came consequence huge density of continuous fronts of multi-million armies with absence technical means of breakthrough (in World War II, tanks became such means). As a result, bloody battles were fought for years almost in the same border positions without any special victories and defeats, which depressingly acted on the morale of the troops and had far-reaching consequences, as we will discuss below.

4. The war was of an imperialist nature - a war between the leading powers for colonies - sources of raw materials and markets.

In a relationship armed forces Russia took into account the bitter lessons of the Russo-Japanese War: fundamental reforms were carried out to modernize the army and especially the navy (in particular, submarines, aircraft, machine guns appeared), reorganize them, and improve combat training and command staff. years of reforms did not have time. As the war progressed, weapons and ammunition soon became scarce. Only with the help industry mobilization for the needs of the front already in the course of the war, in which the Russian bourgeoisie and the organizations it created (military-industrial committees, the Zemstvo-City Union), and military supplies from the allies, by 1916 the army was armed "to the teeth" (which Soviet historiography preferred to keep quiet about).

Military actions, unprecedented in terms of the scale of human casualties, went with varying success - most successfully against the Austrians and Turks, less successfully against the Germans (the biggest victory was the Brusilovsky breakthrough in 1916; the best military leaders of the army - generals M.V. Alekseev and A.A. Brusilov, fleet - Admiral A.V. Kolchak). Russia thwarted the German plan of "lightning war", forced Germany to fight on two fronts - in the west of Europe and against itself, pulling 1/3 of the German and 2/3 of the Austro-Hungarian armies, and thereby saved Paris and all of France in 1914 . and Italy - in 1916

A fatal circumstance for Russia was the maturation political crisis during the war, the causes and symptoms of which become:

1. Deterioration of life in the rear under the influence of the unprecedented hardships of the war, since the autumn of 1916 - inflation of the ruble, food crisis and cards.

2. Misunderstanding by the masses of the people goals unheard of bloody and protracted war along the borders, Consequently the lack of effective propaganda on the part of the authorities, and this manifested its inertia (in Western countries, the war was accompanied by skillful patriotic indoctrination of the population). Happened even split revolutionary parties into 3 groups in relation to the war: "defencists"- patriots who are ready to put off scores with the authorities until victory (mostly they were Socialist-Revolutionaries), pacifists(mostly Mensheviks) and "defeated"(The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin - a party that advocated the defeat of Russia in the war in order to accelerate the revolution.

3. As a result the first and second circumstances - a gradual transition from the initial patriotic upsurge to dull discontent.

4. The growth of the economic power of the bourgeoisie during the war, and Consequently- her ambitions and claims to a share of power, since it was she who made the main contribution to the organization of the defense industry, while the authorities showed themselves rather mediocre in this matter.

5. The political degradation of the tsarist regime after the death of Stolypin, the main features of which were: a) the actual coming to power on the eve of the war of the reactionary and obscurantist court camarilla, headed by the wife of Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Fedorovna; b) "Rasputinism" - a huge influence acquired on the royal family by a psychic who treated a sick heir, a semi-literate rogue from Siberian peasants G. Rasputin who dishonored the tsar throughout Russia with drunken revelry, debauchery and bribes, for which he influenced the appointment of ministers through the empress; c) corruption scandals (in particular, the case of Minister of War Sukhomlinov); d) government mess.

results moral discredit and complete isolation of power, the loss of its remnants of authority and the formation of a nationwide opposition. Its main spokesman was the so-called. formed by 1916 and received a majority in the Duma. progressive block from all moderate-monarchist and liberal parties. The bloc's main demand for power was to form a "government of trust" responsible to the Duma (and not just to the tsar). But the authorities did not make concessions. Rasputin's bacchanalia caused a particularly negative public outcry. In December 1916, a group of monarchists led by Prince F. Yusupov and the leader of the Black Hundreds V. Purishkevich, trying to save Nicholas II and the dynasty from the abyss, killed Rasputin (one of the grand dukes, the tsar's cousin, took part in the murder). But although this caused general rejoicing, it was already too late.