How did the best parts of the Russian imperial army die?

The second stage of the offensive of the South-Western Front

The first onslaught on Kovel did not succeed, but the Russian Stavka decided to once again step on the Kovel direction. On July 23 (August 5) the advance of the southern flank of the South-Western Front — the 11, 7 and 9 armies — was appointed. The 11 and 9 armies were to attack the flanks of the enemy, who held strong positions in front of the 7 army. The Sakharov and Lechitsky armies were supposed to facilitate the advance of Shcherbachev's army. July 25 (August 7) planned to launch an attack on the northern flank of the front — the 8, 3 and Special Army, were to attack Kovel for the second time.

Sakharov's 11 Army went on the offensive on the night of July 23. The left flank of the army went into attack - General Ekka's 7 Corps. The Hungarian 4 Army Corps was almost completely destroyed during the six-day brutal battle. Only the arrival of the 1 of the German corps from France saved the 2 of the Austro-Hungarian army from complete ruin. Our troops in the battle of the Hostage took more than 14 thousand people. However, here too the Russian command missed the opportunity to build on success. Our troops could take Lvov if Sakharov had thrown into the hole punched in the enemy defense with the 7 Corps, strong reinforcements and supported the attack of the army of Shcherbachev's army. But Sakharov fulfilled only the task set by the front headquarters — an auxiliary operation to support a neighbor. The initiative did not show. But General Shcherbachev thought that his neighbors should help him, and not him.

On July 25, after a powerful artillery preparation, the 9 Army of Lechitsky launched an offensive. The 33 and 41 corps, reinforced with the 12 corps, attacked the enemy. The main blow of the 9 Army put their right-flank 33 Corps on the Germans - the group of Kevela, 41-corps - attacked the group Hodfri, 12-corps - 1-th Austro-Hungarian corps. Started the battle of Stanislav. The 33 Corps took Tlumach, an enemy stronghold in Zadnestrovie. Under the fierce strikes of the Russian troops, the 3-I Austro-Hungarian army wavered and retreated. The Germans of Crevel did not survive, giving up position after position. Khodfri and 1 of the Austrian corps had a hard time. 27 July (9 August) the Germans retreated again and 28 July (10 August) the commander of the Austrian army Kevesh ordered a general withdrawal of Bystritsa, on the same day our troops occupied Stanislav. In total, during the battle of Stanislav, Russian troops captured about 20 thousand people, 18 guns.

At the same time, in the Carpathian direction, the left flank of the 9 Army beat off attacks by the army of Pflanzer, to which Austrian and German reinforcements constantly arrived from Italy and France.

The successful offensive of the 11 and 9 armies exposed the flanks of the Southern Army of Bothmer and greatly facilitated the advance of the 7 Army Shcherbachev. 25 July 7-I army launched an offensive. The Russian 22 Corps shot down Hoffmann's group and, together with the 16 Corps, took the Burkanuv Forest, the last section of the May front from Pripyat to Romania, which remained in the hands of the enemy. 31 July (13 August), our troops rejected the enemy for the Golden Lime. The 2 Army Corps forced Lipa and took Zbarazh, the 22 Corps captured Tustobabs. In the battle of Zbarazh 7-I Russian army captured more than 8 thousand people.

Thus, the south wing of the South-Western Front - the army of Sakharov, Shcherbachev and Lechitsky, won victories at Zalozhits, near Zbarazh and Stanislav. Our troops captured about 50 thousand people and made serious tactical successes. However, it was not possible to turn these successes into strategic ones: all the attention of the supreme Russian command was directed to Kovel, and all the forces and means of the Southwestern Front went to the Kovel meat grinder. As a result, the high command missed the opportunity to develop an offensive in other directions.

The second Kovel battle. Further actions of the South-Western Front

The attack on Kovel on the 3, Special and 8 armies, scheduled for July 25, was postponed for a day. The special army did not have time to prepare, and the 3-I army beat off the German strike from Zarechye.

July 26 (August 8) began the Second Kovel battle. The 3 Army finished the training that day. It was reinforced by the 1 Siberian Corps, which approached from the Western Front. The special army Bezobravova attacked without much success and suffered heavy losses. The 33 Corps did not succeed. The 1 Army Corps was thrown back to its original position by strong enemy counterattacks. The guards were bleeding, but also failed to break through the defensive orders of the enemy. So, only 2-I Guards Division lost about 4 thousand people in Kukhar forest. It should be noted that the guards fought bravely, selflessly, but ineptly. For many months in the rear of the guards, they did not teach the new methods of war as if Russia had not fought. Therefore, the guards suffered heavy losses than the army. British General Knox noted this with surprise, and Brusilov - with bitterness.

July 27 launched an offensive 3-I army. However, she did not achieve much success. In the Special Army 2-th Guards Corps, in vain attacked Vitonezh. For two days the 8 Army fought against Kiselin to no avail. Further attacks by Russian troops were unsuccessful and led only to new losses. The offensive of the three Russian armies on Kovel failed.

July 30 (August 12) The 3 and Special Army were transferred to the Western Front. The headquarters hoped that this would give determination to the command of the Western Front. But Evert again failed to meet expectations. 3 (16) August Evert appointed the 3 and Special Armies offensive on 15 (28) August. However, after a few days, the commander-in-chief of the Western Front postponed the attack on the 23, and then on August 24. When 22 August, our troops had already conducted artillery preparation, General Evert canceled the offensive operation and informed GHQ that “beyond the onset of autumn time” he does not foresee any chances for success.

The troops of Brusilov again went over to the general offensive of August 18 (the Third Kovel battle). The 8 Army was not particularly successful and its movement was stopped by strong German counterattacks. 11-I army advanced slightly. The greatest success was achieved by the 7-I army of Shcherbachev. During the battle on the two Limes (Golden Lina and Rotten Lipa) 10 infantry divisions Shcherbachev defeated 14,5 enemy divisions (German 7, Austrian 5,5 and Turkish 2). Our troops defeated the 6 and 13 of the Austro-Hungarian corps, then repulsed the onslaught of the German group of Kevel, which hastily transferred from behind the Dniester. 25 August Russian forced Rotten Lipa. The German High Command had to redeploy 4 divisions that went to Romania (Bucharest 14 August acted on the side of the Entente), against the 7 army. The remnants of the Austrian corps and the Crevel group were consolidated into the 24 th German corps of General von Gerok, and the reinforcements that came up formed the 10 th German reserve corps. Only the weakness of artillery weapons and the lack of ammunition did not allow the Russian regiments to finally break through the enemy defenses. The shelves of the 33 Corps stopped at the approaches to Galich. In these battles our troops captured 29 thousand people.

The 9 Army of Lechitsky at that time led heavy mountain battles with the enemy in the Carpathian direction, breaking through into Transylvania. On August 9, Pflanzer Baltina’s army launched an offensive and pressed the left flank of our 11 Corps in the Wooded Carpathians. 17 August The 7-I Austro-Hungarian army attacked again, striking the junction of the 11-th and 18-th corps and seized the mountain massif Kukul. 18 August our troops counterattacked on all fronts. The 18 Corps shot down the German Carpathian Corps from the newly captured Kukul. From 18 to 29 in August, our troops, beating off the fierce attacks of the enemy, steadily made their way forward, overcoming not only the fierce resistance of the enemy, but the mountain conditions, taking the top of the top, the pass over the pass.

After these August battles, the South-Western Front again significantly strengthened. In 8, the army from the Special Army handed over the entire guard. In the 11 Army, the 3 Caucasian Corps was allocated from the reserve of the Western Front, the 7 Army from the reserve of the Northern Front was allocated the 7 Siberian Corps, etc.

1 (14) of September, General Brusilov instructed his armies to go on the offensive again: 8 Army - Vladimir-Volynsky, bypassing Kovel from the south, 11 and 7 Army - in Lviv, 9 Army - on Marmaros Sighet. The 3 (13) of September began the Fourth Kovel battle, but it ended without result. The enemy repelled the strike of the 8 Army. 7 (20) September Kaledin repeated attack. 8-th Army Corps took Korytnitsa, 1-th Guards Corps took possession of Svinyuhi. But this modest success cost the army tremendous sacrifices.

