1914 - 1918

(Nineteen hundred and fourteen - one thousand nine hundred and eighteen)

1) SHORT VERSION of World 1

2) Detailed version of the first world war

SHORT version

World War I in brief 1914 - 1918

Pervaya mirovaya vo yna 1914 - 1918

The beginning of the first world war
Stages of the first world war
Causes of the first world war
Results of the first world war

The First World War, in short, is one of the largest and most severe military conflicts of the 20th century.

1. Causes of the military conflict
2. Major contributors
   
3. Reason for war
4. The beginning of the war 1914
5. The course of the war
   
6. Results of the war (1918)

Causes of the military conflict

• To understand the causes of the First World War, it is necessary to briefly consider the balance of power in Europe. Three major world powers - the Russian Empire, Great Britain and England by the 19th century had already divided spheres of influence among themselves. Until a certain point, Germany did not strive for a dominant position in Europe, it was more concerned with its economic growth.
• 
  But everything changed at the end of the 19th century. Having strengthened economically and militarily, Germany began to desperately need a new living space for a growing population and sales markets for its goods. Colonies were needed, which Germany did not have. To achieve this, it was necessary to start a new redivision of the world by defeating the allied bloc of three powers - England, Russia and France.
• 
  By the end of the 19th century, Germany's aggressive plans became finally clear to its neighbors. In response to the German threat, the Entente alliance was created, consisting of Russia, France and England, which joined them.
• 
  In addition to Germany's desire to reclaim its living space and colonies, there were other reasons for the First World War. This question is so complicated that there is still no single point of view on this matter. Each of the main countries participating in the conflict puts forward its own reasons.
• 
  The First World War, in short, began because of irreconcilable contradictions between the countries of the Entente and the Central Union, primarily between Great Britain and Germany. Other states also had their claims to each other.
• 
  Another reason for the war is the choice of the path of development of society. And here again two points of view collided - the Western European and the Central South European.
  Could the war have been avoided? All sources unanimously say that it is possible if the leadership of the countries participating in the conflict really wanted this. Germany was most interested in the war, for which it was fully prepared, and made every effort to get it started.

The main participants in the hostilities of 1914-1918

The war was fought between the two largest political blocs at that time - the Entente and the Central Bloc (formerly the Triple Alliance). The Entente included the Russian Empire, England and France. The central block consisted of the following countries: Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy. The latter later joined the Entente, and Bulgaria and Turkey entered the Triple Alliance.
In total, 38 countries participated in the First World War.

Reason for war

The beginning of the military conflict was associated with the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. The killer was a member of a Yugoslav revolutionary youth organization.

The beginning of the war 1914-1918

This event was enough for Austria-Hungary to start a war with Serbia. In early July, the Austrian authorities announce that Serbia is behind the assassination of the Archduke and put forward an ultimatum that could not be fulfilled. Serbia, however, agrees to all but one of its terms. Germany, which badly needed the war, stubbornly pushed Austria-Hungary to declare war. At this time, all three countries are mobilizing.
On July 28 (1914), Austria-Hungary announced that Serbia had not fulfilled the conditions of the ultimatum, began shelling the capital and brought troops into its territory. Nicholas II calls in a telegram to William I for a peaceful resolution of the situation with the help of the Hague Conference. The German authorities are silent in response.
31 july (1914) already Germany announces an ultimatum to Russia and demands to stop mobilization, and on August 1 (1914) an official declaration of war comes.
It must be said that none of the participants in these events imagined that the war, which they planned to end within a few months, would drag on for more than 4 years from 1914 to 1918.

World War I - Course of War

1. It is easier and more convenient to divide the course of the war into five periods, according to the years during which it went on.
   1914 - hostilities unfolded on the Western (France) and Eastern (Prussia, Russia) fronts, the Balkans and colonies (Oceania, Africa and China). Germany quickly captured Belgium and Luxembourg, and launched an offensive against France. Russia led a successful offensive in Prussia. In general, in 1914, none of the countries managed to fully realize their plans.
2. 
   1915 - fierce battles took place on the Western Front, where France and Germany were desperate to turn the tide in their favor. On the Eastern Front, the situation changed for the worse for the Russian troops. Due to supply problems, the army began to retreat, losing Galicia and Poland.
3. 
   1916 - during this period, the bloodiest battle of Verdun took place on the Western Front, during which more than a million people died. Russia, trying to help the allies and pull the forces of the German army over to itself, made a successful counteroffensive attempt - the Brusilov breakthrough.
4. 
   1917 - the success of the Entente troops. The USA joins them. As a result of revolutionary events, Russia is actually leaving the war.
5. 
   1918 - Russia concludes peace with Germany on extremely unfavorable and difficult conditions. The rest of Germany's allies conclude peace with the Entente countries. Germany remains alone and in November 1918 agrees to surrender.

Results of the war 1918

Before World War II, this military conflict was the largest, affecting almost the entire globe. The shocking number of victims (given the loss of killed among the military and civilians, as well as the wounded) is about 80 million people. Within 5 years (from the beginning of the war to 1918), the wars disintegrated such empires as the Ottoman, Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian.

World War I

DETAILED VERSION

CONTENT OF DETAILED ARTICLE:

1. Causes of the war
   
2. Reason for war
   
3. Participating countries
4. Russia before the war
   
5. The balance of forces and means
   
6. Events of 1914
   
7. Events of 1915
   
8. Events of 1916
   
9. Events of 1917
   
10. Events of 1918
    
11. Russia's withdrawal from the war
    
12. Results of the worldwars

13. World War I 1914-1918 map

Causes of the war

The main reason for the outbreak of the First World War was the desire of the developed countries of Europe, such as England, France, Austria-Hungary, to remake the world order. Collapsed world colonial system, which allowed these countries to enrich themselves by plundering colonies, forced them to look for other resources.
We had to think about new sales markets and expand our spheres of influence. To do this, it is necessary to weaken the economic and military development of competitors. It was supposed, in the course of hostilities, to solve their own problems. Indeed, in every country, the influence of nationalists has increased.

Relationships have worsened:

The First World War is inevitable ........

Between England and Germany. England could not afford to increase the military power of Germany, her intervention in what is happening in the Balkans. And Germany wanted to weaken Britain's naval superiority.

Between Germany and France. The first was ready to take back Lorraine and Alsace, lost in the war, and to conquer a coal deposit in the Sarsk region.

Between Germany and Russia. The Germans simply dreamed of taking away the Polish, Ukrainian and Baltic lands from Russia.

Between Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. These two countries wanted to influence the course of events in the Balkan Peninsula. Russia aspired to become the only mistress in the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.

In such conditions, war was inevitable.

Reason for war

On June 28, 1914, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, who was to become the royal throne, took place. The murder received a huge resonance. And on June 29, that is, on the second day they killed French politician Jean Jaures. He was an active opponent of the impending war.

Participating countries

Two groups took part in the war.

1. Atlanta, it included the military armies of Russia, Great Britain, France. These countries were officially members of the union. And the allied forces of America, Italy, Canada, Romania also took part.

2. The triple alliance of Germany, Turkey, Austria-Hungary. Later - Bulgaria.

Russia before the war

• Before the war of 1914, a military reform was carried out in Russia. The costs of maintaining the army and navy have increased. The numerical composition was equal to two million people. A rather perfect Charter of the Armed Forces was adopted, motivating soldiers and officers to show initiative and courage.
• The country's economy has achieved impressive results. The industry was on the rise, capital investments in the technical modernization of enterprises were growing. Trusts, syndicates, and concerns began to appear.
• Stolypinskaya began in agriculture in 1906 agrarian reform... Its goal was to create strong village owners. The transformation of agricultural enterprises began, and the growth of production increased markedly.
• Per capita incomes grew rapidly (17% from 1908 to 1913).
• The transformations have led to that. That a constitutional form of the monarchy was established in the country. A multi-party system was established (Octobrists, Cadets, liberals, democrats, etc.). The State Duma, almost unanimously, voted to grant loans to the military company. It was supposed to conduct the war until victory. The Bolsheviks were against lending. The general mobilization of the population began

The balance of forces and means

Despite the positive changes in the army, the main drawback was the lack of technical equipment. Russian generals underestimated the important role of artillery in the course of hostilities. As before, the bet was placed on the cavalry and infantry. As a result, more than 70% of human lives, during the entire war, were destroyed by the enemy's artillery.

Russia was never able to complete preparations for the First World War at the proper level, unlike Germany.

The First World War distributed the places of the different countries of the participants in terms of combat equipment

In terms of the number of heavy guns, Germany was in first place with 3200, Austria-Hungary was second with 1000, and Russia was third with only 198 guns.
... In terms of the number of infantry, the first place was occupied by Russia - 5.3 million people. Second Germany and France - 3.8 million people each. Austria-Hungary had about 2.3 million.

In Germany, industrial enterprises could supply 250 thousand shells to the army every day. The Germans were well aware that at the front, much would depend on artillery.
Due to the poor technical armament of the Russian troops, the war became a very difficult test for her.

Events of 1914

Russia took part in the First World War on August 01, 1914. Nicholas 2 became the commander-in-chief.
On August 4, Germany, without declaring war, invaded Belgium. Perfectly equipped troops moved boldly across foreign soil. But the French managed to quickly transfer their divisions to the place of the breakthrough. From the first days, the Germans were involved in hostilities on two fronts. In the east, there were battles with the Russians. And on the western front with the French. The German command urgently developed the "Schlieffen plan". It was an ambitious plan for a lightning victory. It was planned to defeat France in 40 days, and then send all forces to Russia.

On August 7 (1914), the French already moved into Germany, capturing the cities. But under the onslaught of the enemy, they had to return to their positions, even leaving a small part of their territories.
German troops advanced rapidly deep into France. They had to bypass Paris and surround the French army. But it was a daunting task. The soldiers were already tired of the many kilometers of crossings with battles, communications fell behind, the flanks were bare. It was decided, instead of capturing the French in a ring, to hit them in the rear. Carrying out the maneuver, they left the right flank of the army without adequate protection, which the French command immediately took advantage of. This led to the defeat of the Germans. September 5 (1914) near the small river Marne, a terrible battle took place. More than two million people took part in it.

This battle was very significant morally. This was the first victory for the French, which raised the spirits and raised the morale of the soldiers. For the Germans, on the contrary, it became the beginning of disappointment and depression.
On November 11 (1914), German troops threw the British, students and workers on the machine guns. This was the beginning of the fact that people and soldiers began to be used as "cannon fodder".

