England vs Russia. Getting involved in World War I and “help” during the war
Political gamesRussia was drawn into a confrontation with Germany not only with the help of political alliances, but also along the dynastic line. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, the grandson of Nicholas I, married to his great-uncle Xenia Alexandrovna, the eldest daughter of Alexander III, sister of Nicholas II, loved to relax in the French resort of Biarritz on the Atlantic coast. In the same place members of the English royal house constantly rested. In the spring of 1907, the English king Edward VII came to the French resort. Through his wife, the English monarch, Alexandru the Danish, she was the elder sister of the Russian empress Maria Feodorovna, they were related to each other. Friendly relations were established between Prince Alexander and King Edward.
It must be said that both aristocrats were masons of higher degrees of initiation, and masons played a large role in the destruction of the Russian Empire. They were involved in the bleeding of Russia and Germany. Edward became the great Master of British Masons, while still a Prince of Wales. True, he officially resigned these powers after taking the throne. Alexander Mikhailovich became a Freemason at the end of the XIX century together with his brothers. Alexander was in the Masonic "Grand-Ducal box", was the founder of the "Admiralty Lodge".
Many works have been written about masons, but there is little reliable information about them. These organizations did not leave behind archives, declarations and manifestos. Everything was done in secret, decisions were made orally. In addition, we must not forget about the famous Masonic discipline. However, the Masonic organizations, taking into account the fact that they included representatives of high society, the aristocracy of Western Europe, church hierarchs, bankers and industrialists, the color of the intelligentsia, had a strong influence on the life of humanity. Brick by brick "bricklayers" built a new world order.
10-11 July 1905, the yacht "Polar Star" in the skerries at Björk hosted the meeting of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II and the German Kaiser Wilhelm. At this meeting, the German monarch persuaded Nicholas to sign a union agreement. The treaty contained the obligations of the parties on mutual assistance between Russia and Germany in Europe in the event of an attack on one of them by any European power. On the whole, the treaty was anti-British. In the future, the Russian-German alliance was supposed to be transformed into a tripartite Russian-German-French. This treaty was supposed to undermine the position of England in Africa and Asia. However, under pressure from Russian ministers, among whom were many Masons, the treaty lost its force. A particularly important role in this detrimental to the future of the Russian Empire was played by Foreign Minister Lamsdorf and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Witte (he was an agent of the influence of the “financial international”).
3 August 1907, during a meeting between Nicholas II and Wilhelm II in Swinemünde, the Germans tried again to find a reasonable compromise with the Russians. Chancellor Bülow was not averse to raising the Björk Treaty again. The German side wanted to achieve a "tacit" consent to the recognition of the treaty in Björk as retaining force. France was to remain outside this agreement. In the Baltic, it was proposed to maintain the status quo. Berlin was supposed to help Petersburg and Vienna settle the Balkan issue. The Germans also wanted Russia’s agreement to extend the Persian Baghdad railway to Persia. Germany offered Russia a loan if Russia accepts these conditions.
It should be noted that some German politicians had quite a reasonable vision of the future. So, in one of Bulow’s letters - from 6 November 1905 of the year - it was noted that if the Russian Empire unites with Britain, “this will mean the opening of the front directed against us, which in the near foreseeable future will lead to a big international military conflict. What would be its consequences? Will Germany be the winner of this disaster? Alas, most likely Germany will be defeated, and it will all end in the triumph of the revolution. ”
In fact, this is a variant of the “Durnovo note”. Former Minister of the Interior of the Russian Empire (in 1905-1906) Peter Durnovo in February 1914 presented Nikolay II an analytical note, where he warned against Russia's entry into a world war. In it, this conservative statesman actually predicted the development of events in the coming years. He accurately predicted the composition of the two main military-political coalitions in the oncoming war, the fact that Russia would get the role of "a ram penetrating the thickest German defense," correctly noted the "insufficiency of our military reserves." In the event of a defeat, he predicted "a hopeless anarchy, the outcome of which is difficult to foresee." Failures on the front were to become the main prerequisites of the revolution, therefore Russia at any cost should have avoided being drawn into the European massacre. Durnovo predicted the defeat of the "intellectual" parties that dominated the Provisional Government. They had to quickly lose power, giving it more active left radicals, who attracted people with populist slogans. His equally gloomy forecast for Germany has come true. According to the statesman Durnovo, losing the war will lead to a successful revolution.