The enemy repulsed the attacks of the 11 Army. 7-I army attacked the center (22-th and 33-th corps). The onslaught of our iron regiments was met by the 10-th reserve and 24-th German corps. During the fierce battle, our troops did not achieve much success, although they shook the enemy with the power of their strike. 9-I army continued its selfless offensive in the Carpathians. Our soldiers were advancing in the mountains, in deep snow, fighting an experienced adversary. The Germans considered the battles of Dorn-Vatra, Jacoben, and Kirlibaba to be the worst during the entire war.

The 10 (23) of September was again included in the South-Western Front by the Special Army (6 Corps), headed by the decisive Gurko. The headquarters was disillusioned with the Kovel direction and Alekseev advised Brusilov to shift the center of gravity of the attack to the south - in the 7 and 9 armies. Moreover, the performance of Romania on the side of the Entente demanded an increase in the activity of the southern flank of the Southwestern Front. However, Brusilov ignored the “advice” of the Stavka, which, as usual, “offered” rather than ordered, and decided to continue the attack on Kovel. Thus, the fifth battle for Kovel began.

September 17 (30) attacked the 7-I and 11-th army. Sakharov's army achieved little success only on the left flank. The troops of the 7 Army in the wild slaughter under Wild Lann literally cut out the Gallipoli 15 Turkish corps, they did not take prisoners. But in general, the attack on Lviv failed.

September 19 attacked the 8-I army of Kaledin and Special Gurko. The decisive Gurko struck blow after blow, but by September 22 the offensive had stalled. The artillery ran out of shells. The shortage of heavy artillery and ammunition still failed our troops. The powerful defense of the enemy (de facto, the enemy created a whole Kovel fortified area) could not be destroyed without the support of strong artillery. If at the beginning of the Lutsk (Brusilovsky) breakthrough here such a decisive commander as Gurko commanded, our troops would immediately take Kovel and Vladimir-Volynsky, since the enemy would not expect a strong attack here. But in September, all attacks became meaningless and only led to vain sacrifices.

The strike of the 8 Army also ended in failure. Our troops suffered heavy losses in fruitless attacks. In total, in the Fifth Kovel battle, our 14 divisions attacked enemy 12 (German Beckmann group, German Marvitsa 6, and 4 Austrian-Hungarian army corps), which, in fact, occupied a fortified area and had a widow with superior artillery. The Russian Guard heroically attacked 17 once, but only bled to death.

After this massacre, Supreme Commander Nikolai II and Alekseev demanded to stop fruitless and bloody attacks on the Kovel direction and transfer the center of action of the South-Western Front to Bukovina and the Wooded Carpathians. The 8 army was transferred there. However, the Stakes once again did not have enough firmness to insist on their decision. Brusilov and Gurko decided to continue the attack on Kovel. In late September and early October, a new attack on Kovel began. Our troops tried to "gnaw" the enemy defense: heavy engineering work alternated with bloody and unsuccessful assaults.

Results of the Kovel battle

The fighting at the turn of the river Stokhod took a protracted and bloody character. The enemy had a strong defense and forces here that were almost as good as the Russians, and were superior to artillery. The troops of the South-Western Front had success in the center and on the left flank, where a number of cities were liberated, including Brody and Stanislav. Austro-Hungarian troops suffered a series of heavy defeats and left Bukovina. Austria-Hungary held the front only at the expense of supporting the German divisions. Germany and Austria-Hungary had to constantly withdraw their divisions from the Italian and French fronts in order to hold back the Russians. In September, the front stabilized on the line of the river Stokhod, Kiselin, Zlochev, Brezzhany, Galich, Stanislav, Delatyn, Vorokhta, Seletin. On this offensive army Brusilov was completed. Further attacks did not bring success and only caused great losses.

As the military historian A. A. Kersnovsky wrote: “The victories of May-June were drowned in the blood of July-October. ... The superior personnel of the southwestern armies were knocked out entirely. The swamps of Stokhod were absorbed by regiments of guard restored with such difficulty, with which the rest of the color of the imperial infantry lay down — the heroes of the eighth corps, the iron regiments of the XL, the Amurites, the Turkestan arrows ... There was no one to replace them.

The stake was waiting for a breakthrough from the South-Western Front - and the South-Western Front gave it that breakthrough, and even as many as four at once. Russia was expecting a victory from the Stavka, and the Stavka failed to give it that victory.

The last opportunity to end the war with the disruption of Austria-Hungary was missed, thereby warning the impending great internal turmoil. The enemy shuddered at the terrible blow received. He was given time to recover, and then began to strike at his strongest place, instead of hitting the weakest. And the Lutsk laurels were replaced by the Kovel crown of thorns ... ”.

At the same time, Brusilov cannot be considered the main culprit of this tragedy, when the front broke through the defenses of the enemy, but failed to use this success. To use the success of the front was to bet. The stakes turned out to be completely incapable of using the opened opportunities and missed the chance to change the course of the war and intercept the strategic initiative.

General results

As a result of the Brusilov breakthrough, the South-Western Front defeated the Austro-Hungarian army, Russian troops advanced from 80 to 120 km into the territory of the enemy. Russian armies occupied almost all of Volyn, almost all of Bukovina and part of Galicia.

The enemy lost in May - August to 1,5 million people, including more than 400 thousand prisoners (according to German data, Austro-Hungarians lost more than 600 thousand people, Germans - about 150 thousand people). The Russians seized 581 guns, 1795 machine guns, 448 bombers and mortars. Russian troops lost about 500 thousand people (according to German data - about 800 thousand people). As a result of the Brusilov breakthrough, the forces of the Austro-Hungarian army were so undermined that until the end of the war it could no longer take active actions without the support of the German divisions.

The offensive had a great help to the Allies, since the Austro-German high command, by transferring 30,5 infantry and 3,5 cavalry divisions to the Eastern front from the Western, Italian and Thessaloniki fronts (more than 400 thousand bayonets and sabers), was finally forced to stop the offensive in Trenti, more than XNUMX thousand bayonets and sabers, was finally forced to stop the offensive in Trenti, more than XNUMX thousand bayonets and sabers, was finally forced to stop the offensive in Trenti, more than XNUMX thousand bayonets and sabers, was finally forced to stop the offensive in Trenti, more than XNUMX thousand bayonets and sabers, was finally forced to stop the offensive in Trenti, more than XNUMX thousand bayonets and sabers, was finally forced to stop the offensive in Trenti, more than XNUMX thousand bayonets and sabers, was finally forced to stop the offensive in Trenti, more than XNUMX thousand bayonets and sabers, finally forced to stop the offensive in Trenti and ease the pressure on Verdun in France. Also, the actions of the Russian troops eased the Allies offensive on the Somme. Under the influence of the Brusilov breakthrough, Romania decided to enter the war on the side of the Entente. In military-strategic terms, along with the battles on the Somme River, the offensive of the South-Western Front marked the beginning of a general change in the course of the First World War in favor of the Entente countries.

Militarily, the offensive of the Russian troops under the leadership of A. A. Brusilov was a new form of breakthrough of front-line positions - simultaneously in several sectors, and was developed in the last years of the First World War, especially in the 1918 campaign of the year at the Western European theater of operations.

As a result, the strategic benefits of the most successful Russian operation came mainly from the allies. For Russia, the strike of the South-Western Front became an operation of missed opportunities. Thus, A. A. Brusilov himself assessed the results of the operation as follows from the point of view of solving strategic tasks by the Russian Imperial Army: “This operation did not give, and could not, because the decision of the military council of April 1 was not implemented It was. The western front did not deliver the main attack, and the Northern Front had “patience, patience and patience” familiar to us from the Japanese war with its motto. The bet, in my opinion, did not in any way fulfill its purpose of controlling the entire Russian armed force. The grandiose, victorious operation, which could have been accomplished with the proper course of action of our supreme commander in 1916, was unforgivably overlooked. ”

Errors of the Stavka, the commands of the Northern and Western fronts, as well as the headquarters of Brusilov and his commanders, saved Austria-Hungary from complete defeat and postponed the fall of the Central Powers block. At first, the Headquarters was unable to organize the interaction of the fronts, did not timely transfer the direction of the main attack to the southern strategic direction (Brusilov had no second-tier troops and strategic reserves for the development of the first successes). Then, the Stavka was unable to shift the gravity of the main strike of the South-Western Front from the north (Kovel) to the south wing. The northern and western fronts did not support the offensive of the Brusilov front with successful auxiliary operations. The South-Western Front was unable to best manage the available forces (in particular, launching an offensive on the Kovel axis several times). Brusilov was unable to use numerous excellent front cavalry (13 divisions) to pursue a defeated enemy and advance the offensive, when the infantry broke through the enemy defenses. Although the future experience of the Civil War (and even the Great Patriotic War) showed that the century of cavalry had not yet passed. The Russian army was drained of blood, losing most of its personnel, and partially demoralized, which accelerated the arrival of the revolution and its victory. The Russian autocracy lost the main support in these bloody battles - the army. Society was finally disappointed with the tsarist government, which strengthened the "fifth column" and the revolutionary forces.

