There was a sharp aggravation of contradictions between the leading countries of the world due to their uneven development.

An equally important reason was the arms race, from the supply of which the monopolies received super-profits. The militarization of the economy and the consciousness of huge masses of people took place, and sentiments of revanchism and chauvinism grew. The deepest contradictions were between Germany and Great Britain. Germany sought to end British dominance at sea and seize its colonies. Germany's claims to France and Russia were great.

The plans of the top German military leadership included the seizure of the economically developed regions of northeastern France, the desire to tear away the Baltic states, the “Don region”, Crimea and the Caucasus from Russia. In turn, Great Britain wanted to maintain its colonies and dominance at sea, and take away oil-rich Mesopotamia and part of the Arabian Peninsula from Turkey. France, which suffered a crushing defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, hoped to regain Alsace and Lorraine and annex the left bank of the Rhine and the Saar coal basin. Austria-Hungary nurtured expansionist plans for Russia (Volyn, Podolia) and Serbia. Russia sought to annex Galicia and take possession of the Black Sea straits of the Bosporus and Dardanelles.
By 1914 the contradictions between the two military-political groupings of the European powers, the Triple Alliance and the Entente, escalated to the limit. The Balkan Peninsula has become a zone of particular tension. The ruling circles of Austria-Hungary, following the advice of the German emperor, decided to finally establish their influence in the Balkans with one blow to Serbia. Soon a reason was found to declare war. The Austrian command launched military maneuvers near the Serbian border. The head of the Austrian “war party,” heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand, pointedly struck

But for some unknown reason, the carriage returned through a labyrinth of poorly guarded streets to the same place. A young man ran out of the crowd and fired two shots. One bullet hit the Archduke in the neck, the other in the stomach of his wife. Both died within minutes. The terrorist act was carried out by Serbian patriots Gavrilo Princip and his associate Gavrilović from the paramilitary organization “Black Hand”. July 5, 1914 Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austrian government received assurances from Germany to support its claims against Serbia. Kaiser Wilhelm II promised the Austrian representative Count Hoyos that Germany would support Austria even if the conflict with Serbia led to war with Russia. On July 23, the Austrian government presented an ultimatum to Serbia.

It was presented at six in the evening, a response was expected within 48 hours. The terms of the ultimatum were harsh, some seriously hurting Serbia's pan-Slavic ambitions. The Austrians did not expect or desire that the terms would be accepted. On July 7, having received confirmation of German support, the Austrian government decided to provoke war with an ultimatum and was drawn up with this in mind. Austria was also encouraged by the conclusions that Russia was not ready for war: the sooner it happened, the better, they decided in Vienna. The Serbian response to the ultimatum of July 23 was rejected, although it did not contain unconditional recognition of the demands, and on July 28, 1914. Austria declared war on Serbia. Both sides began mobilizing even before a response was received.

August 1, 1914 Germany declared war on Russia, and two days later on France. After a month of mounting tension, it became clear that a major European war could not be avoided, although Britain still hesitated. A day after the declaration of war on Serbia, when Belgrade was already bombed, Russia began mobilization. The initial order for general mobilization, an act tantamount to a declaration of war, was almost immediately canceled by the tsar in favor of partial mobilization. Perhaps Russia did not expect large-scale actions from Germany. On August 4, German troops invaded Belgium. Luxembourg had suffered the same fate two days earlier. Both states had international guarantees against attack, however, only Belgium's guarantees provided for the intervention of a guaranteeing power. Germany made public the "reasons" for the invasion, accusing Belgium of being "not neutral", but no one took it seriously. The invasion of Belgium brought England into the war. The British government presented an ultimatum demanding an immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of German soldiers.

The demand was ignored, thus all the great powers Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Russia and England were drawn into the war. Although the great powers were preparing for war long years, she still took them by surprise. For example, England and Germany spent enormous amounts of money on the construction of navies, but bulky floating fortresses played a minor role in the battles, although they undoubtedly had strategic importance. Likewise, no one expected that the infantry (especially on the Western Front) would lose the ability to move, being paralyzed by the power of artillery and machine guns (although this was predicted by the Polish banker Ivan Bloch in his work “The Future of War” in 1899). In terms of training and organization, the German army was the best in Europe. In addition, the Germans burned with patriotism and faith in their great destiny, which had not yet been realized.

Germany understood better than anyone the importance of heavy artillery and machine guns in modern combat, as well as the importance of railway communications. The Austro-Hungarian army was a copy of the German army, but was inferior to it due to the explosive mixture of different nationalities in its composition and mediocre performance in previous wars.

The French army was only 20% smaller than the German one, but its manpower was barely more than half. The main difference, therefore, was the reserves. Germany had a lot of them, France had nothing at all. France, like most other countries, hoped for a short war. She was not ready for a prolonged conflict. Like the rest, France believed that movement would decide everything, and did not expect static trench warfare.

Russia's main advantage was its inexhaustible human resources and the proven courage of the Russian soldier, but its leadership was corrupt and incompetent, and its industrial backwardness made Russia unsuited to modern warfare. Communications were very poor, the borders were endless, and the allies were geographically cut off. It was assumed that Russian participation, declared as “pan-Slavic” crusade", represented a desperate attempt to restore ethnic unity under the leadership of the Tsarist regime. Britain's position was completely different. Britain has never had big army and even in the 18th century it depended on naval forces, and traditions rejected the “standing army” from even more ancient times.

The British army was thus extremely small in number, but highly professional and had the main goal of maintaining order in its overseas possessions. There were doubts whether the British command would be able to lead a real company. Some commanders were too old, although this disadvantage was also inherent in Germany. The most a shining example incorrect assessment of character modern warfare There was widespread agreement among the commands of both sides that cavalry had the most important role. At sea, traditional British supremacy was challenged by Germany.

In 1914 Britain had 29 capital ships, Germany 18. Britain also underestimated enemy submarines, although it was especially vulnerable to them due to its dependence on overseas supplies of food and raw materials for its industry. Britain became the main factory for the Allies, as Germany was for its own. The First World War was fought on almost a dozen fronts in different corners globe. The main fronts were the Western, where German troops fought fighting against English, French and Belgian troops; and Eastern, where Russian troops confronted the combined forces of the Austro-Hungarian and German armies. The human, raw material and food resources of the Entente countries significantly exceeded those of the Central Powers, so the chances of Germany and Austria-Hungary to win a war on two fronts were slim.

The German command understood this and therefore relied on a lightning war. The military action plan, developed by the Chief of the German General Staff von Schlieffen, proceeded from the fact that Russia would need at least a month and a half to concentrate its troops. During this time, it was planned to defeat France and force it to surrender. Then it was planned to transfer all German troops against Russia.

According to the Schlieffen Plan, the war was supposed to end in two months. But these calculations did not come true. At the beginning of August the main forces German army approached the Belgian fortress of Liege, which covered crossings across the Meuse River, and after bloody battles captured all its forts. On August 20, German troops entered the Belgian capital Brussels. German troops reached the Franco-Belgian border and in a “border battle” defeated the French, forcing them to retreat deeper into the territory, which created a threat to Paris. The German command overestimated its successes and, considering the strategic plan in the West completed, transferred two army corps and a cavalry division to the East. In early September, German troops reached the Marne River, trying to encircle the French. In the Battle of the Marne River September 3-10, 1914. Anglo-French troops stopped the German advance on Paris and even a short time managed to launch a counteroffensive. One and a half million people took part in this battle.

Losses on both sides amounted to almost 600 thousand people killed and wounded. The result of the Battle of the Marne was the final failure of the “blitzkrieg” plans. The weakened German army began to "burrow" into the trenches. The Western Front, stretching from the English Channel to the Swiss border, by the end of 1914. stabilized. Both sides began building earthen and concrete fortifications. The wide strip in front of the trenches was mined and covered with thick rows of barbed wire. The war on the Western Front turned from a “maneuver” war into a positional one. The offensive of Russian troops in East Prussia ended unsuccessfully; they were defeated and partially destroyed in the Masurian swamps. The offensive of the Russian army under the command of General Brusilov in Galicia and Bukovina, on the contrary, pushed the Austro-Hungarian units back to the Carpathians. By the end of 1914 there was also a respite on the Eastern Front. The warring parties switched to a long trench war.

August Icon of the Mother of God

August icon Holy Mother of God- an icon revered in the Russian church, painted in memory of its appearance in 1914 to Russian soldiers on the North-Western Front, shortly before the victory in the Battle of Augustow, in the area of ​​​​the city of Augustow, Suwalki province Russian Empire(now in Eastern Poland). The event of the appearance of the Mother of God itself occurred on September 14, 1914. The Gatchina and Tsarskoye Selo cuirassier regiments of the Life Guards moved towards the Russian-German border. At about 11 o'clock at night, the Mother of God appeared to the soldiers of the cuirassier regiment; the vision lasted 30-40 minutes. All the soldiers and officers knelt down and prayed, watching the Mother of God in the dark night starry sky: in extraordinary radiance, with the Infant Jesus Christ sitting on Her left hand. With her right hand She pointed to the west - the troops were moving in this direction.

