Russo-Swedish War 1808-1809
	Europe, Africa and the Middle East (briefly in China and the Pacific Islands)
	Economic imperialism, territorial and economic claims, trade barriers, arms race, militarism and autocracy, balance of power, local conflicts, allied obligations of European powers.
	Victory of the Entente. The February and October revolutions in Russia and the November revolution in Germany. Collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. The beginning of the penetration of American capital into Europe.
Opponents
	Bulgaria (since 1915)
Italy (since 1915)
Romania (since 1916)
USA (since 1917)
Greece (since 1917)
Commanders
Nicholas II †	Franz Joseph I †
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich
M. V. Alekseev †	F. von Goetzendorf
A. A. Brusilov	A. von Straussenburg
L. G. Kornilov †	Wilhelm II
A. F. Kerensky	E. von Falkenhayn
N. N. Dukhonin †	Paul von Hindenburg
N. V. Krylenko	H. von Moltke (the Younger)
R. Poincaré
J. Clemenceau	E. Ludendorff
	Crown Prince Ruprecht
	Mehmed V †
R. Nivelle
	Enver Pasha
	M. Ataturk
G. Asquith	Ferdinand I
D. Lloyd George
J. Jellicoe	G. Stoyanov-Todorov
G. Kitchener †
L. Dunsterville
Prince Regent Alexander
R. Putnik †
Albert I
J. Vukotich
Victor Emmanuel III
L. Cadorna
Prince Luigi
Ferdinand I
K. Prezan
A. Averescu
T. Wilson
J. Pershing
P. Danglis
Okuma Shigenobu
Terauchi Masatake
Hussein bin Ali
Military losses
Military deaths: 5,953,372 Military injured: 9,723,991 Missing military personnel: 4,000,676	Military deaths: 4,043,397 Military injured: 8,465,286 Missing military personnel: 3,470,138

(July 28, 1914 - November 11, 1918) - one of the most large-scale armed conflicts in human history.

This name was established in historiography only after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. During the interwar period the name " Great War"(English) TheGreatWar, fr. La Grandeguerre), in the Russian Empire it was sometimes called “ Second Patriotic War", as well as informally (both before the revolution and after) - " German"; then to the USSR - “ imperialist war».

The immediate cause of the war was the Sarajevo assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 by nineteen-year-old Serbian student Gavrilo Princip, who was one of the members of the terrorist organization Mlada Bosna, which fought for the unification of all South Slavic peoples into one state.

As a result of the war, four empires ceased to exist: Russian, Austro-Hungarian, German and Ottoman. The participating countries lost about 12 million people killed (including civilians), and about 55 million were wounded.

Participants

Allies of the Entente(supported the Entente in the war): USA, Japan, Serbia, Italy (participated in the war on the side of the Entente since 1915, despite being a member of the Triple Alliance), Montenegro, Belgium, Egypt, Portugal, Romania, Greece, Brazil, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Siam, Haiti, Liberia, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador.

Timeline of declaration of war
	Who declared war	To whom was war declared?
	Germany
	Germany
	Germany
		Germany
		Germany
		Germany
	British Empire and France
		Germany
	British Empire and France
	Germany	Portugal
		Germany
		Germany
	Panama and Cuba	Germany
		Germany
		Germany
		Germany
		Germany
	Brazil	Germany
	End of the war

Background to the conflict

Long before the war, contradictions were growing in Europe between the great powers - Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, and Russia.

The German Empire, formed after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, sought political and economic dominance on the European continent. Having joined the struggle for colonies only after 1871, Germany wanted the redistribution of the colonial possessions of England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal in its favor.

Russia, France and Great Britain sought to counteract the hegemonic aspirations of Germany. Why was the Entente formed?

Austria-Hungary, being a multinational empire, was a constant source of instability in Europe due to internal ethnic contradictions. She sought to retain Bosnia and Herzegovina, which she captured in 1908 (see: Bosnian crisis). It opposed Russia, which took on the role of protector of all Slavs in the Balkans, and Serbia, which claimed the role of a unifying center of the South Slavs.

In the Middle East, the interests of almost all powers collided, striving to achieve the division of the collapsing Ottoman Empire (Turkey). According to the agreements reached between the members of the Entente, at the end of the war, all the straits between the Black and Aegean Seas would go to Russia, thus Russia would gain full control of the Black Sea and Constantinople.

The confrontation between the Entente countries on the one hand and Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other led to the First World War, where the opponents of the Entente: Russia, Great Britain and France - and its allies were the bloc of Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria - in which Germany played a leading role. By 1914, two blocks had finally taken shape:

Entente bloc (formed by 1907 after the conclusion of the Russian-French, Anglo-French and Anglo-Russian alliance treaties):

• Great Britain;

Block Triple Alliance:

• Germany;

Italy, however, entered the war in 1915 on the side of the Entente - but Turkey and Bulgaria joined Germany and Austria-Hungary during the war, forming the Quadruple Alliance (or bloc of the Central Powers).

The reasons for the war mentioned in various sources include economic imperialism, trade barriers, the arms race, militarism and autocracy, the balance of power, local conflicts that took place the day before (the Balkan Wars, the Italian-Turkish War), orders for general mobilization in Russia and Germany, territorial claims and the alliance obligations of the European powers.

The state of the armed forces at the beginning of the war

A strong blow to the German army was the reduction in its numbers: the reason for this is considered to be the short-sighted policy of the Social Democrats. For the period 1912-1916 in Germany, a reduction in the army was planned, which did not contribute in any way to increasing its combat effectiveness. The Social Democratic government constantly cut funding for the army (which, however, does not apply to the navy).

This policy, destructive of the army, led to the fact that by the beginning of 1914, unemployment in Germany increased by 8% (compared to 1910 levels). The army experienced a chronic lack of necessary military equipment. There was a lack of modern weapons. There were not enough funds to sufficiently equip the army with machine guns - Germany lagged behind in this area. The same applied to aviation - the German aircraft fleet was numerous, but outdated. The main aircraft of the German Luftstreitkrafte was the most popular, but at the same time hopelessly outdated aircraft in Europe - a Taube-type monoplane.

The mobilization also saw the requisitioning of a significant number of civilian and mail aircraft. Moreover, aviation was designated as a separate branch of the military only in 1916; before that it was listed in the “transport troops” ( Kraftfahrers). But aviation was given little importance in all armies except the French, where aviation had to carry out regular air raids on the territory of Alsace-Lorraine, Rhineland, and the Bavarian Palatinate. The total financial costs for military aviation in France in 1913 amounted to 6 million francs, in Germany - 322 thousand marks, in Russia - about 1 million rubles. The latter achieved significant success, having built, shortly before the start of the war, the world's first four-engine aircraft, which was destined to become the first strategic bomber. Since 1865, the State Agrarian University and the Obukhov plant have successfully collaborated with the Krupp company. This Krupp company collaborated with Russia and France until the very beginning of the war.

German shipyards (including Blohm & Voss) built, but did not have time to complete before the start of the war, 6 destroyers for Russia, based on the design of the later famous Novik, built at the Putilov plant and armed with weapons produced at the Obukhov plant. Despite the Russian-French alliance, Krupp and other German firms regularly sent their latest weapons for testing to Russia. But under Nicholas II, preference began to be given to French guns. Thus, Russia, taking into account the experience of two leading artillery manufacturers, entered the war with good artillery of small and medium calibers, having 1 barrel per 786 soldiers against 1 barrel per 476 soldiers in the German army, but in heavy artillery the Russian army lagged significantly behind the German army, having 1 gun per 22,241 soldiers and officers versus 1 gun per 2,798 soldiers in the German army. And this is not counting the mortars, which were already in service with the German army and which were not available at all in the Russian army in 1914.

Also, it should be noted that the saturation of infantry units with machine guns in the Russian army was not inferior to the German and French armies. So the Russian infantry regiment of 4 battalions (16 companies) had in its staff on May 6, 1910 a machine gun team of 8 Maxim heavy machine guns, that is, 0.5 machine guns per company, “in the German and French armies there were six of them per regiment of 12 companies.

Events before the start of the First World War

On June 28, 1914, Gavriil Princip, a nineteen-year-old Bosnian Serb student and member of the nationalist Serbian terrorist organization Mlada Bosna, assassinates the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sofia Chotek in Sarajevo. The Austrian and German ruling circles decided to use this Sarajevo murder as a pretext for starting a European war. July 5 Germany promises support for Austria-Hungary in the event of a conflict with Serbia.

On July 23, Austria-Hungary, declaring that Serbia was behind the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, announces an ultimatum, in which it demands that Serbia fulfill obviously impossible conditions, including: purge the state apparatus and army of officers and officials found in anti-Austrian propaganda; arrest suspects of promoting terrorism; allow the Austrian-Hungarian police to conduct investigations and punishments for those responsible for anti-Austrian actions on Serbian territory. Only 48 hours were given for a response.

On the same day, Serbia begins mobilization, however, it agrees to all the demands of Austria-Hungary, except for the admission of the Austrian police to its territory. Germany is persistently pushing Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia.

On July 25, Germany begins hidden mobilization: without officially announcing it, they began sending out summonses to reservists at recruiting stations.

July 26 Austria-Hungary announces mobilization and begins to concentrate troops on the border with Serbia and Russia.

On July 28, Austria-Hungary, declaring that the demands of the ultimatum had not been fulfilled, declared war on Serbia. Russia says it will not allow the occupation of Serbia.

On the same day, Germany presents Russia with an ultimatum: stop conscription or Germany will declare war on Russia. France, Austria-Hungary and Germany are mobilizing. Germany is massing troops to the Belgian and French borders.

At the same time, on the morning of August 1, the British Foreign Minister E. Gray promised the German ambassador in London Lichnowsky that in the event of a war between Germany and Russia, England would remain neutral, provided that France was not attacked.

1914 Campaign

The war unfolded in two main theaters of military operations - in Western and Eastern Europe, as well as in the Balkans, Northern Italy (from May 1915), in the Caucasus and the Middle East (from November 1914) in the colonies of European states - in Africa, in China, in Oceania. In 1914, all participants in the war were going to end the war in a few months through a decisive offensive; no one expected the war to become protracted.

Beginning of the First World War

Germany, in accordance with a pre-developed plan for waging a lightning war, the “blitzkrieg” (Schlieffen plan), sent the main forces to the western front, hoping to defeat France with a quick blow before the completion of the mobilization and deployment of the Russian army, and then deal with Russia.

The German command intended to deliver the main blow through Belgium to the unprotected north of France, bypass Paris from the west and take the French army, whose main forces were concentrated on the fortified eastern, Franco-German border, into a huge “cauldron”.

On August 1, Germany declared war on Russia, and on the same day the Germans invaded Luxembourg without any declaration of war.

France appealed to England for help, but the British government, by a vote of 12 to 6, refused France's support, declaring that "France should not count on help that we are currently unable to provide," adding that "if the Germans invade to Belgium and will occupy only the “corner” of this country closest to Luxembourg, and not the coast, England will remain neutral.”