The Russian army, completely understaffed, launched an offensive in Prussia. Initially, the successful actions of the Russians forced the Germans to retreat. They had to transfer part of the army from the French front. The grand plan has failed. Russia was able to save France at the cost of its two destroyed armies.
In August, Russia launched an offensive in Galicia against Austria. It was very successful and Austria withdrew from the war, losing about 400,000 people. The Russians killed about 150,000.

Outcome of 1914. It was a dynamic military action. The armies were maneuvering, there was no continuous front, even temporary fortifications were erected. Only at the end of autumn, tired of the offensive, did the troops go over to the defensive. The widespread construction of trenches and barriers began.
For Russia, the company has developed quite well. A blow was struck at the Austrians and even managed to seize territory. The Germans were unable to complete their plans for Russia.

A protracted war began in the positions.

Events of 1915

The lull on the western front reigned for more than four months. Germany was preparing forces against Russia.
On April 22 (1915), the Germans, for the first time in the world, used chemical weapons (chlorine) when inflicting a counterattack on British troops. 5,000 people died. The Germans took advantage of the panic and broke through the front. After this attack, gas masks were developed in all armies.
And on May 3, the Entente countries launched an offensive, before which. Artillery preparation was conducted for 6 days. More than two million shells were fired.
In 1915, the German command decided to send all its forces to the eastern front, where there was a war with Russia. The Germans came to the conclusion that it was the most ineffective army. They created a plan for the destruction of the Russian armies. It was thwarted, but at the cost of very heavy losses. About 800,000 people were killed, about 900,000 people were surrendered. Poland, most of western Ukraine, the Baltic states were lost. Russian troops took up defenses along the entire front.

In the spring, the Gorlitsky breakthrough was made by the Germans and Austrians. A huge number of troops were concentrated in Galicia.
On April 19 (1915) the offensive began. The Russians were sorely lacking ammunition for light weapons. And heavy, there was generally inept command, a shortage of soldiers led to that. What had to retreat
The Germans, having achieved success, decided to continue the offensive.
A crisis in the supply of provisions, weapons, and ammunition began in the Russian army. As a result, Galicia was also lost. The terrible mistakes of the command and the poor technical equipment of the army led to such a deplorable result. The German superiority in heavy artillery was 40 times greater.

Inactive military operations were going on at the front with France. Nobody took the initiative into their own hands. The forces were gathering, the economy was mobilized, preparations were underway for the further conduct of the war. And although Nikolai 2 asked for help from the allies several times, he was refused.

But the Germans did not manage to withdraw Russia from the war, although a lot of effort was expended. It was obvious that the war would last for a long time, because no one gained a significant advantage over a year and a half of hostilities.
At the end of the year, the front was an almost straight line that connected the Baltic and Black seas. The Russian economy was weakening more and more, along with it the fighting spirit of the soldiers was weak.

Events of 1916

In 1916, the Germans launched a massive offensive against France. Paris was their target. The first to stand in the way was the city of Verdun. The battles near this heroic city lasted until the very end of the year. More than two million people died. Only because on the southern front of the Germans the Russian troops stepped up their actions, France managed to retain its positions.
In the battles of Verdun, for the first time, technical innovations were applied, such as a flamethrower and a fighter plane with a machine gun on board.
In May 1916, a long, Russian offensive began, under the command of General Brusilov. They managed to break through the enemy's defenses and occupy 120 kilometers inland. The German army suffered terrible losses, more than one and a half million dead. And again the Germans managed to stop our offensive, only by transferring the army from near Verdun.
As a result, in 1916 Atlanta had the advantage and initiative.

Events of 1917

In 1917, a revolutionary situation heated up in Russia and Germany. The economic situation of the countries has deteriorated catastrophically. The prices of food rose, along with them the indignation of the people grew. The large number of killed on the fronts and the instability of the economy allowed the revolutionaries of both countries to become more active.
The Atlantean countries began to actively help the United States, because the situation in the armies was critical. Discontent grew every day. On the Eastern Front, active agitation was carried out by the Bolsheviks. The army finally lost the rest of its combat capability. It was a very harsh winter in the Caucasus, and the armies were not fighting. Frost and disease took the lives of the soldiers. General Yudenich decided to leave only guards on the battle lines, and sent all his forces to the valley. In villages for accommodation in apartments.

The Americans entered the First World War, and Germany had to fight again on 2 fronts. It was difficult and she went on the defensive.
In the spring of 1017, the Germans undertook offensive actions on the Western Front. Under pressure from the allies, the Provisional Government sent the Russian army on the offensive, thereby once again saving them from big problems. The troops themselves suffered huge losses. These were the key events of 1917

Events of 1918

Finally, Germany did not have to wage a war on 2 fronts. And in the spring she began active operations on the Western Front. But it became clear that the army was exhausted and it was simply necessary to take a break for rest.
In winter, the Germans began to prepare for offensives. An instruction was issued on the rules of the offensive in trench warfare. The armies, which were entrusted with the main offensive functions, were withdrawn to the rear. There, soldiers and officers were trained in new tactics of offensive combat. It was a surprise attack by special forces. It should be preceded by a short but very effective artillery preparation.

In March, Germany demonstrated the offensive in action under the new instructions. Indeed, this tactic worked. The western front was broken through, and the Germans advanced 50 kilometers behind enemy lines. All Germany was glad, it seemed that the end of the war was soon. Victory was on the horizon

On July 15, 1918, a decisive offensive was scheduled. The euphoria of the Germans was so great that even the officers voiced secret information in inappropriate places, and it was not possible to take Paris. The Entente countries had reserves and could quickly transfer them to the places of the breakthrough. The Germans could not make up for the heavy losses. All resources have been depleted and depleted.
On August 8, 7 German divisions were defeated. The soldiers began to surrender in whole units.

In the fall of 1918, the countries of Atlanta began their offensive. The Germans were expelled from France and Belgium. And already in October, Germany was left alone at all, because the allied countries made peace with the enemy. In Germany itself, Wilhelm 2 was overthrown. So the world war came to an end in 1918.

Russia's withdrawal from the war

The Russian soldiers, tired and worn out, did not want to fight anymore. There was a shortage of provisions, uniforms, and the army was poorly equipped. But, all the same, albeit with great difficulty, the army moved forward. The Germans transferred fresh troops, and the allied countries only watched the confrontation.
On July 6, the Germans launched a counteroffensive. It was a decisive blow. Killed 150 thousand soldiers. The combat capability of the army was completely destroyed. Russia could no longer continue this bloody war.

In October 1917, the Bolsheviks, who seized power, put forward a demand to withdraw from the First World War. At the congress of the Bolsheviks, the decree "On Peace" was signed.
Russia withdrew from the war at a time when the Germans were completely weakened. It remained quite a bit to strain all the Entente countries, and victory was guaranteed. For the allies, the exit was completely unexpected. The Bolsheviks knew that for their victory it was necessary to end the war. They offered this to all countries. But the allies did not even respond to such a proposal. Then the Russians, unilaterally, decided on a peace treaty. The hostilities were suspended for 28 days. Lengthy negotiations began.
More experienced German diplomats and lawyers in their demands put forward the country's independence, and the possibility not to withdraw troops from the border with the Russian Empire. Trotsky, who represented Russia, said that he would not sign any peace documents on such terms. He just left Brest for Moscow.

Negotiations were thwarted and the Germans launched an offensive. Then Lenin decided on all German conditions.
The Brest-Litovsk Treaty was very tough. Russia ceded its territories and had to pay indemnities.
On March 3, 1918, the shameful Brest Peace was signed, according to which Russia ceded to its opponents about 1 million square meters. m. territories. Russia withdrew from the war on dire conditions. But rest and preparation for the next battles and imperialist forces were extremely important to her. These were the results of Russia's withdrawal from the First World War.

The military results of the war that lasted until 1918

1. In starting the war, the generals of staff drew on the experience of previous military campaigns.
2. Victory was to be achieved by massive attacks and the destruction of a large number of the enemy.
3. After this military campaign, it was concluded that modern wars will involve the entire civilian population in the process as well.
4. The economy should be directed towards military needs.
5. And the conflict can only end in complete victory.The World War served as the impetus for the development of new weapons.
6. Tanks appeared, chemical weapons and flamethrowers were used for the first time. Aircraft and submarines took an active part in the battles.
7. The firepower of the armies was supported by machine guns and mortars, as well as anti-aircraft guns. New independent types of troops appeared: air defense, tank and engineering troops.

World War I determined the same e the onomic results of the 1914-1918 war

• The United States emerged from the war as a strong power. During the war, the national economy of the country grew by almost 40%. Military supplies, which were carried out for both sides of the conflict, made it possible to enrich all kinds of corporations in the country. In America, during this period, huge reserves of gold were concentrated. This contributed to the fact that now the Americans played the role of the world creditor. The financial center has moved to New York.
• In Europe, the population has decreased by 36 million. The territories of the countries participating in the war were destroyed and plundered. Their national wealth was significantly reduced. At the same time, it only grew in Japan and the United States. The war has become a good source of income for these countries. Their profits were over $ 35 billion.
• France regained Lorraine and a 15-year lease of a coal deposit in the Saar region. England and France became financially dependent on the United States.
• England lost most of its fleet.
• Germany, whose war claimed millions of lives, was in complete economic ruin. In addition, she was obliged to compensate the losses to the countries that won the conflict, more than 130 million marks. The navy was almost completely destroyed. And according to the peace treaty, she could not have her own army, amounting to more than 100,000 people.
• The protracted and prolonged war has shown everything weak spots in the economies of countries. For the first time there was such a thing as inflation. After it, planning began to be applied, the development of military complexes, defense enterprises.
• But in subsequent years, loans from America and England, the introduction of scientific methods into production, the education of engineers and high qualifications of workers, allowed backward Germany to come out on top in the European market. German firms quickly recovered their positions. In the 1920s, the rise and stabilization of the economy began. The United States developed especially rapidly.

Map of the First World War until 1918 number 1

Map of the First World War until 1918 No. 2

Map of the First World War until 1918 No. 3

Almost 100 years ago, an event took place in world history that turned the entire world order, captured almost half of the world in a whirlpool of hostilities, which led to the collapse of powerful empires and, as a result, to a wave of revolutions - the Great War. In 1914, Russia was forced to enter the First World War, into a fierce confrontation in several theaters of war. In a war marked by the use of chemical weapons, the first large-scale use of tanks and aircraft, a war with a huge number of human casualties. The outcome of this war became tragic for Russia - a revolution, a fratricidal civil war, a split in the country, loss of faith and millennial culture, a split of the whole society into two irreconcilable camps. The tragic collapse of the state system of the Russian Empire overturned the age-old way of life of all strata of society without exception. A series of wars and revolutions, like an explosion of colossal power, shattered the world of Russian material culture into millions of pieces. The history of this catastrophic war for Russia, for the sake of the ideology that reigned in the country after the October Revolution, was viewed as a historical fact and as an imperialist war, and not a war "For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland."