A few days later, a message was received at Headquarters from General Sh., the commander of a separate unit in the Prussian theater of military operations, which said that after our retreat, a Russian officer with an entire half-squadron saw a vision. It was 11 o'clock in the evening, a private came running with a surprised face and said: “Your Honor, go.” Lieutenant R. went and suddenly sees the Mother of God in heaven with Jesus Christ on one hand, and with the other hand pointing to the west. All the lower ranks are on their knees and pray to the Heavenly Patroness. He looked at the vision for a long time, then this vision changed into a Grand Cross and disappeared. After this, a big battle took place in the west near Augustow, which was marked by a great victory.

Therefore, this appearance of the Mother of God was called the “Sign of the August Victory”, or “August Appearance”. The appearance of the Mother of God in the Augustow forests was reported to Emperor Nicholas II, and he gave the order to paint an iconographic depiction of this appearance. The Holy Synod considered the issue of the appearance of the Mother of God for about a year and a half and on March 31, 1916, made the decision: “to bless the honoring in the churches of God and the houses of believers of icons depicting the said appearance of the Mother of God to Russian soldiers...”. On April 17, 2008, on the recommendation of the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II blessed to include in the official calendar the celebration in honor of the August Icon of the Mother of God.

The celebration is set to take place on September 1 (14). On November 5, 1914, Russia, England and France declared war on Turkey. In October, the Turkish government closed the Dardanelles and Bosporus to Allied ships, virtually isolating Russia's Black Sea ports from the outside world and causing irreparable damage to its economy. This move by Turkey was an effective contribution to the war efforts of the Central Powers. The next provocative step was the shelling of Odessa and other southern Russian ports at the end of October by a squadron of Turkish warships. The declining Ottoman Empire gradually collapsed and over the course of the last half century lost most of its European possessions. The army was exhausted by unsuccessful military operations against the Italians in Tripoli, and the Balkan Wars caused further depletion of its resources. The Young Turk leader Enver Pasha, who, as Minister of War, was a leading figure on the Turkish political scene, believed that an alliance with Germany would best serve his country's interests, and on August 2, 1914, a secret treaty was signed between the two countries.

The German military mission had been active in Turkey since the end of 1913. She was tasked with reorganizing the Turkish army. Despite strong objections from his German advisers, Enver Pasha decided to invade the Russian Caucasus and launched an offensive in difficult weather conditions in mid-December 1914. The Turkish soldiers fought well, but suffered a severe defeat. However, the Russian high command was concerned about the threat that Turkey posed to Russia's southern borders, and German strategic plans were well served by the fact that this threat in this sector pinned down Russian troops that were in great need on other fronts.

§ 76. Military actions in 1914-1918.

The beginning of the First World War.

On June 28, 1914, in the city of Sarajevo, part of Bosnia and Herzegovina annexed by Austria-Hungary, the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a hard-line supporter of Serbia. Blaming the Serbian government for the assassination attempt, Austria-Hungary presented him with an ultimatum. German Emperor Wilhelm II supported the actions of his ally.
The Serbian government fulfilled all the demands made by Austria-Hungary, except for the point about an investigation into the murder by Austrian officials, but agreed to negotiate on this point. However, on July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and began bombing Belgrade the next day.
On August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia, then on France. Violating Belgium's neutrality, German troops launched an offensive through its territory. Great Britain entered the war. On the side of the Entente were Montenegro, Japan and Egypt, and on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary were Bulgaria and Turkey (Germany and its allies are often called the coalition of the Central Powers).
The causes of the war were the contradictions between the Entente powers and Germany and Austria-Hungary. The desire to capture others and maintain their colonies in Africa and Asia became one of the main aspirations of the warring parties. Territorial disputes in Europe itself also played a significant role. There were also huge trade and economic contradictions between the powers; they fought for areas of sales of their products and for sources of raw materials. The war was initiated by the German bloc, which considered itself deprived in all respects.

Military operations in 1914

The main fronts, on which heavy fighting began already in August 1914, were the French Western and Russian Eastern. At the first stage of the war, at the beginning of September, the main group of German armies reached the Marne River between Paris and Verdun, and then crossed it. On September 6, a counteroffensive of Anglo-French troops began along the entire front from Paris to Verdun. Only by September 12 did German troops gain a foothold across the Aisne River and on a line east of Reims. On September 15, the Allies stopped the offensive.
Unsuccessful German offensive on Paris and the defeat of German troops on the Marne led to the failure of the German strategic war plan, designed to quickly defeat the enemy on the Western Front. A positional front was established from the Swiss border to the North Sea.
In the East European Theater, hostilities began on August 4-7 (17 - 20). During the East Prussian operations l-th The Russian army defeated the German corps. Continuing to advance, she defeated one of the German armies. At the same time, the 2nd Russian Army began moving towards the flank and rear of the Germans. The successful offensive of Russian troops in East Prussia forced the German command to transfer additional troops from the Western to the Eastern Front. German troops, taking advantage of the mistakes of the Russian command, which did not establish interaction between the 1st and 2nd armies, managed to inflict a heavy defeat on first the 2nd and then the 1st Russian armies. Russian troops withdrew from East Prussia.
At the same time, a battle took place in Galicia, in which the troops of the Russian Southwestern Front inflicted a major defeat on the Austro-Hungarian troops. The Russians occupied Lvov. The Austro-Hungarian garrison of the Przemysl fortress was blocked, and advanced Russian units reached the foothills of the Carpathians.
The German High Command hastily transferred large forces here. However, the timely regrouping of forces carried out by the Russian Headquarters made it possible, during the Warsaw-Ivangorod operation, to stop the enemy’s attack on Ivangorod, and then repel the attack on Warsaw. Soon the parties, having exhausted all possibilities, went on the defensive.
On August 10, Germany sent the battle cruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau to the Black Sea to support the Turkish fleet. Turkish and German ships suddenly fired at Sevastopol, Odessa, Novorossiysk and Feodosia. Russia, Great Britain and France declared war on Turkey. Russia moved the Caucasian Army to the border with Turkey. In December, the Turkish 8th Army went on the offensive, but was defeated.
Military actions of 1915
The German command decided to devote the next campaign entirely to the defeat of the Russian troops. Almost 30 infantry and 9 cavalry divisions were transferred from France. In February 1915, Russian troops crossed the Carpathians in winter conditions, and in March, after a long siege, they took Przemysl. About 120 thousand enemy soldiers and officers surrendered.
However, the passivity of Russia's Western allies in 1915 allowed the German command to go on the offensive on April 19 (May 2). Under the onslaught of an enemy with enormous superiority in forces, the defense of the 3rd Russian Army was broken through in the Gorlice area. The troops of the Southwestern Front were forced to leave Galicia. At the same time, German troops were advancing in the Baltic states. They occupied Libau and reached Kovno. To avoid encirclement, Russian troops were forced to leave Poland. During the 1915 campaign, Russia lost about 2 million people killed, wounded and captured.
In August 1915, Nicholas II assumed supreme command of the active forces, hoping to turn the tide of events with his authority. In October 1915, the front was established on the Riga - Baranovichi - Dubno line.
In the Western European Theater throughout 1915, both sides fought local battles without planning major operations. In 1915, the Entente, promising to satisfy Italy's territorial claims more fully than Germany offered, attracted this country to its side. The Italian army launched an offensive, but it was not successful. In October 1915, Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Central Powers.
In the fall of 1915, the offensive of Austro-German and Bulgarian troops against Serbia began. The Serbian army resisted for 2 months and then was forced to retreat to Albania. Part of the Serbian troops was transported by the Entente fleet to greek island Corfu.
The 1915 campaign did not live up to the hopes of both warring coalitions, but its course was more favorable for the Entente. The German command, having failed to liquidate the Eastern Front, found itself in a difficult situation.
Military operations in 1916
On February 21, the German command began the Verdun operation on the Western Front. During the fierce fighting, both sides suffered heavy losses. The Germans were never able to break through the front.
At the East European Theater on May 22 (June 4), the Southwestern Front (commanded by General A.A. Brusilov) launched a decisive offensive. The defense of the Austro-German troops was broken to a depth of 80 to 120 km. The command of the Central Powers urgently transferred 11 German divisions from France and 6 Austro-Hungarian divisions from Italy.
The offensive of the Southwestern Front eased the position of the French at Verdun, and also saved the Italian army from defeat and accelerated Romania's entry on the side of the Entente countries. However, Romania's actions were unsuccessful. To provide assistance to Romania, the Russian Romanian Front was formed.
In July, Anglo-French troops launched a major offensive on the Somme River. It lasted until mid-November, but despite the huge losses, the Allies advanced only 5-15 km, failing to break through the German front.
The troops of the Caucasian Front successfully carried out a number of operations, as a result of which the cities of Erzurum and Trebizond were occupied.
At the end of 1916, the superiority of the Entente over the countries of the German bloc became obvious. Germany was forced to defend on all fronts.
Military operations in 1917-1918.
The 1917 campaign was prepared and took place in the context of the growth of the revolutionary movement in all countries, which had a great influence on the course of the war as a whole.
In February 1917, a revolution broke out in Russia. In June 1917, the Southwestern Front launched an offensive that ended in failure. Russia's last military operations were the defense of Riga and the defense of the Moonsund Islands.
After the October Revolution in Russia, the new government concluded a truce with the German coalition on December 2(15), 1917. The revolution in Russia thwarted the Entente's strategic plan designed to defeat Austria-Hungary. However, the troops of the Central Powers were still forced to go on the defensive.
In March 1918, a major German offensive began in France. German troops broke through the Allied defenses to a depth of 60 km, but then the Allied command, bringing reserves into battle, eliminated the breakthrough. At the end of May, the German armies struck north of the Rhine, and reached the Marne River, finding themselves less than 70 km from Paris. Here they were stopped. On July 15, the German command made a last desperate attempt to defeat the Allied armies. But the second Battle of the Marne ended in failure.
In August 1918, the Anglo-French armies went on the offensive and inflicted a major defeat on the German troops. In September, a general Allied offensive began along the entire front. On November 9, the monarchy was overthrown in Germany. On November 11, 1918, the Entente concluded the Compiegne Truce with Germany. Germany admitted itself defeated.