Sources:
Brusilov A.A. Memories. M., 1963. // http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/brusilov/index.html.
Zayonchkovsky A.M. The First World War. SPb., 2000.
History World War I 1914 — 1918's. In 2 t. Ed. I. I. Rostunova. M., 1975.
Kersnovsky A. A. History of the Russian army. The 4 T. T. 4. M., 1994.
Rostunov I.I. The Russian Front of the First World War. M., 1976. // http://militera.lib.ru/h/rostunov_ii02/index.html.
Utkin A.I. World War I. M., 2001.
Shambarov V.Ye. The Last Battle of the Emperors. The parallel history of the First World War. M., 2013.
http://rusplt.ru/ww1/

Comments

[fa2998]

In the First World War, Russia had powerful reserves. Frightened by Tsushima, she kept her fleet at bay. The many thousands of crews of battleships ate off their muzzles and talked with the Bolsheviks. That would be written off to the coast and to the front, and there were also numerous coastal services. would be calmer. It is a pity to grind the elite of the army from tactical tasks, but the guard fulfilled their tasks. Although the replenishment came to them no longer "elite".

[Alexey RA]

Quote: fa2998

In World War I, Russia had powerful reserves. The frightened Tsushima kept their fleet on a joke. Many thousands of muzzle battleship crews were driving away and talking with the Bolsheviks. That would have been written off to the shore and to the front, and there were numerous coastal services

The crew size of the Sevastopol-class aircraft is 1125 - 1140 people. With four battleships, we end up with an infantry brigade.
The total number of sailors in the Baltic Fleet in 1915 was 68461 people, in 1916 - 67694 people. For 1917 - 83870 people. Hull from the fleet - subject to the complete dissolution of the BF. What are the same Germans in the Riga region will be incredibly happy - because then the coastal section of the Riga UR will be left without normal artillery.

The Black Sea Fleet as a whole and its LC in particular cannot be touched - they are also involved in covering army operations in the Trebizond direction.

[Timyr]

Like Denikin seems to be there. The Russian Army entered the war with excellent regiments, mediocre divisions and poor corps. And the high command is almost all of Kuropatkin’s nest. So it turned out that tactical successes could not be turned into strategic ones.

[bracket]

V. Pikul))) seems to be "Unclean power"?

[parusnik]

As a result, the strategic benefits of the most successful Russian operation went mainly to the allies... But how, French loans had to be worked out ..

[ImPerts]

As the military historian A. A. Kersnovsky wrote: “The victories of May-June were drowned in the blood of July-October. ... The superior personnel of the southwestern armies were knocked out entirely. The swamps of Stokhod were absorbed by regiments of guard restored with such difficulty, with which the rest of the color of the imperial infantry lay down — the heroes of the eighth corps, the iron regiments of the XL, the Amurites, the Turkestan arrows ... There was no one to replace them.
- No no. It was the Bolsheviks who destroyed the color of the nation ...

[AK64]

- No no. It was the Bolsheviks who destroyed the color of the nation ...

For your information: for three and a half years of the "tsarist war", that is, from August 1914 to the beginning of 1917, the Russian army lost a little more ... half a million people killed.
In numbers I write for you: a little more than 500 people.

For two and a half years of World War II.

Draw conclusions and do it yourself.

[Akselruur]

And there can be only one conclusion. Complete lack of accounting for combat losses. And so by eye, that the man in the street would not be very scared. I wonder how many civilians died in the combat zone from enemy terror in the occupied territories? Who's to say? And no one, because no one took these losses into account. as it was then believed: "Women then give birth to new ones." So everything is clear to me. And you "patriot" inform you that during the Second World War, the ratio of combat losses was 1: 1.3, and those 20 million, was purposefully exterminating the population in the occupied territories. So shut up in a rag!

[bober1982]

AkselRuur: as it was then thought: Women then give birth to new
You gave an unsuccessful example - worn and beaten. Who was considered? and when then ?
There was an old English saying among the sailors - "The king has a lot!", And from this saying they began to literally "sculpt" women then new give birth to all in a row, that is, in your words: as it was then thought

[Alexey RA]

Quote: AK64

For your information: for three and a half years of the "tsarist war", that is, from August 1914 to the beginning of 1917, the Russian army lost a little more ... half a million people killed.
In numbers I write for you: a little more than 500 people.

For two and a half years of World War II.

After which the Empire collapsed overnight.

The armed forces of the USSR lost 6,9 million people killed. But the country survived.

Draw your own conclusions. ©

[teron]

"The flower of the nation" stood to death near Moscow and in Stalingrad. He took Budapest and Berlin. Then he rebuilt the country and sent a man into space. Dear, maybe you have another "nation" in mind. Or is there something wrong with color perception?

[Trapperxnumx]

Every time I study materials about 1916, the feeling of conscious betrayal by the generals of the Western Front does not leave me. It feels like everything was done specifically to overthrow the Tsar and the subsequent (already) victorious offensive.

[Dart2027]

Quote: Trapper7

I have a feeling of conscious betrayal by the Western Front generals

So this is a historical fact. When the riot began in February, the command immediately supported Kerensky and the company.

[von_Tilsit]

Hmm, by the way - Tsar Brusilov did not particularly like, and in the White movement too)

[Aleksander]

The Russian army was bloodless, having lost most of its personnel, and partially demoralized,

Yes, yes, but the Austro-German, of course, did not suffer: 1 500 000 killed and wounded German losses against 500 000 Russians. Together with the defeat at Verdun, the Central Powers suffered irreparable losses and the Entente forever passed to the Entente, their defeat was simply a matter of time. And this is due to the blow of the Russian Army.
The Brusilovsky breakthrough in society was perceived as a victory, major victories were won on the Caucasus front too — where is demoralization?

what accelerated the arrival of the revolution and its victory

Strange logic: in the 1941, the Red Army suffered a defeat that has not yet happened in the history of the world, the loss of only the 1941 is twice as much as during the entire WWII and no revolution.
Then she recovered and defeated the enemy.

As a result, the strategic benefits of the most successful Russian operation went mainly to the allies.

So what? In the fight against the COMMON enemy, the strategic benefits of ANY ally are the benefits of ALL allies, to a large extent Russia, as well: the center of the struggle has permanently moved to the Western Front and henceforth millions of allies and Germans died there, saving Russian lives. Why is it bad?

[Lord_Bran]

Unfortunately, neither Germany nor Austria-Hungary were OUR enemies. Many stories cannot understand at all why the hell RI joyfully threw herself into a meat grinder in the West. Protect the Serbs? Not even an attempt was made to solve the problem through diplomatic channels.
And our allies in the Entente very willingly used our successes, who themselves did not want and did not intend to carry out any operations to divert forces from the eastern front. And a few years later, the Entente invaded the territory of Russia to rob and maintain the militaristic aspirations of various jackals who wanted to bite a little bit from the defeated country.

[Aleksander]

Quote: Lord_Bran

Unfortunately, neither Germany nor Austria-Hungary were OUR enemies. stories cannot understand at all why the hell RI joyfully threw herself into a meat grinder in the West.

Alas, they WAS OUR enemies, read Schlieffen’s plan, the basis of Germany’s actions in the war: the fastest defeat of France in 2 weeks and then 90% of forces to be thrown to Russia that didn’t have time to mobilize. And walked they are for the same as in 1941.
By striking Prussia and saving France, Germany’s strongest opponent, Russia saved itself by escaping 1941 of the year in 1914.

Reich Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, July 6, 1914: " The future belongs to Russia"which is growing and growing, and which is increasingly pressing on us, like some kind of dark spirit."

Head of the General Staff Helmut von Moltke. : After two or three years, Russia will arm itself, and then Germany will no longer be able to confront the triple alliance of France, the United Kingdom and Russia. therefore there is nothing left but to start a preventive war and defeat the enemy, while we are still able to withstand this fight to a certain extent».

They declared war, they were the first to attack.

Russia FORCEDLY defended itself and acted exclusively wisely, ensuring that the main meat grinder was in the West.