There is every reason to believe that the failure of the negotiations in Swinemünde was predetermined by tight ties between the Russian and English masons. After the failure in Swinemünde, in the same month, on a yacht standing a few miles from Gangut, Nikolay and the English ambassador Arthur Nicholson signed an agreement on the division of the spheres of influence of the two great powers in Tibet, Afghanistan and Persia. Moreover, the treaty was more beneficial to England, since Russia had the best starting opportunities on the continent to expand its influence.
On May 28 (June 10), 1908, the British royal yacht Victoria and Albert, accompanied by a military squadron, arrived in Revel. The royal couple Edward and Alexandra Danish arrived aboard the North Star yacht. The English king, knowing the love of the Russian emperor for various regalia and signs, promoted him to the rank of British Admiral fleet. Nikolai was presented with a uniform and a sea saber of the sample of 1827, which pleased him very much. During this meeting, the creation of the Entente, a military-political bloc of Russia, England and France, directed against Germany, was agreed.
Thus, England was able to achieve impressive success in drawing Russia into a conflict with Germany. True, we must not forget that the British at that time acted in complete agreement with the French. Paris put a lot of effort to preserve and strengthen the anti-German alliance with St. Petersburg. Russia was entangled with financial fetters and debts. It is necessary to take into account the role of French Freemasonry, a significant part of Russian Freemasons obeyed the French lodges. Under the onslaught of England and France, Nikolaev Russia could not stand it and became more and more distant from Germany. Although it was with Germany that economic and military cooperation looked the most profitable.
At the same time, the British and French made efforts to undermine the military power of the Russian Empire. In no case Russia should have come out of a war as a winner. "Financial International" wanted to destroy the Russian and German empires, having received huge profits from this business. The French firm Schneider, along with the artillery inspector general and the corrupt official, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, as well as the board of the private Putilov factory, took control of the development of Russian heavy artillery. The result was sad - by the beginning of the war, the Russian Empire was very seriously inferior to the heavy artillery of Germany.
At the same time, the British attacked the Russian naval artillery. After 1905, a significant part of the Russian naval guns was a sample of Armstrong and Vickers firms. At the beginning of 1912, several Russian dealers came into contact with the Vickers board. They offered the Russian government to build a huge private gun military factory with the participation of the firm Vikkers. Moreover, at this time, the existing Gun Plant in St. Petersburg and the Motovilikhinsky plant in Perm urgently needed orders and capital investments for the development of production. The capacity of the Obukhov plant allowed to fully satisfy the orders of the Maritime Department. Motovilikhinsky plant was not loaded at all, was out of work. Therefore, there was no particular need for a new plant. It was necessary to develop existing enterprises. However, tricky businessmen were able to persuade the Navy Department, and the emperor apparently didn’t really go into it by signing the relevant document.
They decided to build a huge factory in Tsaritsyn. From the autumn of 1915, the company was to produce guns of caliber from 130 to 406 mm. In addition, the firm Vikkers received an order for the supply of 356-mm guns for Izmail-class battlecruisers. The Izmail-class cruisers were laid out in the 1912 year at the Admiralty and Baltic factories. By the planned date, having mastered more than 20 million gold rubles, the company was not ready. The commission found several unfinished workshops in Tsaritsyno, two or three dozens of machine tools, etc. Thanks to the wartime conditions and censorship, the government managed to hide from the public the truth about the scale of the failure of foreign and domestic businessmen, and Russia's defense capability seriously suffered. The government decided to nationalize the plant. However, the Russian concessionaires and the Vickers firm, which had an 25% stake, raised a terrible squeal supposedly being robbed. The British ambassador put pressure on the emperor. As a result, Russia still had to buy back the unfinished. Under the Soviet regime, the Tsaritsynsky plant was renamed Barricades and had to be built almost from scratch.
Interestingly, in 1914-1917's. Obukhovsky plant, which belonged to the Maritime Department, without any problems he began to produce 356-mm guns (same type with British, but better quality), and then produced and prototype 406-mm guns. Thus, domestic manufacturers could themselves carry out orders of our fleet. There was no need for a Tsaritsyn adventure. The "faithful allies" continued to deceive and rob Russia.