§ 77. War and society

Development of military equipment during the war.

The First World War gave a powerful impetus to development military equipment. Since 1915, the main problem in conducting military operations has been breaking through the positional front. The appearance of tanks and new types of accompanying artillery in 1916 increased the fire and striking POWER of the advancing troops. On September 15, 1916, the British used tanks for the first time. With the support of 18 tanks, the infantry was able to ADVANCE 2 km. The first case of massive use of tanks was the Battle of Cambrai on November 20 - 21, 1917, where 378 tanks operated. Surprise and great superiority in forces and means allowed British troops to break through the German defenses. However, the tanks, separated from the infantry and cavalry, suffered heavy losses.
The war gave a sharp impetus to the development of aviation. Initially, airplanes, along with balloons, served as a means of reconnaissance and artillery fire adjustment. Then they began to install machine guns and bombs on the planes.
The most famous aircraft were the German Fokker, the English Sopwith and the French Farman, Voisin and Nieuport. Military aircraft in Russia were built mainly according to French models, but there were also their own designs. Thus, in 1913, a heavy 4-engine aircraft by I. Sikorsky “Ilya Muromets” was built, which could lift up to 800 kg of bombs and was armed with 3-7 machine guns.
Chemical weapons were a qualitatively new type of weapon. In April 1915, near Ypres, the Germans released 180 tons of chlorine from cylinders. As a result of the attack, about 15 thousand people were injured, of which 5 thousand died. Such large losses from relatively low-toxic chlorine were caused by the lack of protective equipment, the first samples of which appeared only a year later. On April 12, 1917, in the area of ​​Ypres, the Germans used mustard gas (mustard gas). In total, about 1 million people were affected by toxic substances during the war.
State regulation of the economy.
In all the warring countries, state military-economic departments were created to regulate the economy, which brought industry and agriculture under their control. State bodies distributed orders and raw materials, and managed the products of enterprises. These bodies not only supervised the production process, but also regulated working conditions, wages, etc. In general, government intervention in the economy during the war years had a visible effect. This gave rise to the idea that such a policy would be beneficial.
In Russia, the relatively weak development of heavy industry could not but affect the supply of the army. Despite the transfer of workers to the position of military personnel, the growth of military production at first was insignificant. The supply of weapons and ammunition from the allies was carried out in extremely limited quantities. To establish military production, the government moved to sequester (transfer to the state) large military factories and banks. For the owners, this was a colossal source of income.
When major abuses by officials in supplying the fronts with everything necessary were revealed, the government decided to create committees and meetings that were supposed to deal with military orders. But in practice, this only led to the distribution of military orders and the issuance of cash subsidies.
Due to the mass mobilization of peasants into the army in Russia, the harvest of grain sharply decreased, and the cost of processing it increased. A significant portion of horses and cattle were also requisitioned as draft power and to feed the army. The food situation sharply worsened in the Axis, speculation flourished and prices for essential goods rose. Hunger began.
Public opinion during the war years.
The outbreak of war caused an explosion of patriotic feelings in all the warring countries. Mass rallies took place in support of the government's actions. However, by the end of 1915, the mood of the population of the warring countries began to gradually change. The strike movement grew everywhere, and the opposition, including parliamentary opposition, grew stronger. In Russia, where the military defeats of 1915 sharply aggravated the internal political situation, this process was particularly violent. The defeats made the Duma opposition want to once again begin the fight against the autocratic regime, which “does not know how to wage war.” Several Duma groups led by the Cadet Party united in “ Progressive block", the purpose of which was to create a cabinet of public trust, i.e. government based on the Duma majority.
The activity of groups in the Social Democratic parties intensified, from the very beginning they opposed the war with varying degrees of categoricalness. On September 5-8, 1915, the Zimmerwald Conference of such groups took place. 38 delegates from Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands took part in its work. They made a statement against the war and called on the peoples for peace. About a third of the delegates, led by the leader of the Russian Bolsheviks, V.I. Lenin, considered this call too lenient. They spoke out in favor of turning the “imperialist war into a civil war,” taking advantage of the fact that weapons are in the hands of millions of “proletarians.”
At the fronts, cases of fraternization between soldiers of opposing armies increasingly occurred. During the strikes, anti-war slogans were put forward. On May 1, 1916, in Berlin, at a mass demonstration, the leader of the left Social Democrats, K. Liebknecht, made a call “Down with war!”
National protests intensified in multinational countries. In July 1916, the Central Asian uprising began in Russia, which was finally suppressed only in 1917. On April 24-30, 1916, the Irish uprising broke out and was brutally suppressed by the British. There were also performances in Austria-Hungary.

Results of the war.

The First World War ended with the defeat of Germany and its allies. At the Paris Peace Conference contracts were prepared. On June 28, 1919 it was signed Treaty of Versailles with Germany, September 10 - Treaty of Saint-Germain with Austria, November 27 - Treaty of Nine with Bulgaria, June 4 - Treaty of Trianon with Hungary and August 10, 1920 - Treaty of Sèvres with Turkey. The Paris Peace Conference decided to establish League of Nations. Germany and its allies lost significant territory, were also forced to significantly limit their armed forces and pay large reparations.
The post-war peace settlement was completed by the Washington Conference, held in 1921-1922. Its initiator, the United States, dissatisfied with the results of the Paris Conference, made a serious bid for leadership in the Western world. Thus, the United States managed to achieve recognition of the principle of “freedom of the seas,” weaken Great Britain as a great maritime power, oust Japan in China, and also achieve the approval of the principle of “equal opportunity.” However, Japan's position on Far East and in Pacific Ocean turned out to be quite strong.

The First World War began on August 1, 1914. It lasted more than 4 years (ended on November 11, 1918), 38 states took part in it, over 74 million people fought on its fields, of which 10 million were killed and 20 million were maimed. This war led to the collapse of the most powerful European states and the formation of a new political situation in the world.

On the eve of the war, relations between the strongest countries - England and Germany - worsened. Their rivalry turned into a fierce struggle for dominance in the world, for the seizure of new territories. Alliances of states were also formed that were at enmity with each other.

The reason for the war was the murder on June 28, 1914 in the city of Sarajevo (in Bosnia on the Balkan Peninsula) of the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Ferdinand. As a result, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia within a month. On August 1, Germany declared war on Russia, on August 3 on France and Belgium, and on August 4, England declared war on Germany. Most countries of the world were involved in the war. On the side of the Entente (England, France, Russia) there were 34 states, on the side of Germany and Austria - 4. Military operations covered the territory of Europe, Asia and Africa, and were carried out on all oceans and many seas. The main land fronts in Europe, on which the outcome of the war was decided, were the Western (in France) and the Eastern (in Russia).

In August 1914, German troops were already almost near Paris, where bloody battles were fought. A continuous front line stretches from the Swiss border to the North Sea. But Germany's hope for a quick defeat of France failed. On August 23, Japan declared war on Germany; in October, Türkiye entered the war on Germany’s side. It became clear that the war was becoming protracted.

On the home front in many countries, people faced poverty and there was no longer enough food. The situation of the peoples, especially the warring states, has deteriorated sharply. To change the course of the war, Germany decided to use a new type of weapon - poisonous gases.

