The search for the causes of the war leads to 1871, when the process of unification of Germany was completed and the hegemony of Prussia was consolidated in the German Empire. Under Chancellor O. von Bismarck, who sought to revive the system of alliances, the foreign policy of the German government was determined by the desire to achieve Germany's dominant position in Europe. To deprive France of the opportunity to avenge the defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, Bismarck tried to link Russia and Austria-Hungary with Germany by secret agreements (1873). However, Russia came out in support of France, and the Union of the Three Emperors fell apart. In 1882, Bismarck strengthened Germany's positions by creating the Tripartite Alliance, which united Austria-Hungary, Italy and Germany. By 1890, Germany came to the fore in European diplomacy.

France emerged from diplomatic isolation in 1891-1893. Taking advantage of the cooling of relations between Russia and Germany, as well as Russia's need for new capital, she concluded a military convention and an alliance treaty with Russia. The Russian-French alliance was supposed to serve as a counterbalance to the Triple Alliance. Great Britain has so far stood aside from rivalry on the continent, but the pressure of political and economic circumstances eventually forced her to make her choice. The British could not help but be disturbed by the nationalist sentiments that prevailed in Germany, its aggressive colonial policy, rapid industrial expansion and, mainly, the buildup of the power of the navy. A series of relatively quick diplomatic maneuvers led to the elimination of differences in the positions of France and Great Britain and the conclusion in 1904 of the so-called. "cordial consent" (Entente Cordiale). Obstacles to Anglo-Russian cooperation were overcome, and in 1907 an Anglo-Russian agreement was concluded. Russia became a member of the Entente. Great Britain, France and Russia formed an alliance Triple Entente (Triple Entente) as opposed to the Triple Alliance. Thus, the division of Europe into two armed camps took shape.

One of the causes of the war was the widespread strengthening of nationalist sentiments. Formulating their interests, the ruling circles of each European countries sought to present them as popular aspirations. France hatched plans for the return of the lost territories of Alsace and Lorraine. Italy, even being in alliance with Austria-Hungary, dreamed of returning their lands to Trentino, Trieste and Fiume. The Poles saw in the war an opportunity to recreate the state destroyed by the divisions of the 18th century. Many peoples who inhabited Austria-Hungary aspired to national independence. Russia was convinced that it could not develop without limiting German competition, protecting the Slavs from Austria-Hungary and expanding influence in the Balkans. In Berlin, the future was associated with the defeat of France and Great Britain and the unification of the countries of Central Europe under the leadership of Germany. In London, it was believed that the people of Great Britain would live in peace, only by crushing the main enemy - Germany.

Tension in international relations was intensified by a series of diplomatic crises - the Franco-German clash in Morocco in 1905-1906; the Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908–1909; finally, the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. Great Britain and France supported Italy's interests in North Africa and thereby weakened her commitment to the Triple Alliance so much that Germany could hardly count on Italy as an ally in a future war.

July crisis and the beginning of the war

After the Balkan Wars, active nationalist propaganda was launched against the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. A group of Serbs, members of the conspiratorial organization "Young Bosnia", decided to kill the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The opportunity for this presented itself when he and his wife went to Bosnia for the teachings of the Austro-Hungarian troops. Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in the city of Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914.

Intending to start a war against Serbia, Austria-Hungary enlisted the support of Germany. The latter believed that the war would take on a local character if Russia did not defend Serbia. But if she helps Serbia, then Germany will be ready to fulfill its treaty obligations and support Austria-Hungary. In an ultimatum presented to Serbia on July 23, Austria-Hungary demanded that its military formations be allowed into Serbian territory in order to prevent hostile actions together with Serbian forces. The answer to the ultimatum was given within the agreed 48-hour period, but it did not satisfy Austria-Hungary, and on July 28 it declared war on Serbia. S. D. Sazonov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, openly spoke out against Austria-Hungary, having received assurances of support from the French President R. Poincaré. On July 30, Russia announced a general mobilization; Germany used this occasion to declare war on Russia on August 1, and on France on August 3. Britain's position remained uncertain due to its treaty obligations to protect Belgium's neutrality. In 1839, and then during the Franco-Prussian War, Great Britain, Prussia and France provided this country with collective guarantees of neutrality. After the Germans invaded Belgium on August 4, Great Britain declared war on Germany. Now all the great powers of Europe were drawn into the war. Together with them, their dominions and colonies were involved in the war.