Or do you like what happened in 1941 more when ALL German Army hit Russia (USSR) with the defeated, providing France with its resources?

Quote: Lord_Bran

Not even an attempt was made to solve the problem through diplomatic channels.

nonsense: read at least about Lord Gray’s mission

[Witness 45]

But if "the entire German army" (and not 1/3, but the rest of the Austrians), with the support of ALL (except England) of Europe, fell on Russia in 14, the result would be more than predictable.

[Pereira]

for what the hell RI joyfully threw herself into a meat grinder in the West

.

Russia did not rush into any meat grinder in the West. Learn history. Russia only wanted to tame Austria-Hungary.

On July 29, Nicholas II sent a telegram to William II with a proposal “to transfer the Austro-Serbian question to the Hague Conference” [17] (to the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague). [18] William II did not answer this telegram

1 August Germany declared war on Russia, the same day the Germans invaded Luxembourg.
3 August Germany declared war on France,

That is, at first the war is in the east and only then in the west.

[sibiryouk]

Russia gave away blood with French and English debts, that's what they fought for! The total external debt of peacetime and wartime is 15 billion rubles!

[lel]

I completely agree with you ... you couldn’t get into this meat grinder for our little brothers who betray us in life .... while Stolypin was still alive, he begged the tsar to let Russia live 20 years without war, even if we are the strongest, Rasputin asked not to fight .... to no avail ... this war once again showed the inability of the tsarist government to govern the country ... when everything is good in the country, you won’t make a revolution ...

[chenia]

Quote: Aleksander

Strange logic: in the 1941, the Red Army suffered a defeat that has not yet happened in the history of the world, the loss of only the 1941 is twice as much as during the entire WWII and no revolution.

Correctly. Here is what unity of the Army and the People and the understandable goals of the war The country in 1941 turned into a single military camp, where everything was done - for the front, for victory.

Comparing the defeat of the spacecraft with the actions of the Russian army in the WWII is incorrect.

Compare this better. In the WWII, 2/3 of the German troops fought on the western front (and mainly a positional war). but the most successful operations were carried out in the east. And Russia, having lost territories until 1917, could have won them back.

In WWII, the Germans for three weeks (another three weeks they chased after those who signed the surrender )
gouged by allies (having a fully mobilized army (they were given 8 months to do this). Given the solid cover of one stratgic directions (Maginot line).

And a stronger (more numerous and logistical) army fell upon us (than in 1940), which was late in deployment KA (This is the main reason. Here you need to understand the essence of this term - I’ll briefly say if the Germans declared war and attacked us in two weeks the result in 1941 was the same.
And if in a month, then figuratively, 1942 would begin, without loss of the forty-first.

[Dart2027]

Quote: chenia

gouged allies (having a fully mobilized army (8 months they were given it)

Not really. At a crucial moment, the British, instead of the planned offensive, betrayed the French and fled. And neither one nor the other until the last did not believe that Hitler would attack his sponsors.

[lel]

That's right .... even the great theorist Sun Dzi described when a ruler can achieve victory is when his thoughts and goals coincide with the people's ... only then

[Pilat2009]

Quote: Aleksander

1 dead and wounded German casualties versus 500 Russians

Actually, 1.5 Germans are on all fronts, in the end it turns out that in total the Germans lost the least. In addition, information about Russian losses range from 500 thousand to 1.2 million, in addition, the Russian army lost another 3 million prisoners, unlike 500 thousand Germans

[Timyr]

Quote: Aleksander

The Russian army was bloodless, having lost most of its personnel, and partially demoralized,

Yes, yes, but the Austro-German, of course, did not suffer: 1 500 000 killed and wounded German losses against 500 000 Russians. Together with the defeat at Verdun, the Central Powers suffered irreparable losses and the Entente forever passed to the Entente, their defeat was simply a matter of time. And this is due to the blow of the Russian Army.
The Brusilovsky breakthrough in society was perceived as a victory, major victories were won on the Caucasus front too — where is demoralization?

what accelerated the arrival of the revolution and its victory

Strange logic: in the 1941, the Red Army suffered a defeat that has not yet happened in the history of the world, the loss of only the 1941 is twice as much as during the entire WWII and no revolution.
Then she recovered and defeated the enemy.

As a result, the strategic benefits of the most successful Russian operation went mainly to the allies.

So what? In the fight against the COMMON enemy, the strategic benefits of ANY ally are the benefits of ALL allies, to a large extent Russia, as well: the center of the struggle has permanently moved to the Western Front and henceforth millions of allies and Germans died there, saving Russian lives. Why is it bad?

The problem was one, a large part of society, namely the peasants did not consider this war their own. Read the reports of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the attitude of peasants to this war. Propaganda could not explain why they need straits for the peasants.

[xan]

For me, it is necessary to advance so where the enemy has weak defense. What for is this Kovel? It is clear that in the event of its capture the entire front against Russia would collapse. But why hope for a miracle and play roulette, instead of calmly clawing the enemy where he has no defense? Sooner or later, in the event of a successful Russian offensive in other places, they themselves would have surrendered Kovel. There was no sensible authoritative leader of the Headquarters, the tsar and Alekseev took into account the opinion of the Allies and their gorlopans instead of spitting on them. A victory was needed, but not at all costs. A worthless king, no one at all, only he could shut up his weather vane generals and save his army from unnecessary bloodshed, and for this a simple worldly mind and at least some will were enough.

[Verdun]

Quote: xan

For me, it is necessary to advance so where the enemy has weak defense. What for is this Kovel?

So the fact of the matter is that the "terribly talented" generals put the most prepared units in battles that had more than dubious strategic, and often even tactical value.

[Altona]

Well, again the same questions to the monarchists. The Russian army did everything possible, and the tsar and his entourage did not know at all what to do with this success at the front. As a result, elite units died and it is not clear why. I will not say anything about the ridiculous goals of this war, the landing in Constantinople (Istanbul) was not Russian.

[Witness 45]

Well, yes, the allies promised to give the strait to Russia after the victory, but you can be 200% sure that they, especially the shaved under any pretext, would not allow this, in fact, one of the goals of the February 1917 coup was the goal of bringing the more accommodating people to power in Russia pro-Western liberal democrats, with whom the Anglo-Saxons would then agree, taking into account the huge debts of Russia to "amicable", including regarding the strait

[tiaman.76]

Yes, how many victims .. and it would be in the name of what .. the Italian women saved the French Verdun ... and was not among the command of their bagration and Kutuzov

[barbiturate]

Russia really lost its best parts, lost the guards with such difficulty, lost faith in victory, Stohod was the last nail in the coffin of imperial Russia, now the tsar had no guard and soldiers did not have faith in victory. The condition with the RIA weapons was getting worse and worse, relative to the Western armies, although supplies increased compared to 1914, but for 1916 they were already completely insufficient. By the end of 1916, Russia had already lost 6-7 million (according to various estimates) killed by wounded and prisoners and didn’t want to fight already. The army began to decay rapidly and in 1917 simply created the appearance of military operations, but in fact it rallied more even though the Bolsheviks didn't smell

[Dart2027]

Quote: barbiturate

Russia by the end of 1916 had already lost 6-7 million

Are you sure? In my opinion, these are the total losses of all the warring parties.

[barbiturate]

Killed, wounded and captured yes, 6-7 million only Russian empire

[Dart2027]

Can I have a source?

[barbiturate]

All data is openly available on the Internet, for example, the same A. Kersnovsky in his work “History of the Russian Army” writes: ...

“Unprecedented stress entailed unprecedented losses. The size of these losses can never be determined exactly. The Russian high command was completely not interested in the already used human meat.

The Central Sanitary Administration was not interested in this either: in hospitals there were no statistics of those who died from wounds, which cannot but stun the researcher.

Losses were calculated during and after the war by individuals using incomplete and unsystematized data. They were random in nature and led to completely different, often fantastic conclusions (suffice it to say that the number, for example, of prisoners was determined in the range from 1,3 million to 4,5 million people).
The bet was not at all interested in the issue of losses incurred.

... According to the military department, presented shortly before the revolution to the Council of Ministers, our "final losses" - killed, died of wounds and diseases, disabled, missing and taken prisoner - were determined from the beginning of the war to December 1916 at 5 500000 people. "


But I was talking about 6-7 million people, and not about 5.5 million that's why.