It was very difficult to fight on two fronts. In October 1917, Russia experienced a revolution and emerged from the war by signing a peace treaty with Germany. But this did not help Germany much; its offensive on the Western Front in 1918 failed.

In August-September, the Allied armies, using their superiority in troops and equipment (in March 1918, troops from the United States, which entered the war in 1917, began to arrive on the Western Front), went on the offensive and forced German troops to leave French territory.

At the beginning of October, Germany's situation became hopeless. Defeats on the fronts and devastation led to revolution in Germany. On November 9, its monarchy was overthrown, and on November 11, Germany admitted itself defeated. The final terms of peace treaties with Germany and its allies were signed at the Paris Conference of 1919-20. Germany paid the winners large amounts in compensation for damage (except for Russia, which left the Entente after the October Revolution). In 1918, Austria-Hungary also collapsed.

The First World War changed the entire map of Europe.

World War I was the result of the aggravation of the contradictions of imperialism, the unevenness and spasmodic development of capitalist countries. The most acute contradictions existed between Great Britain, the oldest capitalist power, and the economically strengthened Germany, whose interests collided in many areas of the globe, especially in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Their rivalry turned into a fierce struggle for dominance in the world market, for the seizure of foreign territories, for the economic enslavement of other peoples. Germany's goal was to defeat the armed forces of England, deprive it of colonial and naval primacy, and subordinate it to its influence. Balkan countries, create a semi-colonial empire in the Middle East. England, in turn, intended to prevent Germany from establishing itself in the Balkan Peninsula and the Middle East, to destroy its armed forces, and to expand its colonial possessions. In addition, she hoped to seize Mesopotamia and establish her dominance in Palestine and Egypt. Acute contradictions also existed between Germany and France. France sought to return the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, captured as a result of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, as well as to take away the Saar Basin from Germany, to maintain and expand its colonial possessions (see Colonialism).

Bavarian troops are sent by rail towards the front. August 1914



Territorial division of the world on the eve of the First World War (by 1914)



Poincaré's arrival in St. Petersburg, 1914. Raymond Poincaré (1860-1934) - President of France in 1913-1920. He pursued a reactionary militaristic policy, for which he received the nickname “Poincare War.”



Division of the Ottoman Empire (1920-1923)



American infantryman who suffered from exposure to phosgene.



Territorial changes in Europe in 1918-1923.



General von Kluck (in a car) and his staff during large maneuvers, 1910



Territorial changes after the First World War in 1918-1923.

The interests of Germany and Russia collided mainly in the Middle East and the Balkans. The Kaiser's Germany also sought to tear Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states away from Russia. Contradictions also existed between Russia and Austria-Hungary due to the desire of both sides to establish their dominance in the Balkans. Royal Russia intended to seize the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, Western Ukrainian and Polish lands that were under the rule of the Habsburgs.

The contradictions between the imperialist powers had a significant impact on the alignment of political forces in the international arena and the formation of military-political alliances opposing each other. In Europe at the end of the 19th century. - early 20th century two largest blocs were formed - the Triple Alliance, which included Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; and the Entente consisting of England, France and Russia. The bourgeoisie of each country pursued its own selfish goals, which sometimes contradicted the goals of the coalition allies. However, all of them were relegated to the background against the background of the main contradictions between two groupings of states: on the one hand, between England and its allies, and Germany and its allies, on the other.

The ruling circles of all countries were to blame for the outbreak of the First World War, but the initiative in unleashing it belonged to German imperialism.

Not the least role in the outbreak of the First World War was played by the desire of the bourgeoisie to weaken in their countries the growing class struggle of the proletariat and the national liberation movement in the colonies, to distract the working class from the struggle for their social liberation by war, to decapitate its vanguard through repressive wartime measures.

The governments of both hostile groups carefully concealed the true goals of the war from their people and tried to instill in them a false idea about the defensive nature of military preparations, and then of the conduct of the war itself. Bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties of all countries supported their governments and, playing on the patriotic feelings of the masses, came up with the slogan “defense of the fatherland” from external enemies.

The peace-loving forces of that time could not prevent the outbreak of a world war. The real force capable of significantly blocking its path was the international working class, numbering over 150 million people on the eve of the war. However, the lack of unity in the international socialist movement thwarted the formation of a united anti-imperialist front. The opportunistic leadership of Western European social democratic parties did nothing to implement the anti-war decisions taken at the congresses of the 2nd International held before the war. A misconception about the sources and nature of the war played a significant role in this. Right-wing socialists, finding themselves in warring camps, agreed that “their” own government had nothing to do with its emergence. They even continued to condemn the war, but only as an evil that had come upon the country from outside.

The First World War lasted over four years (from August 1, 1914 to November 11, 1918). 38 states took part in it, over 70 million people fought on its fields, of which 10 million people were killed and 20 million were maimed. The immediate cause of the war was the murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, by members of the Serbian secret organization “Young Bosnia” on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo (Bosnia). Incited by Germany, Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with an obviously impossible ultimatum and declared war on it on July 28. In connection with the opening of hostilities in Russia by Austria-Hungary, general mobilization began on July 31. In response, the German government warned Russia that if mobilization was not stopped within 12 hours, then mobilization would also be declared in Germany. By this time, the German armed forces were already fully prepared for war. The tsarist government did not respond to the German ultimatum. On August 1, Germany declared war on Russia, on August 3 on France and Belgium, on August 4, Great Britain declared war on Germany. Later, most of the countries of the world were involved in the war (on the side of the Entente - 34 states, on the side of the Austro-German bloc - 4).

Both warring sides started the war with multimillion-dollar armies. Military actions took place in Europe, Asia and Africa. The main land fronts in Europe: Western (in Belgium and France) and Eastern (in Russia). Based on the nature of the tasks being solved and the military-political results achieved, the events of the First World War can be divided into five campaigns, each of which included several operations.

In 1914, in the very first months of the war, military plans developed by the general staffs of both coalitions long before the war and designed for its short duration collapsed. The fighting on the Western Front began in early August. On August 2, the German army occupied Luxembourg, and on August 4, it invaded Belgium, violating its neutrality. The small Belgian army was unable to provide serious resistance and began to retreat north. On August 20, German troops occupied Brussels and were able to freely advance to the borders of France. Three French and one British armies were advanced to meet them. On August 21-25, in a border battle, the German armies drove back the Anglo-French troops, invaded Northern France and, continuing the offensive, reached the Marne River between Paris and Verdun by the beginning of September. The French command, having formed two new armies from reserves, decided to launch a counteroffensive. The Battle of the Marne began on September 5. 6 Anglo-French and 5 German armies (about 2 million people) took part in it. The Germans were defeated. On September 16, oncoming battles began, called the “Run to the Sea” (they ended when the front reached the sea coast). In October and November, bloody battles in Flanders exhausted and balanced the forces of the parties. A continuous front line stretched from the Swiss border to the North Sea. The war in the West took on a positional character. Thus, Germany’s hope for the defeat and withdrawal of France from the war failed.

The Russian command, yielding to the persistent demands of the French government, decided to take active action even before the end of the mobilization and concentration of its armies. The goal of the operation was to defeat the 8th German Army and capture East Prussia. On August 4, the 1st Russian Army under the command of General P.K. Rennenkampf crossed the state border and entered the territory of East Prussia. During fierce fighting, German troops began to retreat to the West. Soon the 2nd Russian Army of General A.V. Samsonov also crossed the border of East Prussia. The German headquarters had already decided to withdraw troops beyond the Vistula, but, taking advantage of the lack of interaction between the 1st and 2nd armies and the mistakes of the Russian high command, German troops managed to inflict a heavy defeat on the 2nd Army first, and then throw the 1st Army back to her starting positions.

Despite the failure of the operation, the invasion of the Russian army into East Prussia had important results. It forced the Germans to transfer two army corps and one cavalry division from France to the Russian front, which seriously weakened their strike force in the West and was one of the reasons for its defeat in the Battle of the Marne. At the same time, by their actions in East Prussia, the Russian armies shackled the German troops and kept them from assisting the allied Austro-Hungarian troops. This made it possible for the Russians to inflict a major defeat on Austria-Hungary in the Galician direction. During the operation, the threat of invasion of Hungary and Silesia was created; significantly undermined military power Austria-Hungary (Austro-Hungarian troops lost about 400 thousand people, of which more than 100 thousand were prisoners). Until the end of the war, the Austro-Hungarian army lost the ability to conduct operations independently, without the support of German troops. Germany was again forced to withdraw some of its forces from the Western Front and transfer them to the Eastern Front.

As a result of the 1914 campaign, neither side achieved its goals. Plans for waging a short-term war and winning it at the cost of one general battle collapsed. On the Western Front, the period of maneuver warfare was over. Positional, trench warfare began. On August 23, 1914, Japan declared war on Germany; in October, Turkey entered the war on the side of the German bloc. New fronts formed in Transcaucasia, Mesopotamia, Syria and the Dardanelles.