The war can be divided into three periods. During the first period (1914–1916), the Central Powers achieved superiority on land, while the Allies dominated the sea. The situation seemed to be a stalemate. This period ended with negotiations on a mutually acceptable peace, but each side still hoped for victory. In the next period (1917), two events occurred that led to an imbalance of power: the first was the entry into the war of the United States on the side of the Entente, the second was the revolution in Russia and its exit from the war. The third period (1918) began with the last major advance of the Central Powers in the west. The failure of this offensive was followed by revolutions in Austria-Hungary and Germany and the surrender of the Central Powers.

First period

Allied forces initially included Russia, France, Great Britain, Serbia, Montenegro and Belgium and enjoyed overwhelming naval superiority. The Entente had 316 cruisers, while the Germans and Austrians had 62. But the latter found a powerful countermeasure - submarines. By the beginning of the war, the armies of the Central Powers numbered 6.1 million people; Entente army - 10.1 million people. The Central Powers had an advantage in internal communications, which allowed them to quickly transfer troops and equipment from one front to another. In the long run, the Entente countries had superior resources of raw materials and food, especially since the British fleet paralyzed Germany's ties with overseas countries, from where before the war German enterprises received copper, tin and nickel. Thus, in the event of a protracted war, the Entente could count on victory. Germany, knowing this, relied on a lightning war - "blitzkrieg".

The Germans put into action the Schlieffen plan, which was supposed to ensure a rapid success in the West with a large offensive against France through Belgium. After the defeat of France, Germany hoped, together with Austria-Hungary, by transferring the liberated troops, to strike a decisive blow in the East. But this plan was not carried out. One of the main reasons for his failure was the sending of part of the German divisions to Lorraine in order to block the enemy's invasion of southern Germany. On the night of August 4, the Germans invaded Belgian territory. It took them several days to break the resistance of the defenders of the fortified areas of Namur and Liège, which blocked the path to Brussels, but thanks to this delay, the British transported almost 90,000 expeditionary force across the English Channel to France (August 9-17). The French, on the other hand, gained time to form 5 armies that held back the German advance. Nevertheless, on August 20, the German army occupied Brussels, then forced the British to leave Mons (August 23), and on September 3, the army of General A. von Kluk was 40 km from Paris. Continuing the offensive, the Germans crossed the Marne River and on September 5 stopped along the Paris-Verdun line. The commander of the French forces, General J. Joffre, having formed two new armies from the reserves, decided to go on the counteroffensive.

The first battle on the Marne began on 5 and ended on 12 September. It was attended by 6 Anglo-French and 5 German armies. The Germans were defeated. One of the reasons for their defeat was the absence of several divisions on the right flank, which had to be transferred to the eastern front. The French advance on the weakened right flank made it inevitable that the German armies would retreat northward to the line of the Aisne River. The battles in Flanders on the rivers Yser and Ypres on October 15 - November 20 were also unsuccessful for the Germans. As a result, the main ports on the English Channel remained in the hands of the Allies, which ensured communication between France and England. Paris was saved and the Entente countries got time to mobilize resources. The war in the west took on a positional character; Germany's hopes of defeating and withdrawing France from the war turned out to be untenable.

The opposition followed a line running south from Newport and Ypres in Belgium to Compiègne and Soissons, east around Verdun and south to the salient near Saint-Miyel, and then southeast to the Swiss frontier. Along this line of trenches and barbed wire, approx. 970 km trench war was fought for four years. Until March 1918, any, even minor changes in the front line were achieved at the cost of huge losses on both sides.