And now our task is to revive and preserve the memory of the Great War, about its heroes, about the patriotism of the entire Russian people, about its moral and spiritual values, and its history.

It is quite possible that the world community will widely celebrate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. And most likely the role and participation of the Russian army in the Great War at the beginning of the twentieth century, as well as the history of the First World War, will be forgotten today. In order to counter the facts of misrepresentation national history RPO "Academy of Russian Symbols" MARS "opens a memorial project dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the First World War.

Within the framework of the project, we will try to objectively illuminate the events of 100 years ago with the help of newspaper publications and photographs of the Great War.

Two years ago, the people's project "Fragments of Great Russia" was launched, the main task of which is to preserve the memory of the historical past, the history of our country in the objects of its material culture: photographs, postcards, clothes, signs, medals, household items and household items, all kinds of everyday little things and other artifacts that made up the integral environment of the citizens of the Russian Empire. Formation of a reliable picture of the everyday life of the Russian Empire.

The origin and beginning of the great war

Entering the second decade of the 20th century, European society was in an alarming state. The vast sections of it experienced the extreme burden of military conscription and military taxes. It was found that by 1914 the expenditures of large powers for military needs had grown to 121 billion, and they absorbed about 1/12 of the total income received from wealth and the work of the population of cultural countries. Europe was clearly at a loss for itself, burdening all other types of earnings and profits with expenditure on extermination funds. But at a time when the majority of the population seemed to be protesting with all its might against the growing demands of an armed peace, well-known groups wanted militarism to continue or even intensify. Such were all the suppliers to the army, navy and fortresses, iron-making, steel and machine factories, which produced weapons and shells, the numerous technicians and workers employed in them, as well as bankers and holders of papers, who provided loans to the government for equipment. Moreover, the leaders of this type of industry got so into the taste of huge profits that they began to seek a real war, expecting even more orders from it.

In the spring of 1913, Reichstag deputy Karl Liebknecht, son of the founder of the Social Democratic pariah, exposed the intrigues of war supporters. It turned out that the Krupp firm systematically bribes employees in the military and naval departments in order to learn the secrets of new inventions and attract government orders. It turned out that French newspapers, bribed by the director of a German rifle factory, Gontard, spread false rumors about French weapons in order to make the German government want to take on more and more weapons in turn. It turned out that there are international companies that benefit from the supply of weapons to various states, even those at war with each other.

Under pressure from the same circles interested in the war, the governments continued their armaments. At the beginning of 1913, there was an increase in the number of active army personnel in almost all states. In Germany, they decided to increase the figure to 872,000 soldiers, and the Reichstag gave a one-time contribution of 1 billion and an annual new tax of 200 million for the maintenance of the surplus units. On this occasion, in England, supporters of a militant policy began to talk about the need to introduce universal military service so that England could catch up with the land powers. The position of France was especially difficult, almost painful in this matter, owing to the extremely weak growth of the population. Meanwhile, in France from 1800 to 1911, the population increased only from 27.5 million. to 39.5 million, in Germany over the same period it rose from 23 million. up to 65. With such a relatively weak increase, France could not keep up with Germany in the size of the active army, although it took 80% of the draft age, while Germany was limited to only 45%. The radicals dominating in France, in agreement with the conservative nationalists, saw only one outcome - to replace the two-year service, introduced in 1905, with a three-year one; under this condition, the number of soldiers under arms could be increased to 760,000. In order to carry out this reform, the government tried to stir up militant patriotism; by the way, Minister of War Milliran, a former socialist, put on brilliant parades. Socialists, large groups of workers, entire cities, for example, Lyon, protested against the three-year service. Realizing, however, the need to take measures in view of the impending war, succumbing to common fears, the socialists proposed introducing a nationwide militia, meaning universal armament while maintaining the civilian character of the army.

It is not difficult to point out the direct perpetrators and organizers of the war, but it is very difficult to describe its distant reasons. They are rooted primarily in the industrial rivalry of peoples; the industry itself grew out of military conquest; it remained a merciless conquering force; where she needed to create a new space for herself, she made weapons work for herself. When the military masses were formed in its interests, they themselves became dangerous weapons, as it were, a defiant force. Huge military reserves cannot be kept with impunity; the car becomes too expensive, and then there is only one thing - to put it into action. In Germany, due to the peculiarities of its history, the most accumulated military elements. It was necessary to find official places for 20 too royal and princely families, for the Prussian landowning nobility, it was necessary to give way to arms factories, it was necessary to open a field for the application of German capital in the abandoned Muslim east. The economic conquest of Russia was also a tempting task, which the Germans wanted to alleviate by political weakening, pushing it inland from the seas beyond the Dvina and the Dnieper.

These military-political plans were undertaken by William II and the Archduke of France Ferdinant, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. Independent Serbia presented a considerable obstacle to the desire of the latter to gain a foothold on the Balkan Peninsula. Economically, Serbia was completely dependent on Austria; now on the agenda was the destruction of its political independence. Franz Ferdinand intended to annex Serbia to the Serbo-Croatian provinces of Austria-Hungary, i.e. to Bosnia and Crozia, as a satisfaction of the national idea, he came up with the idea of ​​creating within the state Greater Serbia on an equal footing with the two former parts, Austria and Hungary; power from dualism had to pass to trialism. In turn, Wilhelm II, taking advantage of the fact that the children of the archduke were deprived of the right to the throne, directed his idea to create an independent dominion for himself in the east by seizing the Black Sea and Transnistria from Russia. From the Polish-Lithuanian provinces, as well as the Baltic region, it was planned to create another state in vassal dependence on Germany. In the upcoming war with Russia and France, William II hoped for the neutrality of England in view of the extreme aversion of the British to ground operations and the weakness of the British army.

The course and features of the great war

The explosion of the war was accelerated by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, which occurred when he visited Sarajevo, the main city of Bosnia. Austria-Hungary took the opportunity to indict the entire Serbian people for preaching terror and demand the admission of Austrian officials to Serbian territory. When, in response to this and to protect the Serbs, Russia began mobilizing, Germany immediately declared war on Russia and began military action against France. Everything was done by the German government with extraordinary haste. Only with England did Germany try to negotiate the occupation of Belgium. When the British ambassador in Berlin referred to the Belgian neutrality treaty, Chancellor Bethmann-Holweg exclaimed: "But this is a piece of paper!"

The occupation of Belgium by Germany caused a declaration of war by England. The plan of the Germans consisted, apparently, in crushing France and then attacking Russia with all its might. In a short time, all of Belgium was captured, and the German army occupied northern France, moving towards Paris. In a great battle on the Marne, the French halted the advance of the Germans; but the subsequent attempt by the French and British to break through the German front and drive the Germans out of France failed, and from that time on, the war in the west took on a protracted nature. The Germans erected the entire length of the front from North Sea to the Swiss border, a colossal line of fortifications that abolished the former system of isolated fortresses. The opponents turned to the same method of artillery warfare.

At first, the war was fought between Germany and Austria, on the one hand, and Russia, France, England, Belgium and Serbia, on the other. The powers of the tripartite accord established a treaty between themselves not to conclude a separate peace with Germany. With the passage of time, new allies appeared on both sides, and the theater of war expanded enormously. Japan, Italy, separated from the triple alliance, Portugal and Romania joined the triple agreement, and Turkey and Bulgaria joined the union of the central states.

Military operations in the east began along a large front from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathian islands. The actions of the Russian army against the Germans and especially the Austrians were at first successful and led to the occupation of most of Galicia and Bukovina. But in the summer of 1915, due to a lack of ammunition, the Russians had to retreat. There followed not only the cleansing of Galicia, but also the occupation of the Kingdom of Poland, Lithuanian and part of the Belarusian provinces by the German troops. Here, on both sides, a line of impregnable fortifications was established, a formidable continuous rampart, beyond which not one of the opponents dared to cross; only in the summer of 1916 did the army of General Brusilov advance into the corner of eastern Galicia and slightly changed this line, after which a fixed front was again defined; with the accession to the powers of the consent of Romania, it extended to the Black Sea. During 1915, as Turkey and Bulgaria entered the war, hostilities began in Western Asia and on the Balkan Peninsula. Russian troops occupied Armenia; the British, advancing from the Persian Gulf, fought in Mesopotamia. The English fleet tried unsuccessfully to break through the fortifications of the Dardanelles. After that, the Anglo-French troops landed in Thessaloniki, where the Serbian army was transported by sea, forced to surrender their country to the capture of the Austrians. Thus, in the east, a colossal front stretches from the Baltic Sea to the Persian Gulf. At the same time, the army operating from Thessaloniki and the Italian forces that occupied the entrances to Austria near the Adriatic Sea constituted the southern front, the significance of which is that it cuts off the alliance of the central powers from the Mediterranean Sea.

At the same time, there were great battles at sea. The stronger British fleet destroyed the German squadrons that had appeared on the high seas and locked the rest of the German fleet in the harbors. This achieved the blockade of Germany and cut off the supply of supplies and shells to her by sea. At the same time, Germany lost all of its overseas colonies. Germany responded with submarine attacks, destroying both military transports and enemy merchant ships.

Until the end of 1916, Germany and her allies held the overall advantage on land, while the powers of consent retained dominance at sea. Germany occupied the entire strip of land, which she outlined for herself in the plan " Central Europe"- from the North and Baltic Seas through the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, Asia Minor to Mesopotamia. She had a concentrated position for herself and the ability, using an excellent network of communications, to quickly transfer her forces to places threatened by the enemy. On the other hand, its disadvantage was the limitation of means of food due to being cut off from the rest of the World, while opponents enjoyed freedom of sea movement.

The war that began in 1914, in its size and ferocity, far surpasses all wars that have ever been waged by mankind. In previous wars, only active armies only in 1870, in order to defeat France, the Germans used reserve personnel. In the great war of our time, the active armies of all peoples constituted only a small part, one weighty or even one tenth of the total composition of the mobilized forces. England, which had an army of 200-250 thousand volunteers, introduced universal military service during the war itself and promised to bring the number of soldiers to 5 million. In Germany, not only almost all men of military age were taken, but also young men 17-20 years old and elderly people over 40 and even over 45 years old. The number of people conscripted under arms throughout Europe has reached, perhaps, up to 40 million.