In the 1915 campaign, the center of gravity of military operations shifted to the Eastern Front. Defense was planned on the Western Front. Operations on the Russian front began in January and continued, with minor interruptions, until late autumn. In the summer, the German command broke through the Russian front near Gorlitsa. Soon it launched an offensive in the Baltic states, and Russian troops were forced to leave Galicia, Poland, part of Latvia and Belarus. However, the Russian command, switching to strategic defense, managed to withdraw its armies from the enemy’s attacks and stop his advance. The bloodless and exhausted Austro-German and Russian armies in October went on the defensive along the entire front. Germany faced the need to continue a long war on two fronts. Russia bore the brunt of the struggle, which provided France and England with a respite to mobilize the economy for the needs of the war. Only in the fall did the Anglo-French command conduct offensive operation in Artois and Champagne, which did not significantly change the situation. In the spring of 1915, the German command used chemical weapons (chlorine) for the first time on the Western Front, near Ypres, as a result of which 15 thousand people were poisoned. After this, gases began to be used by both warring sides.

In the summer, Italy entered the war on the side of the Entente; in October, Bulgaria joined the Austro-German bloc. The large-scale Dardanelles landing operation of the Anglo-French fleet was aimed at capturing the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits, breaking through to Constantinople and withdrawing Turkey from the war. It ended in failure, and the Allies stopped hostilities at the end of 1915 and evacuated troops to Greece.

In the 1916 campaign, the Germans again shifted their main efforts to the West. For their main attack, they chose a narrow section of the front in the Verdun area, since a breakthrough here created a threat to the entire northern wing of the Allied armies. The fighting at Verdun began on February 21 and continued until December. This operation, called the “Verdun Meat Grinder,” boiled down to grueling and bloody battles, where both sides lost about 1 million people. The offensive actions of the Anglo-French troops on the Somme River, which began on July 1 and continued until November, were also unsuccessful. The Anglo-French troops, having lost about 800 thousand people, were unable to break through the enemy’s defenses.

Operations on the Eastern Front were of great importance in the 1916 campaign. In March, Russian troops, at the request of the allies, carried out an offensive operation near Lake Naroch, which significantly influenced the course of hostilities in France. It not only pinned down about 0.5 million German troops on the Eastern Front, but also forced the German command to stop attacks on Verdun for some time and transfer some of its reserves to the Eastern Front. Due to the heavy defeat of the Italian army in Trentino in May, the Russian high command launched an offensive on May 22, two weeks earlier than planned. During the fighting, Russian troops on the Southwestern Front under the command of A. A. Brusilov managed to break through the strong positional defense of the Austro-German troops to a depth of 80-120 km. The enemy suffered heavy losses - about 1.5 million people killed, wounded and captured. The Austro-German command was forced to transfer large forces to the Russian front, which eased the position of the Allied armies on other fronts. The Russian offensive saved the Italian army from defeat, eased the position of the French at Verdun, and accelerated the appearance of Romania on the side of the Entente. The success of the Russian troops was ensured by the use by General A. A. Brusilov of a new form of breaking through the front through simultaneous attacks in several areas. As a result, the enemy lost the opportunity to determine the direction of the main attack. Along with the Battle of the Somme, the offensive on the Southwestern Front marked the turning point in the First World War. The strategic initiative completely passed into the hands of the Entente.

On May 31 - June 1, the largest naval battle of the entire First World War took place off the Jutland Peninsula in the North Sea. The British lost 14 ships in it, about 6,800 people killed, wounded and captured; The Germans lost 11 ships, about 3,100 people killed and wounded.

In 1916, the German-Austrian bloc suffered huge losses and lost its strategic initiative. Bloody battles drained the resources of all the warring powers. The situation of the working people has deteriorated sharply. The hardships of the war and their awareness of its anti-national character caused deep discontent among the masses. In all countries, revolutionary sentiments grew in the rear and at the front. A particularly rapid rise of the revolutionary movement was observed in Russia, where the war revealed the corruption of the ruling elite.

Military operations in 1917 took place in the context of a significant growth of the revolutionary movement in all the warring countries, strengthening of anti-war sentiments in the rear and at the front. The war significantly weakened the economies of the warring factions.

The advantage of the Entente became even more significant after the United States entered the war on its side. The condition of the armies of the German coalition was such that they could not take active action either in the West or in the East. The German command decided in 1917 to switch to strategic defense on all land fronts and focused its main attention on waging unlimited submarine warfare, hoping in this way to disrupt economic life England and get her out of the war. But despite some success, submarine warfare did not give the desired result. The Entente military command moved to coordinated strikes on the Western and Eastern fronts in order to inflict the final defeat of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

However, the offensive of the Anglo-French troops launched in April failed. On February 27 (March 12), a bourgeois-democratic revolution took place in Russia. The Provisional Government that came to power, taking a course to continue the war, organized, with the support of the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, a large offensive of the Russian armies. It began on June 16 on the Southwestern Front in the general direction of Lvov, but after some tactical success, due to the lack of reliable reserves, the enemy’s increased resistance choked. The inaction of the Allies on the Western Front allowed the German command to quickly transfer troops to the Eastern Front, create a powerful group there, and launch a counteroffensive on July 6. The Russian units, unable to withstand the onslaught, began to retreat. The offensive operations of the Russian armies on the Northern, Western and Romanian fronts ended unsuccessfully. The total number of losses on all fronts exceeded 150 thousand people killed, wounded and missing.

The artificially created offensive impulse of the masses of soldiers was replaced by an awareness of the pointlessness of the offensive, an unwillingness to continue the war of conquest, to fight for interests alien to them.

The First World War: the tragedy of the beginning of the century

At the beginning of the 20th century, disagreements between world powers reached their peak. A relatively long period without major European conflicts (since about the 1870s) allowed the accumulation of contradictions between the leading world powers. There was no single mechanism for resolving such issues, which inevitably led to “détente.” At that time it could only be war.

Background and background of the First World War

The background of the First World War goes back to the 19th century, when the growing German Empire entered into colonial competition with other world powers. Germany, which was late to the colonial division, often had to enter into conflicts with other countries in order to secure a “piece of the pie” of African and Asian capital markets.

On the other hand, the decrepit Ottoman Empire also caused many inconveniences to the European powers, who sought to take part in the division of its inheritance. These tensions eventually resulted in the Tripolitan War (which resulted in Italy taking over Libya, which had previously belonged to the Turks) and the two Balkan Wars, during which Slavic nationalism in the Balkans reached its highest point.

Austria-Hungary also closely monitored the situation in the Balkans. It was important for the empire, which was losing prestige, to regain respect and consolidate heterogeneous national groups within its composition. It was for this purpose, as well as for an important strategic bridgehead from which Serbia could be threatened, that Austria occupied Bosnia in 1908, and later included it in its composition.

At the beginning of the 20th century, two military-political blocs almost completely took shape in Europe: the Entente (Russia, France, Great Britain) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy). These two alliances united states primarily according to their foreign policy goals. Thus, the Entente was mainly interested in maintaining the colonial redistribution of the world, with minor changes in its favor (for example, the division of the colonial empire of Germany), while Germany and Austria-Hungary wanted a complete redistribution of the colonies, achieving economic and military hegemony in Europe and expanding their markets.

Thus, by 1914 the situation in Europe had become quite tense. The interests of the great powers collided in almost all spheres: trade, economic, military and diplomatic. In fact, already in the spring of 1914, war became inevitable, and all that was needed was a “push”, a reason that would lead to conflict.

On June 28, 1914, in the city of Sarajevo (Bosnia), the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was killed along with his wife. The killer was the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, who belonged to the Young Bosnia organization. Austria's reaction was not long in coming. Already on July 23, the Austrian government, believing that Serbia was behind the Young Bosnia organization, presented an ultimatum to the Serbian government, according to which Serbia was required to stop any anti-Austrian actions, ban anti-Austrian organizations, and also allow the Austrian police to enter the country for investigations.

The Serbian government, rightly believing that this ultimatum was an aggressive diplomatic attempt by Austria-Hungary to limit or completely destroy Serbian sovereignty, decided to satisfy almost all Austrian demands except one: allowing Austrian police into Serbian territory was clearly unacceptable. This refusal was enough for the Austro-Hungarian government to accuse Serbia of insincerity and preparing provocations against Austria-Hungary and to begin concentrating troops on its border. Two days later, on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

Goals and plans of the parties in the First World War

The military doctrine of Germany at the beginning of the First World War was the famous “Schlieffen Plan”. The plan envisaged inflicting a rapid, crushing defeat on France, as in 1871. The French campaign was supposed to be completed within 40 days, before Russia could mobilize and concentrate its army at eastern borders German Empire. After the defeat of France, the German command planned to quickly transfer troops to the Russian borders and launch a victorious offensive there. Victory, therefore, had to be achieved in a very short period of time - from four months up to six months.