Hopes remained that on the Eastern Front the Russians would be able to crush the armies of the Central Powers bloc. On August 17, Russian troops entered East Prussia and began to push the Germans to Koenigsberg. The German generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff were entrusted with directing the counteroffensive. Taking advantage of the mistakes of the Russian command, the Germans managed to drive a "wedge" between the two Russian armies, defeat them on August 26-30 near Tannenberg and force them out of East Prussia. Austria-Hungary did not act so successfully, abandoning the intention to quickly defeat Serbia and concentrating large forces between the Vistula and the Dniester. But the Russians launched an offensive in a southerly direction, broke through the defenses of the Austro-Hungarian troops and, having captured several thousand people, occupied the Austrian province of Galicia and part of Poland. The advance of the Russian troops posed a threat to Silesia and Poznan, important industrial regions for Germany. Germany was forced to transfer additional forces from France. But an acute shortage of ammunition and food stopped the advance of the Russian troops. The offensive cost Russia huge losses, but undermined the power of Austria-Hungary and forced Germany to keep significant forces on the Eastern Front.

As early as August 1914, Japan declared war on Germany. In October 1914, Turkey entered the war on the side of the bloc of the Central Powers. With the outbreak of war, Italy, a member of the Triple Alliance, declared its neutrality on the grounds that neither Germany nor Austria-Hungary had been attacked. But at the secret London talks in March-May 1915, the Entente countries promised to satisfy the territorial claims of Italy in the course of the post-war peace settlement if Italy came out on their side. On May 23, 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, and on August 28, 1916, on Germany.

On the western front, the British were defeated in the second battle of Ypres. Here, during the battles that lasted for a month (April 22 - May 25, 1915), chemical weapons were used for the first time. After that, poison gases (chlorine, phosgene, and later mustard gas) began to be used by both warring parties. The large-scale Dardanelles landing operation, a naval expedition that the Entente countries equipped in early 1915 with the aim of taking Constantinople, opening the Dardanelles and Bosporus for communication with Russia through the Black Sea, withdrawing Turkey from the war and attracting the Balkan states to the side of the allies, also ended in defeat. On the Eastern Front, towards the end of 1915, German and Austro-Hungarian troops ousted the Russians from almost all of Galicia and from most of the territory of Russian Poland. But it was not possible to force Russia to a separate peace. In October 1915, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia, after which the Central Powers, together with a new Balkan ally, crossed the borders of Serbia, Montenegro and Albania. Having captured Romania and covered the Balkan flank, they turned against Italy.

War at sea.

Control of the sea allowed the British to freely move troops and equipment from all parts of their empire to France. They kept sea lanes open for US merchant ships. The German colonies were captured, and the trade of the Germans through the sea routes was suppressed. In general, the German fleet - except for the submarine - was blocked in their ports. Only occasionally did small fleets come out to attack British seaside towns and attack Allied merchant ships. During the entire war, there was only one major naval battle - when the German fleet entered the North Sea and unexpectedly met with the British near the Danish coast of Jutland. The battle of Jutland May 31 - June 1, 1916 led to heavy losses on both sides: the British lost 14 ships, approx. 6,800 killed, captured and wounded; Germans who considered themselves winners - 11 ships and approx. 3100 people killed and wounded. Nevertheless, the British forced the German fleet to withdraw to Kiel, where it was effectively blockaded. The German fleet no longer appeared on the high seas, and Great Britain remained the mistress of the seas.

Having occupied a dominant position at sea, the Allies gradually cut off the Central Powers from overseas sources of raw materials and food. According to international law, neutral countries, such as the United States, could sell goods that were not considered "military contraband" to other neutral countries - the Netherlands or Denmark, from where these goods could be delivered to Germany. However, the warring countries usually did not bind themselves to the observance of international law, and Great Britain so expanded the list of goods considered contraband that in fact nothing passed through its barriers in the North Sea.

The naval blockade forced Germany to resort to drastic measures. Its only effective means at sea remained the submarine fleet, capable of freely bypassing surface barriers and sinking merchant ships of neutral countries that supplied the allies. It was the turn of the Entente countries to accuse the Germans of violating international law, which obliged them to save the crews and passengers of torpedoed ships.