Losses in battles are correspondingly great; never have so few people been spared as in this war. But its most striking feature is the predominance of technology. In the first place in it are cars, aircrafts, armored vehicles, colossal guns, machine guns, suffocating gases. The Great War is predominantly an engineering and artillery competition: people bury themselves in the ground, create labyrinths of streets and villages there, and when storming fortified lines they throw an incredible amount of shells at the enemy. So, during the attack of the Anglo-French on the German fortifications at the river. Somme in the fall of 1916, on both sides in a few days, up to 80 mil. shells. The cavalry is hardly used at all; and the infantry cares very little. In such battles, the one of the opponents decides who has the best equipment and a lot of material. Germany wins over its opponents military training that took place over 3-4 decades. It turned out to be unusually important that the fact that from 1870 in its possession was richest country iron Lorraine. With their rapid onslaught in the fall of 1914, the Germans prudently took possession of two areas of iron production, Belgium and the rest of Lorraine, which was still in the hands of France (all of Lorraine provides half of the total amount of iron produced by Europe). Germany also possesses enormous deposits of coal, which is necessary for the processing of iron. These circumstances are one of the main conditions for the stability of Germany in the struggle.

Another feature of the great war is its merciless nature, plunging cultural Europe into the depths of barbarism. In the wars of the XIX century. did not touch the civilian population. Back in 1870, Germany announced that it was fighting only with the French army, but not with the people. In modern war, Germany not only ruthlessly takes away all the supplies from the population of the occupied territories of Belgium and Poland, but it itself is reduced to the position of convict slaves who are driven to the most difficult work of erecting fortifications for their victors. Germany brought the Turks and Bulgarians into the battle, and these semi-savage peoples brought their cruel manners: they do not take prisoners, they destroy the wounded. No matter how the war ends, European peoples will have to deal with the desolation of vast expanses of the earth and the decline of cultural habits. The position of the working people will be more difficult than it was before the war. Then European society will show whether it retains enough art, knowledge and courage to revive a deeply disturbed way of life.

Russian-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, the allied obligations of the European powers.
	Victory of the Entente. February and October revolutions in Russia and November revolution in Germany. Collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. The beginning of the penetration of American capital into Europe.
Opponents
	Bulgaria (from 1915)
Italy (from 1915)
Romania (from 1916)
USA (since 1917)
Greece (from 1917)
Commanders
Nicholas II †	Franz Joseph I †
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich
M. V. Alekseev †	F. von Götzendorff
A. A. Brusilov	A. von Straussenburg
L. G. Kornilov †	Wilhelm II
A.F. Kerensky	E. von Falkenhain
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. Nivelles
	Enver Pasha
	M. Ataturk
G. Asquith	Ferdinand I
D. Lloyd George
J. Jellicoe	G. Stoyanov-Todorov
G. Kitchener †
L. Densterville
Prince Regent Alexander
R. Putnik †
Albert I
J. Vukotic
Victor Emmanuel III
L. Cadorna
Prince luigi
Ferdinand I
K. Presan
A. Averescu
T. Wilson
J. Pershing
P. Danglis
Okuma Shigenobu
Terauchi Masatake
Hussein bin Ali
War losses
Military killed: 5,953,372 Military wounded: 9 723 991 Soldiers missing: 4,000,676	Soldiers killed: 4,043,397 Military wounded: 8 465 286 Soldiers missing: 3,470,138

(July 28, 1914 - November 11, 1918) - one of the largest armed conflicts in the history of mankind.

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

The immediate reason for the war was the Sarajevo assassination on June 28, 1914 of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by 19-year-old Serbian student Gavrila Princip, who was one of the members of the Mlada Bosna terrorist organization, which fought to unite all the 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 (counting civilians), about 55 million were injured.

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.

Chronology of the declaration of war
	Who declared war	Who 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
	The end of the war

Background to the conflict

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

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

Russia, France and Great Britain sought to oppose Germany's hegemonic aspirations. Why the Entente was formed.

Austria-Hungary, being a multinational empire, due to internal interethnic contradictions was a constant hotbed of instability in Europe. She tried to keep Bosnia and Herzegovina captured by her in 1908 (see: Bosnian Crisis). They opposed Russia, which took on the role of the defender of all Slavs in the Balkans, and Serbia, which claimed the role of a unifying center for the southern Slavs.

In the Middle East, the interests of almost all powers collided, striving to have time to divide the crumbling 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 withdrew to Russia, thus Russia would receive full control of the Black Sea and Constantinople.

The confrontation between the Entente countries on the one hand and Germany with 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 a bloc of the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria, - in which Germany played a leading role. By 1914, two blocks were finally formed:

The Entente bloc (formed by 1907 after the conclusion of Russian-French, Anglo-French and Anglo-Russian allied 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 a 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 ( Balkan Wars, Italian-Turkish War), orders for general mobilization in Russia and Germany, territorial claims and allied obligations of 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 number: the reason for this is the short-sighted policy of the Social Democrats. For the period 1912-1916 in Germany, it was planned to reduce the army, which in no way contributed to an increase in its combat effectiveness. The Social Democratic government constantly cut funding for the army (which, however, does not apply to the navy).

This destructive policy towards the army led to the fact that by the beginning of 1914, unemployment in Germany increased by 8% (compared with 1910). The army experienced a chronic shortage of the 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 was true for aviation - the German aircraft fleet was large, but outdated. The main aircraft of the German Luftstreitkrafte was the most massive, but at the same time hopelessly outdated aircraft in Europe - a monoplane of the "Taube" type.

During the mobilization, a significant number of civil and mail aircraft were also requisitioned. Moreover, aviation was assigned to a separate branch of the armed forces only in 1916, before that it was listed in the "transport troops" ( Kraftfahrers). But aviation was given little importance in all armies, except for 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 expenditures on 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, GAU and the Obukhov plant have successfully cooperated with the Krupp firm. This company "Krupp" cooperated with Russia and France until the very beginning of the war.

German shipyards (including Blohm & Voss) built, but did not manage to finish building 6 destroyers for Russia before the start of the war, according to the project 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 to Russia for testing. But under Nicholas II, preference was 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, while having 1 barrel for 786 soldiers against 1 barrel for 476 soldiers in the German army, but in heavy artillery the Russian army lagged significantly behind of the German army, having 1 barrel for 22 241 soldiers and officers against 1 barrel for 2798 soldiers in the German army. And that's not counting the mortars, which were already in service with the German army and which were not 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 the 4 battalion (16 company) composition had in its staff on May 6, 1910 a machine-gun command of 8 Maxim machine guns, that is, 0.5 machine guns per company, “in the German and French armies there were six to the regiment "12 company composition.

Events before the outbreak of the First World War

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

On July 23, Austria-Hungary, having declared that Serbia was behind the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, announces an ultimatum to her, in which it demands that Serbia fulfill deliberately impracticable conditions, including: to purge the state apparatus and army from officers and officials seen in anti-Austrian propaganda; arrest suspects of aiding terrorism; to allow the Austro-Hungarian police to conduct investigations and punishments on the Serbian territory of those guilty of anti-Austrian actions. The answer was given in only 48 hours.

On the same day, Serbia begins mobilization, however, 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 a hidden mobilization: without announcing it officially, they began to send summons to the reservists to the recruiting offices.

On 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 requirements of the ultimatum were not fulfilled, declares war on Serbia. Russia declares that it will not allow the occupation of Serbia.

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

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

Campaign of 1914

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

The beginning of the first world war

Germany, in accordance with a pre-developed plan for waging a blitzkrieg (Schlieffen plan), sent the main forces to the western front, hoping to defeat France with a quick blow before the mobilization and deployment of the Russian army was completed, and then to 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, the main forces of which were concentrated on the fortified eastern, Franco-German border, into a huge "cauldron".

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

France turned to England for help, but the British government, by 12 votes to 6, refused to support France, stating that "France should not count on assistance that we are currently unable to provide," while adding that "if the Germans invade to Belgium and 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, Cambo, said that if England now betrayed her allies: France and Russia, then after the war she herself will have a bad time, regardless of who will be the winner. The British government, in fact, pushed the Germans into aggression. The German leadership decided that England would not enter the war and took decisive action.

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

On August 3, Germany declared war on France, accusing her of "organized attacks and aerial bombardments of Germany" and "violation of Belgian neutrality."

On August 4, German troops poured across the Belgian border. King Albert of Belgium asked for help from 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 "treason". After the expiration of the ultimatum, Great Britain declared war on Germany and sent 5.5 divisions to aid France.

The First World War has begun.

The course of hostilities

French Theater of War - Western Front

Strategic plans of the parties for the beginning of the war. By the beginning of the war, Germany was guided by a rather old military doctrine - the Schlieffen plan - which provided for an instant defeat of France before the "clumsy" Russia could mobilize and move its army to the borders. The attack was envisaged through the territory of Belgium (with the aim of bypassing the main French forces), it was originally supposed to take Paris in 39 days. In a nutshell, the essence of the plan was outlined by Wilhelm 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 not so 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), prescribing to start 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.

The invasion of Belgium by the German army. Crossing the Belgian border on the morning of August 4, the German army, following the Schlieffen Plan, easily swept away the weak screens of the Belgian army and moved deep into Belgium. The Belgian army, which the Germans outnumbered by more than 10 times, unexpectedly put up active resistance, which, however, could not significantly delay the enemy. Bypassing and blocking the well-fortified Belgian fortresses: Liege (fell on August 16, see: Storming 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, the same day, having entered into contact with the Anglo-French forces. The movement of the German troops was swift, the Germans, without stopping, bypassed the cities and fortresses that continued to defend themselves. The Belgian government fled to Le Havre. King Albert I continued to defend Antwerp with the last remaining combat-ready units. 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 was anticipated by the German plans.

Actions in Alsace and Lorraine. On August 7, the French, with the forces of the 1st and 2nd armies, launched an offensive in Alsace, and on August 14, in Lorraine. The offensive had symbolic meaning for the French - the territory of Alsace-Lorraine was annexed from France in 1871, after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. Although initially they managed to penetrate German territory, capturing Saarbrücken and Mulhouse, at the same time the unfolding German offensive in Belgium forced them to transfer part of their troops there. The ensuing counterattacks did not meet with sufficient resistance from the French, and by the end of August the French army withdrew to its former positions, leaving Germany with a small part of French territory.