Austria-Hungary's plans consisted of a victorious offensive against Serbia and at the same time a strong defense against Russia in Galicia. After the defeat of the Serbian army, it was planned to transfer all available troops against Russia and, together with Germany, carry out its defeat.

The Entente's military plans also included achieving military victory in the shortest possible time. So. It was assumed that Germany would not be able to withstand a war on two fronts for any long time, especially with active offensive actions by France and Russia on land and a naval blockade by Great Britain.

Beginning of the First World War - August 1914

Russia, which traditionally supported Serbia, could not remain aloof from the outbreak of the conflict. On July 29, a telegram from Emperor Nicholas II was sent to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, proposing to resolve the Austro-Serbian conflict through international arbitration in The Hague. However, the German Kaiser, carried away by the idea of ​​hegemony in Europe, left his cousin's telegram unanswered.

Meanwhile, mobilization began in the Russian Empire. It was initially carried out exclusively against Austria-Hungary, but after Germany clearly outlined its position, mobilization measures became universal. The reaction of the German Empire to the Russian mobilization was an ultimatum demand, under the threat of war, to stop these massive preparations. However, it was no longer possible to stop mobilization in Russia. As a result, on August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia.

Simultaneously with these events, the German General base initiated the implementation of the “Schlieffen Plan”. On the morning of August 1, German troops invaded Luxembourg and the next day completely occupied the state. At the same time, an ultimatum was presented to the Belgian government. It consisted in the demand for the unhindered passage of German troops through the territory of the Belgian state for actions against France. However, the Belgian government refused the ultimatum.

A day later, on August 3, 1914, Germany declared war on France, and the next day on Belgium. At the same time, Great Britain entered the war on the side of Russia and France. On August 6, Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia. Italy, unexpectedly for the countries of the Triple Alliance, refused to enter the war.

World War I breaks out - August-November 1914

By the beginning of the First World War, the German army was not fully prepared for active combat operations. However, just two days after the declaration of war, Germany managed to capture the cities of Kalisz and Częstochowa in Poland. At the same time, Russian troops, with the forces of two armies (1st and 2nd), launched an offensive in East Prussia with the goal of capturing Königsberg and leveling the front line from the north in order to eliminate the unsuccessful configuration of the pre-war borders.

Initially, the Russian offensive developed quite successfully, but soon, due to the uncoordinated actions of the two Russian armies, the 1st Army came under a powerful German flank attack and lost about half of its personnel. Army commander Samsonov shot himself, and the army itself retreated to its original positions by September 3, 1914. From the beginning of September, Russian troops in the northwestern direction went on the defensive.

At the same time, the Russian army launched a major offensive against the Austro-Hungarian troops in Galicia. On this section of the front, five Russian armies were opposed by four Austro-Hungarian ones. The fighting here initially did not develop entirely favorably for the Russian side: Austrian troops put up fierce resistance on the southern flank, due to which the Russian army was forced to retreat to its original positions in mid-August. However, soon, after fierce fighting, the Russian army managed to capture Lvov on August 21. After this, the Austrian army began to retreat in a southwestern direction, which soon turned into a real flight. The catastrophe faced the Austro-Hungarian troops in full force. Only by mid-September the offensive of the Russian army in Galicia ended approximately 150 kilometers west of Lvov. In the rear of the Russian troops was also strategically important fortress Przemysl, where about 100 thousand Austrian soldiers took refuge. The siege of the fortress continued until 1915.

After the events in East Prussia and Galicia, the German command decided to go on the offensive with the goal of eliminating the Warsaw salient and leveling the front line by 1914. Already on September 15, the Warsaw-Ivangorod operation began, during which German troops came close to Warsaw, but with powerful counterattacks the Russian army managed to push them back to their original position.

In the West, German troops launched an offensive on the territory of Belgium on August 4. Initially, the Germans did not encounter serious defense, and pockets of resistance were dealt with by their advanced detachments. On August 20, having occupied the Belgian capital Brussels, the German army came into contact with French and British forces. Thus began the so-called Border Battle. During the battle, the German army managed to inflict a serious defeat on the Allied forces and capture northern France and most of Belgium.

By the beginning of September 1914, the situation on the Western Front became threatening for the Allies. German troops were 100 kilometers from Paris, and the French government fled to Bordeaux. However, at the same time, the Germans acted with full strength, which was melting away. To deliver the final blow, the Germans decided to carry out a deep encirclement of the Allied forces covering Paris from the north. However, the flanks of the German strike force were not covered, which the Allied leadership took advantage of. As a result of this battle, part of the German troops was defeated, and the chance to take Paris in the fall of 1914 was missed. The "Miracle of the Marne" allowed the Allies to regroup their forces and build a strong defense.

After the failure near Paris, the German command launched an offensive to the North Sea coast in order to envelop the Anglo-French troops. At the same time, Allied troops were moving towards the sea. This period, which lasted from mid-September to mid-November 1914, was called the “Run to the Sea.”

In the Balkan theater of operations, events developed extremely unsuccessfully for the Central Powers. From the very beginning of the war, the Serbian army put up fierce resistance to the Austro-Hungarian army, which managed to capture Belgrade only in early December. However, a week later the Serbs managed to take the capital back.

Entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war and prolongation of the conflict (November 1914 – January 1915)

From the very beginning of the First World War, the government of the Ottoman Empire closely monitored its progress. At the same time, the government of the country did not have a common opinion on which side to take. However, it was clear that the Ottoman Empire would not be able to resist entering the conflict.

During numerous diplomatic maneuvers and intrigues, supporters of the pro-German position gained the upper hand in the Turkish government. As a result, almost the entire country and army came under the control of German generals. The Ottoman fleet, without declaring war, on October 30, 1914, fired at a number of Russian Black Sea ports, which was immediately used by Russia as a reason to declare war, which happened on November 2. A few days later, France and Great Britain declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

Simultaneously with these events, an offensive by the Ottoman army began in the Caucasus, with the goal of capturing the cities of Kars and Batumi, and in the long term, the entire Transcaucasus. However, here the Russian troops managed to first stop and then push the enemy beyond the border line. As a result, the Ottoman Empire was also drawn into a large-scale war with no hope of a quick victory.

Since October 1914, troops on the Western Front took up positional defense, which had a significant impact on the next 4 years of the war. The stabilization of the front and the lack of offensive potential on both sides led to the construction of strong and deep defenses by German and Anglo-French troops.

First World War - 1915

The year 1915 was more active on the Eastern Front than in the West. This is primarily explained by the fact that the German command, when planning military operations for 1915, decided to deliver the main blow precisely in the East and take Russia out of the war.

In the winter of 1915, German troops launched an offensive in Poland in the Augustow region. Here, despite initial successes, the Germans encountered stubborn resistance from Russian troops and were unable to achieve decisive success. After these failures, the German leadership decided to shift the direction of the main attack further south, to the area of ​​the southern Carpathians and Bukovina.

This strike almost immediately reached its target, and German troops managed to break through the Russian front in the Gorlice area. As a result, in order to avoid encirclement, the Russian army had to begin a retreat in order to level the front line. This withdrawal, which began on April 22, lasted 2 months. As a result, Russian troops lost large territory in Poland and Galicia, and the Austro-German forces came almost close to Warsaw. However, the main events of the 1915 campaign were still ahead.

The German command, although it managed to achieve good operational success, was still unable to collapse the Russian front. It was precisely the goal of neutralizing Russia that, from the beginning of June, planning began for a new offensive, which, according to the German leadership, should have led to the complete collapse of the Russian front and the speedy withdrawal of the Russians from the war. It was planned to deliver two strikes under the base of the Warsaw ledge with the aim of encircling or displacing enemy troops from this ledge. At the same time, it was decided to attack the Baltic states in order to divert at least part of the Russian forces from the central sector of the front.

On June 13, 1915, the German offensive began, and a few days later the Russian front was broken through. In order to avoid encirclement near Warsaw, the Russian army began to retreat to the east in order to create a new united front. As a result of this “Great Retreat,” Russian troops abandoned Warsaw, Grodno, and Brest-Litovsk, and the front stabilized only by the fall on the Dubno-Baranovichi-Dvinsk line. In the Baltic states, the Germans occupied the entire territory of Lithuania and came close to Riga. After these operations, there was a lull on the Eastern Front of the First World War until 1916.

On the Caucasian front during 1915, hostilities spread to the territory of Persia, which, after long diplomatic maneuvers, took the side of the Entente.

On the Western Front, 1915 was marked by reduced activity of German troops and higher activity of Anglo-French troops. Thus, at the beginning of the year, fighting took place only in the Artois region, but it did not lead to any noticeable results. In terms of their intensity, these positional actions, however, could not in any way claim the status of a serious operation.