"In 1919, Tsentrobezhplen, an organization that was involved in the return of prisoners to Russia, took into account the following number of captured Russian servicemen according to its name lists and registration cards:

In Germany - 2 million 335 thousand 441

In Austria-Hungary - 1 million 503 thousand 412.

In Turkey - 19 thousand 795.

In Bulgaria - 2 thousand 452.

Total - 3 million 911 thousand 100 people.

Add here and 200 thousand dead in captivity and we get a figure of more than 4,1 million people. It is hard to imagine that in the year from the February Revolution to the conclusion of the Brest Peace, another 1,7 million surrendered. Most likely, the initial figure of 2,4 million people for the winter of 1917 was underestimated. "

That is, you can quite reasonably add another half a million or more to the figure of 5.5 million.
Thus, for me personally, this figure is the most logical and acceptable based on the facts told by historians. In general, there is a bunch of ratings, the Internet to help, I brought what I was guided by when writing the figures 6-7 million, although this is not a historical forum and I do not care.

But there were fights in 1917, there were many killed and wounded. So for the entire war, 7-8 million for sure (again, my personal opinion, I do not impose anyone, read and think)

[Dart2027]

And where so many prisoners? The deviations were a fact, but not on such a scale. There were no boilers with millions surrounded.

[barbiturate]

Specifically, the analysis of operations, where and how many of our soldiers were taken prisoner, I do not have, as there was no interest Apparently, in separate episodes, for example, the closest assistant to General M.V. Alekseeva, General V. Borisov recalled:

... Alekseev entered my room, threw the telegram on the table, sank into a chair with the words "Novogeorgievsk surrendered" ... "It is very painful for the Tsar and for the people."
... The staff of the Novogeorgievsk garrison totaled 1547 officers, 490 doctors and officials, 119335 lower ranks. To them must be added the numerous remnants of the retreating Russian units that had nailed to the fortress garrison and subtract the deserters, who, alas, already had a lot in the Russian army. During the shelling and assault, about 3 people died.
The most offensive and annoying thing is that these troops surrendered to the German Siege Landwehr Corps, which had half the size ... "

Count the prisoners yourself, and there were other surrender of fortresses with garrisons, not hunting to list, it hurts
Yes, and before the fortresses, remember Samsonov’s 2nd Army, a disaster in East Prussia. The Germans announced 92000 prisoners in their official reports, broken down by corps, who and where took how much.

And if we recall what territory we gave away in 1915 and how the troops were armed, the same Kersnovsky in his work “History of the Russian Army” writes (and his data are fully confirmed by other authors and witnesses of the events):

... "From August 1914 to December 1915, 6 men were drafted. They had 290 rifles - one rifle for four men. its bloody losses and enemy trophies.
About a third of the people had no weapons. "

Or here's another example, where so many prisoners come from. Witness of the highest rank:
In the fall of 1915, Yanushkevich will telegraph Sukhomlinova:

“The army of the 3rd and 8th has melted away ... The personnel are melting, and the replenishment receiving the rifles on the day of the battle (!!!) is vying with each other (here are the prisoners) ... There are no rifles, and 150 thousand people are without rifles. Hour by hour is not easier. We are waiting for the manna of heaven from you. The main thing is whether it is possible to buy rifles "...

And the German heavy artillery, without experiencing a shortage of shells, smashed tirelessly the unarmed masses of men, who had not only cartridges, but, as we see, the rifles themselves ...

And so you can dig and dig, a lot of evidence, you yourself will easily find, everything is online

[Kornily]

I heard that the guard was not very good in terms of combat training, even before 1914.
We went on the attack beautifully and courageously, but completely disregarding the combat experience accumulated by then - therefore they were killed in vain.
Nicholas 2 as a person was good (believer, family man, etc.) but as a ruler of ....
Stalin, at headquarters, not only managed the fronts, but also resolved issues of support, production, and other economic issues that help the victory. Nikolasha just wiped his pants and hunted for a raven.

[barbiturate]

You are right, but only, in my opinion, the matter is not so much in the training of the guard forces, but in the fact that Russia is hopelessly behind in the means of fire impact on the enemy, for the umpteenth time our troops on Stokhod went on the attack on UNDERROSSED machine guns and artillery, aviation failed to open the location of the German batteries due to the dominance of German aviation in the air, the trenches of the enemy literally 2 days before the offensive were occupied by the Germans, replacing the Austrians, which is very bad, in general:

A participant in this attack gives the following characteristics of Russian attacks:
“After poor artillery preparation, at one o'clock on July 15, the guards regiments moved forward, chain by chain, almost in columns. But we could only dream about the movement of people by normal dashes under enemy fire. The movement of the chains went very slowly, the legs were so sucked in by the swamp that people fell or stretched their legs out of the mud with their hands, so as not to leave their boots in the swamp. The river branches were so deep that officers and soldiers were drowning in them. There weren’t enough orderlies to help the wounded and take them out of the battle, and the healthy were shot by the Germans, like partridges ... about a company remained from the regiment.
Here for the first time ... I heard how ordinary soldiers sent curses to the higher authorities ... In general - intentionally or due to inability - here for the Russian Guard our command dug a grave, because the replenishment that staffed the regiments again was far from the Guard ”(Military story. - 1966. No. 80. S. 27.)

[Witness 45]

Quote: Korniliy

We went on the attack beautifully and courageously, but completely disregarding the combat experience accumulated by then - therefore they were killed in vain.

That’s the whole point that we learned to go on the attack and fight at parades and shows, but window dressing in real combat does not roll.

[cedar]

Quote: Lord_Bran

Unfortunately, neither Germany nor Austria-Hungary were OUR enemies. Many stories cannot understand at all why the hell RI joyfully threw herself into a meat grinder in the West. Protect the Serbs? Not even an attempt was made to solve the problem through diplomatic channels.
And our allies in the Entente very willingly used our successes, who themselves did not want and did not intend to carry out any operations to divert forces from the eastern front. And a few years later, the Entente invaded the territory of Russia to rob and maintain the militaristic aspirations of various jackals who wanted to bite a little bit from the defeated country.

Above parusnik clearly indicated the reason for "joy" - DEBTS RI!
At the time of the war, RI had the largest debt in the world to the banks of Rothschild, due to the gold standard of the ruble introduced in RI in 1897. In RI, it was almost 100%, i.e. the ruble was provided with gold more than in any other country in the world. And war, like nothing else, requires new loans ... in gold.
Therefore, whether you like it or not, but if you have to, then "forward and with a song", and not for victory, but precisely for defeat, as the main condition of the revolution, which was needed to seize the country's resources by the Rothschild Zionists in order to win, but already in the world revolution.

P.S. The moral of this fable, be careful with loans, otherwise banks can so tighten your ears that you remember mom, dad and Nicholas -2, bloody ...
"Who owes whom, he is a slave."

[Witness 45]

Quote: fa2998

.That would be attributed to the shore, and to the front, and there are numerous coastal services. And in St. Petersburg and Kronshtat

They would write off, leave the ships of the fleet without crews, but they would add more "cannon fodder" and corpses on the Western and Southwestern Fronts due to the inadequate actions of the Headquarters.

[russian redut]

The events of World War I perfectly show the actions of traitors in the highest echelons of the generals: "War to the last Russian soldier."

[iz odessy]

and it all started with Serbia, just a country-pearl of the crown. Nicholas 2 cretin, as well as the first, put the country as a card in a casino. He knew perfectly well how the "Westerners" would deal with each other and why, no, he got in. Gorbachev's copy after 1988

[bober1982]

Something you all mixed, just boiling, well, at least in our history there was no Nicholas-3.

[iz odessy]

how was it not? Gorbachev is the third, destroyed the country more abruptly than the empire in 1913. Do not be afraid to "interfere", otherwise there will be no cause-and-effect relationship

[Sasha75]

In the First World War, everything was missing from rifles and ammunition to equipment, the Germans considered the eastern front the most backward; less machine guns and aircraft were sent there.
Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, a shortage of all types of ammunition emerged. The productivity of defense enterprises increased by 1,5-2 times due to an increase in working hours, cancellation of holidays and weekends, purchases of equipment abroad, and the use of temporary premises. In Petrograd, the output of cartridges increased from 292 million in 1914 to 628 million in 1916, in Lugansk - from 200 to 555 million, in Tula from 182 million to 303 million.The maximum production of cartridges was reached in October - November 1916, when the monthly productivity, for example, of the Petrograd plant was about 60 million rifle cartridges plus 13,5 million cartridges for captured Austrian rifles. This plant also produced cartridges for the Arisaka rifles purchased in Japan. However, its own production of cartridges did not meet the needs of the front, so 2,2 billion cartridges were ordered abroad (that is, 1,5 times more than the annual production of Russian factories) in the amount of 86,6 million rubles.