Frontier battle. On August 20, the Anglo-French and German troops came into contact - the Battle of the Border began. By the time the war began, the French command did not expect that the main offensive of the 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 to actively move units in the direction of the breakthrough, by the time of contact with the Germans, the front was in sufficient disarray, and the French and British were forced to take battle with three non-contiguous groups of troops. On the territory of Belgium, at Mons, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was located, to the southeast, at Charleroi, was the 5th French army. In the Ardennes, approximately along the border of France with Belgium and Luxembourg, the 3rd and 4th French armies were stationed. In all three areas, the Anglo-French troops suffered a heavy defeat (the Battle of Mons, the Battle of Charleroi, the Ardennes operation (1914)), having lost about 250 thousand people, and the Germans from the north invaded France with a wide front, delivering the main blow to the west, bypassing Paris, thus taking the French army in giant pincers.

The German armies moved forward swiftly. British units retreated in disarray to the coast, the French command was not sure of the possibility of holding 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 river Marne. The French were vigorously preparing to defend the capital by taking extraordinary measures. An episode is widely known when Gallieni ordered the urgent transfer of an infantry brigade to the front, using Parisian taxis for this purpose.

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

Battle of the Marne. To complete the operation to bypass Paris and encircle the French army, the German army did not have enough strength. The troops, having passed hundreds of kilometers with battles, were exhausted, communications 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: von Kluck's army to reduce the front of the offensive and not to make a deep coverage of the French army bypassing Paris, but to turn east north of the French capital and strike in the rear of the main forces of the French army.

Turning to the east north of Paris, the Germans exposed their right flank and rear to the attack of the French grouping concentrated for the defense of 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 German 8th Army. Nevertheless, the German command went on a fatal maneuver: it turned its troops to the east before reaching Paris, hoping for the passivity of the enemy. The French command did not fail to take advantage of the opportunity and hit the open 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 drive back the German troops on the front from Verdun to Amiens 50-100 kilometers back. The battle on 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, by September 12-13, the withdrawal of the German army to the line along the Aisne and Vel rivers was completed.

The Battle of the Marne had a great moral significance for all parties. 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, surrender sentiment in France markedly began to decline. The British realized the insufficient combat power of their troops, and subsequently took a course towards increasing their armed forces in Europe and strengthening their combat training. German plans to quickly crush France failed; Moltke, who headed the Field General Staff, was replaced by Falkenhain. Joffre, on the other hand, gained immense prestige in France. The Battle of the Marne was a turning point in the war in the French theater of operations, after which the continuous retreat of the Anglo-French troops ceased, the front stabilized, and the forces of the opponents were approximately equal.

"Run to the Sea". Battles in Flanders. The Battle of the Marne turned into the so-called "Run to the Sea" - while moving, both armies tried to flank each other, which only led to the fact that the front line closed, resting on the coast of the North Sea. The actions of armies in this flat, inhabited, saturated with roads and railways were characterized by extreme mobility; as soon as one clash ended with 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 (the second half of September), battles were fought along the borders of the Oise and Somme rivers, then, at the second stage (September 29 - October 9), battles were fought along the Scarpa River (the battle of Arras); at the third stage, battles took place at Lille (October 10-15), on the Isère River (October 18-20), 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 stabilized, the offensive potential of the Germans was exhausted, both sides switched to positional combat. An important success of the Entente can be considered the fact that it managed to hold the ports most convenient for sea communication with England (primarily Calais).

By the end of 1914, Belgium was almost completely conquered by Germany. For the Entente, only a small Western part Flanders with the city of Ypres. Further south to Nancy, the front passed through French territory (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 Lahn remained with the French; closest to Paris (about 70 km), the front approached 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 into the Verdun fortified area. After that, in the Nancy region (behind the French), the zone of active hostilities of 1914 ended, the front further went on as a whole 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 actively and quickly maneuvered, which was facilitated by the saturated road network of the combat area. The disposition 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, proceeded to build trenches and barbed wire, designed for permanent use. The war has entered a positional phase. Since the length of the entire Western Front (from the North Sea to Switzerland) was a little more than 700 kilometers, the density of the deployment of troops on it was significantly higher than on the Eastern Front. A special feature of the company was that intensive military operations were conducted only in the northern half of the front (north of the Verdun fortified area), where both sides concentrated their main forces. The front from Verdun and further south was regarded by both sides as secondary. The zones lost by the French (centered in Picardy) were densely populated and significant both agriculturally and industrially.

By the beginning of 1915, the warring powers were faced with the fact that the war took on a character that was not envisaged by the pre-war plans of either side - it became 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 - was completely inaccessible. Both the Entente and the Central Powers had, in essence, to start a new type of war, which mankind had never seen before - exhausting, long, requiring 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 offensive on East Prussia. 1st army moved to Konigsberg from the north of the Masurian Lakes, 2nd army - from the west of them. During the first week, the actions of the Russian armies were 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 take advantage of the fruits of the victory. The movement of the two Russian armies slowed down and became mismatched, which the Germans did not hesitate to take advantage of, who attacked the open flank of the 2nd army from the west. On August 13-17 (26-30), the 2nd army of General Samsonov was completely defeated, a significant part was surrounded and taken prisoner. In German tradition, these events are called the Battle of Tanneberg. After that, the Russian 1st Army, under the threat of encirclement by superior German forces, was forced to retreat to its original position with battles, the withdrawal was completed on September 3 (16). The actions of the commander of the 1st Army, General Rennenkampf, were considered unsuccessful, which was the first episode of the subsequent characteristic distrust of military leaders with German surnames, and, in general, disbelief in the ability 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 on the site of the battles, in which Field Marshal Hindenburg was later buried.

Battle of Galicia. On August 16 (23), the Battle of Galicia began - a huge-scale battle between the Russian troops of the South-Western Front (5 armies) under the command of General N. Ivanov and four Austro-Hungarian armies under the command of Archduke Friedrich. Russian troops launched an offensive along a wide (450-500 km) front, with the center of the offensive in Lvov. The fighting of large armies, taking place on an extended front, was divided into numerous independent operations, accompanied by both offensives and retreats on both sides.

Actions on the southern part of the border with Austria were initially unfavorable for the Russian army (the 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 went 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 the resistance to the advancing Russians was insignificant). The Russian army maintained a high rate of advance and in the shortest possible time captured a huge, strategically important territory - Eastern Galicia and part of Bukovina. By 13 (26 September) 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 sparked jubilation in Russia. The capture of Galicia, with a predominantly Orthodox (and Uniate) Slavic population in it, was perceived in Russia not as an occupation, but as the return of the severed part of historical Russia (see Galician General Governorship). Austria-Hungary lost faith in the strength of its army, and in the future did not dare to start 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 far from smooth - in the center of the border, the territory of the Kingdom of Poland sharply protruded to the west. Obviously, both sides began the war with attempts to flatten the front - the Russians tried to equalize the "dents", advancing in the north on East Prussia, and in the south - on Galicia, while Germany sought to remove the "ledge", advancing in the center on Poland. After the Russian offensive in East Prussia failed, Germany could only advance to the south, in Poland, so that the front did not fall apart into two disconnected parts. In addition, the success of the offensive in the southern part of Poland could have helped the Austro-Hungarians who were suffering defeat.

On September 15 (28), the German offensive began the Warsaw-Ivangorod operation. The offensive went in a northeastern direction, aiming at Warsaw and the Ivangorod fortress. On September 30 (October 12) the Germans reached Warsaw and reached the border of the Vistula River. Fierce battles began, in which the advantage of the Russian army was gradually determined. 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 failed to achieve results, withdrew to their original positions.

On October 29 (November 11), the Germans from the same positions along the pre-war border undertook a second offensive 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 themselves were surrounded by superior Russian forces and retreated. The results of the battles were 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, which had stabilized by October 26 (November 8), went from Lodz to Warsaw.

The positions of the parties by the end of 1914. By the new 1915, the front looked like this - on the border of East Prussia and Russia, the front went along the pre-war border, then a gap poorly filled by the troops of both sides followed, after which a stable front began again from Warsaw to Lodz (northeast and east of the Kingdom of Poland with Petrokov , Czestochow and Kalisz was occupied by Germany), in the region of Krakow (remained behind Austria-Hungary), the front crossed the pre-war border of Austria-Hungary with Russia and crossed into the Austrian territory captured by the Russians. Most of Galicia went to Russia, Lviv (Lemberg) fell into the deep (180 km from the front) rear. In the south, the front rested on the Carpathians, which were practically unoccupied by the troops of both sides. Bukovina, located to the east of the Carpathians, with Chernivtsi 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 has developed 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 accompanied by heavy losses. But Germany was not able to achieve the results it had planned at any point, all of its successes from a military point of view were modest. Meanwhile, Russia managed to inflict a major defeat on Austria-Hungary and capture 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 has turned for Germany from a full-fledged ally into a weak partner requiring continuous support. The fronts stabilized by the new 1915, and the war passed into a positional phase; but at the same time, the front line (in contrast to the French theater of military 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. By the new year, the Russian army began to feel the first signs of an impending ammunition supply crisis. It also turned out that the Austro-Hungarian soldiers are prone to surrender, while the German ones are not.

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

Balkan theater of war

On the Serbian front, things were not going well for the Austrians. Despite their large numerical superiority, they managed to occupy Belgrade, 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 the demands of Austria-Hungary against Serbia were the direct reason for the outbreak of the war, it was in Serbia that the military operations of 1914 were rather sluggish.

Japan's entry into the war

In August 1914, the Entente countries (primarily England) managed to persuade Japan to oppose Germany, despite the fact that these two countries did not have 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). In late August, the Japanese army began a siege of Qingdao, the only German naval base in China, which ended 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. The Caroline Islands were captured on September 12, the Marshall Islands on September 29. In October, the Japanese landed in the Caroline Islands and captured the key port of Rabaul. At the end August, New Zealand troops captured German Samoa.Australia and New Zealand concluded an agreement with Japan on the division of the German colonies, the equator was adopted as the dividing line.The forces of Germany in the region were insignificant and sharply inferior to the Japanese, so that the hostilities were not accompanied by large losses.

The participation of Japan 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 had the need to spend resources on the maintenance of the army, navy and fortifications directed against Japan and China. In addition, Japan has gradually become an important source of supplies for Russia with raw materials and weapons.

The entry into the war of the Ottoman Empire and the opening of the Asian theater of military operations

With the outbreak of the war in Turkey, there was no agreement - whether to enter the war and on whose side. In the unofficial Young Turkish triumvirate, Minister of War Enver Pasha and Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat Pasha were supporters of the Triple Alliance, but Jemal Pasha was a supporter of the Entente. On August 2, 1914, a German-Turkish allied treaty was signed, according to which the Turkish army was actually surrendered under the leadership of the German military mission. Mobilization was announced in the country. However, at the same time, the Turkish government issued a declaration of neutrality. On August 10, the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau entered the Dardanelles, leaving the pursuit of the British fleet in the Mediterranean. With the appearance of these ships, not only the Turkish army, but also the fleet were under the command of the Germans. On September 9, the Turkish government announced to all powers that it had decided to abolish the surrender regime (preferential legal position foreign citizens). This provoked a protest from all powers.