On February 18, 1915, the German government declared the waters around the British Isles a military zone and warned of the danger of ships from neutral countries entering them. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine torpedoed and sank the ocean-going steamer Lusitania with hundreds of passengers on board, including 115 US citizens. President Wilson protested, the US and Germany exchanged sharp diplomatic notes.

Verdun and the Somme

Germany was ready to make some concessions at sea and seek a way out of the deadlock in action on land. In April 1916, British troops had already suffered a serious defeat at Kut-el-Amar in Mesopotamia, where 13,000 people surrendered to the Turks. On the continent, Germany was preparing for a large-scale offensive operation on the Western Front, which was supposed to turn the tide of the war and force France to ask for peace. The key point of the French defense was the ancient fortress of Verdun. After an artillery bombardment of unprecedented power, 12 German divisions went on the offensive on February 21, 1916. The Germans slowly advanced until the beginning of July, but they did not achieve their intended goals. The Verdun "meat grinder" clearly did not justify the calculations of the German command. Operations on the Eastern and Southwestern Fronts were of great importance during the spring and summer of 1916. In March, at the request of the Allies, Russian troops carried out an operation near Lake Naroch, which significantly influenced the course of hostilities in France. The German command was forced to stop attacks on Verdun for a while and, holding 0.5 million people on the Eastern Front, transfer an additional part of the reserves here. At the end of May 1916, the Russian High Command launched an offensive on the Southwestern Front. During the fighting under the command of A.A. Brusilov, it was possible to carry out a breakthrough of the Austro-German troops to a depth of 80–120 km. Brusilov's troops occupied part of Galicia and Bukovina, entered the Carpathians. For the first time in the entire previous period of trench warfare, the front was broken through. If this offensive had been supported by other fronts, it would have ended in disaster for the Central Powers. To relieve pressure on Verdun, on July 1, 1916, the Allies launched a counterattack on the Somme River, near Bapaume. For four months - until November - there were incessant attacks. Anglo-French troops, having lost approx. 800 thousand people were never able to break through the German front. Finally, in December, the German command decided to stop the offensive, which cost the lives of 300,000 German soldiers. The 1916 campaign claimed more than 1 million lives, but did not bring tangible results to either side.

Basis for Peace Negotiations

At the beginning of the 20th century completely changed the way of warfare. The length of the fronts increased significantly, the armies fought on fortified lines and attacked from the trenches, machine guns and artillery began to play a huge role in offensive battles. New types of weapons were used: tanks, fighters and bombers, submarines, asphyxiating gases, hand grenades. Every tenth inhabitant of the warring country was mobilized, and 10% of the population was engaged in supplying the army. In the warring countries, there was almost no room for ordinary civilian life: everything was subordinated to the titanic efforts aimed at maintaining the military machine. The total cost of the war, including property losses, according to various estimates, ranged from 208 to 359 billion dollars. By the end of 1916, both sides were tired of the war, and it seemed that the right moment had come to start peace negotiations.

Second period

On December 12, 1916, the Central Powers asked the United States to send a note to the Allies with a proposal to start peace negotiations. The Entente rejected this proposal, suspecting that it was made to break up the coalition. In addition, she did not want to talk about a world that would not provide for the payment of reparations and the recognition of the right of nations to self-determination. President Wilson decided to initiate peace negotiations and December 18, 1916 turned to the warring countries with a request to determine mutually acceptable peace terms.

As early as December 12, 1916, Germany proposed to convene a peace conference. The civil authorities of Germany were clearly striving for peace, but they were opposed by the generals, especially General Ludendorff, who was confident of victory. The Allies specified their terms: the restoration of Belgium, Serbia and Montenegro; withdrawal of troops from France, Russia and Romania; reparations; the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France; liberation of subject peoples, including Italians, Poles, Czechs, elimination of the Turkish presence in Europe.

The Allies did not trust Germany and therefore did not take seriously the idea of ​​peace negotiations. Germany intended to take part in a peace conference in December 1916, relying on the benefits of her martial law. The case ended with the Allies signing secret agreements designed to defeat the Central Powers. Under these agreements, Great Britain laid claim to the German colonies and part of Persia; France was to receive Alsace and Lorraine, as well as establish control on the left bank of the Rhine; Russia acquired Constantinople; Italy - Trieste, Austrian Tyrol, most of Albania; Turkey's possessions were to be divided among all the allies.