[Sasha75]

During the First World War, yesterday’s enemy, the island empire of the Rising Sun, became one of the main allies of Russia, after England and France. From 1905 to 1914, the military command of Russia in the Far East was actively preparing for revenge for the failures of the Russo-Japanese War. The two empires — the Russian tsar and the Japanese Mikado — still remained rivals in subjugating northern China. But the onset of the global conflict made the Russian monarchy forget its previous grievances and seek help from a recent enemy and competitor. The reason for this was simple - in 1914, the multimillion-strong Russian army was in short supply of rifles. “In order not to clutter up useless stockpiles that are already useless” On the wave of a patriotic upsurge, Russia successfully carried out general mobilization, as a result of which the size of the army exceeded 5 million 300 thousand people . And then the General Staff suddenly realized that such an army lacked at least 300 thousand rifles for armament. It is curious that on the eve of the war the supply of rifles was even abundant. But in 1912-1914, 180 thousand new “three-rulers” —Mosin’s rifles, which were in service with the Russian army — were sold abroad, and in order to save money, the mobilization stock plan was reduced by 330 thousand barrels. At the initial stage of the war, the old weapons could correct the situation - until the end of 1910, a solid supply of almost a million rifles of the Berdan system was stored in warehouses. However, as stated in the Minister of War’s order, “so as not to clutter up the already uselessly burdened warehouses,” half of their supply was sold, converted into hunting or corny handed over for scrap. The initial shortage of only 7% of the required number of trunks might have seemed fatal . However, war tends to destroy weapons even faster than humans. If in August 1914 the deficit of rifles was 300 thousand, then by November it had increased to 870 thousand. That is, monthly on the front the troops lost an average of 200 thousand rifles. The problem was complicated by the fact that this deficit could not be covered by the growth of industrial production. On the eve of the war, the Russian General Staff considered that the monthly need for new rifles during the great war would not exceed 60 thousand. And in August 1914, all three factories producing rifles in Russia (Tula, Izhevsk and Sestroretsky) together produced no more than 44 thousand Mosin rifles. Thus, Russian gunsmiths needed to increase their production by almost five times. But with all the desire, the Russian state-owned factories could not do this - for two years of war, see In principle, a similar situation has developed in all other warring countries. For example, Germany until September 1914 produced only 25 thousand rifles per month. But its industry, unlike the Russian one, had much greater mobilization potential, and six months later German factories produced 250 rifles a month — five times more than in Russia. In the same way we got out of position and

[Sasha75]

other countries - England, France, Austria-Hungary, which had much more developed engineering and metalworking industries.
The fact that the shortage of small arms could not be overcome on their own was understood by the Russian General Staff in August 1914. Naturally, the question arose of buying weapons abroad. But outside Russia, no one produced mosinoks, and it took time to set up their production at foreign factories. At the same time, it was also difficult to immediately decide on the purchase of foreign rifles - another system required a different cartridge, and tens of thousands of rifles required tens of millions. Russian generals have not yet decided to make such monstrous expenses in August 1914. Therefore, at the General Staff, someone who remained unknown to history came up with an almost brilliant idea, as it seemed at first, to buy Russian rifles from Japan, which she got as trophies of the 1904-1905 war.

Manchuria instead of Mexico
It was assumed that in a year and a half of the Russo-Japanese War, the trophies of the Land of the Rising Sun could have been made up to 100 thousands of trehlineas. Therefore, on August 25, a “special military technical commission” headed by Major General Hermonius, 50, went to Japan from St. Petersburg to Japan.

[Sasha75]

Eduard Karlovich Germonius was an ethnic Swede and an experienced military engineer. It is curious that after 1917, at the height of the Civil War, he would actively help Yudenich’s white army advance on Red Petrograd. And to defend against the whites the former capital of the Russian monarchy will be, among others, his son - the commander of the battalion of the Red Guard, the former lieutenant of the tsarist army Vadim Germonius. General Germonius would die in exile in Beirut in 1938, having learned that his son, who had become a red general, had been executed as a Trotskyist a year earlier in Moscow, but all these family-political dramas would happen much later, while in the history of Russia another drama flared up - the weapons . In September 1914, the Japanese authorities answered General Germonius that all the captured Russian rifles had been sent for scrap long ago, but they still found rifles unnecessary for the Russians for Japan. They could only triple the production of rifles. The Mitsui corporation offered General Germonius cheap to buy 35 thousand rifles and carbines, which in factories of Tokyo made to order of Mexico. The fact is that while this order was being fulfilled, a civil war and US military intervention began in Mexico. The Japanese did not want to annoy Washington, and the produced rifles were never sent and lay in warehouses. Therefore, the Japanese offered unnecessary rifles to them very cheaply - 30 yen apiece. At the exchange rate of 1914, it was about 29 rubles, despite the fact that the “three-ruler” manufactured at Russian factories that year cost from 37 to 45 rubles. Together with the rifles of the “Mexican order”, the Japanese offered 23 million rounds of ammunition for them. It is curious that neither the Russian, nor the Japanese, nor the German cartridges were suitable for the “Mexican” rifles of the Mauser system, but the cartridge accepted for arming in Serbia was suitable. In August 1914, Russia provided assistance to Belgrade, including the supply of its scarce rifles and ammunition. The 35 barrels proposed by the Japanese for Russia were a drop in the bucket, but for Serbia they could become a significant help, moreover, suitable for the Serbian patron. On October 13, 1914, General Germonius signed a contract for “Mexican guns”. For 35 thousand rifles and carbines and 23 million rounds of ammunition, Russia paid the most stable currency then, transferring 200 thousand British pounds sterling through London banks to Mitsui accounts (about 2 million rubles at the exchange rate of 1914). This was the first purchase by the Russian Empire of foreign weapons during the First World War, and in the next three years it will buy more than a hundred times more imported rifles - 3 million 700 thousand.

[Sasha75]

The first purchase of imported weapons was quick - the Russian steamboat Erivan with a load of Mexican rifles left the port of Yokohama on October 17th. At this point, the Russian General Staff considered that the situation at the front no longer allowed to refuse in favor of Serbia even from such a small and exotic consignment of trunks. And the Erivan steamer was deployed to the port of Dairen on the Kwantung Peninsula of China, the former Russian port of Dalniy, which the Japanese had inherited from the war of 1904-1905. From there, the Mexican rifles entered the nearby Harbin to rearm the regiments of the Russian border guard in Manchuria, and the three-rulers they surrendered sent to the army. 35 thousand trilinees who arrived from the Far East made it possible to arm only two divisions and did not solve the deficit problem , and the Russian command decided to make bulk purchases abroad. Hundreds of thousands of rifles were required, and therefore they could not be ordered from small countries. England and France themselves had not yet increased the production of rifles for their armies, the United States was far beyond the ocean, and the closest to Russia from countries with developed industries not engaged in hasty military production was Japan.

Rifles in exchange for China
Formally, Tokyo from August 23, 1914 was at war with Germany, but in fact, Japan was opposed by no more than 4 thousand Germans in the German colony of Qingdao on the coast of China. In St. Petersburg, they hoped that the Japanese would quickly agree to sell part of their army rifles to Russia. Major General Hermonius, who remained in Tokyo, received an order to buy "up to a million rifles, which are in service with the Japanese army, with a thousand rounds each." Japanese generals accepted this request without enthusiasm. After difficult negotiations, they agreed to sell Russia 200 thousand obsolete rifles and a total of 100 rounds each. At the same time, the Russians were warned that the cartridges would be old, with expired storage from warehouses in the garrisons of Korea.