However, most of the members of the Turkish government, including the grand vizier, still opposed the war. Then Enver Pasha, together with the German command, began a war without the consent of the rest of the government, putting the country in front of a fait accompli. Turkey has declared "jihad" (holy war) to the Entente countries. On October 29-30 (November 11-12), the Turkish fleet under the command of the German admiral Sushon shelled Sevastopol, Odessa, Feodosia and Novorossiysk. On November 2 (15), Russia declared war on Turkey. England and France followed on 5 and 6 November.

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

The usefulness of Turkey as an ally was diminished by the fact that the Central Powers had no communication with her either by land (between Turkey and Austria-Hungary was located Serbia, which had not yet been captured and so far neutral Romania), or by sea (the Mediterranean Sea was controlled by the Entente).

At the same time, Russia 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 the transportation of a large amount of cargo - Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok; the carrying capacity of the railways approaching these ports was low.

Fighting at sea

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

In the North Sea, the fleets of the opposing sides carried out raiding operations. The first major clash occurred on 28 August at Helgoland Island (Battle of Helgoland). The English fleet was victorious.

The Russian fleets were passive. The Baltic Fleet of Russia occupied a defensive position, to which the German fleet, occupied with operations in other theaters, did not even come close. The Black Sea Fleet, which did not have large ships of the modern type, did not dare to clash with the two newest German-Turkish ships.

Campaign of 1915

The course of hostilities

French Theater of War - Western Front

Actions of the beginning of 1915. The intensity of operations on the Western Front since the beginning of 1915 has significantly decreased. Germany concentrated its forces on preparing operations against Russia. The French and British also preferred to take advantage of the resulting pause for the accumulation of forces. The first four months of the year at the front was almost complete calm, hostilities were conducted only in Artois, in the area of ​​the city of Arras (an attempt by the French in February) and southeast of Verdun, where the German positions formed the so-called Ser-Miel salient towards France (an attempt French offensive in April). In March, the British made an unsuccessful attempt at an offensive near the village of Neuve Chapelle.

The Germans, in turn, launched a counterattack in the north of the front, in Flanders at Ypres, against the British 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 for the Anglo-French, used chemical weapons (chlorine was released from the cylinders). The gas affected 15 thousand people, of which 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 masses of troops by surprise.

In the course of these hostilities, which yielded the most insignificant results with noticeable casualties, both sides became convinced that the 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 the 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 30 kilometers of the offensive sector. The offensive was preceded by a six-day artillery preparation (2.1 million shells were spent), which, as expected, was supposed to completely suppress the resistance of the German troops. The calculations did not come true. The huge losses of the Entente (130 thousand people), incurred in six weeks of fighting, did not completely correspond to the results achieved - by mid-June, the French advanced 3-4 km along the front of 7 km, and the British - less than 1 km along the front of 3 km.

Autumn operation in Champagne and Artois. By the beginning of September, the Entente 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 spaced 120 km from each other - 35 km of the front in Champagne (east of Reims) and 20 km of the front in Artois (near Arras). If successful, the troops advancing from both sides were to close on the French border (at Mons) after 80-100 km, which would lead to the liberation of Picardy. Compared with the spring offensive in Artois, the scale was increased: 67 infantry and cavalry divisions were involved in the offensive, up to 2,600 guns; during the operation, more than 5 million shells were fired. The Anglo-French troops used the new offensive tactics in several "waves". At the time of the offensive, the German troops managed to improve their defensive positions - a second defensive line was arranged 5-6 kilometers behind the first defensive line, poorly visible from the enemy's 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 the German defense and recapture no more than 2-3 km of territory. At the same time, the losses on both sides were enormous - the Anglo-French lost 200 thousand people killed and wounded, the Germans - 140 thousand people.

The positions of the parties by the end of 1915 and the results of the campaign. For the whole of 1915, the front practically did not move - the result of all fierce offensives was the 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 conditions of an extremely high concentration of forces and many days of artillery preparation. The huge sacrifices on both sides did not produce any meaningful result. The situation, however, allowed Germany to increase the onslaught 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.

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

France and Russia again attempted 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 kinds of economic and military assistance. The second conference was held 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 military operations - Eastern Front

Winter operation in East Prussia. In February, the Russian army undertook another attempt to attack East Prussia, this time from the southeast, from Masuria, from the city of Suwalki. The offensive, poorly prepared, unsecured with artillery support, instantly collapsed and went over to a counterattack by the German troops, the so-called August operation (after the city of Augustow). By February 26, the Germans succeeded in pushing out the Russian troops from the territory of East Prussia and advancing 100-120 km deep into the Kingdom of Poland, capturing Suwalki, after which in the first half of March the front stabilized, Grodno remained in Russia. XX Russian corps was surrounded and surrendered. Despite the victory of the Germans, their hopes for a complete collapse of the Russian front did not come true. During the next battle - the Prasnysh operation (February 25 - the end of March), the Germans met with fierce resistance from the Russian troops, which launched a counterattack in the Prasnysh area, which led to the withdrawal of the Germans to the pre-war border of East Prussia (the Suwalk province remained with Germany).

Winter operation in the Carpathians. On February 9-11, Austro-German troops launched an offensive in the Carpathians, pressing especially hard 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 manage to group, and by 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, 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 a 35 km sector, the Germans concentrated 32 divisions and 1,500 guns; Russian troops were 2 times inferior in number, and were completely deprived of heavy artillery, and the lack of shells of the main (three-inch) caliber began to affect. On April 19 (May 2), German troops launched an offensive against the center of the Russian position in Austria-Hungary - Gorlice - aiming the main blow at Lvov. Further events developed unfavorably for the Russian army: the numerical predominance of the Germans, unsuccessful maneuvering and the use of reserves, the growing 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 Gorlitz region was broken through. The beginning of the withdrawal of the Russian armies continued until June 9 (22) (see The Great Retreat of 1915). The entire front south of Warsaw moved towards Russia. In the Kingdom of Poland, the Radom and Keletsk provinces were left, the front passed through Lublin (behind Russia); from the territories of Austria-Hungary, most of Galicia was left (the newly taken Przemysl was left on June 3 (16), and Lvov - on June 9 (22)), the Russians only left a small (up to 40 km deep) strip with Brody, the entire region Tarnopol and a small part of Bukovina. The retreat, which began in the breakthrough of the Germans, by the time Lvov was abandoned acquired a planned character, the Russian troops were retreating in relative order. But nevertheless, such a major military failure was accompanied by the loss of the Russian army's morale and massive 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 Ostsee Territory. Since the Gorlitsky breakthrough did not ultimately lead to the complete fall 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 the offensive aimed at the Kingdom of Poland (where the Russian front continued to form a protrusion 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 interfluve of the Vistula and the Bug); at the same time, the directions of both breakthroughs converged on the border of the Kingdom of Poland, in the region of Brest-Litovsk; if the German plan was fulfilled, the Russian troops had to leave all of Poland in order to avoid encirclement in the Warsaw area. The third offensive, from East Prussia towards Riga, was planned as an offensive on a wide front, without concentration in a narrow sector and a breakthrough.

The offensive between the Vistula and the Bug was launched on June 13 (26), and on June 30 (July 13) the Narew operation began. After fierce battles, the front was broken through 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, on August 13 (26) the Russians left Brest-Litovsk, and on August 19 (September 2) - Grodno.

The offensive from East Prussia (the Rigo-Shavel operation) began on July 1 (14). For a month of fighting, Russian troops were pushed back beyond the Neman, the Germans captured Kurland with Mitava and the most important naval base Libava, 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 hunger" - an acute shortage of shells for the 75-mm guns prevailing in the Russian army. The capture of the Novogeorgievsk fortress, accompanied by the surrender of large units 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 the booty coal, the loss of Polish deposits was never compensated for, 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 shifted 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 leaky location of the Russian units, were able to break through the front (Sventsiansky breakthrough). The result was that the Russians were able to fill the front only after they had retreated directly to Minsk. The Vilna province was lost by the Russians.

On December 14 (27), the Russians launched an offensive against the Austro-Hungarian troops on the Strypa River, in the Ternopil region, due to the need to divert the Austrians from the Serbian front, where the situation of the Serbs became very difficult. The offensive attempts were unsuccessful, and on January 15 (29), the operation was stopped.

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

The positions of the parties by the end of 1915. By the end of 1915, the front had become practically a straight line connecting the Baltic and Black seas; the protrusion of the front 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 region of Dvinsk. Further, the front passed through the North-Western Territory: Kovenskaya, Vilenskaya, 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 Territory: the western third of the Volyn province with Lutsk was occupied by Germany, Exactly remained with Russia. After that, the front moved to the former territory of Austria-Hungary, where the Russians retained a part of the Tarnopol region in Galicia. Further, to the Bessarabian 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 did not have protrusions and was densely filled with troops from both sides, naturally prompted 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 a certain way 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 mobile warfare was obvious; but at the same time, the general goal - the complete defeat of one of the opponents and his withdrawal from the war - was not achieved in 1915 either. With tactical victories, the Central Powers were unable to completely defeat the leading adversaries as their economies grew weaker and weaker. Russia, despite heavy 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 were able 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 struggle and great human losses led the economies of Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary to overstrain, the negative results of which will be more and more noticeable in the following 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 brought to trial, which caused another outbreak of suspicion and spy mania. On August 10 (23), Nicholas II took over the duties of the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, moving the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich to the Caucasian front. In this case, the actual leadership of military operations passed from N.N. Yanushkevich to M.V. Alekseev. The assumption of the supreme command by the tsar entailed extremely significant internal political consequences.

