15 pages of detailed notes on Russia 1914-17. Includes key facts, dates and statistics, as well as multiple historians' quotes to support interpretations.
War & 1917 Revolutions
WWI: 1914-1916
● Russian army was world's largest by 1914
● 1912 – Russian Army Air Service established
○ Owned > 360 aircraft & 16 airships by 1914, making it largest air force in the world
● Russian Navy had 4 battleships, 10 cruisers, 21 destroyers, 11 submarines & 50 torpedo
boats by 1914
● General Alexander Samsonov was given command of R Second Army for invasion of East
Prussia
● Advanced slowly into south western corner of province w/ intention of linking up General
Paul von Rennenkampf
● Commander of German Eighth Army, General Maximilian Prittwitz was dismissed for
ordering retreat when faced w/ R 2 nd Army
● Generals von Hindenburg & Ludendorff were sent forward to meet Samsonov's advancing
troops
Battle of Tannenberg
● 22nd August 1914 - made contact, Rs had few successes
● By 29th August – Samsonov's 2nd Army was surrounded
● 9th September 1914 – von Rennenkampf ordered remaining troops to w/draw
● G Army regained all territory lost during initial R onslaught
● Attempted invasion of Prussia cost R almost 250,000 men
● Dec 1914 – R Army had c. 6.5 million men but around 4.7 million rifles
● Untrained troops ordered into battle w/o adequate arms or ammunition
● 1915 – R suffered > 2 million casualties & lost Kurland, Lithuania & much of Belorussia
● Agricultural production proslumped & civilians had to endure serious food shortages
● Sep 1915 – N replaced Grand Duke Nikolai as supreme commander of R Army fighting on
Eastern Front
● Decision made him a 'hostage to fortune' (Lynch) as would now be personally responsible for
all defeats
● Failed to change fortunes of armed forces
● By end of yr, were conscription riots in several cities
● General Brusilov – commander of R Army in South West
● Jun 1916 – led offensive against AH army
● Initially achieved considerable success
● Force advanced 80km in first 2 weeks
● Captured 200,000 prisoners
● German Army sent reinforcements to help allies & gradually Rs were pushed back
● When offensive was stopped autumn 1916, R Army had lost 1 million men
Impact of WWI
● Russian Army defeated Austria in 1914 at Lemberg & in 1916 Brusilov offensive
● Suffered major defeats at Tannenberg in 1914 when G captured Poland & in parts of
Western R in 1915
● Casualty nos were high due to inadequate equipment, supplies & leadership
● 7 million Rs dead, wounded or captured by December 1916
● Amongst these were most of the professional army & experienced officers who had started
, the war in 1914
● Left 1916 Brusilov Offensive to be fought w/ unwilling soldiers who were conscripted & had
no respect for their officers
● Were even cases of officers being unwilling to lead their soldiers into battle as they feared
being shot by their own men
● Poor leadership & communication were main causes of R defeat
● Rs broadcast military messages over the radio w/o any code
● Gs listened in & knew exactly what Rs planned
● 2 R Armies in East Prussia operated independently of one another w/o coordination or
collaboration
● Could be picked off by Gs one by one
● Perception in R that Tsar was running war in interests of F > R people
● F invested heavily in R, giving loans
● Allies tried to help R by sending supplies & trying to open up supply route through Black Sea
(Gallipoli campaign)
● Rs helped Western front by launching Brusilov offensive at same time as Somme
● Help didn't come from allies when G took Russian Poland in 1915
● R people didn't see this alliance as beneficial to their interests
● Black Sea ports were blocked by Turkey & Baltic ports by G
● Imports came via Murmansk (had no railway), Archangel (iced up half the year) or
Vladivostok (thousands of miles from Europe)
● R industry alone couldn't cope w/ R's war needs
● Shells ran out 1915 & there was rifle shortage throughout the war
● Some soldiers sent out w/ one grenade & a knife
● Others had to wait for their comrades to die before picking up their weapons
● Food supplies often rotted in storage as railway system often failed to move them to where
they needed to be
● 3/4 of all R railways were single track
● By 1916, 575 stations were no longer capable of carrying freight & couldn't cope w/ strains
of war
● Lynch calls Archangel a 'graphic example of this confusion'
● Pile of undistributed goods was so huge that it sank under weight of new
supplies & added to stockpile
● Much of this was aid sent to R armed forces by allies
Supplies
● R Industry still backward despite Witte
● N failed to ensure R made most of what meagre supplies there were
● Supplies did improve after Duma got involved by forming War Industries Committee to
manage them
● R towns & cities found themselves short of food & coal
● Factories shut due to lack of coal & workers ended up on the streets
● Lack of bread meant whilst on streets these disenchanted workers would protest about lack
of food
● Bakers couldn't bake w/o coal, causing more 'bread riots'
● Peasant villages produced food needed for war effort & made good money from it
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