To which the French Ambassador to Great Britain, Kambo, said that if England now betrays its allies: France and Russia, then after the war it will have a bad time, regardless of who the winner is. The British government, in fact, pushed the Germans to aggression. The German leadership decided that England would not enter the war and moved on to decisive action.

On August 2, German troops finally occupied Luxembourg, and Belgium was given an ultimatum to allow German armies to enter the border with France. Only 12 hours were given for reflection.

On August 3, Germany declared war on France, accusing it of “organized attacks and aerial bombardments of Germany” and “violating Belgian neutrality.”

On August 4, German troops poured across the Belgian border. King Albert of Belgium turned for help to the guarantor countries of Belgian neutrality. London, contrary to its previous statements, sent an ultimatum to Berlin: stop the invasion of Belgium or England will declare war on Germany, to which Berlin declared “betrayal”. After the ultimatum expired, Great Britain declared war on Germany and sent 5.5 divisions to help France.

The First World War has begun.

Progress of hostilities

French Theater of Operations - Western Front

Strategic plans of the parties at the beginning of the war. At the beginning of the war, Germany was guided by a fairly old military doctrine - the Schlieffen plan - which provided for the instant defeat of France before the “clumsy” Russia could mobilize and advance its army to the borders. The attack was planned through the territory of Belgium (with the aim of bypassing the main French forces); Paris was initially supposed to be taken in 39 days. In a nutshell, the essence of the plan was outlined by William II: “We will have lunch in Paris and dinner in St. Petersburg”. In 1906, the plan was modified (under the leadership of General Moltke) and acquired a less categorical character - a significant part of the troops was still supposed to be left on the Eastern Front; the attack should have been through Belgium, but without touching neutral Holland.

France, in turn, was guided by a military doctrine (the so-called Plan 17), which prescribed starting the war with the liberation of Alsace-Lorraine. The French expected that the main forces of the German army would initially be concentrated against Alsace.

Invasion of the German army into Belgium. Having crossed the Belgian border on the morning of August 4, the German army, following the Schlieffen Plan, easily swept away the weak barriers of the Belgian army and moved deeper into Belgium. The Belgian army, which the Germans outnumbered by more than 10 times, unexpectedly put up active resistance, which, however, was unable to significantly delay the enemy. Bypassing and blocking the well-fortified Belgian fortresses: Liege (fell on August 16, see: Assault of Liege), Namur (fell on August 25) and Antwerp (fell on October 9), the Germans drove the Belgian army in front of them and took Brussels on August 20, at which the same day came into contact with the Anglo-French forces. The movement of the German troops was rapid; the Germans, without stopping, bypassed the cities and fortresses that continued to defend themselves. The Belgian government fled to Le Havre. King Albert I, with the last remaining combat-ready units, continued to defend Antwerp. The invasion of Belgium came as a surprise to the French command, but the French were able to organize the transfer of their units in the direction of the breakthrough much faster than expected by German plans.

Actions in Alsace and Lorraine. On August 7, the French, with the forces of the 1st and 2nd armies, began an offensive in Alsace, and on August 14 - in Lorraine. The offensive had symbolic significance for the French - the territory of Alsace-Lorraine was torn away from France in 1871, after defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. Although they initially managed to penetrate deeper into German territory, capturing Saarbrücken and Mulhouse, the simultaneously unfolding German offensive in Belgium forced them to transfer part of their troops there. The subsequent counterattacks did not meet sufficient resistance from the French, and by the end of August the French army retreated to its previous positions, leaving Germany with a small part of French territory.

Border battle. On August 20, the Anglo-French and German troops came into contact - the Border Battle began. At the start of the war, the French command did not expect that the main offensive of German troops would take place through Belgium; the main forces of the French troops were concentrated against Alsace. From the beginning of the invasion of Belgium, the French began actively moving units in the direction of the breakthrough; by the time they came into contact with the Germans, the front was in sufficient disarray, and the French and British were forced to fight with three groups of troops that were not in contact. On the territory of Belgium, near Mons, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was located, and to the southeast, near Charleroi, there was the 5th French Army. In the Ardennes, approximately along the French border with Belgium and Luxembourg, the 3rd and 4th French armies were stationed. In all three regions, the Anglo-French troops suffered a heavy defeat (the Battle of Mons, the Battle of Charleroi, the Ardennes operation (1914)), losing about 250 thousand people, and the Germans from the north invaded France on a wide front, delivering the main blow to the west, bypassing Paris, thus taking the French army in a giant pincer.

The German armies were rapidly moving forward. The British units retreated to the coast in disarray; the French command was not confident in the ability to hold Paris; on September 2, the French government moved to Bordeaux. The defense of the city was led by the energetic General Gallieni. The French forces were regrouping to a new line of defense along the Marne River. The French prepared energetically to defend the capital, taking extraordinary measures. The episode is widely known when Gallieni ordered an urgent transfer of an infantry brigade to the front, using Parisian taxis for this purpose.

The unsuccessful August actions of the French army forced its commander, General Joffre, to immediately replace a large number (up to 30% of the total number) of poorly performing generals; the renewal and rejuvenation of the French generals was subsequently assessed extremely positively.

Battle of the Marne. The German army did not have enough strength to complete the operation to bypass Paris and encircle the French army. The troops, having marched hundreds of kilometers in battle, were exhausted, communications were stretched out, there was nothing to cover the flanks and emerging gaps, there were no reserves, they had to maneuver with the same units, driving them back and forth, so the Headquarters agreed with the commander’s proposal: making a roundabout maneuver 1 Von Kluck's th army reduced the front of the offensive and did not make a deep envelopment of the French army bypassing Paris, but turned east north of the French capital and hit the rear of the main forces of the French army.

Turning east north of Paris, the Germans exposed their right flank and rear to the attack of the French group concentrated to defend Paris. There was nothing to cover the right flank and rear: 2 corps and a cavalry division, originally intended to strengthen the advancing group, were sent to East Prussia to help the defeated 8th German Army. However, the German command took a fatal maneuver: it turned its troops east before reaching Paris, hoping for the passivity of the enemy. The French command did not fail to take advantage of the opportunity and struck the exposed flank and rear of the German army. The First Battle of the Marne began, in which the Allies managed to turn the tide of hostilities in their favor and push German troops on the front from Verdun to Amiens 50-100 kilometers back. The Battle of the Marne was intense, but short-lived - the main battle began on September 5, on September 9 the defeat of the German army became obvious, and by September 12-13 the German army's retreat to the line along the Aisne and Vel rivers was completed.

The Battle of the Marne had great moral significance for all sides. For the French, it was the first victory over the Germans, overcoming the shame of defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. After the Battle of the Marne, capitulatory sentiment in France began to decline. The British realized the insufficient combat power of their troops, and subsequently set a course to increase their armed forces in Europe and strengthen their combat training. German plans for the rapid defeat of France failed; Moltke, who headed the Field General Staff, was replaced by Falkenhayn. Joffre, on the contrary, acquired enormous authority in France. The Battle of the Marne was the turning point of the war in the French theater of operations, after which the continuous retreat of the Anglo-French troops ceased, the front stabilized, and the enemy forces were approximately equal.

"Run to the Sea". Battles in Flanders. The Battle of the Marne turned into the so-called “Run to the Sea” - moving, both armies tried to encircle each other from the flank, which only led to the fact that the front line closed, resting against the shore of the North Sea. The actions of the armies in this flat, populated area, saturated with roads and railways, were characterized by extreme mobility; as soon as one clash ended in the stabilization of the front, both sides quickly moved their troops north, towards the sea, and the battle resumed at the next stage. At the first stage (second half of September), the battles took place along the borders of the Oise and Somme rivers, then, at the second stage (September 29 - October 9), the battles took place along the Scarpa River (Battle of Arras); at the third stage, battles took place near Lille (October 10-15), on the Isère River (October 18-20), and at Ypres (October 30-November 15). On October 9, the last center of resistance of the Belgian army, Antwerp, fell, and the battered Belgian units joined the Anglo-French, occupying the extreme northern position at the front.

By November 15, the entire space between Paris and the North Sea was densely filled with troops of both sides, the front had stabilized, the offensive potential of the Germans had been exhausted, and both sides switched to positional warfare. An important success of the Entente can be considered that it managed to retain the ports that were most convenient for sea communications with England (primarily Calais).

By the end of 1914, Belgium was almost completely conquered by Germany. The Entente retained only a small western part of Flanders with the city of Ypres. Further, south to Nancy, the front passed through the territory of France (the territory lost by the French had the shape of a spindle, 380-400 km long along the front, 100-130 km deep at its widest point from the pre-war border of France towards Paris). Lille was given to the Germans, Arras and Laon remained with the French; The front came closest to Paris (about 70 km) in the area of ​​Noyon (behind the Germans) and Soissons (behind the French). The front then turned east (Reims remained with the French) and moved to the Verdun fortified area. After this, in the Nancy region (behind the French), the zone of active hostilities of 1914 ended, the front continued generally along the border of France and Germany. Neutral Switzerland and Italy did not participate in the war.

Results of the 1914 campaign in the French theater of operations. The 1914 campaign was extremely dynamic. Large armies of both sides maneuvered actively and quickly, which was facilitated by the dense road network of the combat area. The deployment of troops did not always form a continuous front; the troops did not erect long-term defensive lines. By November 1914, a stable front line began to take shape. Both sides, having exhausted their offensive potential, began building trenches and barbed wire barriers designed for permanent use. The war entered a positional phase. Since the length of the entire Western Front (from the North Sea to Switzerland) was a little over 700 kilometers, the density of troops on it was significantly higher than on the Eastern Front. A special feature of the company was that intensive military operations were carried out only on the northern half of the front (north of the Verdun fortified area), where both sides concentrated their main forces. The front from Verdun and to the south was considered by both sides as secondary. The zone lost to the French (of which Picardy was the center) was densely populated and important both agriculturally and industrially.

By the beginning of 1915, the warring powers were faced with the fact that the war had taken on a character that was not foreseen by the pre-war plans of either side - it had become protracted. Although the Germans managed to capture almost all of Belgium and a significant part of France, their main goal - a swift victory over the French - turned out to be completely inaccessible. Both the Entente and the Central Powers had, in essence, to start a new type of war that had not yet been seen by mankind - exhausting, long, requiring the total mobilization of the population and economies.

Germany's relative failure had another important result - Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance, refrained from entering the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

East Prussian operation. On the Eastern Front, the war began with the East Prussian operation. On August 4 (17), the Russian army crossed the border, launching an attack on East Prussia. The 1st Army moved towards Königsberg from the north of the Masurian Lakes, the 2nd Army - from the west of them. The first week of operations of the Russian armies was successful; the numerically inferior Germans gradually retreated; The Gumbinen-Goldap battle on August 7 (20) ended in favor of the Russian army. However, the Russian command was unable to reap the benefits of victory. The movement of the two Russian armies slowed down and became inconsistent, which the Germans were quick to take advantage of, striking from the west on the open flank of the 2nd Army. On August 13-17 (26-30), the 2nd Army of General Samsonov was completely defeated, a significant part was surrounded and captured. In German tradition, these events are called the Battle of Tanneberg. After this, the Russian 1st Army, under threat of encirclement by superior German forces, was forced to fight back to its original position; the withdrawal was completed on September 3 (16). The actions of the commander of the 1st Army, General Rennenkampf, were considered unsuccessful, which became the first episode of the later characteristic distrust of military leaders with German surnames, and, in general, disbelief in the abilities of the military command. In the German tradition, the events were mythologized and considered the greatest victory of German weapons; a huge memorial was built at the site of the battles, in which Field Marshal Hindenburg was subsequently buried.