Unsuccessful Allied attempts to break through the German front led in turn to a German offensive with limited objectives in the Ypres region (Belgium). Here, German troops used poison gases for the first time in history, which turned out to be quite unexpected and stunning for their enemy. However, not having sufficient reserves to build on their success, the Germans were soon forced to stop the offensive, achieving very modest results (their advance was only 5 to 10 kilometers).

At the beginning of May 1915, the Allies launched a new offensive in Artois, which, according to their command, should have led to the liberation of larger territory France and the major defeat of German troops. However, neither thorough artillery preparation (lasting 6 days) nor large forces (about 30 divisions concentrated in an area of ​​30 kilometers) did not allow the Anglo-French leadership to achieve victory. This was not least due to the fact that the German troops here built a deep and powerful defense, which was a reliable remedy against frontal attacks by the Allies.

The larger offensive of the Anglo-French troops in Champagne, which began on September 25, 1915 and lasted only 12 days, ended with the same result. During this offensive, the Allies managed to advance only 3-5 kilometers with losses of 200 thousand people. The Germans suffered losses of 140 thousand people.

On May 23, 1915, Italy entered the First World War on the side of the Entente. This decision was not easy for the Italian leadership: a year ago, on the eve of the war, the country was an ally of the Central Powers, but refrained from entering into the conflict. With the entry of Italy into the war, a new - Italian - front appeared, to which Austria-Hungary had to divert large forces. During 1915, no significant changes occurred on this front.

In the Middle East, the Allied command planned operations in 1915 with the goal of bringing the Ottoman Empire out of the war and finally strengthening its superiority in the Mediterranean. According to the plan, the allied fleet was supposed to break through to the Bosphorus Strait, bombard Istanbul and the Turkish coastal batteries, and, having proven to the Turks the superiority of the Entente, force the Ottoman government to capitulate.

However, from the very beginning this operation developed unsuccessfully for the Allies. Already at the end of February, during a raid by an allied squadron against Istanbul, three ships were lost, and the Turkish coastal defense was never suppressed. After this, it was decided to land an expeditionary force in the Istanbul area and lead the country out of the war with a swift offensive.

The landing of the Allied troops began on April 25, 1915. But here, too, the Allies encountered fierce Turkish defense, as a result of which they were able to land and gain a foothold only in the Gallipoli area, about 100 kilometers from the Ottoman capital. The Australian and New Zealand troops (ANZAC) landed here fiercely attacked Turkish troops until the end of the year, when the complete futility of the landing in the Dardanelles became absolutely clear. As a result, already in January 1916, the Allied expeditionary forces were evacuated from here.

In the Balkan theater of war, the outcome of the 1915 campaign was determined by two factors. The first factor was the “Great Retreat” of the Russian army, due to which Austria-Hungary was able to transfer some troops from Galicia against Serbia. The second factor was the entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers by Bulgaria, emboldened by the success of the Ottoman troops at Gallipoli and suddenly stabbing Serbia in the back. The Serbian army was unable to repel this blow, which led to the complete collapse of the Serbian front and the occupation of the territory of Serbia by the end of December by Austrian troops. However, the Serbian army, retaining its personnel, managed to retreat into Albania in an organized manner and subsequently participated in battles against Austrian, German and Bulgarian troops.

Progress of the First World War in 1916

The year 1916 was marked by passive German tactics in the East and more active ones in the West. Having failed to achieve a strategic victory on the Eastern Front, the German leadership decided to concentrate the main efforts in the 1916 campaign in the West in order to withdraw France from the war and, by transferring large forces to the East, achieve a military victory over Russia.

This led to the fact that for the first two months of the year there were practically no active hostilities on the Eastern Front. However, the Russian command was planning major offensive operations in the western and southwestern directions, and a sharp jump in military production made success at the front very possible. In general, the entire year of 1916 in Russia passed under the sign of general enthusiasm and high fighting spirit.

In March 1916, the Russian command, meeting the wishes of the allies to conduct a diversionary operation, launched a major offensive to liberate the territory of Belarus and the Baltic states and drive German troops back to East Prussia. However, this offensive, which began two months earlier than planned, failed to achieve its goals. The Russian army lost approximately 78 thousand people, while the German army lost approximately 40 thousand. Nevertheless, the Russian command may have managed to decide the outcome of the war in favor of the Allies: the German offensive in the West, which by that time was beginning to take a critical turn for the Entente, was weakened and gradually began to fizzle out.

The situation on the Russian-German front remained calm until June, when the Russian command began a new operation. It was carried out by the forces of the Southwestern Front, and its goal was to defeat the Austro-German forces in this direction and liberate part of Russian territory. It is noteworthy that this operation was carried out at the request of the allies in order to divert enemy troops from threatened areas. However, it was this Russian offensive that became one of the most successful operations of the Russian army in the First World War.

The offensive began on June 4, 1916, and just five days later the Austro-Hungarian front was broken in several dreams. The enemy began a retreat, alternating with counterattacks. It was as a result of these counterattacks that the front was kept from complete collapse, but only for a short time: already at the beginning of July, the front line in the southwest was broken through, and the troops of the Central Powers began to retreat, suffering huge losses.

Simultaneously with the offensive in the southwestern direction, Russian troops delivered the main blow in the western direction. However, here the German troops were able to organize a strong defense, which led to large losses in the Russian army without any noticeable results. After these failures, the Russian command decided to shift the main attack from the Western to the Southwestern Front.

A new stage of the offensive began on July 28, 1916. Russian troops again inflicted a major defeat on the enemy forces and in August captured the cities of Stanislav, Brody, and Lutsk. The position of the Austro-German troops here became so critical that even Turkish troops were transferred to Galicia. However, by the beginning of September 1916, the Russian command was faced with stubborn enemy defense in Volyn, which led to heavy losses among the Russian troops and, as a consequence, to the fact that the offensive fizzled out. The offensive, which brought Austria-Hungary to the brink of disaster, was named after its executor - the Brusilov breakthrough.

On the Caucasian front, Russian troops managed to capture the Turkish cities of Erzurum and Trabzon and reached a line 150-200 kilometers from the border.

On the Western Front in 1916, the German command launched an offensive operation, which later became known as the Battle of Verdun. In the area of ​​this fortress there was a powerful group of Entente troops, and the configuration of the front, which looked like a protrusion towards the German positions, led the German leadership to the idea of ​​encircling and destroying this group.

The German offensive, preceded by extremely intensive artillery preparation, began on February 21. At the very beginning of this offensive, the German army managed to advance 5-8 kilometers deep into the Allied positions, but the stubborn resistance of the Anglo-French troops, who inflicted significant losses on the Germans, did not allow them to achieve complete victory. It was soon stopped, and the Germans had to fight stubbornly to retain the territory that they managed to capture at the beginning of the battle. However, everything was in vain - in fact, from April 1916, the Battle of Verdun was lost by Germany, but it still continued until the end of the year. At the same time, German losses were approximately half that of the Anglo-French forces.

Another important event of 1916 was the entry into the war on the side of the Entente powers of Romania (August 17). The Romanian government, inspired by the defeat of the Austro-German troops during the Brusilov breakthrough of the Russian army, planned to increase the territory of the country at the expense of Austria-Hungary (Transylvania) and Bulgaria (Dobruja). However, the low fighting qualities of the Romanian army, the unfortunate configuration of the borders for Romania and the proximity of large Austro-German-Bulgarian forces did not allow these plans to come true. If at first the Romanian army managed to advance 5-10 km deep into Austrian territory, then, after the concentration of enemy armies, the Romanian forces were defeated, and by the end of the year the country was almost completely occupied.

Fighting in 1917

The results of the 1916 campaign had a major influence on the 1917 campaign. Thus, the “Verdun Meat Grinder” was not in vain for Germany, and the country entered 1917 with almost completely depleted human resources and a difficult food situation. It became clear that if the Central Powers failed to defeat their opponents in the near future, the war would end in defeat for them. At the same time, the Entente was planning a major offensive for 1917 with the goal of a speedy victory over Germany and its allies.

In turn, for the Entente countries, 1917 promised truly gigantic prospects: the exhaustion of the Central Powers and the seemingly inevitable entry of the United States into the war should have finally turned the situation in favor of the Allies. At the Petrograd Conference of the Entente, held from February 1 to 20, 1917, the situation at the front and action plans were actively discussed. However, the situation in Russia, which was getting worse every day, was also discussed unofficially.

In the end, on February 27, the revolutionary unrest in the Russian Empire reached its peak, and February Revolution. This event, along with the moral decay of the Russian army, practically deprived the Entente of an active ally. And although the Russian army still occupied its positions at the front, it became clear that it would no longer be able to advance.

At this time, Emperor Nicholas II abdicated the throne, and Russia ceased to be an empire. The new provisional government of the Russian Republic decided to continue the war without breaking the alliance with the Entente in order to bring the fighting to a victorious end and thereby still end up in the camp of the winners. The preparations for the offensive were carried out on a grand scale, and the offensive itself was supposed to be a “triumph of the Russian revolution.”