[Sasha75]

It was a Japanese rifle created at the end of the 1910th century by Colonel Nariake Arisaka, who headed the Tokyo arsenal. It was with this rifle, adopted by the Russo-Japanese War, that the same Arisaka, already a general, improved his rifle. A new model of the “Arisaki rifle” from 1897 began to enter the arsenal of the Japanese army, and the previous samples of 25 went to the warehouses. Now, some of them were supposed to go to Russia on the German front. The main problem for the Russians were cartridges. One hundred charges per barrel is a ridiculous supply for World War II. But the Japanese, considering it profitable to sell old rifles at the same time, frankly did not want to lower their mobilization stocks of cartridges for the sake of Russia. As a result, they made a mocking concession, agreeing to increase the number of cartridges sold by 200 pieces for each rifle.The contract for the purchase of 25 thousand rifles and 21 million rounds of ammunition was signed on October 1914, 4,5. The purchase cost Russia 16 million rubles in gold, which was not at all expensive in wartime - one old Japanese rifle without cartridges with delivery to the port of Vladivostok cost the treasury only 80 rubles. However, by the end of the year, less than half of Japan received only 790 rifles. True, even such a quantity somehow improved the situation at the front, since it was equal to the entire production of rifles in Russia in a month and a half. The rest of the weapons under this contract arrived in Russia only at the beginning of 1915. By this time, Petersburg had already turned to Tokyo with new requests for the sale of rifles. On December 23, 1914, Minister of War Sukhomlinov sent a letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs Sazonov, which said: “At present, the military department is facing the difficult task of acquiring a significant amount in the shortest possible time. rifles. The measures taken in this regard, including the purchase of 200 thousand rifles in Japan, proved to be insufficient, and now urgent acquisition of at least 150 thousand rifles is urgently needed. In view of the above, I have the honor to humbly ask Your Excellency to instruct our ambassador in Japan to enter into relations with the Japanese government to sell us another 150 thousand rifles with as many cartridges as possible. ”

[Sasha75]

While there was a bureaucratic correspondence between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the request was sent to Japan, new insistent requests for weapons came from the front, and as a result, in January 1915, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan (this post was called that ) Nikolai Malevsky-Malevich officially asked Tokyo for the sale of 300 thousand rifles. The Japanese agreed to sell only 100 thousand of the most worn out rifles of the old model of "very dubious dignity," as he described them after reflected the general Germonius. However, warring Russia could not be too picky, and on January 28, 1915 Germonius signed a new contract for the supply of 85 thousand rifles and 15 thousand carbines of the 1897 model, as well as 22,6 million different cartridges for a total of 2 million 612 thousand yen (about 2,5 million rubles). In addition, the Japanese agreed to sell to the Russians an additional 10 million pointed cartridges of a new type, the supply contract of which was signed on February 3. The Russian side took into account previous delays in the transfer of purchased weapons, and mid-April 1915 was determined as the delivery time.
The Japanese refused to sell more rifles. At a meeting with Russian diplomats, Japanese Foreign Minister Kato Takaaki deliberately stated that War Minister Oka Itinosuke allegedly did not allow the sale of rifles. In reality, diplomatic bargaining began around the supply of large quantities of Japanese weapons. Just in January 1915, the Japanese government, taking advantage of the fact that all the forces of the great powers were occupied by the war in Europe, put forward an ultimatum to the Chinese government - the so-called "21 demands." The Japanese demanded that the Chinese provide them with additional military bases and zones of influence in China, various political and economic advantages, including the appointment to the Chinese
army of Japanese advisers. In fact, if these conditions were accepted, China, then already backward and weak, would become a Japanese semi-colony.
Naturally, such a strengthening of Japan was not at all in Russia's interests. But the Russian army, fighting in the west, was desperate for rifles, and the Japanese transparently hinted to Russian diplomats that they would continue to sell weapons only after Russia somehow supported their demands on China. The tsarist government hesitated for three months, choosing the worst - to remain without weapons or to be in the East a neighbor of a strengthened Japan. As a result, the choice was made in favor of pressing problems - in May 1915, the Germans and Austrians launched a general offensive against the Russian troops in Galicia. The Russian army, which in those days was sorely lacking in rifles and artillery shells, was retreating. Attacking Germany seemed in Petrograd more terrible than Japan was strengthening. And Russian diplomacy in May 1915 tacitly supported Tokyo’s demands on Beijing. It is curious that England, the Russian Entente in the Entente, having its colonial interests in China, actively opposed the Japanese influence there. But the British army, unlike the Russian, lacked its rifles.

[Sasha75]

In May 1915, China, under pressure from Tokyo and with the tacit consent of Russia, accepted the demands of Japan. In those same days, Japanese Major General Nakajima Masataki arrived at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief of the Russian army in the city of Baranavichy in western Belarus. He bluntly told the Russian generals that on May 25, 1915, Chinese President Yuan Shikai signed an unequal agreement with Japan, and the Japanese representative visited the Russian ambassador Malevsky in Tokyo on the same day with the news of his readiness to deliver 100 rifles and 20 million rounds of ammunition over months. But this time, the Japanese sold their rifles already at a price two and a half times higher than before - at 40 yen apiece. "Now Japan is entirely at the service of Russia." This batch of weapons came to the front in August 1915, when the Russian army , under the onslaught of the Germans, during the “great retreat” left Warsaw and Brest to the enemy. On the same days in Tokyo, five Japanese generals were awarded Russian orders - in gratitude to the tsarist government for delivering Japanese weapons to Russia.
And Sakhalin in addition
In the summer of 1915, the Supreme Commander’s Headquarters telegraphed to Petrograd: “The situation with rifles becomes critical, it’s absolutely impossible to equip units because of the total absence of rifles in the army reserve and the arrival of marching companies unarmed.” On the North-Western Front, reflecting the German offensive in Poland and the Baltic States, there were 57 infantry divisions, with a few rifles in 320 thousand. In fact, the 21 division of 57 was unarmed.

Hoping that after the concessions in China, the Japanese will not refuse new requests, Tokyo should be asked to sell more 200 thousands of rifles and 300 million cartridges. But the Japanese side refuses - the lucrative agreement with China was signed and the Russians are no longer needed. At the request of Petrograd, the Japanese authorities agree to start supplying rifles no earlier than six months later, and then only after the materials necessary for weapons production come from Russia - zinc, nickel, tin, spring and tool steel. Deliveries of raw materials to Japanese military factories began in July 1915.

On August 11, 1915, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sazonov, summoned Japanese Ambassador Itiro Motono. The conversation went without the usual diplomatic conventions - the Minister of Foreign Affairs openly told the Japanese about the extremely difficult situation of the North-Western Front, emphasizing that in the current circumstances no one except Japan could help Russia. The Russian minister asked the ambassador about one million rifles. At the same time, Sazonov said that on the eve of the tsarist government decided in principle to make new concessions to Japan’s interests in the Far East if it agrees. When the Japanese ambassador asked what kind of concessions they were talking about, the minister hinted at the readiness of the Russian government to give Japan the southern part of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the Sino-Eastern Railway, which crossed the whole north of China and then belonged to Russia, for one million rifles. Individual Russian generals, frightened by the German offensive, were ready to go even further in those August days. So, the acting chief of the General Staff, General Mikhail Belyaev, in a conversation with the Japanese military attaché Odagiri, said that Russia was ready to “reward” Japan for the sale of 300 thousand rifles to the Japanese by transferring the northern half of Sakhalin Island, which had been divided in half between Russia and Japan since 1905.

[Sasha75]

The Japanese, after such hints, tried to go even further - Japanese Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu (by the way, one of the founders of the Mitsubishi Concern) directly stated to the Russian ambassador in Tokyo Malevsky-Malevich that Japan was “ready to take over the protection of Russia's Far Eastern possessions in order to send Russia's liberated Far Eastern troops on the European front. " In fact, it was a direct offer to donate to the Japanese the entire Far East in exchange for military assistance. To the credit of Malevich, he did not even consult with Petrograd, and immediately in a diplomatic expression gave the Japanese prime minister a real scandal, explaining that such a proposal was "inappropriate." More such brazen projects were not voiced by the Japanese side.

However, the Japanese agreed to sell Russia a new batch of weapons. In early September 1915, a contract was signed for the supply of 150 thousand Japanese rifles of a new type and 84 million rounds. Russia paid 10 million rubles in gold for them, and thanks to this money, the Japanese army bought new machines for their arsenals. Almost all Russian payments for military orders in Japan first went through the London branches of Japanese banks. But in October 1915, the Japanese military department conveyed to the Russian ambassador in Tokyo a wish, and in fact a demand, to continue to pay directly in Japan, and not by bank transfers, but in gold, by transferring it to the Osaka Mint. From now on, payments for military supplies went to the Japanese Islands directly from Vladivostok - gold coins and bullion were transported by a special detachment of Japanese military vessels under the command of Rear Admiral Idee Kenji.