Galician battle. On August 16 (23), the Battle of Galicia began - a huge battle in terms of the scale of forces involved between the Russian troops of the Southwestern Front (5 armies) under the command of General N. Ivanov and four Austro-Hungarian armies under the command of Archduke Frederick. Russian troops went on the offensive along a wide (450-500 km) front, with Lviv as the center of the offensive. The fighting of large armies, taking place on a long front, was divided into numerous independent operations, accompanied by both offensives and retreats of both sides.

Actions on the southern part of the border with Austria initially developed unfavorably for the Russian army (Lublin-Kholm operation). By August 19-20 (September 1-2), Russian troops retreated to the territory of the Kingdom of Poland, to Lublin and Kholm. Actions in the center of the front (Galich-Lvov operation) were unsuccessful for the Austro-Hungarians. The Russian offensive began on August 6 (19) and developed very quickly. After the first retreat, the Austro-Hungarian army put up fierce resistance on the borders of the Zolotaya Lipa and Rotten Lipa rivers, but was forced to retreat. The Russians took Lvov on August 21 (September 3), and Galich on August 22 (September 4). Until August 31 (September 12), the Austro-Hungarians did not stop trying to recapture Lviv, the battles took place 30-50 km west and north-west of the city (Gorodok - Rava-Russkaya), but ended in complete victory for the Russian army. On August 29 (September 11), a general retreat of the Austrian army began (more like a flight, since resistance to the advancing Russians was insignificant). The Russian army maintained a high tempo of offensive and in the shortest possible time captured a huge, strategically important territory - Eastern Galicia and part of Bukovina. By September 13 (26), the front had stabilized at a distance of 120-150 km west of Lvov. The strong Austrian fortress of Przemysl was under siege in the rear of the Russian army.

The significant victory caused jubilation in Russia. The seizure of Galicia, with its predominant Orthodox (and Uniate) Slavic population, was perceived in Russia not as an occupation, but as the return of a seized part of historical Rus' (see Galician General Government). Austria-Hungary lost faith in the strength of its army, and in the future did not risk embarking on major operations without the help of German troops.

Military operations in the Kingdom of Poland. The pre-war border of Russia with Germany and Austria-Hungary had a configuration that was far from smooth - in the center of the border, the territory of the Kingdom of Poland jutted sharply to the west. Obviously, both sides began the war by trying to smooth out the front - the Russians tried to level out the "dents" by advancing in the north into East Prussia and in the south into Galicia, while Germany sought to remove the "bulge" by advancing centrally into Poland. After the Russian offensive in East Prussia failed, Germany could only advance further south, in Poland, to prevent the front from falling apart into two disjointed parts. In addition, the success of the offensive in southern Poland could also help the defeated Austro-Hungarians.

On September 15 (28), the Warsaw-Ivangorod operation began with the German offensive. The offensive went in a north-eastern direction, targeting Warsaw and the Ivangorod fortress. On September 30 (October 12), the Germans reached Warsaw and reached the Vistula River. Fierce battles began, in which the advantage of the Russian army gradually became clear. On October 7 (20), the Russians began to cross the Vistula, and on October 14 (27), the German army began a general retreat. By October 26 (November 8), the German troops, having achieved no results, retreated to their original positions.

On October 29 (November 11), the Germans launched a second offensive from the same positions along the pre-war border in the same northeastern direction (Lodz operation). The center of the battle was the city of Lodz, captured and abandoned by the Germans a few weeks earlier. In a dynamically unfolding battle, the Germans first surrounded Lodz, then they themselves were surrounded by superior Russian forces and retreated. The results of the battles turned out to be uncertain - the Russians managed to defend both Lodz and Warsaw; but at the same time, Germany managed to capture the northwestern part of the Kingdom of Poland - the front, stabilized by October 26 (November 8), went from Lodz to Warsaw.

Positions of the parties by the end of 1914. By the new year of 1915, the front looked like this - on the border of East Prussia and Russia, the front followed the pre-war border, followed by a gap poorly filled by troops of both sides, after which a stable front began again from Warsaw to Lodz (northeast and east of the Kingdom of Poland with Petrokov , Czestochowa and Kalisz were occupied by Germany), in the Krakow region (remained by Austria-Hungary) the front crossed the pre-war border of Austria-Hungary with Russia and crossed into Austrian territory captured by the Russians. Most of Galicia went to Russia, Lvov (Lemberg) fell into the deep (180 km from the front) rear. In the south, the front abutted the Carpathians, which were practically unoccupied by troops of both sides. Bukovina and Chernivtsi, located east of the Carpathians, passed to Russia. The total length of the front was about 1200 km.

Results of the 1914 campaign on the Russian front. The campaign as a whole turned out in favor of Russia. Clashes with the German army ended in favor of the Germans, and on the German part of the front Russia lost part of the territory of the Kingdom of Poland. The defeat of Russia in East Prussia was morally painful and was accompanied by heavy losses. But Germany was not able to achieve the results it had planned at any point; all its successes from a military point of view were modest. Meanwhile, Russia managed to inflict a major defeat on Austria-Hungary and seize significant territories. A certain pattern of actions of the Russian army formed - the Germans were treated with caution, the Austro-Hungarians were considered a weaker enemy. Austria-Hungary turned from a full ally for Germany into a weak partner requiring continuous support. By the new year 1915, the fronts had stabilized, and the war entered the positional phase; but at the same time, the front line (unlike the French theater of operations) continued to remain unsmoothed, and the armies of the sides filled it unevenly, with large gaps. This unevenness next year will make events on the Eastern Front much more dynamic than on the Western Front. By the new year, the Russian army began to feel the first signs of a coming crisis in the supply of ammunition. It also turned out that Austro-Hungarian soldiers were prone to surrender, but German soldiers were not.

The Entente countries were able to coordinate actions on two fronts - Russia's offensive in East Prussia coincided with the most difficult moment of the fighting for France; Germany was forced to fight on two fronts simultaneously, as well as to transfer troops from front to front.

Balkan theater of operations

On the Serbian front, things were not going well for the Austrians. Despite their great numerical superiority, they managed to occupy Belgrade, which was located on the border, only on December 2, but on December 15, the Serbs recaptured Belgrade and drove the Austrians out of their territory. Although Austria-Hungary's demands on Serbia were the immediate cause of the outbreak of the war, it was in Serbia that military operations in 1914 proceeded rather sluggishly.

Japan's entry into the war

In August 1914, the Entente countries (primarily England) managed to convince Japan to oppose Germany, despite the fact that the two countries had no significant conflicts of interest. On August 15, Japan presented an ultimatum to Germany, demanding the withdrawal of troops from China, and on August 23, it declared war (see Japan in the First World War). At the end of August, the Japanese army began the siege of Qingdao, the only German naval base in China, ending on November 7 with the surrender of the German garrison (see Siege of Qingdao).

In September-October, Japan actively began to seize the island colonies and bases of Germany (German Micronesia and German New Guinea. On September 12, the Caroline Islands were captured, and on September 29, the Marshall Islands. In October, the Japanese landed on the Caroline Islands and captured the key port of Rabaul. In the end August, New Zealand troops captured German Samoa. Australia and New Zealand entered into an agreement with Japan on the division of German colonies, the equator was adopted as the dividing line of interests. German forces in the region were insignificant and sharply inferior to the Japanese, so the fighting was not accompanied by major losses.

Japan's participation in the war on the side of the Entente turned out to be extremely beneficial for Russia, completely securing its Asian part. Russia no longer needed to spend resources on maintaining the army, navy and fortifications directed against Japan and China. In addition, Japan gradually became an important source of supplying Russia with raw materials and weapons.

Entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war and opening of the Asian theater of operations

Since the beginning of the war in Turkey, there was no agreement on whether to enter the war and on whose side. In the unofficial Young Turk triumvirate, War Minister Enver Pasha and Interior Minister Talaat Pasha were supporters of the Triple Alliance, but Cemal Pasha was a supporter of the Entente. On August 2, 1914, a German-Turkish alliance treaty was signed, according to which the Turkish army was actually placed under the leadership of the German military mission. Mobilization was announced in the country. However, at the same time, the Turkish government published a declaration of neutrality. On August 10, the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau entered the Dardanelles, having escaped pursuit of the British fleet in the Mediterranean. With the advent of these ships, not only the Turkish army, but also the fleet found themselves under the command of the Germans. On September 9, the Turkish government announced to all powers that it had decided to abolish the capitulation regime (preferential legal status for foreign citizens). This caused protest from all powers.

However, most members of the Turkish government, including the Grand Vizier, still opposed the war. Then Enver Pasha, together with the German command, started the war without the consent of the rest of the government, presenting the country with a fait accompli. Türkiye declared “jihad” (holy war) against the Entente countries. On October 29-30 (November 11-12), the Turkish fleet under the command of German Admiral Souchon fired at Sevastopol, Odessa, Feodosia and Novorossiysk. On November 2 (15), Russia declared war on Turkey. England and France followed on November 5 and 6.

The Caucasian Front arose between Russia and Turkey. In December 1914 - January 1915, during the Sarykamysh operation, the Russian Caucasian Army stopped the advance of Turkish troops on Kars, and then defeated them and launched a counteroffensive (see Caucasian Front).

Turkey's usefulness as an ally was diminished by the fact that the Central Powers had no communication with it either by land (between Turkey and Austria-Hungary there was still uncaptured Serbia and still neutral Romania) or by sea (the Mediterranean was controlled by the Entente).

At the same time, Russia has also lost the most convenient route of communication with its allies - through the Black Sea and the Straits. Russia has two ports left suitable for transporting large quantities of cargo - Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok; the carrying capacity of the railways approaching these ports was low.

Combat at sea

With the outbreak of the war, the German fleet launched cruising operations throughout the World Ocean, which, however, did not lead to a significant disruption of the merchant shipping of its opponents. However, part of the Entente fleet was diverted to fight the German raiders. The German squadron of Admiral von Spee managed to defeat the British squadron in the battle at Cape Coronel (Chile) on November 1, but later it itself was defeated by the British in the Battle of Falklands on December 8.

In the North Sea, the fleets of the opposing sides carried out raiding operations. The first major clash occurred on August 28 near the island of Heligoland (Battle of Heligoland). The English fleet won.

The Russian fleets behaved passively. The Russian Baltic Fleet occupied a defensive position, which the German fleet, busy with operations in other theaters, did not even approach. The Black Sea Fleet, which did not have large ships of the modern type, did not dare to engage in a collision with the two newest German-Turkish ships.