US entry into the war

At the beginning of the war, public opinion in the United States was divided: some openly sided with the Allies; others, such as the Irish-Americans, who were hostile to England, and the German-Americans, supported Germany. Over time, government officials and ordinary citizens leaned more and more on the side of the Entente. This was facilitated by several factors, and above all the propaganda of the Entente countries and the German submarine war.

On January 22, 1917, President Wilson presented in the Senate terms of peace acceptable to the United States. The main one was reduced to the demand for "peace without victory", i.e. without annexations and indemnities; others included the principles of the equality of peoples, the right of nations to self-determination and representation, freedom of the seas and trade, the reduction of armaments, the rejection of the system of rival alliances. If peace is made on the basis of these principles, Wilson argued, then a world organization of states can be created that guarantees security for all peoples. On January 31, 1917, the German government announced the resumption of unlimited submarine warfare in order to disrupt enemy communications. Submarines blocked the supply lines of the Entente and put the allies in an extremely difficult position. There was growing hostility towards Germany among Americans, as the blockade of Europe from the west boded ill for the United States. In the event of a victory, Germany could establish control over the entire Atlantic Ocean.

Along with the noted circumstances, other motives also pushed the United States to the war on the side of the allies. The economic interests of the United States were directly connected with the countries of the Entente, since military orders led to the rapid growth of American industry. In 1916, the warlike spirit was spurred on by plans to develop combat training programs. The anti-German sentiments of the North Americans increased even more after the publication on March 1, 1917 of Zimmermann's secret dispatch of January 16, 1917, which was intercepted by British intelligence and handed over to Wilson. German Foreign Minister A. Zimmerman offered Mexico the states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona if it would support Germany's actions in response to the US entry into the war on the side of the Entente. By the beginning of April, anti-German sentiment in the United States reached such a pitch that on April 6, 1917, Congress voted to declare war on Germany.

Russia's exit from the war

In February 1917, a revolution took place in Russia. Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate. The provisional government (March - November 1917) could no longer conduct active military operations on the fronts, since the population was extremely tired of the war. On December 15, 1917, the Bolsheviks, who took power in November 1917, signed an armistice agreement with the Central Powers at the cost of huge concessions. Three months later, on March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. Russia gave up its rights to Poland, Estonia, Ukraine, part of Belarus, Latvia, Transcaucasia and Finland. Ardagan, Kars and Batum went to Turkey; huge concessions were made to Germany and Austria. In total, Russia lost approx. 1 million sq. km. She was also obliged to pay Germany an indemnity in the amount of 6 billion marks.

Third period

The Germans had good reason to be optimistic. German leadership used the weakening of Russia, and then her exit from the war to replenish resources. Now it could transfer the eastern army to the west and concentrate troops on the main directions of the offensive. The allies, not knowing where the blow would come from, were forced to strengthen their positions along the entire front. American help was late. In France and Great Britain, defeatism grew with threatening force. On October 24, 1917, Austro-Hungarian troops broke through the Italian front near Caporetto and defeated the Italian army.

German offensive 1918

On a foggy morning on March 21, 1918, the Germans launched a massive attack on the British positions near Saint-Quentin. The British were forced to retreat almost to Amiens, and its loss threatened to break the united Anglo-French front. The fate of Calais and Boulogne hung in the balance.

On May 27, the Germans launched a powerful offensive against the French in the south, pushing them back to Château-Thierry. The situation of 1914 was repeated: the Germans reached the Marne River, just 60 km from Paris.

However, the offensive cost Germany heavy losses - both human and material. German troops were exhausted, their supply system was shattered. The Allies were able to neutralize the German submarines by creating convoy and anti-submarine defense systems. At the same time, the blockade of the Central Powers was carried out so effectively that food shortages began to be felt in Austria and Germany.