This offensive began on June 16, 1917 in the Southwestern Front, and in the first days of the Russian army there was success. However, then, due to catastrophically low discipline in the Russian army and due to high losses, the June offensive “stalled.” As a result, by the beginning of July, the Russian troops had exhausted their offensive impulse and were forced to go on the defensive.

The Central Powers were not slow to take advantage of the depletion of the Russian army. Already on July 6, the Austro-German counteroffensive began, which in a matter of days managed to return the territories abandoned since June 1917, and then advance deeper into Russian territory. The Russian retreat, at first carried out in a fairly organized manner, soon became catastrophic. Divisions scattered at the sight of the enemy, troops retreated without orders. In such a situation, it became increasingly clear that there could be no talk of any active actions on the part of the Russian army.

After these failures, Russian troops went on the offensive in other directions. However, both on the North-Western and Western fronts, due to complete moral decay, they simply could not achieve any significant success. The offensive initially developed most successfully in Romania, where Russian troops showed virtually no signs of disintegration. However, against the backdrop of failures on other fronts, the Russian command soon stopped the offensive here too.

After this, until the very end of the war on the Eastern Front, the Russian army no longer made serious attempts to attack or even resist the forces of the Central Powers. The October Revolution and the fierce struggle for power only worsened the situation. However, the German army could no longer conduct active combat operations on the Eastern Front. There were only isolated local operations to occupy individual settlements.

In April 1917, the United States of America joined the war against Germany. Their entry into the war was due to closer interests with the Entente countries, as well as aggressive submarine warfare on the part of Germany, which resulted in the deaths of American citizens. The entry of the United States into the war finally changed the balance of forces in the First World War in favor of the Entente countries and made its victory inevitable.

In the Middle East theater of operations, the British army launched a decisive offensive against the Ottoman Empire. As a result of this, almost all of Palestine and Mesopotamia was cleared of the Turks. At the same time, an uprising was launched on the Arabian Peninsula against the Ottoman Empire with the goal of creating an independent Arab state. As a result of the 1917 campaign, the situation of the Ottoman Empire became truly critical, and its army was demoralized.

First World War - 1918

At the beginning of 1918, the German leadership, despite previously signing Soviet Russia truce, launched a local offensive in the direction of Petrograd. In the area of ​​Pskov and Narva, their path was blocked by detachments of the Red Guard, with whom military clashes took place on February 23-25, which later became known as the date of birth of the Red Army. However, despite the official Soviet version of the victory of the Red Guard troops over the Germans, the real outcome of the battles is debatable, since the Red troops were forced to retreat to Gatchina, which would have been meaningless in the event of a victory over the German troops.

The Soviet government, realizing the instability of the truce, was forced to sign a peace treaty with Germany. This agreement was signed in Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918. According to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states were transferred to German control, and the independence of Poland and Finland was recognized. Additionally, Kaiser Germany received a huge indemnity in resources and money, which essentially allowed it to prolong its agony until November 1918.

After signing Treaty of Brest-Litovsk the bulk of the German troops were transferred from the east to the Western Front, where the fate of the war was decided. However, the situation in the German-occupied areas of the former Russian Empire was turbulent, and therefore Germany was forced to keep about a million soldiers there until the end of the war.

On March 21, 1918, the German army launched its last large-scale offensive on the Western Front. His goal was to encircle and destroy the British troops located between the Somme and the English Channel, and then go behind the French troops, capture Paris and force France to surrender. However, from the very beginning of the operation it became clear that German troops would not be able to break through the front. By July they managed to advance 50-70 kilometers, but by this time, in addition to the French and British troops, large and fresh American forces began to operate at the front. This circumstance, as well as the fact that the German army was completely exhausted by mid-July, forced the German command to stop the operation.

In turn, the Allies, realizing that the German troops were extremely exhausted, launched a counter-offensive with virtually no operational pause. As a result, the Allied attacks were no less effective than the German ones, and after 3 weeks the German troops were thrown back to the same positions that they occupied by the beginning of 1918.

After this, the Entente command decided to continue the offensive with the goal of leading the German army to disaster. This offensive went down in history as the “hundred-day offensive” and ended only in November. During this operation, the German front was broken, and the German army had to begin a general retreat.

On the Italian front in October 1918, the Allies also launched an offensive against the Austro-German forces. As a result of stubborn battles, they managed to liberate almost all Italian territories occupied in 1917 and defeat the Austro-Hungarian and German armies.

In the Balkan theater of operations, the Allies launched a major offensive in September. A week later they managed to inflict a serious defeat on the Bulgarian army and begin advancing deeper into the Balkans. As a result of this crushing offensive, Bulgaria left the war on September 29. By early November, as a result of this operation, the Allies managed to liberate almost the entire territory of Serbia.

In the Middle East, the British Army also launched a major offensive operation in the fall of 1918. The Turkish army was completely demoralized and disorganized, thanks to which the Ottoman Empire already concluded a truce with the Entente on October 30, 1918. On November 3, after a series of failures in Italy and the Balkans, Austria-Hungary also capitulated.

As a result, by November 1918, the situation in Germany had become truly critical. Hunger, exhaustion of moral and material strength, as well as heavy losses at the front gradually escalated the situation in the country. Revolutionary ferment began among the naval crews. The reason for a full-fledged revolution was an order from the German command of the fleet, according to which it was to give a general battle to the British Navy. Given the existing balance of forces, the execution of this order threatened complete destruction to the German fleet, which became the reason for the revolutionary uprising among the sailors. The uprising began on November 4, and on November 9, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated the throne. Germany became a republic.

By that time, the Kaiser's government had begun peace negotiations with the Entente. Germany was exhausted and could no longer continue to resist. As a result of negotiations, a truce was signed on November 11, 1918 in the Compiègne Forest. With the signing of this truce, the First World War ended.

Losses of sides in the First World War

The First World War caused enormous damage to all the warring countries. The demographic echoes of this conflict are still felt today.

Military losses in the conflict are generally estimated at about 9-10 million people killed and about 18 million wounded. Civilian losses in the First World War are estimated at between 8 and 12 million people.

Entente losses total approximately 5-6 million people killed and about 10.5 million wounded. Of these, Russia lost about 1.6 million dead and 3.7 million wounded. French, British and US casualties in killed and wounded are estimated at 4.1, 2.4 and 0.3 million respectively. Such low losses in American army are explained by the relatively late time when the United States entered the war on the side of the Entente.

The losses of the Central Powers in the First World War are estimated at 4-5 million killed and 8 million wounded. Of these losses, Germany accounted for approximately 2 million killed and 4.2 million wounded. Austria-Hungary lost 1.5 and 26 million people killed and wounded, respectively, the Ottoman Empire - 800 thousand killed and 800 thousand wounded.

Results and consequences of the First World War

The First World War was the first global conflict in human history. Its scale became disproportionately larger than that of the Napoleonic Wars, as did the number of forces involved in the struggle. The war was the first conflict that showed the leaders of all countries a new type of war. From now on, complete mobilization of the army and economy became necessary to win the war. During the conflict, military theory underwent significant changes. It became clear that it was very difficult to break through a well-fortified defense line and that this would require enormous expenditures of ammunition and large losses.

The First World War revealed to the world new types and means of weapons, as well as the use of those means that had not previously been appreciated. Thus, the use of aviation increased significantly, tanks and chemical weapons appeared. At the same time, the First World War showed humanity how terrible war can be. For a long time, millions of wounded, maimed and maimed were a reminder of the horrors of war. It was with the aim of preventing such conflicts that the League of Nations was created - the first international community designed to preserve peace throughout the world.

Politically, the war also became a turning point in world history. As a result of the conflict, the map of Europe has become noticeably more colorful. Four empires disappeared: Russian, German, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian. States such as Poland, Finland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and others gained independence.

The balance of power in Europe and the world has also changed. Germany, Russia (soon reorganized along with parts of the former Russian Empire into the USSR) and Turkey lost their former influence, which shifted the center of gravity in Europe to the west. The Western powers, on the contrary, seriously strengthened themselves due to war reparations and colonies acquired at the expense of losing Germany.

When signing the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch declared: “This is not peace. This is a truce for 20 years." The peace conditions were very difficult and humiliating for Germany, which could not help but awaken strong revanchist sentiments in it. Further actions of France, Great Britain, Belgium and Poland (the seizure of the Saarland and part of Silesia from Germany, the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923) only intensified these grievances. It can be said that the Treaty of Versailles was one of the causes of World War II.

Thus, the point of view of a number of historians considering the years 1914-1945. as a period of one big global world war, is not unreasonable. The contradictions that the First World War was supposed to resolve only deepened, and therefore a new conflict was not far off...

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