1915 Campaign

Progress of hostilities

French Theater of Operations - Western Front

Actions beginning in 1915. The intensity of action on the Western Front decreased significantly from the beginning of 1915. Germany concentrated its forces on preparing operations against Russia. The French and British also preferred to take advantage of the resulting pause to accumulate forces. For the first four months of the year, there was almost complete calm on the front, fighting took place only in Artois, in the area of ​​​​the city of Arras (an attempted French offensive in February) and southeast of Verdun, where German positions formed the so-called Ser-Miel salient towards France (an attempt French advance in April). The British made an unsuccessful attempt to attack near the village of Neuve Chapelle in March.

The Germans, in turn, launched a counterattack in the north of the front, in Flanders near Ypres, against English troops (April 22 - May 25, see Second Battle of Ypres). At the same time, Germany, for the first time in the history of mankind and with complete surprise to the Anglo-French, used chemical weapons (chlorine was released from the cylinders). The gas affected 15 thousand people, of whom 5 thousand died. The Germans did not have sufficient reserves to take advantage of the gas attack and break through the front. After the Ypres gas attack, both sides very quickly managed to develop gas masks of various designs, and further attempts to use chemical weapons no longer took large numbers of troops by surprise.

During these military operations, which produced the most insignificant results with noticeable casualties, both sides became convinced that an assault on well-equipped positions (several lines of trenches, dugouts, barbed wire fences) was futile without active artillery preparation.

Spring operation in Artois. On May 3, the Entente launched a new offensive in Artois. The offensive was carried out by joint Anglo-French forces. The French advanced north of Arras, the British - in an adjacent area in the Neuve Chapelle area. The offensive was organized in a new way: huge forces (30 infantry divisions, 9 cavalry corps, more than 1,700 guns) were concentrated on a 30-kilometer offensive area. The offensive was preceded by a six-day artillery preparation (2.1 million shells were spent), which was supposed to completely suppress the resistance of German troops. The calculations did not come true. The huge losses of the Entente (130 thousand people) suffered over six weeks of fighting did not completely correspond to the results achieved - by mid-June the French had advanced 3-4 km along a 7 km front, and the British had advanced less than 1 km along a 3 km front.

Autumn operation in Champagne and Artois. By the beginning of September, the Entente had prepared a new major offensive, the task of which was to liberate the north of France. The offensive began on September 25 and took place simultaneously in two sectors separated by 120 km - on the 35 km front in Champagne (east of Reims) and on the 20 km front in Artois (near Arras). If successful, the troops advancing from both sides were supposed to close in 80-100 km on the French border (at Mons), which would lead to the liberation of Picardy. Compared to the spring offensive in Artois, the scale was increased: 67 infantry and cavalry divisions, up to 2,600 guns, were involved in the offensive; During the operation, over 5 million shells were fired. The Anglo-French troops used new attack tactics in several “waves”. At the time of the offensive, the German troops managed to improve their defensive positions - a second defensive line was built 5-6 kilometers behind the first defensive line, poorly visible from enemy positions (each of the defensive lines consisted, in turn, of three rows of trenches). The offensive, which lasted until October 7, led to extremely limited results - in both sectors it was possible to break through only the first line of German defense and recapture no more than 2-3 km of territory. At the same time, the losses of both sides were enormous - the Anglo-French lost 200 thousand people killed and wounded, the Germans - 140 thousand people.

Positions of the parties by the end of 1915 and the results of the campaign. Throughout 1915, the front practically did not move - the result of all the fierce offensives was a movement of the front line by no more than 10 km. Both sides, increasingly strengthening their defensive positions, were unable to develop tactics that would allow them to break through the front, even under the conditions of an extremely high concentration of forces and many days of artillery preparation. Huge sacrifices on both sides did not produce any significant results. The situation, however, allowed Germany to increase its pressure on the Eastern Front - the entire strengthening of the German army was aimed at fighting Russia, while the improvement of defensive lines and defense tactics allowed the Germans to be confident in the strength of the Western Front while gradually reducing the troops involved on it.

The actions of early 1915 showed that the current type of military action creates a huge burden on the economies of the warring countries. New battles required not only the mobilization of millions of citizens, but also a gigantic amount of weapons and ammunition. Pre-war reserves of weapons and ammunition were exhausted, and the warring countries began to actively rebuild their economies for military needs. The war gradually began to turn from a battle of armies into a battle of economies. The development of new military equipment has intensified as a means of breaking out of the stalemate at the front; armies became more and more mechanized. The armies noticed the significant benefits brought by aviation (reconnaissance and artillery fire adjustment) and automobiles. Methods of trench warfare improved - trench guns, light mortars, and hand grenades appeared.

France and Russia again made attempts to coordinate the actions of their armies - the spring offensive in Artois was intended to distract the Germans from an active offensive against the Russians. On July 7, the first Inter-Allied Conference opened in Chantilly, aimed at planning joint actions of the allies on different fronts and organizing various types of economic and military assistance. The second conference took place there on November 23-26. It was considered necessary to begin preparations for a coordinated offensive by all allied armies in the three main theaters - French, Russian and Italian.

Russian Theater of Operations - Eastern Front

Winter operation in East Prussia. In February, the Russian army made another attempt to attack East Prussia, this time from the southeast, from Masuria, from the city of Suwalki. Poorly prepared and unsupported by artillery, the offensive instantly floundered and turned into a counterattack by German troops, the so-called Augustow operation (named after the city of Augustow). By February 26, the Germans managed to advance to oust Russian troops from the territory of East Prussia and advance deeper into the Kingdom of Poland 100-120 km, capturing Suwalki, after which in the first half of March the front stabilized, Grodno remained with Russia. The XX Russian Corps was surrounded and surrendered. Despite the victory of the Germans, their hopes for the complete collapse of the Russian front were not justified. During the next battle - the Prasnysh operation (February 25 - end of March), the Germans encountered fierce resistance from Russian troops, which turned into a counterattack in the Prasnysh area, which led to the withdrawal of the Germans to the pre-war border of East Prussia (the Suwalki province remained with Germany).

Winter operation in the Carpathians. On February 9-11, Austro-German troops launched an offensive in the Carpathians, putting especially strong pressure on the weakest part of the Russian front in the south, in Bukovina. At the same time, the Russian army launched a counter-offensive, hoping to cross the Carpathians and invade Hungary from north to south. In the northern part of the Carpathians, closer to Krakow, the enemy forces turned out to be equal, and the front practically did not move during the battles in February and March, remaining in the foothills of the Carpathians on the Russian side. But in the south of the Carpathians, the Russian army did not have time to regroup, and at the end of March the Russians lost most of Bukovina with Chernivtsi. On March 22, the besieged Austrian fortress of Przemysl fell, more than 120 thousand people surrendered. The capture of Przemysl was the last major success of the Russian army in 1915.

Gorlitsky breakthrough. The beginning of the Great Retreat of the Russian armies - the loss of Galicia. By mid-spring the situation at the front in Galicia had changed. The Germans expanded their area of ​​operations by transferring their troops to the northern and central part of the front in Austria-Hungary; the weaker Austro-Hungarians were now responsible only for the southern part of the front. In an area of ​​35 km, the Germans concentrated 32 divisions and 1,500 guns; Russian troops were outnumbered by 2 times and were completely deprived of heavy artillery; the shortage of main (three-inch) caliber shells also began to affect them. On April 19 (May 2), German troops launched an attack on the center of the Russian position in Austria-Hungary - Gorlice - aiming the main blow at Lvov. Further events were unfavorable for the Russian army: the numerical dominance of the Germans, unsuccessful maneuvering and the use of reserves, an increasing shortage of shells and the complete predominance of German heavy artillery led to the fact that by April 22 (May 5) the front in the Gorlitsy area was broken through. The beginning of the retreat of the Russian armies continued until June 9 (22) (see the Great Retreat of 1915). The entire front south of Warsaw moved towards Russia. The Radom and Kielce provinces were left in the Kingdom of Poland, the front passed through Lublin (behind Russia); from the territories of Austria-Hungary, most of Galicia was abandoned (the newly taken Przemysl was abandoned on June 3 (16), and Lviv on June 9 (22), only a small (up to 40 km deep) strip with Brody remained for the Russians, the entire region Tarnopol and a small part of Bukovina. The retreat, which began with the German breakthrough, by the time Lvov was abandoned, had acquired a planned character, the Russian troops were withdrawing in relative order. But nevertheless, such a major military failure was accompanied by a loss of fighting spirit in the Russian army and mass surrenders.

Continuation of the Great Retreat of the Russian armies - the loss of Poland. Having achieved success in the southern part of the theater of operations, the German command decided to immediately continue an active offensive in its northern part - in Poland and in East Prussia - the Baltic region. Since the Gorlitsky breakthrough did not ultimately lead to the complete collapse of the Russian front (the Russians were able to stabilize the situation and close the front at the cost of a significant retreat), this time the tactics were changed - it was not supposed to break through the front at one point, but three independent offensives. Two directions of attack were aimed at the Kingdom of Poland (where the Russian front continued to form a salient towards Germany) - the Germans planned front breakthroughs from the north, from East Prussia (a breakthrough to the south between Warsaw and Lomza, in the area of ​​the Narew River), and from the south, from sides of Galicia (to the north along the Vistula and Bug rivers); at the same time, the directions of both breakthroughs converged on the border of the Kingdom of Poland, in the area of ​​​​Brest-Litovsk; If the German plan was carried out, Russian troops had to leave all of Poland to avoid encirclement in the Warsaw area. The third offensive, from East Prussia towards Riga, was planned as an offensive on a broad front, without concentration on a narrow area and without a breakthrough.

The offensive between the Vistula and Bug was launched on June 13 (26), and the Narew operation began on June 30 (July 13). After fierce fighting, the front was broken in both places, and the Russian army, as envisaged by the German plan, began a general withdrawal from the Kingdom of Poland. On July 22 (August 4) Warsaw and the Ivangorod fortress were abandoned, on August 7 (20) the Novogeorgievsk fortress fell, on August 9 (22) the Osovets fortress fell, on August 13 (26) the Russians abandoned Brest-Litovsk, and on August 19 (September 2) Grodno.

The offensive from East Prussia (Rigo-Schavel operation) began on July 1 (14). During a month of fighting, Russian troops were pushed back beyond the Neman, the Germans captured Courland with Mitau and the most important naval base of Libau, Kovno, and came close to Riga.

The success of the German offensive was facilitated by the fact that by the summer the crisis in the military supply of the Russian army had reached its maximum. Of particular importance was the so-called “shell famine” - an acute shortage of shells for the 75-mm guns that predominated in the Russian army. The capture of the Novogeorgievsk fortress, accompanied by the surrender of large parts of troops and intact weapons and property without a fight, caused a new outbreak of spy mania and rumors of treason in Russian society. The Kingdom of Poland gave Russia about a quarter of coal production, the loss of Polish deposits was never compensated, and from the end of 1915 a fuel crisis began in Russia.

Completion of the great retreat and stabilization of the front. On August 9 (22), the Germans moved the direction of the main attack; Now the main offensive took place along the front north of Vilna, in the Sventsyan region, and was directed towards Minsk. On August 27-28 (September 8-9), the Germans, taking advantage of the loose location of Russian units, were able to break through the front (Sventsyansky breakthrough). The result was that the Russians were able to fill the front only after they withdrew directly to Minsk. The Vilna province was lost to the Russians.