Soon long-awaited American aid began to arrive in France. The ports from Bordeaux to Brest were filled with American troops. By the beginning of the summer of 1918, about 1 million American soldiers had landed in France.

On July 15, 1918, the Germans made their last attempt to break through at Château-Thierry. A second decisive battle unfolded on the Marne. In the event of a breakthrough, the French would have to leave Reims, which, in turn, could lead to the retreat of the allies along the entire front. In the first hours of the offensive, the German troops advanced, but not as fast as expected.

Last Allied offensive

On July 18, 1918, a counterattack by American and French troops began to relieve pressure on Château-Thierry. At first they advanced with difficulty, but on August 2 they took Soissons. In the battle of Amiens on August 8, the German troops suffered a heavy defeat, and this undermined their morale. Earlier, German Chancellor Prince von Gertling believed that the Allies would sue for peace by September. “We hoped to take Paris by the end of July,” he recalled. “So we thought on the fifteenth of July. And on the eighteenth, even the most optimistic among us realized that all was lost. Some military men convinced Kaiser Wilhelm II that the war was lost, but Ludendorff refused to admit defeat.

The Allied advance began on other fronts as well. On June 20-26, the Austro-Hungarian troops were driven back across the Piave River, their losses amounted to 150 thousand people. Ethnic unrest flared up in Austria-Hungary - not without the influence of the Allies, who encouraged the defection of Poles, Czechs and South Slavs. The Central Powers mustered the last of their forces to contain the expected invasion of Hungary. The way to Germany was open.

Tanks and massive artillery shelling became important factors in the offensive. In early August 1918, attacks on key German positions intensified. In their Memoirs Ludendorff called August 8 - the beginning of the battle of Amiens - "a black day for the German army." The German front was torn apart: entire divisions surrendered almost without a fight. By the end of September, even Ludendorff was ready to surrender. After the September offensive of the Entente on the Solonik front, Bulgaria signed a truce on September 29. A month later, Turkey capitulated, and on November 3, Austria-Hungary.

To negotiate peace in Germany, a moderate government was formed, headed by Prince Max of Baden, who already on October 5, 1918, invited President Wilson to begin the negotiation process. In the last week of October, the Italian army launched a general offensive against Austria-Hungary. By October 30, the resistance of the Austrian troops was broken. The Italian cavalry and armored vehicles made a swift raid behind enemy lines and captured the Austrian headquarters in Vittorio Veneto, the city that gave the battle its name. On October 27, Emperor Charles I issued an appeal for a truce, and on October 29, 1918, he agreed to a peace on any terms.

Revolution in Germany

On October 29, the Kaiser secretly left Berlin and headed for the General Staff, feeling safe only under the protection of the army. On the same day, in the port of Kiel, a team of two warships broke out of obedience and refused to go to sea on a combat mission. By November 4, Kiel came under the control of the rebellious sailors. 40,000 armed men intended to establish councils of soldiers' and sailors' deputies on the Russian model in northern Germany. By November 6, the rebels took power in Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen. Meanwhile, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Foch, announced that he was ready to receive representatives of the German government and discuss with them the terms of a truce. The Kaiser was informed that the army was no longer under his command. On November 9, he abdicated and a republic was proclaimed. The next day, the German emperor fled to the Netherlands, where he lived in exile until his death (d. 1941).

On November 11, at the Retonde station in the Compiègne forest (France), the German delegation signed the Compiègne truce. The Germans were ordered to liberate the occupied territories within two weeks, including Alsace and Lorraine, the left bank of the Rhine and the bridgeheads in Mainz, Koblenz and Cologne; establish a neutral zone on the right bank of the Rhine; transfer to the allies 5,000 heavy and field guns, 25,000 machine guns, 1,700 aircraft, 5,000 steam locomotives, 150,000 railway wagons, 5,000 vehicles; immediately release all prisoners. The naval forces were to surrender all submarines and almost the entire surface fleet and return all Allied merchant ships captured by Germany. The political provisions of the treaty provided for the denunciation of the Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest peace treaties; financial - the payment of reparations for the destruction and the return of values. The Germans tried to conclude a truce on the basis of Wilson's Fourteen Points, which they believed could serve as a provisional basis for a "peace without victory." The terms of the armistice demanded almost unconditional surrender. The Allies dictated their terms to a bloodless Germany.