"Help" during the war
England was an ally of Russia during the First World War, but help was minimal, often formal. The British provided more or less real help only on the Baltic Sea. In the fall of 1914, the British government decided to send several submarines to the Baltic. But their real goal was not to fight the Germans, but to observe the German fleet, intelligence. British submarines got to the Baltic through the Danish straits or arrived in Arkhangelsk, from where they were loaded onto barges and taken by inland waterway to Petrograd. Total British submarines destroyed around the German 8-10 steamers and two old cruisers. Two boats were lost. After the conclusion of the Peace of Brest, the remaining submarines were blown up by crews in Finland, and the personnel returned to England through Sweden.
Deliveries weapons from England to Russia were small, besides expensive, and the weapons were often of poor quality or could not be used. When it turned out that because of the mistake of Prince Sergei Mikhailovich, Russia was left without heavy artillery, the military ministry tried to buy weapons abroad. From the beginning of the war to the end of the war, nine NIKX-mm Vickers howitzers, 305-39-mm howitzers, 203-96-mm howitzers and 152-52-mm guns arrived in Russia. And the 127-mm howitzer "Vikkers" were supplied with tractors - steam tractors "Big Lion". However, the Russian roads could not withstand such gravity, and the artillery systems had to be left in warehouses. The British placed four hundred 305-mm howitzers, five 114-mm anti-aircraft guns and 75 mortars for field artillery. Given the volume of weapons involved in the war, it was a drop in the ocean.
In addition, to Russia in 1915-1916. put 161 light armored car, twelve 40-mm anti-aircraft self-propelled guns. Of the small arms, London delivered 128 thousand Arisaka rifles, previously intended for the Japanese, 540 Gochkis machine guns, and for aviation - 400 Lewis light machine guns (used in infantry during the Civil War). It should be noted that deliveries were not free, but paid for in Russian gold, and the prices were very high. In particular, the British took an order for the supply of Vickers type machine guns, which practically did not differ in their performance characteristics from the Russian Maxims. A machine gun cost 2362 rubles. The Tula plant for "Maxims" took half as much. In addition, the British transferred the order to the American company Colt. The order was disrupted, but paid for by Russia.
The British practically did not help the Russian fleet. We limited ourselves to the supply of about twenty 305 mm guns and forty 40 mm anti-aircraft guns. In addition, the British basically refused to supply military news - aircraft of the latest models and Tanks. And later, London supplied the white armies more generously, without refusing these latest models. Thus, British firms did not miss the opportunity to make good profits from Russia, and the British military assistance was almost imperceptible in the general military production of the Russian Empire.
On top of that, the British “threw” Russia in geopolitical terms. During the war, London and Paris promised St. Petersburg to give Constantinople and the Bosphorus and Dardanelles. However, they were not going to keep their promise. England and France concluded a separate agreement in which they promised in no way to cede the straits of the Russian Empire. Moreover, the British and French hatched plans for the dismemberment of the Russian Empire after the defeat of Germany. They planned to take away from Russia Poland, the Baltic States, Finland, and, if possible, Little Russia and the Caucasus. It turned out that at first Russia acted as “cannon fodder”, realizing the plans of the British and French political elite, as well as the “financial international”, and then, after the defeat of Germany, the weakened empire was to become a “killed bear”, whose skin would be shared western predators.
However, there was a serious problem. At the end of 1917, in London and Paris, politicians and the military were already anticipating a quick victory, which, in their opinion, remained a few months. It was assumed that in the 1917 year, the German Empire, due to a shortage of raw materials and foodstuffs, a pre-revolutionary situation in society, would surrender to the Entente. True, Russia by this time has become stronger than it was. Its economy continued to grow even during the war years, when it fell among all the warring powers. The Russian army and navy became even stronger than in the 1914 year. The Russian troops held up well, struck powerful blows at Austria-Hungary, which did not suffer a military-political catastrophe only because of the help of Germany. The Russian army was victorious on the Caucasian front, threatening to withdraw through Anatolia to Constantinople. The Black Sea Fleet dominated the Black Sea and could conduct a landing operation, supporting the Constantinople operation from the sea. The army was preparing to conduct a series of offensive operations during the 1917 campaign of the year. Therefore, in the event of a victory over Germany, we would not have to talk about dismembering Russia, but giving it the promise, seriously strengthening the Russian military-strategic power. Having received Constantinople and the straits, Russia would dramatically strengthen its position in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Persia, ensure complete security of the inner regions of the empire from the Black Sea direction, since the Black Sea became the “Russian lake”. England and France could not go for it. They have already fought with Russia about this in the Eastern War of the 1853-1856.
To be continued ...
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