On December 14 (27), the Russians launched an offensive against the Austro-Hungarian troops on the Strypa River, in the Ternopil region, caused by the need to distract the Austrians from the Serbian front, where the position of the Serbs had become very difficult. Attempts at the offensive did not bring any success, and on January 15 (29) the operation was stopped.

Meanwhile, the retreat of the Russian armies continued south of the Sventsyansky breakthrough zone. In August, Vladimir-Volynsky, Kovel, Lutsk, and Pinsk were abandoned by the Russians. On the more southern part of the front, the situation was stable, since by that time the Austro-Hungarian forces were distracted by fighting in Serbia and on the Italian front. By the end of September - beginning of October, the front stabilized, and there was a lull along its entire length. The offensive potential of the Germans was exhausted, the Russians began to restore their troops, which were badly damaged during the retreat, and strengthen new defensive lines.

Positions of the parties by the end of 1915. By the end of 1915, the front had become almost a straight line connecting the Baltic and Black Seas; The frontline in the Kingdom of Poland completely disappeared - Poland was completely occupied by Germany. Courland was occupied by Germany, the front came close to Riga and then went along the Western Dvina to the fortified area of ​​​​Dvinsk. Further, the front passed through the North-Western region: Kovno, Vilna, Grodno provinces, the western part of the Minsk province was occupied by Germany (Minsk remained with Russia). Then the front passed through the South-Western region: the western third of the Volyn province with Lutsk was occupied by Germany, Rivne remained with Russia. After this, the front moved to the former territory of Austria-Hungary, where the Russians retained part of the Tarnopol region in Galicia. Further, to the Bessarabia province, the front returned to the pre-war border with Austria-Hungary and ended at the border with neutral Romania.

The new configuration of the front, which had no protrusions and was densely filled with troops of both sides, naturally pushed for a transition to trench warfare and defensive tactics.

Results of the 1915 campaign on the Eastern Front. The results of the 1915 campaign for Germany in the east were in some ways similar to the 1914 campaign in the west: Germany was able to achieve significant military victories and capture enemy territory, Germany's tactical advantage in maneuver warfare was obvious; but at the same time, the general goal - the complete defeat of one of the opponents and its withdrawal from the war - was not achieved in 1915. While winning tactical victories, the Central Powers were unable to completely defeat their leading opponents, while their economy became increasingly weaker. Russia, despite large losses in territory and manpower, fully retained the ability to continue the war (although its army lost its offensive spirit during the long period of retreat). In addition, by the end of the Great Retreat, the Russians managed to overcome the military supply crisis, and the situation with artillery and shells for it returned to normal by the end of the year. Fierce fighting and heavy losses of life led the economies of Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary to overstrain, the negative results of which would be more and more noticeable in the coming years.

Russia's failures were accompanied by important personnel changes. On June 30 (July 13), Minister of War V. A. Sukhomlinov was replaced by A. A. Polivanov. Subsequently, Sukhomlinov was put on trial, which caused another outbreak of suspicion and spy mania. On August 10 (23), Nicholas II assumed the duties of commander-in-chief of the Russian army, moving Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich to the Caucasian front. The actual leadership of military operations passed from N. N. Yanushkevich to M. V. Alekseev. The Tsar's assumption of supreme command entailed extremely significant domestic political consequences.

Italy's entry into the war

Since the beginning of the war, Italy remained neutral. On August 3, 1914, the Italian king informed William II that the conditions for the outbreak of war did not correspond to those conditions in the Treaty of the Triple Alliance under which Italy should enter the war. On the same day, the Italian government published a declaration of neutrality. After lengthy negotiations between Italy and the Central Powers and the Entente countries, the London Pact was concluded on April 26, 1915, according to which Italy pledged to declare war on Austria-Hungary within a month, as well as to oppose all enemies of the Entente. A number of territories were promised to Italy as “payment for blood.” England provided Italy with a loan of 50 million pounds. Despite subsequent reciprocal offers of territories from the Central Powers, against the backdrop of fierce internal political clashes between opponents and supporters of the two blocs, on May 23, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary.

Balkan theater of war, Bulgaria's entry into the war

Until the autumn there was no activity on the Serbian front. By the beginning of autumn, after the completion of a successful campaign to oust Russian troops from Galicia and Bukovina, the Austro-Hungarians and Germans were able to transfer a large number of troops to attack Serbia. At the same time, it was expected that Bulgaria, impressed by the successes of the Central Powers, intended to enter the war on their side. In this case, sparsely populated Serbia with a small army found itself surrounded by enemies on two fronts, and faced inevitable military defeat. Anglo-French assistance arrived very late - only on October 5 did troops begin to land in Thessaloniki (Greece); Russia could not help, since neutral Romania refused to let Russian troops through. On October 5, the offensive of the Central Powers from Austria-Hungary began; on October 14, Bulgaria declared war on the Entente countries and began military operations against Serbia. The troops of the Serbs, British and French were numerically inferior to the forces of the Central Powers by more than 2 times and had no chance of success.

By the end of December, Serbian troops left the territory of Serbia, going to Albania, from where in January 1916 their remnants were evacuated to the island of Corfu and Bizerte. In December, Anglo-French troops retreated to Greek territory, to Thessaloniki, where they were able to gain a foothold, forming the Thessaloniki Front along the Greek border with Bulgaria and Serbia. The personnel of the Serbian Army (up to 150 thousand people) were retained and in the spring of 1916 they strengthened the Thessaloniki Front.

The accession of Bulgaria to the Central Powers and the fall of Serbia opened up direct land communication for the Central Powers with Turkey.

Military operations in the Dardanelles and Gallipoli Peninsula

By the beginning of 1915, the Anglo-French command developed a joint operation to break through the Dardanelles Strait and reach the Sea of ​​Marmara, towards Constantinople. The objective of the operation was to ensure free maritime communication through the straits and divert Turkish forces from the Caucasian front.

According to the original plan, the breakthrough was to be made by the British fleet, which was to destroy the coastal batteries without landing troops. After initial unsuccessful attacks by small forces (19–25 February), the British fleet launched a general attack on 18 March, which involved more than 20 battleships, battlecruisers and obsolete ironclads. After the loss of 3 ships, the British, without achieving success, left the strait.

After this, the Entente’s tactics changed - it was decided to land expeditionary forces on the Gallipoli Peninsula (on the European side of the straits) and on the opposite Asian coast. The Entente landing force (80 thousand people), consisting of the British, French, Australians and New Zealanders, began landing on April 25. The landings took place on three beachheads, divided between the participating countries. The attackers managed to hold out only on one of the sections of Gallipoli, where the Australian and New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) was landed. Fierce fighting and the transfer of new Entente reinforcements continued until mid-August, but none of the attempts to attack the Turks produced any significant results. By the end of August, the failure of the operation became obvious, and the Entente began to prepare for the gradual evacuation of troops. The last troops from Gallipoli were evacuated in early January 1916. The bold strategic plan, initiated by W. Churchill, ended in complete failure.

On the Caucasian Front in July, Russian troops repelled the offensive of Turkish troops in the area of ​​Lake Van, while ceding part of the territory (Alashkert operation). The fighting spread to Persian territory. On October 30, Russian troops landed in the port of Anzeli, by the end of December they defeated pro-Turkish armed forces and took control of the territory of Northern Persia, preventing Persia from attacking Russia and securing the left flank of the Caucasian army.

1916 campaign

Having failed to achieve decisive success on the Eastern Front in the 1915 campaign, the German command decided in 1916 to deliver the main blow in the west and take France out of the war. It planned to cut it off with powerful flank attacks at the base of the Verdun ledge, encircling the entire Verdun enemy group, and thereby create a huge gap in the Allied defense, through which it was then supposed to strike the flank and rear of the central French armies and defeat the entire Allied front.

On February 21, 1916, German troops launched an offensive operation in the area of ​​the Verdun fortress, called the Battle of Verdun. After stubborn fighting with huge losses on both sides, the Germans managed to advance 6-8 kilometers forward and take some of the forts of the fortress, but their advance was stopped. This battle lasted until December 18, 1916. The French and British lost 750 thousand people, the Germans - 450 thousand.

During the Battle of Verdun, a new weapon was used for the first time by Germany - a flamethrower. In the skies over Verdun, for the first time in the history of wars, the principles of aircraft combat were worked out - the American Lafayette squadron fought on the side of the Entente troops. The Germans pioneered the use of a fighter aircraft in which machine guns fired through the rotating propeller without damaging it.

On June 3, 1916, a major offensive operation of the Russian army began, called the Brusilov breakthrough after the front commander A. A. Brusilov. As a result of the offensive operation, the Southwestern Front inflicted a heavy defeat on German and Austro-Hungarian troops in Galicia and Bukovina, whose total losses amounted to more than 1.5 million people. At the same time, the Naroch and Baranovichi operations of the Russian troops ended unsuccessfully.

In June, the Battle of the Somme began, which lasted until November, during which tanks were used for the first time.

On the Caucasian front in January-February, in the Battle of Erzurum, Russian troops completely defeated the Turkish army and captured the cities of Erzurum and Trebizond.

The successes of the Russian army prompted Romania to take the side of the Entente. On August 17, 1916, an agreement was concluded between Romania and the four Entente powers. Romania undertook to declare war on Austria-Hungary. For this she was promised Transylvania, part of Bukovina and the Banat. On August 28, Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary. However, by the end of the year the Romanian army was defeated and most of the country was occupied.

The military campaign of 1916 was marked by an important event. On May 31 - June 1, the largest naval battle of Jutland took place in the entire war.

All previous described events demonstrated the superiority of the Entente. By the end of 1916, both sides had lost 6 million people killed, and about 10 million were wounded. In November-December 1916, Germany and its allies proposed peace, but the Entente rejected the offer, pointing out that peace was impossible “until the restoration of violated rights and freedoms, recognition of the principle of nationalities and the free existence of small states is ensured.”

1917 campaign

The situation of the Central Powers in 17 became catastrophic: there were no longer reserves for the army, the scale of hunger, transport devastation and the fuel crisis grew. The Entente countries began to receive significant assistance from the United States (food, industrial goods, and later reinforcements), while simultaneously strengthening the economic blockade of Germany, and their victory, even without offensive operations, was only a matter of time.

However, when after the October Revolution the Bolshevik government, which came to power under the slogan of ending the war, concluded a truce with Germany and its allies on December 15, the German leadership began to hope for a favorable outcome of the war.

Eastern front

On February 1-20, 1917, the Petrograd Conference of the Entente countries took place, at which plans for the 1917 campaign and, unofficially, the internal political situation in Russia were discussed.

In February 1917, the size of the Russian army, after a major mobilization, exceeded 8 million people. After the February Revolution in Russia, the Provisional Government advocated continuing the war, which was opposed by the Bolsheviks led by Lenin.

On April 6, the United States came out on the side of the Entente (after the so-called “Zimmerman telegram”), which finally changed the balance of forces in favor of the Entente, but the offensive that began in April (the Nivelle Offensive) was unsuccessful. Private operations in the area of ​​Messines, on the Ypres River, near Verdun and Cambrai, where tanks were used on a massive scale for the first time, did not change the general situation on the Western Front.