Making peace

A peace conference was held in 1919 in Paris; during the sessions, agreements on five peace treaties were determined. After its completion, the following were signed: 1) the Treaty of Versailles with Germany on June 28, 1919; 2) Saint-Germain peace treaty with Austria on September 10, 1919; 3) Neuilly peace treaty with Bulgaria November 27, 1919; 4) Trianon peace treaty with Hungary on June 4, 1920; 5) Sevres peace treaty with Turkey on August 20, 1920. Subsequently, according to the Lausanne Treaty on July 24, 1923, amendments were made to the Sevres Treaty.

At the peace conference in Paris, 32 states were represented. Each delegation had its own staff of specialists who provided information on the geographical, historical and economic situation of those countries on which decisions were made. After Orlando left the internal council, dissatisfied with the solution of the problem of territories in the Adriatic, the “big three” - Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George - became the main architect of the post-war world.

Wilson compromised on several important points in order to achieve the main goal - the creation of the League of Nations. He agreed with the disarmament of only the Central Powers, although he initially insisted on general disarmament. population german army was limited and was supposed to be no more than 115,000 people; universal military service was abolished; the German armed forces were to be recruited from volunteers with a service life of 12 years for soldiers and up to 45 years for officers. Germany was forbidden to have combat aircraft and submarines. Similar conditions were contained in the peace treaties signed with Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Between Clemenceau and Wilson unfolded a fierce discussion on the status of the left bank of the Rhine. The French, for security reasons, intended to annex the area with its powerful coal mines and industry and create an autonomous Rhineland. France's plan ran counter to the proposals of Wilson, who opposed annexations and advocated the self-determination of nations. A compromise was reached after Wilson agreed to sign free military treaties with France and Great Britain, under which the United States and Great Britain pledged to support France in the event of a German attack. The following decision was made: the left bank of the Rhine and the 50-kilometer strip on the right bank are demilitarized, but remain part of Germany and under its sovereignty. The Allies occupied a number of points in this zone for a period of 15 years. Coal deposits, known as the Saar basin, also passed into the possession of France for 15 years; the Saarland itself came under the control of the Commission of the League of Nations. After a 15-year period, it was planned to hold a plebiscite on the issue of the state ownership of this territory. Italy got Trentino, Trieste and most of Istria, but not the island of Fiume. Nevertheless, Italian extremists captured Fiume. Italy and the newly created state of Yugoslavia were given the right to decide for themselves the issue of disputed territories. Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany lost its colonial possessions. Great Britain acquired German East Africa and the western part of German Cameroon and Togo, the British dominions - the Union of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand - were transferred South-West Africa, the north-eastern regions of New Guinea with the adjacent archipelago and the Samoa Islands. France got most of the German Togo and the eastern part of Cameroon. Japan received the German-owned Marshall, Mariana and Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the port of Qingdao in China. Secret treaties among the victorious powers also assumed the division of the Ottoman Empire, but after the uprising of the Turks, led by Mustafa Kemal, the allies agreed to revise their demands. The new Treaty of Lausanne canceled the Treaty of Sevres and allowed Turkey to retain Eastern Thrace. Turkey took back Armenia. Syria passed to France; Great Britain received Mesopotamia, Transjordan and Palestine; the Dodecanese islands in the Aegean were ceded to Italy; the Arab territory of the Hijaz on the Red Sea coast was to gain independence.

Violations of the principle of self-determination of nations caused Wilson's disagreement, in particular, he sharply protested against the transfer of the Chinese port of Qingdao to Japan. Japan agreed to return this territory to China in the future and fulfilled its promise. Wilson's advisers suggested that, instead of actually handing over the colonies to new owners, they should be allowed to administer as Trustees of the League of Nations. Such territories were called "mandatory".

Although Lloyd George and Wilson opposed penalties for damages, the fight over the issue ended in victory for the French side. Reparations were imposed on Germany; there was also a lengthy discussion about what should be included in the list of damages presented for payment. At first, the exact amount did not appear, only in 1921 its size was determined - 152 billion marks (33 billion dollars); later this amount was reduced.

