The Eastern Front & Russia's Real Collapse (1917)

Military History: World War I

Chapter 8 · The Eastern Front & Russia's Real Collapse (1917)

The Eastern Front looked very different from the West. It was far longer, armies were spread more thinly, and it never settled into a single fixed trench line. Huge advances and retreats happened there that were impossible in France. This chapter follows the war between Russia and the Central Powers from its opening disaster to Russia's exit from the war in 1918.
Where the Politics Are Covered The revolutions of 1917 — the Tsar's fall, the Provisional Government, and the Bolshevik seizure of power — are covered in depth in Russian Political History I (Chapters 3–4). This chapter focuses on the military side: how the war broke the Russian army, and how Russia's collapse changed the war.

A Different Kind of Front

Space

The front stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, far longer than the Western Front, with fewer soldiers per kilometre. Breaking through was easier; supplying an advance was much harder.

Russia's Strengths and Weaknesses

Russia had enormous manpower but a weak industrial base and poor railways. By 1915 its army was short of rifles, shells, and trained officers.

Austria-Hungary's Problem

A multinational army with officers and soldiers who often didn't share a language, fighting on several fronts at once. It relied more and more on German help.

1914: Tannenberg

Responding to French pleas, Russia invaded German East Prussia in August 1914 faster than Germany had expected. Two Russian armies advanced, under Generals Paul von Rennenkampf and Alexander Samsonov, separated by a chain of lakes and forests. The alarmed Germans sent a new command team east: Paul von Hindenburg, a retired general, with Erich Ludendorff as his chief of staff.

26–30 August 1914

Using the railways, the Germans concentrated almost their whole force against Samsonov's army while leaving only a screen facing Rennenkampf. They were helped enormously by Russian radio messages sent without code, which told them where the Russian units were going. Samsonov's army was encircled and largely destroyed. Around 90,000 Russian soldiers were captured. Samsonov walked into the woods and shot himself.

A Name Chosen for Revenge The battle was fought nearer other villages, but Hindenburg named it Tannenberg after the place where the Teutonic Knights had been defeated by Polish and Lithuanian forces in 1410 — presenting it as historical revenge. It made Hindenburg and Ludendorff national heroes; by August 1916 they commanded the whole German army (Chapter 5). The plan owed much to a staff officer, Max Hoffmann, whose role was later overshadowed.

In September 1914 the Germans also drove Rennenkampf's army out of East Prussia at the Masurian Lakes. Further south, though, Russia beat the Austro-Hungarian army badly in Galicia, showing the weakness that would force Germany to keep propping up its ally.

1915: The Great Retreat

  • May 1915 A German-Austrian offensive at Gorlice–Tarnów, using a massive concentrated artillery bombardment, breaks through the Russian line.
  • Summer 1915 Russian armies, short of shells, fall back hundreds of kilometres, giving up Russian Poland and much of Lithuania. Millions of refugees flee east.
  • September 1915 Tsar Nicholas II takes personal command of the army — tying himself directly to every future defeat.

1916: The Brusilov Offensive

Russia's Greatest Success

In June 1916 General Aleksei Brusilov attacked the Austro-Hungarian armies along a very wide front instead of one narrow sector, so the enemy couldn't tell where the main blow would fall. His troops dug forward trenches close to the enemy, rehearsed their attacks, used a short, precise artillery bombardment, and sent small assault units at weak points. The Austro-Hungarian front collapsed: one Austrian army lost about 70% of its strength in four days.

Relief for the Allies

Germany had to send divisions east, helping the French at Verdun (Chapter 5) and drawing forces away during the Somme (Chapter 6).

Romania Joins

Encouraged, Romania joined the Allies in August 1916 — and was quickly overrun by German and Austro-Hungarian forces.

A Ruinous Victory

Total losses on all sides are estimated at 2–3 million, including over a million Russians. It crippled Austria-Hungary, but it also exhausted the Russian army.

A Preview of 1918 Brusilov's methods — surprise, short bombardments, and small assault groups finding weak points — were the same basic ideas that would later break the stalemate on the Western Front (Chapter 9).

1917: The Army Falls Apart

  • March 1917 Strikes and food riots in Petrograd; soldiers refuse to fire on the crowds. Tsar Nicholas II abdicates. A Provisional Government takes over and promises to keep fighting.
  • July 1917 The Kerensky Offensive, named after the war minister Alexander Kerensky, makes early gains, then collapses as whole units refuse to keep attacking and desertion soars.
  • September 1917 At Riga, the Germans use a short, accurate surprise bombardment and infiltrating assault troops to take the city quickly — a test run of methods used in France in 1918.
  • November 1917 The Bolsheviks, promising "peace, land, and bread," seize power and seek an armistice, agreed in December.
Why the Army Broke Years of defeat, huge losses (an estimated 1.7–2.25 million Russian military deaths), shortages, and distrust of officers had worn the army down. After the Tsar's fall, soldiers' committees challenged officers' authority. Most soldiers were peasants, and news that land might be shared out at home gave them a strong reason to stop fighting and go back to their villages.

1918: Brest-Litovsk

At the peace talks, the Bolshevik negotiator Leon Trotsky tried a policy of "neither war nor peace," refusing to sign but also refusing to fight, hoping revolution would spread to Germany. In February 1918 Germany simply resumed its advance, meeting almost no resistance. Lenin insisted the Bolsheviks accept whatever terms they could get.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 3 March 1918

Russia gave up Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and territory in the Caucasus. These lands held about a third of the old empire's population, more than half its industry, and about 90% of its coal mines.

Germany's Victory in the East Didn't Free Its Whole Army Russia's exit let Germany move many divisions to the Western Front for a final offensive in spring 1918 (Chapter 9). But Germany also kept a large force — often estimated at around a million men — in the east to occupy and exploit its new territory. The treaty was cancelled by the Armistice in November 1918, only eight months later.

Questions to Sit With

Why were large advances and retreats possible in the East but not in the West?
The Brusilov Offensive was Russia's greatest success, yet Russia collapsed the next year. How can a victory help cause a defeat?
Was Brest-Litovsk a real victory for Germany, if it still needed a large army to hold the territory it gained?

Quick Reference — Chapter 8

  • The Eastern Front was longer and more open than the Western; Russia had manpower but weak industry, and Austria-Hungary depended on German support
  • Tannenberg, 26–30 August 1914: uncoded Russian radio messages helped Hindenburg and Ludendorff encircle Samsonov's army; around 90,000 captured
  • 1915: the Gorlice–Tarnów breakthrough and the Great Retreat; the Tsar took personal command
  • 1916: the Brusilov Offensive shattered Austria-Hungary using surprise and wide-front attacks, at a cost of over a million Russian casualties
  • 1917: the Tsar abdicated (March); the Kerensky Offensive collapsed (July); Riga (September) previewed new German tactics; the Bolsheviks took power (November)
  • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 3 March 1918: Russia lost about a third of its population and most of its coal and industry; Germany moved many, but not all, of its eastern forces west

What's Next

Chapter 9: 1918: The Real German Spring Offensive & the Allied Hundred Days.