On the Eastern Front, due to the defeatist agitation of the Bolsheviks and the indecisive policies of the Provisional Government, the Russian army was disintegrating and losing its combat effectiveness. The offensive launched in June by the forces of the Southwestern Front failed, and the front armies retreated 50-100 km. However, despite the fact that the Russian army had lost the ability for active combat operations, the Central Powers, which suffered huge losses in the 1916 campaign, could not use the favorable opportunity created for themselves to inflict a decisive defeat on Russia and take it out of the war by military means.

On the Eastern Front, the German army limited itself to only private operations that did not in any way affect the strategic position of Germany: as a result of Operation Albion, German troops captured the islands of Dago and Ezel and forced the Russian fleet to leave the Gulf of Riga.

On the Italian front in October-November, the Austro-Hungarian army inflicted a major defeat on the Italian army at Caporetto and advanced 100-150 km deep into Italian territory, reaching the approaches to Venice. Only with the help of British and French troops deployed to Italy was it possible to stop the Austrian offensive.

In 1917, there was relative calm on the Thessaloniki front. In April 1917, the Allied forces (which consisted of British, French, Serbian, Italian and Russian troops) carried out an offensive operation that brought minor tactical results to the Entente forces. However, this offensive could not change the situation on the Thessaloniki front.

Due to the extremely harsh winter of 1916-1917, the Russian Caucasian Army did not conduct active operations in the mountains. In order not to suffer unnecessary losses from frost and disease, Yudenich left only military guards at the achieved lines, and placed the main forces in the valleys in populated areas. At the beginning of March, the 1st Caucasian Cavalry Corps Gen. Baratova defeated the Persian group of Turks and, having captured the important road junction of Sinnah (Sanandaj) and the city of Kermanshah in Persia, moved southwest to the Euphrates to meet the British. In mid-March, units of the 1st Caucasian Cossack Division of Raddatz and the 3rd Kuban Division, having covered more than 400 km, joined the allies at Kizil Rabat (Iraq). Türkiye lost Mesopotamia.

After the February Revolution, there were no active military operations by the Russian army on the Turkish front, and after the Bolshevik government concluded the truce with the countries of the Quadruple Alliance in December 1917, it ceased completely.

On the Mesopotamian front, British troops achieved significant success in 1917. Having increased the number of troops to 55 thousand people, the British army launched a decisive offensive in Mesopotamia. The British captured a number of important cities: Al-Kut (January), Baghdad (March), etc. Volunteers from the Arab population fought on the side of the British troops, who greeted the advancing British troops as liberators. Also, by the beginning of 1917, British troops invaded Palestine, where fierce fighting ensued near Gaza. In October, having increased the number of their troops to 90 thousand people, the British launched a decisive offensive near Gaza and the Turks were forced to retreat. By the end of 1917, the British captured a number of settlements: Jaffa, Jerusalem and Jericho.

In East Africa, German colonial troops under the command of Colonel Lettow-Vorbeck, significantly outnumbered by the enemy, put up prolonged resistance and in November 1917, under pressure from Anglo-Portuguese-Belgian troops, invaded the territory of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique.

Diplomatic efforts

On July 19, 1917, the German Reichstag adopted a resolution on the need for peace by mutual agreement and without annexations. But this resolution did not meet with a sympathetic response from the governments of England, France and the USA. In August 1917, Pope Benedict XV offered his mediation to conclude peace. However, the Entente governments also rejected the papal proposal, since Germany stubbornly refused to give unequivocal consent to the restoration of Belgian independence.

1918 Campaign

Decisive victories of the Entente

After the conclusion of peace treaties with the Ukrainian People's Republic (Ukr. Beresteysky world), Soviet Russia and Romania and the liquidation of the Eastern Front, Germany was able to concentrate almost all of its forces on the Western Front and try to inflict a decisive defeat on the Anglo-French troops before the main forces of the American army arrived at the front.

In March-July, the German army launched a powerful offensive in Picardy, Flanders, on the Aisne and Marne rivers, and during fierce battles advanced 40-70 km, but was unable to defeat the enemy or break through the front. Germany's limited human and material resources were depleted during the war. In addition, having occupied vast territories of the former Russian Empire after the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, the German command, in order to maintain control over them, was forced to leave large forces in the east, which negatively affected the course of hostilities against the Entente. General Kuhl, Chief of Staff of Prince Ruprecht's Army Group, puts the number of German troops on the Western Front at approximately 3.6 million; There were about 1 million people on the Eastern Front, including Romania and excluding Turkey.

In May, American troops began operating at the front. In July-August, the second Battle of the Marne took place, which marked the beginning of the Entente counter-offensive. By the end of September, Entente troops, in the course of a series of operations, eliminated the results of the previous German offensive. In a further general offensive in October and early November, most of the captured French territory and part of Belgian territory were liberated.

In the Italian Theater at the end of October, Italian troops defeated the Austro-Hungarian army at Vittorio Veneto and liberated Italian territory captured by the enemy the previous year.

In the Balkan theater, the Entente offensive began on September 15. By November 1, Entente troops liberated the territory of Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, entered the territory of Bulgaria after the truce and invaded the territory of Austria-Hungary.

On September 29, Bulgaria concluded a truce with the Entente, on October 30 - Turkey, on November 3 - Austria-Hungary, on November 11 - Germany.

Other theaters of war

There was a lull on the Mesopotamian front throughout 1918; the fighting here ended on November 14, when the British army, without encountering resistance from Turkish troops, occupied Mosul. There was also a lull in Palestine, for the eyes of the parties were turned to more important theaters of military operations. In the fall of 1918, the British army launched an offensive and occupied Nazareth, the Turkish army was surrounded and defeated. Having captured Palestine, the British invaded Syria. The fighting here ended on October 30.

In Africa, German troops, pressed by superior enemy forces, continued to resist. After leaving Mozambique, the Germans invaded the territory of the British colony of Northern Rhodesia. Only when the Germans learned of Germany's defeat in the war did the colonial troops (which numbered only 1,400 people) lay down their arms.

Results of the war

Political results

In 1919, the Germans were forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which was drawn up by the victorious states at the Paris Peace Conference.

Peace treaties with

• Germany (Treaty of Versailles (1919))
• Austria (Treaty of Saint-Germain (1919))
• Bulgaria (Treaty of Neuilly (1919))
• Hungary (Treaty of Trianon (1920))
• Turkey (Treaty of Sèvres (1920)).

The results of the First World War were the February and October Revolutions in Russia and the November Revolution in Germany, the liquidation of three empires: the Russian, Ottoman Empires and Austria-Hungary, and the latter two were divided. Germany, having ceased to be a monarchy, is reduced territorially and weakened economically. The Civil War began in Russia; on July 6-16, 1918, the left Socialist Revolutionaries (supporters of Russia's continued participation in the war) organized the murder of the German ambassador Count Wilhelm von Mirbach in Moscow and the royal family in Yekaterinburg, with the aim of disrupting the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Soviet Russia and Kaiser Germany. After the February Revolution, the Germans, despite the war with Russia, were worried about the fate of the Russian imperial family, because the wife of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, was German, and their daughters were both Russian princesses and German princesses. The USA has become a great power. The difficult conditions of the Treaty of Versailles for Germany (payment of reparations, etc.) and the national humiliation it suffered gave rise to revanchist sentiments, which became one of the prerequisites for the Nazis coming to power and unleashing World War II.

Territorial changes

As a result of the war, England annexed Tanzania and South-West Africa, Iraq and Palestine, parts of Togo and Cameroon; Belgium - Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda; Greece - Eastern Thrace; Denmark - Northern Schleswig; Italy - South Tyrol and Istria; Romania - Transylvania and Southern Dobrudzha; France - Alsace-Lorraine, Syria, parts of Togo and Cameroon; Japan - the German islands in the Pacific Ocean north of the equator; French occupation of the Saarland.

The independence of the Belarusian People's Republic, the Ukrainian People's Republic, Hungary, Danzig, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland and Yugoslavia was proclaimed.

The Republic of Austria is founded. The German Empire became a de facto republic.

The Rhineland and the Black Sea straits have been demilitarized.

Military results

The First World War spurred the development of new weapons and means of combat. For the first time, tanks, chemical weapons, gas masks, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns were used. Airplanes, machine guns, mortars, submarines, and torpedo boats became widespread. The firepower of the troops increased sharply. New types of artillery appeared: anti-aircraft, anti-tank, infantry escort. Aviation became an independent branch of the military, which began to be divided into reconnaissance, fighter and bomber. Tank troops, chemical troops, air defense troops, and naval aviation emerged. The role of engineering troops increased and the role of cavalry decreased. “Trench tactics” of warfare also appeared with the aim of exhausting the enemy and depleting his economy, working on military orders.

Economic results

The enormous scale and protracted nature of the First World War led to an unprecedented militarization of the economy for industrial states. This had an impact on the course of economic development of all major industrial states in the period between the two world wars: strengthening state regulation and economic planning, the formation of military-industrial complexes, accelerating the development of national economic infrastructures (energy systems, a network of paved roads, etc.) , an increase in the share of production of defense products and dual-use products.

Opinions of contemporaries

Humanity has never been in such a situation. Without having reached a much higher level of virtue and without the benefit of much wiser guidance, people for the first time received in their hands such instruments with which they could destroy all mankind without fail. This is the achievement of all their glorious history, all the glorious labors of previous generations. And people will do well to stop and think about this new responsibility. Death stands on the alert, obedient, expectant, ready to serve, ready to sweep away all peoples "en masse", ready, if necessary, to turn into powder, without any hope of revival, all that remains of civilization. She is only waiting for the word of command. She is waiting for this word from the fragile, frightened creature, who has long served as her victim and who has now become her master for the only time. Churchill

Churchill on Russia in the First World War:

Losses in the First World War

The losses of the armed forces of all powers participating in the world war amounted to about 10 million people. There is still no generalized data on civilian casualties from the effects of military weapons. Famine and epidemics caused by the war caused the death of at least 20 million people.

Memory of the war

France, UK, Poland

Armistice Day (French) jour de l'Armistice) 1918 (11 November) is a national holiday of Belgium and France, celebrated annually. In England, Armistice Day ArmisticeDay) is celebrated on the Sunday closest to November 11 as Remembrance Sunday. On this day, the fallen of both the First and Second World Wars are remembered.

In the first years after the end of the First World War, every municipality in France erected a monument to fallen soldiers. In 1921, the main monument appeared - the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

The main British monument to those killed in the First World War is the Cenotaph (Greek Cenotaph - “empty coffin”) in London on Whitehall Street, the monument to the Unknown Soldier. It was built in 1919 to mark the first anniversary of the end of the war. On the second Sunday of every November, the Cenotaph becomes the center of national Remembrance Day. A week before this, small plastic poppies appear on the chests of millions of Englishmen, which are bought from a special charity Fund for Veterans and War Widows. At 11pm on Sunday, the Queen, ministers, generals, bishops and ambassadors lay poppy wreaths at the Cenotaph and the whole country pauses for two minutes of silence.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw was also originally built in 1925 in memory of those who fell on the fields of the First World War. Now this monument is a monument to those who fell for their Motherland in various years.

