Russia in Revolution: 1914-24
B6: Russia in Revolution, 1914-1924
What impact did the First World War have on Russia?
The war was greeted with more celebrations than in any other country in Europe. The Russians were so keen to get at the Germans that they actually had armies advancing into Germany after only two weeks.
This took the Germans by surprise. The Germans had to move reinforcements from France to help their armies in the east.
But many Russian units were poorly prepared. They did not have enough rifles or ammunition and their equipment was out of date. Many officers had maps that were completely useless.
The two Russian generals, Samsonov and Rennenkampf did not work together. They actually competed with each other to be the first to defeat the Germans.
All radio contact was un-coded, as a result, the Germans were able to discover exactly where the Russian were and what they planned to do.
The Russian armies had suffered two massive defeats. At Tannenberg, 130,000 Russian soldiers were killed or seriously wounded and 100,000 were captured. At the Masurian Lakes there was a similar story.
Why did the Russian armies do so badly?
Industry could not supply enough weapons and the railway network could not get supplies moved.
Many new recruits had little training and were told to pick up rifles from men who had been killed as they advanced.
Britain and France sent supplies to the port of Archangel in northern Russia, but there was only a single track railway line from there to St Petersburg. Many of the supplies never got through.
The wounded were left lying in fields or in railway stations because there was nobody to look after them and no medical supplies to treat their wounds.
St Petersburg was renamed Petrograd in 1914 and here more and more people had crowded in to find work in the munitions factories.
By early 1917 food prices had risen 300 percent since the beginning of the war.
The most important change took place in August 1915,
What impact did the First World War have on Russia?
The war was greeted with more celebrations than in any other country in Europe. The Russians were so keen to get at the Germans that they actually had armies advancing into Germany after only two weeks.
This took the Germans by surprise. The Germans had to move reinforcements from France to help their armies in the east.
But many Russian units were poorly prepared. They did not have enough rifles or ammunition and their equipment was out of date. Many officers had maps that were completely useless.
The two Russian generals, Samsonov and Rennenkampf did not work together. They actually competed with each other to be the first to defeat the Germans.
All radio contact was un-coded, as a result, the Germans were able to discover exactly where the Russian were and what they planned to do.
The Russian armies had suffered two massive defeats. At Tannenberg, 130,000 Russian soldiers were killed or seriously wounded and 100,000 were captured. At the Masurian Lakes there was a similar story.
Why did the Russian armies do so badly?
Industry could not supply enough weapons and the railway network could not get supplies moved.
Many new recruits had little training and were told to pick up rifles from men who had been killed as they advanced.
Britain and France sent supplies to the port of Archangel in northern Russia, but there was only a single track railway line from there to St Petersburg. Many of the supplies never got through.
The wounded were left lying in fields or in railway stations because there was nobody to look after them and no medical supplies to treat their wounds.
St Petersburg was renamed Petrograd in 1914 and here more and more people had crowded in to find work in the munitions factories.
By early 1917 food prices had risen 300 percent since the beginning of the war.
The most important change took place in August 1915,