[Sasha75]

The total number of rifles purchased by Russia from Japan by October 1915 of the year was 672 400 units. Of course, this did not satisfy all the needs of the Russian army, but, as the proverb says, “road spoon for dinner.” Rifles then at the front were a terrible deficit, turned into a lot of blood. All Russian military plants in the autumn of 1915 produced no more than 120 thousands of rifles per month with a need of at least 200 thousands. And there were no other supplies of guns from abroad, except Japanese, until the autumn of 1915.

"Japanese divisions" of the Russian army

Military historians estimate that by the end of the first year of the war, every tenth rifle on the Russian front was Japanese. One of the leading military theorists, General Nikolai Golovin, later recalled: “In October 1915, out of 122 infantry divisions, those with numbers over one hundred were armed with Japanese rifles. The soldiers call them Japanese divisions. ”Initially, Japanese rifles were sent to the rear, reserve battalions and state militia brigades. So, in the fall of 1915, in heavy battles with the advancing Germans at the Ivangorod fortress (Demblin), near Warsaw, the 23rd militia brigade armed with Japanese rifles bravely fought. True, the shooting tables for the “Arisaks” (with information on the corrections of the sight depending on the distance) were first translated incorrectly from Japanese, and the units armed with them did not differ in accuracy until a few months later the headquarters corrected the mistake. At the end of 1915, the command decided "Arisaki" on the Northern Front, which fought in Poland and the Baltic states, covering the most important direction to Petrograd from the Germans. The concentration of Japanese rifles made it easier to supply them with cartridges and organize repairs faster. The Baltic Fleet sailors were also re-equipped with Japanese rifles in order to transfer their “mosquitoes” to the front-line units.

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Japanese rifles were supplied with Japanese bayonets, which differed from the Russians. It was actually a dagger with a 40 blade, see, only 3 cm shorter than a needle Russian bayonet. Thanks to these bayonets and another form of shutter, Japanese guns can be easily distinguished from old Russian photos.

At the end of 1915, Japanese rifles came to Russia and from the other side, from the west of Europe. The fact is that in the 1914 year, fearing a shortage of rifles, 128 of thousands of Japanese “Arisak” and 68 million England purchased cartridges for them. But British industry has increased production, the shortage of rifles they did not happen, and the allies on the "Entente", frightened by the retreat of the Russian army, agreed to transfer the Japanese weapons to Russia. The first 60 thousands of “Arisaka” rifles arrived in Russia from England in December 1915, the rest in February 1916. In addition, British factories agreed to accept the Russian order for the production of ammunition for Japanese rifles.

Thanks to these measures, by the spring of 1916, two Russian armies on the Northern Front - the 6th and 12th - were completely transferred to a Japanese rifle. The 6th Army provided defense of the Baltic Sea coast and approaches to the capital, and the 12th Army fought in the Baltic states, covering Riga. It was here, as part of the 12th army, a separate division of “Latvian riflemen” was formed from local volunteers that became famous during the years of the Civil War. But few people know that the Latvian riflemen, who in November 1917 guarded Lenin in Smolny, were armed with Japanese rifles. With their "arisaks" the Latvian arrows later successfully fought the entire civil war. All 1916 negotiations were held in Petrograd and Tokyo on a new Russian-Japanese treaty. The Japanese offered the Russians to sell part of the CER road (and actually cede part of their zone of influence in Manchuria) for 150 thousand rifles. But by that time the most acute arms crisis at the front had passed, the Russian government was able to buy rifles not only in Japan but also in other countries, including the USA and Italy. Therefore, the Russian Empire refused to give up its zone of influence in northern China.

However, our country continued to pay Japan generously for arms supplies. In 1916, Russian gold payments for military orders approached 300 million rubles and amounted to over half of all budget revenues of the Japanese Empire that year. In the Land of the Rising Sun, the royal authorities purchased not only rifles, but also artillery guns, shells and a host of other military equipment. For example, only at the end of 1915, Russia bought one million shovels from the Japanese and 200 thousands of hand axes - in Russia they even turned out to be a deficit and badly needed to equip sappers at the front.

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Procurement of Japanese rifles continued into the 1916 year, and even after the February revolution of the 1917 year. Immediately before the revolution, Russia bought 93 thousand rifles in Japan and ordered 180 thousand new “Arisak” from factories in Tokyo. Cartridges for them were bought not only in Japan, but also in England, which from the spring of the 1916 of the year to October of the 1917 of Russia supplied them to almost half a billion.

As a result, by February 1917, Russia bought almost 820 thousand Japanese rifles and almost 800 million rounds of ammunition for them, which was enough to arm 50 divisions. By that time, the Arisaks made up a quarter of all rifles purchased abroad. The weakness of Russian industry led to the fact that during the First World War, our army was armed with nine different rifle systems with seven types of cartridges. For 1914 — 1917 years, Russian factories produced 3,3 million rifles, and abroad they had to buy 3,7 million. For comparison, Germany and Austria produced 10 million rifles at their factories.

Russia's last major contract for the purchase of guns in Japan was signed just two months before the October Revolution - 5 of September 1917 of the year bought 7 thousand Arisac for 150 million gold rubles. History sometimes loves deliberate symbolism - the Russian steamer "Simbirsk" sailed from Japan with the last batch of 20 in thousands of Japanese 7 rifles in November, November 1917 of the year.

“The shutter seemed to stick and it had to be kicked off”

The October Revolution and the Brest Peace, however, did not complete the history of Japanese rifles in Russia. This weapon was used by all parties to the civil conflict on all fronts. So, in September 1919, the Kolchak government signed a loan agreement with Japanese banks for the purchase of 50 thousand Arisaka rifles and 20 million cartridges for them monthly. The “Supreme Ruler of Russia” planned to pay with gold and the granting of concessions to Japanese firms on Sakhalin and in Primorye.

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Significant stocks of Japanese rifles and cartridges in warehouses in central Russia went to the Soviet government, which armed them with parts of the Red Army. Therefore, in the same 1919 year, when Kolchak bought the “Arisaki” from the Japanese, the Southern Front of the Bolsheviks, reflecting the attack of Denikin's armies on Moscow, spent the month of fighting 25 million Russian ammunition for “mosinki” and 8 million ammunition for “Arisaka”. That is, almost a third of the Red Army soldiers were armed with Japanese rifles.

The First World War scattered "Arisaki" throughout the former Russian Empire. Japanese rifles from the arsenals of the Baltic Fleet went to Finland, some of them were handed over to the Estonians by the Estonians, and they were armed with border guards of independent Estonia until the 30s. Japanese rifles even got into the army of Ukrainian nationalists of Petliura. The future poet of the Ukrainian SSR, Vladimir Sosyura, who fought in her ranks, later recalled the use of the old “Arisaks”: “They started shooting back, but the rifle of the Japanese sample after the second shot became almost unsuitable for shooting. The shutter seemed to stick and it had to be kicked off. ”

Mentioning Japanese rifles and Alexei Tolstoy in the Civil War novel “Walking in agony”: “He ordered the soldiers to be given trophy corned beef with beans, sweet canned milk, and to take brand new Japanese carbines to replace, as much as possible, old rifles splashed in battles ". After the Civil War, the Bolsheviks took into account the mistakes of the tsarist command - all foreign rifles, even the oldest and worn out, including the Arisaki, were carefully assembled and stored in long-term warehouses after 1921. In the mid-twenties, several thousand Japanese rifles from these warehouses were transferred to China via the Comintern.

Japanese rifles of Russian soldiers went to the last battle in 1941 year - in July they armed the people's militia of Kiev and the militias in the Smolensk region. In September, the 1941 “arisaks” were transferred to the armament of some parts of the Moscow militia and partisan detachments of the Crimea.

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However, in the USSR with the production of small arms things were much better than in the Russian Empire, and the Moscow militia quickly rearmed with Soviet weapons. Therefore, part of the stock of the old “Arisak” survived even World War II, and, being re-pledged to warehouses, they were even taken into account in the mobilization plans of the hypothetical Third World War. Before the collapse of the USSR, a number of Japanese rifles were stored in the warehouse of the Carpathian Military District near Shepetovka. In 1993, in a separatist Ukraine, these World War I rarities were melted down.

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It was very interesting to read, the lack of rifles was really catastrophic. After all, Nicholas II also proposed the Japanese troops to attract our troops against the Germans to help. Only the Japanese asked Sakhalin for this and the king did not go for it.