Russia and Russian emigration

There is no official day of remembrance in Russia for those killed in the First World War, despite the fact that Russia's losses in this war were the largest of all the countries involved in it.

According to the plan of Emperor Nicholas II, Tsarskoe Selo was to become a special place for the memory of the war. The Sovereign's Military Chamber, founded there back in 1913, was to become the Museum of the Great War. By order of the emperor, a special plot was allocated for the burial of the dead and deceased ranks of the Tsarskoye Selo garrison. This site became known as the “Heroes’ Cemetery.” At the beginning of 1915, the “Cemetery of Heroes” was named the First Fraternal Cemetery. On its territory, on August 18, 1915, the foundation stone of a temporary wooden church took place in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Quench My Sorrows” for the funeral service of soldiers who died and died from wounds. After the end of the war, instead of a temporary wooden church, it was planned to erect a temple - a monument to the Great War, designed by architect S. N. Antonov.

However, these plans were not destined to come true. In 1918, a people's museum of the war of 1914-1918 was created in the building of the War Chamber, but already in 1919 it was abolished, and its exhibits replenished the funds of other museums and repositories. In 1938, the temporary wooden church at the Fraternal Cemetery was dismantled, and what remained of the graves of soldiers was a wasteland overgrown with grass.

On June 16, 1916, a monument to the heroes of the Second Patriotic War was unveiled in Vyazma. In the 1920s, this monument was destroyed.

On November 11, 2008, a memorial stele (cross) dedicated to the heroes of the First World War was erected on the territory of the Fraternal Cemetery in the city of Pushkin.

Also in Moscow on August 1, 2004, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the start of the First World War, on the site of the Moscow City Fraternal Cemetery in the Sokol district, memorial signs were placed “To those who fell in the World War of 1914-1918”, “To the Russian Sisters of Mercy”, “To the Russian Aviators” , buried in the Moscow city fraternal cemetery."

The Russian command entered 1915 with the firm intention of completing the victorious offensive of its troops in Galicia.

There were stubborn battles for the capture of the Carpathian passes and the Carpathian ridge. On March 22, after a six-month siege, Przemysl capitulated with its 127,000-strong garrison of Austro-Hungarian troops. But Russian troops failed to reach the Hungarian plain.

In 1915, Germany and its allies directed the main blow against Russia, hoping to defeat it and take it out of the war. By mid-April, the German command managed to transfer the best combat-ready corps from the Western Front, which, together with the Austro-Hungarian troops, formed a new shock 11th Army under the command of the German General Mackensen.

Having concentrated on the main direction of the counteroffensive troops that were twice as large as the Russian troops, bringing up artillery that outnumbered the Russians by 6 times, and by 40 times in heavy guns, the Austro-German army broke through the front in the Gorlitsa area on May 2, 1915.

Under the pressure of Austro-German troops, the Russian army retreated from the Carpathians and Galicia with heavy fighting, abandoned Przemysl at the end of May, and surrendered Lviv on June 22. Then, in June, the German command, intending to pincer the Russian troops fighting in Poland, launched attacks with its right wing between the Western Bug and the Vistula, and with its left wing in the lower reaches of the Narew River. But here, as in Galicia, the Russian troops, who did not have enough weapons, ammunition and equipment, retreated after heavy fighting.

By mid-September 1915, the offensive initiative of the German army was exhausted. The Russian army was entrenched on the front line: Riga - Dvinsk - Lake Naroch - Pinsk - Ternopil - Chernivtsi, and by the end of 1915 the Eastern Front extended from the Baltic Sea to the Romanian border. Russia lost vast territory, but retained its strength, although since the beginning of the war the Russian army had by this time lost about 3 million people in manpower, of which about 300 thousand were killed.

While the Russian armies were waging a tense, unequal war with the main forces of the Austro-German coalition, Russia's allies - England and France - on the Western Front throughout 1915 organized only a few private military operations that were of no significant importance. In the midst of bloody battles on the Eastern Front, when the Russian army was fighting heavy defensive battles, there was no offensive on the Western Front by the Anglo-French allies. It was adopted only at the end of September 1915, when the offensive operations of the German army on the Eastern Front had already ceased.

Lloyd George felt the remorse of ingratitude towards Russia with great delay. In his memoirs, he later wrote: “History will present its account to the military command of France and England, which, in its selfish stubbornness, doomed its Russian comrades in arms to death, while England and France could so easily have saved the Russians and thus would have helped themselves best.” ".

Having received a territorial gain on the Eastern Front, the German command, however, did not achieve the main thing - it did not force the tsarist government to conclude a separate peace with Germany, although half of all the armed forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary were concentrated against Russia.

Also in 1915, Germany attempted to deal a crushing blow to England. For the first time, she widely used a relatively new weapon - submarines - to stop the supply of necessary raw materials and food to England. Hundreds of ships were destroyed, their crews and passengers were killed. The indignation of neutral countries forced Germany not to sink passenger ships without warning. England, by increasing and accelerating the construction of ships, as well as developing effective measures to combat submarines, overcame the danger hanging over it.

In the spring of 1915, Germany, for the first time in the history of wars, used one of the most inhumane weapons - toxic substances, but this ensured only tactical success.

Germany also experienced failure in the diplomatic struggle. The Entente promised Italy more than Germany and Austria-Hungary, which faced Italy in the Balkans, could promise. In May 1915, Italy declared war on them and diverted some of the troops of Austria-Hungary and Germany.

This failure was only partially compensated by the fact that in the fall of 1915 the Bulgarian government entered the war against the Entente. As a result, the Quadruple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria was formed. The immediate consequence of this was the offensive of German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian troops against Serbia. The small Serbian army heroically resisted, but was crushed by superior enemy forces. The troops of England, France, Russia and the remnants of the Serbian army, sent to help the Serbs, formed the Balkan Front.

As the war dragged on, suspicion and distrust of each other grew among the Entente countries. According to a secret agreement between Russia and its allies in 1915, in the event of a victorious end to the war, Constantinople and the straits were to go to Russia. Fearing the implementation of this agreement, on the initiative of Winston Churchill, under the pretext of an attack on the straits and Constantinople, allegedly to undermine the communications of the German coalition with Turkey, the Dardanelles expedition was undertaken with the aim of occupying Constantinople.

On February 19, 1915, the Anglo-French fleet began shelling the Dardanelles. However, having suffered heavy losses, the Anglo-French squadron stopped bombing the Dardanelles fortifications a month later.

On the Transcaucasian front, Russian forces in the summer of 1915, having repelled the offensive of the Turkish army in the Alashkert direction, launched a counteroffensive in the Vienna direction. At the same time, German-Turkish troops intensified military operations in Iran. Relying on the uprising of the Bakhtiari tribes provoked by German agents in Iran, Turkish troops began to advance to the oil fields and by the fall of 1915 they occupied Kermanshah and Hamadan. But soon the arriving British troops drove the Turks and Bakhtiars away from the oil fields area, and restored the oil pipeline destroyed by the Bakhtiars.

The task of clearing Iran of Turkish-German troops fell to the Russian expeditionary force of General Baratov, which landed in Anzali in October 1915. Pursuing German-Turkish troops, Baratov’s detachments occupied Qazvin, Hamadan, Qom, Kashan and approached Isfahan.

In the summer of 1915, British troops captured German South-West Africa. In January 1916, the British forced German troops surrounded in Cameroon to surrender.

1916 campaign

The 1915 military campaign on the Western Front did not produce any major operational results. Positional battles only delayed the war. The Entente moved to an economic blockade of Germany, to which the latter responded with a merciless submarine war. In May 1915, a German submarine torpedoed the British ocean-going steamer Lusitania, on which over a thousand passengers died.

Without undertaking active offensive military operations, England and France, thanks to the shift in the center of gravity of military operations to the Russian front, received a respite, and focused all their attention on the development of the military industry. They accumulated strength for further war. By the beginning of 1916, England and France had an advantage over Germany by 70-80 divisions and were superior to it in the latest weapons (tanks appeared).

The severe consequences of active offensive military operations in 1914-1915 prompted the leaders of the Entente to convene a meeting of representatives of the general staffs of the allied armies in December 1915 in Chantilly, near Paris, where they came to the conclusion that the war could be ended victoriously only with coordinated active offensive operations on the main fronts .

However, even after this decision, the offensive in 1916 was scheduled primarily on the Eastern Front - June 15, and on the Western Front - July 1.

Having learned about the planned timing of the Entente offensive, the German command decided to take the initiative into their own hands and launch an offensive on the Western Front much earlier. At the same time, the main attack was planned on the area of ​​​​the Verdun fortifications: for the protection of which, in the firm conviction of the German command, “the French command will be forced to sacrifice the last man,” since in the event of a breakthrough of the front at Verdun, a direct path to Paris will open. However, the attack on Verdun, launched on February 21, 1916, was not crowned with success, especially since in March, due to the advance of Russian troops in the area of ​​​​the city of Dvinsky Lake Naroch, the German command was forced to weaken its onslaught near Verdun. However, bloody mutual attacks and counterattacks near Verdun continued for almost 10 months, until December 18, but did not produce significant results. The Verdun operation literally turned into a “meat grinder”, into the destruction of manpower. Both sides suffered colossal losses: the French - 350 thousand people, the Germans - 600 thousand people.

The German offensive on the Verdun fortifications did not change the Entente command's plan to launch the main offensive on July 1, 1916 on the Somme River.

The Somme battles intensified every day. In September, after a continuous barrage of Anglo-French artillery fire, British tanks soon appeared on the battlefield. However, technically still imperfect and used in small numbers, although they brought local success to the attacking Anglo-French troops, they could not provide a general strategic operational breakthrough of the front. By the end of November 1916, the Somme fighting began to subside. As a result of the entire Somme operation, the Entente captured an area of ​​200 square meters. km, 105 thousand German prisoners, 1,500 machine guns and 350 guns. In the battles on the Somme, both sides lost over 1 million 300 thousand killed, wounded and prisoners.

Carrying out the decisions agreed upon at a meeting of representatives of the general staffs in December 1915 in Chantilly, the high command of the Russian army planned for June 15 the main offensive on the Western Front in the direction of Baranovichi with a simultaneous auxiliary attack by the armies of the Southwestern Front under the command of General Brusilov in the Galician-Bukovinian direction. However, the German offensive on Verdun, which began in February, again forced the French government to ask the Russian tsarist government for help through an offensive on the Eastern Front. At the beginning of March, Russian troops launched an offensive in the area of ​​​​Dvinsk and Lake Navoch. The attacks of Russian troops continued until March 15, but led only to tactical successes. As a result of this operation, Russian troops suffered heavy losses, but they pulled over a significant number of German reserves and thereby eased the position of the French at Verdun.

French troops were given the opportunity to regroup and strengthen their defenses.