Italy's entry into the war

With the outbreak 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 the conditions in the Treaty of the Triple Alliance, under which Italy should enter the war. On the same day, the Italian government issued a declaration of neutrality. After lengthy negotiations of Italy with 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 the enemies of the Entente. A number of territories were promised as “payment for the blood” of Italy. England gave Italy a loan of 50 million pounds. Despite the subsequent reciprocal offers of territories from the Central Powers, against the background 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 operations, entry into the war of Bulgaria

There was no activity on the Serbian front until autumn. By the beginning of autumn, after the completion of a successful campaign to oust the 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, intends to enter the war on their side. In this case, a sparsely populated Serbia with a small army found itself surrounded by enemies from two fronts, and it faced inevitable military defeat. Anglo-French aid arrived with a great delay - only on October 5 did the troops begin to land in Thessaloniki (Greece); Russia could not help, since neutral Romania refused to let the Russian troops pass. 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 outnumbered by 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 Serbia, leaving for Albania, from where in January 1916 their remnants were evacuated to the island of Corfu and to Bizerta. In December, the Anglo-French troops withdrew to the territory of Greece, to Thessaloniki, where they were able to gain a foothold, forming the Thessaloniki Front along the Greek border with Bulgaria and Serbia. The cadres 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 communication by land with Turkey for the Central Powers.

Military operations in the Dardanelles and the Gallipoli Peninsula

By the beginning of 1915, the Anglo-French command developed a joint operation to break through the Dardanelles and enter the Sea of ​​Marmara, to Constantinople. The task of the operation was to ensure free sea traffic through the straits and to divert Turkish forces from the Caucasian front.

According to the original plan, the breakthrough was to be carried out by the British fleet, which was to destroy shore batteries without landing. After the first unsuccessful attacks with small forces (19-25 February), the British fleet launched a general attack on 18 March, which involved more than 20 battleships, battle cruisers and obsolete battleships. After the loss of 3 ships, the British, without having achieved success, left the strait.

After that, the Entente's tactics changed - it was decided to land an expeditionary force on the Gallicpolian 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 25 April. The landing took place at three bridgeheads divided between the participating countries. The attackers managed to hold out only in one of the sections of Gallipoli, where the Australian-New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) was parachuted. Fierce battles and the transfer of new Entente reinforcements continued until mid-August, but none of the attempts to attack the Turks yielded significant results. By the end of August, the failure of the operation became obvious, and the Entente began to prepare for a gradual evacuation of troops. The last troops from Gallipoli were evacuated in early January 1916. A bold strategic plan, initiated by W. Churchill, ended in complete failure.

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

Campaign of 1916

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 withdraw France from the war. It planned with powerful flanking attacks at the base of the Verdun salient to cut it off, surrounding the entire Verdun enemy grouping, and thereby create a huge gap in the allied defenses, through which it was then supposed to strike at 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 fortress of Verdun, called the Battle of Verdun. After stubborn battles with huge losses on both sides, the Germans managed to advance 6-8 kilometers ahead 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 warfare were worked out - the American squadron "Lafayette" fought on the side of the Entente troops. The Germans first began to use a fighter plane in which machine guns fired through a rotating propeller without damaging it.

On June 3, 1916, a large 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 the German and Austro-Hungarian troops in Galicia and Bukovina, the total losses of which 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 Erzurum battle, Russian troops utterly defeated the Turkish army and captured the cities of Erzurum and Trebizond.

The successes of the Russian army prompted Romania to side with the Entente. On August 17, 1916, an agreement was concluded between Romania and the four Entente powers. Romania pledged to declare war on Austria-Hungary. For this she was promised Transylvania, part of Bukovina and 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. May 31 - June 1, the largest sea battle of Jutland in the entire war took place.

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

Campaign of 1917

The position of the Central Powers in 1917 became catastrophic: there were no more reserves for the army, the scale of hunger, transport disruption and a fuel crisis grew. The Entente countries began to receive significant assistance from the United States (food, manufactured goods, and later reinforcements), while simultaneously strengthening the economic blockade of Germany, and their victory, even without offensive operations, became only a matter of time.

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

Eastern front

On February 1-20, 1917, the Petrograd Conference of the Entente countries was held, at which the 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 the continuation of the war, which was opposed by the Bolsheviks led by Lenin.

On April 6, the United States took the side of the Entente (after the so-called "Zimmermann 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 ​​the city of Messin, on the Ypres River, near Verdun and at Cambrai, where tanks were first used on a massive scale, 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 policy of the Provisional Government, the Russian army was decaying and losing its combat effectiveness. The offensive undertaken in June by the forces of the Southwestern Front failed, and the armies of the front withdrew 50-100 km. However, despite the fact that the Russian army had lost the ability to actively engage in military operations, the Central Powers, which suffered huge losses in the 1916 campaign, could not use the opportunity created for themselves to inflict a decisive defeat on Russia and withdraw it from the war by military means.

On the Eastern Front, the German army limited itself to 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 withdraw from 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 the British and French troops transferred to Italy was it possible to stop the Austrian offensive.

In 1917, there was a relative calm on the Thessaloniki front. In April 1917, the Allied forces (which consisted of British, French, Serbian, Italian and Russian troops) launched an offensive operation that brought little tactical results to the Entente forces. However, this offensive failed to 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 incur unnecessary losses from frost and disease, Yudenich left only combat outposts at the achieved lines, and placed the main forces in the valleys in settlements. In early March, the 1st Caucasian Cavalry Corps, gen. Baratov defeated the Persian grouping of the Turks and, after capturing the important road junction of Sinnach (Senendej) and the city of Kermanshah in Persia, moved south-west to Euphrates towards the British. In mid-March, units of the 1st Caucasian Cossack Division of Raddats and the 3rd Kuban Division, having overcome more than 400 km, joined up with the allies at Kizyl Rabat (Iraq). Turkey lost Mesopotamia.

After the February Revolution, the Russian army did not conduct active hostilities on the Turkish front, and after the conclusion of the Bolshevik government in December 1917, the armistice with the countries of the Quadruple Alliance ceased completely.

On the Mesopotamian Front, British forces in 1917 made significant strides. 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), and others. On the side of the British troops fought volunteers from the Arab population, who met the advancing British troops as liberators. Also, by the beginning of 1917, British troops invaded Palestine, where fierce battles began near Gaza. In October, having brought 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, the German colonial troops under the command of Colonel Lettov-Forbeck, significantly outnumbered by the enemy, put up prolonged resistance and in November 1917, under pressure from the 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 on the part of the governments of England, France and the United States, this resolution did not meet with a sympathetic response. In August 1917, Pope Benedict XV offered his mediation to conclude peace. However, the Entente governments rejected the papal proposal, as Germany stubbornly refused to give unequivocal consent to the restoration of Belgian independence.

Campaign of 1918

Decisive victories of the Entente

After the conclusion of peace treaties with the Ukrainian People's Republic (ukr. Berestyeisky world), Soviet Russia and Romania and the elimination 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 could neither defeat the enemy nor break through the front. The limited human and material resources of Germany were depleted during the war years. In addition, having occupied the vast territories of the former Russian Empire after the signing of the Brest Peace, the German command was forced to leave large forces in the east to maintain control over them, which negatively affected the course of hostilities against the Entente. General Kuhl, chief of staff of Prince Ruprecht's Army Group, estimates the number of German troops on the Western Front at about 3.6 million; on the Eastern Front, including Romania and excluding Turkey, there were about 1 million people.

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

At the Italian Theater in late October, Italian forces 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 15 September. By November 1, the Entente troops liberated the territory of Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, entered after the armistice into the territory of Bulgaria and invaded the territory of Austria-Hungary.

On September 29, an armistice with the Entente was concluded by Bulgaria, 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, fighting here ended on November 14, when the British army, without encountering resistance from the Turkish troops, occupied Mosul. There was also a lull in Palestine, as the eyes of the parties were turned to the more important theaters of war. In the fall of 1918, the British army launched an offensive and occupied Nazareth, the Turkish army was surrounded and defeated. Having conquered Palestine, the British invaded Syria. The fighting here ended on October 30.

In Africa, German forces, pressed by superior enemy forces, continued to resist. Leaving Mozambique, the Germans invaded the English colony of Northern Rhodesia. It was only when the Germans learned of Germany's defeat in the war that the colonial troops (which numbered only 1,400 people) laid down their arms.

Results of the war

Political results

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

Peace treaties with

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

The results of the First World War were the February and October revolutions in Russia and the November revolution in Germany, the elimination of three empires: the Russian, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, and the latter two were separated. Germany, having ceased to be a monarchy, is cut territorially and economically weakened. In Russia began Civil War On July 6-16, 1918, the Left Social Revolutionaries (supporters of Russia's continued participation in the war) organized the assassination of the German ambassador, Count Wilhelm von Mirbach in Moscow and the royal family in Yekaterinburg, in order to disrupt the Brest-Litovsk Peace between Soviet Russia and Kaiser Germany. After the February Revolution, despite the war with Russia, the Germans 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 United States has become a great power. The difficult conditions of the Versailles Peace Treaty 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 to come to power, who unleashed World War II.

Territorial changes

As a result of the war, the following occurred: the annexation of Tanzania and South-West Africa, Iraq and Palestine, parts of Togo and Cameroon by Britain; Belgium - Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda; Greece - Eastern Thrace; Denmark - Northern Schleswig; Italy - South Tyrol and Istria; Romania - Transylvania and South Dobrudja; France - Alsace-Lorraine, Syria, parts of Togo and Cameroon; Japan - German islands in Pacific north of the equator; the occupation of the Saar by France.

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.

Austrian Republic 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 warfare. 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 have become widespread. The firepower of the troops increased dramatically. New types of artillery appeared: anti-aircraft, anti-tank, infantry escort. Aviation became an independent branch of the military, which began to be subdivided into reconnaissance, fighter and bomber. Tank troops, chemical troops, air defense troops, and naval aviation emerged. The role of engineering troops and the role of the cavalry decreased. Also appeared "trench tactics" of warfare 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 the militarization of the economy unprecedented for industrial states. This influenced the course of economic development of all large industrial states in the period between the two world wars: strengthening of state regulation and planning of the economy, the formation of military-industrial complexes, the acceleration of 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 position. Without reaching a significantly higher level of virtue and without using much wiser guidance, people for the first time received such tools in their hands with which they can destroy all of humanity without a miss. This is the achievement of all their glorious history, all glorious works of previous generations. And people will do well if they stop and reflect on this new responsibility of theirs. 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 rebirth, all that remains of civilization. She only waits for the word of the command. She is waiting for this word from a fragile, frightened creature that has long been her victim and who has now become her master for a single time. Churchill

Churchill on Russia in the First World War:

Losses in the First World War

The losses of the armed forces of all the countries participating in the world war amounted to about 10 million people. Until now, there is no generalized data on the loss of civilians from the impact of military equipment. Famine and epidemics caused by the war have killed at least 20 million people.

Memory of war

France, UK, Poland

Armistice Day (fr. jour de l "Armistice) 1918 (November 11) is the national holiday of Belgium and France, celebrated annually. In England, Armistice Day (eng. 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 commemorated.