The Dvina-Naroch operation made it difficult to prepare for the general offensive on the Russian-German front, scheduled for June 15. However, after the help to the French, there was a new persistent request from the command of the Entente troops to help the Italians. In May 1916, the 400,000-strong Austro-Hungarian army went on the offensive in Trentino and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Italian army. Saving the Italian army, as well as the Anglo-French in the west, from complete defeat, the Russian command began an offensive of troops in the southwestern direction on June 4, earlier than scheduled. Russian troops under the command of General Brusilov, having broken through the enemy’s defenses on an almost 300-kilometer front, began to advance into Eastern Galicia and Bukovina (Brusilovsky breakthrough). But in the midst of the offensive, despite General Brusilov’s requests to reinforce the advancing troops with reserves and ammunition, the high command of the Russian army refused to send reserves to the southwestern direction and began, as previously planned, an offensive in the western direction. However, after a weak blow in the direction of Baranovichi, the commander of the northwestern direction, General Evert, postponed the general offensive to the beginning of July.

Meanwhile, the troops of General Brusilov continued to develop the offensive they had begun and by the end of June had advanced far into Galicia and Bukovina. On July 3, General Evert resumed the attack on Baranovichi, but attacks by Russian troops on this section of the front were not successful. Only after the complete failure of the offensive of General Evert’s troops did the high command of the Russian troops recognize the offensive of General Brusilov’s troops on the Southwestern Front as the main one - but it was already too late, time was lost, the Austrian command managed to regroup its troops and pull up reserves. Six divisions were transferred from the Austro-Italian front, and the German command, at the height of the Verdun and Somme battles, transferred eleven divisions to the Eastern Front. Further advance of Russian troops was suspended.

As a result of the offensive on the Southwestern Front, Russian troops advanced deep into Bukovina and Eastern Galicia, occupying about 25 thousand square meters. km of territory. 9 thousand officers and over 400 thousand soldiers were captured. However, this success of the Russian army in the summer of 1916 did not bring a decisive strategic result due to the inertia and incompetence of the high command, backwardness of transport, and lack of weapons and ammunition. Still, the offensive of Russian troops in 1916 played a major role. It eased the position of the Allies and, together with the offensive of the Anglo-French troops on the Somme, negated the initiative of the German troops and forced them in the future to strategic defense, and the Austro-Hungarian army after the Brusilov attack in 1916 was no longer capable of serious offensive operations.

When Russian troops under the command of Brusilov inflicted a major defeat on the Austro-Werger troops on the Southwestern Front, the Romanian ruling circles considered that the opportune moment had come to enter the war on the side of the winners, especially since, contrary to the opinion of Russia, England and France insisted on the entry of Romania into the war. On August 17, Romania independently began the war in Transylvania and initially achieved some success there, but when the Somme fighting died down, Austro-German troops easily defeated the Romanian army and occupied almost all of Romania, obtaining a fairly important source of food and oil. As the Russian command foresaw, 35 infantry and 11 cavalry divisions had to be transferred to Romania in order to strengthen the front along the Lower Danube - Braila - Focsani - Dorna - Vatra line.

On the Caucasian front, developing an offensive, Russian troops captured Erzurum on February 16, 1916, and occupied Trabzond (Trebizond) on April 18. Battles developed successfully for the Russian troops in the Urmia direction, where Ruvandiz was occupied, and near Lake Van, where Russian troops entered Mush and Bitlis in the summer.

In August 1914, the First World War began. Serbian student Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archerzog Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. And Russia was drawn into the First World War. Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Young Bosnia organization, provoked a global conflict that lasted for four long years.

On August 8, 1914, an eclipse occurred in the Russian Empire, which passed through the sites of the First World War. The countries immediately divided into several blocs (unions), despite the fact that everyone in this bloc supported their own interests.

Russia, in addition to its territorial interests - control over the regime in the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, was frightened by the growing influence of Germany in the European community. Even then, Russian politicians viewed Germany as a threat to their territory. Great Britain (also part of the Entente) wanted to defend its territorial interests. And France dreamed of taking revenge for the lost Franco-Prussian War of 1870. But it should be noted that there were some disagreements within the Entente itself - for example, constant friction between the Russians and the British.

Germany (the Triple Alliance) already in the First World War sought sole domination over Europe. Economic and political. Since 1915, Italy participated in the war on the side of the Entente, despite the fact that it was then a member of the Triple Alliance.

On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia, as expected, could not help but support its ally. Opinions in the Russian Empire were divided. On August 1, 1914, the Prussian ambassador to Russia, Count Friedrich Pourtales, announced a declaration of war to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov. According to Sazonov’s recollections, Friedrich went to the window and began to cry. Nicholas II announced that the Russian Empire was entering the First World War. There was some kind of duality in Russia at that time. On the one hand, anti-German sentiment reigned, on the other hand, patriotic enthusiasm. French diplomat Maurice Paleologue wrote about the mood of Sergius Sazonov. In his opinion, Sergei Sazonov said something like this: “My formula is simple, we must destroy German imperialism. We will achieve this only through a series of military victories; We are facing a long and very difficult war.”

At the beginning of 1915, the importance of the Western Front increased. In France, fighting took place somewhat south of Verdun, in historical Port Artois. Whether this is true or not, there really were anti-German sentiments at that time. After the war, Constantinople was to belong to Russia. Nikolai Alexandrovich himself accepted the war with enthusiasm and helped the soldiers a lot. His family, wife and daughters were constantly at hospitals in different cities, playing the roles of nurses. The emperor became the owner of the Order of St. George after a German plane flew over him. This was in 1915.

The winter operation in the Carpathians took place in February 1915. And in it, the Russians lost most of Bukovina and Chernivtsi. In March 1915, after the death of Pyotr Nesterov, his air ram was used by A. A. Kazakov. Both Nesterov and Kazakov are known for shooting down German planes at the cost of their lives. Frenchman Roland Gallos used a machine gun to attack the enemy in April. The machine gun was located behind the propeller.

A.I. Denikin in his work “Essays on Russian Troubles” wrote the following: “The spring of 1915 will remain in my memory forever. The great tragedy of the Russian army is the retreat from Galicia. No cartridges, no shells. Bloody battles day after day, difficult marches day after day, endless fatigue - physical and moral; sometimes timid hopes, sometimes hopeless horror.”

On May 7, 1915, another tragedy occurred. After the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, this apparently became the last cup of patience for the United States. In fact, the death of the Titanic can or cannot be linked to the beginning of the First World War, but few people know that in 1915 the loss of the passenger ship Lusitania occurred, which accelerated America's entry into the First World War. On May 7, 1915, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20.

The crash killed 1,197 people. Probably by this time the patience of the United States in relation to Germany had finally burst. On May 21, 1915, the White House finally announced to the German ambassadors that this was an “Unfriendly Step.” The public exploded. Anti-German sentiments were supported by pogroms and attacks on German shops and stores. Outraged civilians from different countries destroyed everything they could to show the extent of the horror they were gripped by. There are still disputes over what the Lusitania carried on board, but nevertheless, all the documents were in the hands of Woodrow Wilson and the decisions were made by the president himself. On April 6, 1917, after yet another investigation into the sinking of the Lusitania, Congress announced that the United States had entered the First World War. In principle, “Conspiracy Theories” are sometimes adhered to by researchers of the Titanic disaster, however, there is this point in relation to the Lusitania. Time will tell what actually happened there in both the first and second cases. But the fact remains that 1915 became a year of further tragedies for the world.

On May 23, 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. In July-August 1915, the Russian essayist, prose writer and writer was in France. At this time he realizes that he needs to go to the front. He constantly corresponds with the poet Maximilian Voloshin at that time, and this is what he writes: “My relatives began to oppose this: “at home they don’t allow me to join the army (especially Lev Borisovich), but it seems to me that as soon as I arrange my money a little business, I'll go. I don’t know why, but there is a growing feeling in me that this is how it should be, regardless of decrees, circulars and sections. Stupid, isn't it?

The French at this time were preparing an offensive near Artois. The war depressed everyone. Nevertheless, Savinkov’s relatives allowed him to go to the front as a war correspondent. On August 23, 1915, Nicholas II assumed the title of Commander-in-Chief. This is what he wrote in his diary: “Slept well. The morning was rainy; in the afternoon the weather improved and it became quite warm. At 3.30 I arrived at my Headquarters, one mile from the mountains. Mogilev. Nikolasha was waiting for me. After talking with him, the gene accepted. Alekseev and his first report. Everything went well! After drinking tea, I went to explore the surrounding area.”

From September there was a powerful Allied offensive - the so-called third Battle of Artois. By the end of 1915, the entire front actually became one straight line. In the summer of 1916, the Allies began to wage an offensive campaign on Sonma.

In 1916, Savinkov sent home the book “In France during the War.” However, in Russia this work had very modest success - most Russians were sure that Russia needed to get out of the First World War.

Text: Olga Sysueva

On June 28, 1914, the murder of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife was committed in Bosnia, in which Serbia was accused of involvement. And although the British statesman Edward Gray called for a resolution to the conflict, offering the 4 largest powers as mediators, he only managed to further inflame the situation and drag all of Europe, including Russia, into the war.

Almost a month later, Russia announces the mobilization of troops and conscription into the army, after Serbia turns to it for help. However, what was initially planned as a precautionary measure provoked a response from Germany with demands for an end to conscription. As a result, on August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia.

Main events of the First World War.

Years of the First World War.

• When did the First World War start? The year the First World War began was 1914 (July 28).
• When did World War II end? The year the First World War ended was 1918 (November 11).

Key dates of the First World War.

During the 5 years of the war there were many important events and operations, but among them several stand out that played a decisive role in the war itself and its history.

• July 28 Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. Russia supports Serbia.
• On August 1, 1914, Germany declares war on Russia. Germany in general has always strived for world domination. And throughout August, everyone gives each other ultimatums and does nothing but declare war.
• In November 1914, Great Britain begins a naval blockade of Germany. Gradually, active mobilization of the population into the army begins in all countries.
• At the beginning of 1915, large-scale offensive operations were launched in Germany on its eastern front. The spring of the same year, namely April, can be associated with such a significant event as the beginning of the use of chemical weapons. Again from Germany.
• In October 1915, hostilities began against Serbia from Bulgaria. In response to these actions, the Entente declares war on Bulgaria.
• In 1916, the use of tank technology began, mainly by the British.
• In 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne in Russia and a provisional government came to power, which led to a split in the army. Active military operations continue.
• In November 1918, Germany proclaims itself a republic - the result of the revolution.
• On November 11, 1918, in the morning, Germany signed the Compiègne Armistice and from that time on, hostilities ended.

The end of the First World War.

Despite the fact that for most of the war German forces were able to inflict serious blows on the Allied army, by December 1, 1918, the Allies were able to break through to the borders of Germany and begin its occupation.

Later, on June 28, 1919, having no other choice, German representatives signed a peace treaty in Paris, which was eventually called the “Peace of Versailles,” and put an end to the First World War.

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 large countries took part in the war: Austria-Hungary (July 27, 1914 - November 3, 1918), Germany (August 1, 1914 - November 11, 1918), Turkey (October 29, 1914 - October 30, 1918), Bulgaria (October 14, 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
Austria-Hungary
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
Great Britain
TRIPLE ALLIANCE
Germany
Austria-Hungary

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
TRIPLE ALLIANCE
Germany
Austria-Hungary

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 repelled 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 provisions, 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. Austro-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