In the first years after the end of the First World War, each municipality in France erected a monument to the 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, a monument to the Unknown Soldier. It was built in 1919 on the first anniversary of the end of the war. On the second Sunday of every November, the Cenotaph becomes the center of the National Memorial Day. A week earlier, millions of British people have small plastic poppies on their chests, which are bought from a special charity Fund to help veterans and widows of the military. At 11 o'clock on Sunday, the queen, ministers, generals, bishops and ambassadors lay poppy wreaths at the Cenotaph, and the whole country stops for two minutes of silence.

Grave 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 the Motherland in different years.

Russia and Russian emigration

In Russia, there is no official day of remembrance 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 that participated in it.

Tsarskoe Selo was to become a special place of memory of the war, according to the plan of Emperor Nicholas II. Laid there back in 1913, the Tsar's War Chamber was supposed to become the Museum of the Great War. By order of the emperor, a special area was allocated for the burial of the dead and deceased ranks of the Tsarskoye Selo garrison. This site became known as the "Cemetery of Heroes". At the beginning of 1915, the “Heroes' Cemetery” was named the First Bratsk Cemetery. On its territory on August 18, 1915, the laying of a temporary wooden church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Satisfy my sorrows" took place 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 build a temple - a monument to the Great War, designed by the architect S. N. Antonov.

However, these plans were not destined to come true. In 1918, the 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 depositories. In 1938, the temporary wooden church at the Bratsk cemetery was dismantled, and a wasteland overgrown with grass remained from the graves of the soldiers.

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

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

Also in Moscow on August 1, 2004, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, on the site of the Moscow city Bratsk cemetery in the Sokol district, memorial signs were erected to the "Fallen in the World War of 1914-1918", "Russian Sisters of Mercy", "Russian Aviators buried in the Moscow city fraternal cemetery. "

Russia received nothing as a result of the war, and this is one of the greatest historical injustices of the 20th century.

Fighting World War I ended on November 11, 1918... The Compiegne armistice, concluded by the Entente and Germany, ended one of the bloodiest wars in the history of mankind.

The final result was summed up later, the division of trophies between the winners was officially enshrined in the Versailles Peace Treaty of June 28, 1919. However, already in November 1918 it was clear to everyone that Germany had suffered a complete defeat. Its allies withdrew from the war even earlier: Bulgaria - September 29, Turkey - October 30, and, finally, Austria-Hungary - November 3.

The winners, primarily England and France, received significant acquisitions. Reparations, territories in Europe and beyond, new economic markets. But most of the other members of the anti-German coalition were not left without booty.

Romania, which entered the war only in 1916, defeated in two and a half months and even managed to sign a treaty with Germany, has grown dramatically in size. Serbia, completely occupied by enemy troops during the hostilities, has become a large and influential state, at least in the Balkans. Belgium received something, defeated in the very first weeks of 1914, and Italy ended the war with her own benefit.

Russia received nothing, and this is one of the greatest historical injustices of the 20th century. The 1914 campaign of the year was completed by the Russian army on the territory of the enemy, in the most difficult year of 1915, the year of retreat, all the same, the Germans were stopped along the Riga-Pinsk-Ternopil line, and they inflicted heavy defeats on Turkey on the Caucasian front.

1916 was a turning point on the Russian front, all year Germany and Austria-Hungary, straining all their forces, barely held back the powerful attacks of our army, and the Brusilov breakthrough shook our enemy to the ground. In the Caucasus, the Russian army won new victories.

With great alarm and even fear, the German generals looked at Russia's preparations for 1917.

The chief of the German General Staff Paul von Hindenburg admitted in his memoirs: “We should have expected that in the winter of 1916-1917, as in previous years, Russia would successfully compensate for its losses and restore its offensive capabilities. We have not received any information that would indicate serious signs of the decomposition of the Russian army. We had to take into account that Russian attacks could once again lead the Austrian positions to collapse. "

There were no doubts about the overall victory of the Entente even then.

English General Knox, who was with the Russian army, spoke more than definitely about the results of 1916 and the prospects for 1917: “Command and control of the troops improved every day. The army was strong in spirit ... There is no doubt that if the rear rallied ... the Russian army would have earned new laurels in the 1917 campaign and, in all likelihood, would have developed the pressure that would have made possible a victory for the Allies by the end of this year. "

Russia by that time had fielded the ten millionth, most numerous army of the First World War. Its supply has improved dramatically compared to 1915, the production of shells, machine guns, rifles, explosives and much more has increased markedly. In addition to this, substantial reinforcements from foreign military orders were expected in 1917. New factories for defense were built at a rapid pace, and those already built were re-equipped.

In the spring of 1917, a general Entente offensive was planned in all directions. Hunger reigned in Germany at that time, Austria-Hungary hung by a thread, and victory over them could really be won already in 1917.

This was also understood in Russia. Those who had real information about the situation at the fronts and in the economy understood. The fifth column could tear as much as it wanted on the topic of "incompetent tsarism", for the time being they could be believed by the shouting public, but an early victory put an end to it. All the absurdity and absurdity of accusations against the tsar will become obvious to everyone and everyone, because it was he, as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, who led Russia to success.

The opposition was well aware of this too. Their chance was to overthrow the legitimate government before the spring offensive of 1917, and then the laurels of the victors would be with them. A number of generals also imagined that it was time for them to redistribute power in their favor and took part in the February Revolution. Some of the king's relatives did not stand aside, those of them who dreamed of the throne.

External and internal enemies, united in a powerful anti-Russian force, struck a blow in February 1917. Then there was a chain of well-known events that unbalanced state administration. Discipline in the army fell, desertion intensified, and the economy began to stumble.

The crooks who came to power in Russia did not have any authority in the world, and the Western allies no longer had any obligations to them. England and France were not going to fulfill the agreements signed with the tsarist government.

Yes, they had to postpone the victory, but London and Paris knew that the United States was ready to join the war on their side, which means that Germany still could not avoid defeat. However, the Russian front, albeit weakened, still continued to exist. Despite the revolutionary chaos, neither the Germans nor the Austro-Hungarians managed to get Russia out of the war. Even in October 1917, on the eve of the Bolsheviks' coming to power, Germany alone held 1.8 million people on the Eastern Front, not counting the armies of Austria-Hungary and Turkey.

Even in the conditions of noticeable desertion and a semi-paralyzed economy, by October 1, 1917, 86 thousand infantry bayonets were located on the Russian front 100 versts from the Russian front, against 47 thousand from the enemy, 5 thousand checkers against 2 thousand, 263 light guns against 166, 47 howitzers against 61 and 45 heavy guns against 81. Note that the enemy refers to the combined forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary. It is no coincidence that the front still stood at a distance of 1000 km from Moscow, and 750 from Petrograd.

It seems incredible, but in December 1917 the Germans were forced to keep 1.6 million of their soldiers and officers in the East, and in January 1918 - 1.5 million. For comparison, in August 1915, during the powerful German-Austrian offensive on Russia Germany fielded 1.2 million troops. It turns out that even at the beginning of 1918, the Russian army was forced to reckon with itself.

There is no doubt that under the sad rule of a gang of interim ministers together with the political adventurer Kerensky, the situation in Russia has deteriorated sharply. But the inertia of the pre-revolutionary development was so great that for almost a year Germany and Austria-Hungary could not achieve any obvious successes on the eastern front. But it was vitally important for them to get the southern Russian provinces rich in bread. But the front stubbornly stood not far from Riga, Pinsk and Ternopil. Even a small part of Austria-Hungary remained in the hands of our army, which, it would seem, is quite incredible, given the realities of the end of 1917.

The sharp collapse of the eastern front happened only under the Bolsheviks. In fact, having disbanded the army to their homes, they then declared that they had no other opportunity but to sign the obscene Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

The Bolsheviks promised peace to the peoples. But, of course, no peace came to Russia. Vast territories were occupied by the enemy, who tried to squeeze everything out of them, in the vain hope of saving the lost war.

And soon the Civil War began in Russia. Europe stopped fighting, and bloody chaos and hunger reigned in our country for several more years.

This is how Russia lost to the losers: Germany and its allies.

World War I 1914-18 World War I 1914-18 - a war between two coalitions of powers: the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria) and the Entente (Russia, France, Great Britain, Serbia, later Japan, Italy, Romania, USA, etc.; 38 states in total). The reason for the war was the murder in Sarajevo by a member of the terrorist organization Young Bosnia of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. On July 15 (28), 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, July 19 (August 1) Germany - Russia, July 21 (August 3) - France, July 22 (August 4) Great Britain - Germany. Having created an advantage in the troops on the Western Front, Germany occupied Luxembourg and Belgium in 1914 and began a rapid advance in the north of France towards Paris. However, already in 1914 the German plan for the rapid defeat of France collapsed; this was facilitated by the offensive of Russian troops in East Prussia, which forced Germany to withdraw part of the troops from the Western Front. In August - September 1914, Russian troops defeated the Austro-Hungarian troops in Galicia, in late 1914 - early 1915 - the Turkish troops in the Transcaucasus. In 1915, the forces of the Central Powers, conducting a strategic defense on the Western Front, forced the Russian troops to leave Galicia, Poland, part of the Baltic States, and defeated Serbia. In 1916 after unsuccessful attempt German troops to break through the Allied defenses in the Verdun area (France), the strategic initiative passed to the Entente. In addition, the heavy defeat inflicted on the Austro-German troops in May - July 1916 in Galicia actually predetermined the collapse of Germany's main ally, Austria-Hungary. In August 1916, under the influence of the successes of the Entente, Romania entered the war on its side, but its troops acted unsuccessfully and at the end of 1916 were defeated. At the same time, in the Caucasian theater, the initiative continued to be retained by the Russian army, which occupied Erzurum and Trebizond in 1916. The collapse of the Russian army that began after the February Revolution of 1917 allowed Germany and its allies to intensify their actions on other fronts, which, however, did not change the situation as a whole. After the conclusion of a separate Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia (March 3, 1918), the German command launched a massive offensive on the Western Front. The Entente troops, having eliminated the results of the German breakthrough, went over to the offensive, which ended in the defeat of the Central Powers. Bulgaria surrendered on September 29, 1918, Turkey on October 30, Austria-Hungary on November 3, and Germany on November 11. During the First World War, about 74 million people were mobilized, the total losses amounted to about 10 million killed and over 20 million wounded.

Historical Dictionary. 2000 .

See what the "First World War 1914-18" is. in other dictionaries:

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• World War I. 1914-1918,. The publication was prepared for the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, an event that became a turning point in the history of Russia and many other states. Album of illustrations, including several sections (...