The principle of self-determination of nations has become a key one for many peoples represented at the peace conference. Poland was restored. The task of defining its boundaries proved to be difficult; of particular importance was the transfer to her of the so-called. "Polish corridor", which gave the country access to the Baltic Sea, separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany. New independent states arose in the Baltic region: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland.

By the time the conference was convened, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy had already ceased to exist, and Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Romania arose in its place; the borders between these states were disputed. The problem turned out to be difficult due to the mixed settlement of different peoples. When establishing the borders of the Czech state, the interests of the Slovaks were hurt. Romania doubled its territory with Transylvania, Bulgarian and Hungarian lands. Yugoslavia was created from the old kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro, parts of Bulgaria and Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Banat as part of Timisoara. Austria remained a small state with a population of 6.5 million Austrian Germans, a third of whom lived in impoverished Vienna. The population of Hungary has greatly decreased and is now approx. 8 million people.

At the Paris Conference, an exceptionally stubborn struggle was waged around the idea of ​​creating a League of Nations. According to the plans of Wilson, General J. Smuts, Lord R. Cecil and their other associates, the League of Nations was to become a guarantee of security for all peoples. Finally, the League's charter was adopted, and after lengthy debate, four working groups were formed: the Assembly, the Council of the League of Nations, the Secretariat and the Permanent Court of International Justice. The League of Nations established mechanisms that could be used by its member states to prevent war. Within its framework, various commissions were also formed to solve other problems.

The League of Nations Agreement represented that part of the Treaty of Versailles that Germany was also asked to sign. But the German delegation refused to sign it on the grounds that the agreement was not in line with Wilson's Fourteen Points. In the end, the German National Assembly recognized the treaty on June 23, 1919. The dramatic signing took place five days later at the Palace of Versailles, where in 1871 Bismarck, in ecstasy of victory in the Franco-Prussian War, proclaimed the creation of the German Empire.

APPENDIX

CHARTER OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

China - Lu Tseng Tuiang, Cuba - de Bustamente, Ecuador - Dorn y de Alzua, Greece - Venizelos, Guatemala - Mendez, Haiti - Gilbo, Gejas - Gaidar, Honduras - Bonilla, Liberia - King, Nicaragua - Shamorro, Panama - Burgos, Peru - Candamo, Poland - Paderevsky, Portugal - Da Costa, Romania - Bratiano, Yugoslavia - Pasic, Siam - Prince. Sharon, Czechoslovakia - Kramář, Uruguay - Buero, Germany, represented by Mr. Hermann Müller, Reich Minister, acting on behalf of the German Empire and on behalf of all the states constituting it, and each of them separately, which, having exchanged their powers recognized in in good and due form, have agreed in the following provisions: from the day the present treaty comes into force, the state of war shall end. From that moment on, and subject to the provisions of the present treaty, official relations of the Allied and Associated Powers with Germany and the various German States shall resume.

Part I. Treaty of the League of Nations

The High Contracting Parties, considering that in order to develop cooperation among nations and to ensure peace and security for them, it is necessary to accept certain obligations - not to resort to war, to maintain openness in international relations based on justice and honor, to strictly observe the prescriptions of international law, now recognized as the rule of the actual conduct of governments to establish the rule of justice and the zealous respect for all contractual obligations in the mutual relations of organized peoples, accept the present treaty establishing the League of Nations.

Art. 1. - The founding members of the League of Nations are those of the signatory states whose names appear in the annex to this treaty, as well as the states named in the annex, which accede to this treaty without any reservation by declaration made to the Secretariat within two months from the date of entry into force of the treaty, notification of which will be made by other members of the League.

Every State, Dominion, or Colony, freely administered and not mentioned in the Appendix, may be a Member of the League if two-thirds of the General Assembly votes for its admission, if they are given effective assurances of their sincere intention to comply with international obligations, and if it accepts the procedure established by League with regard to its forces and armaments, land, sea and air.

Each member of the League may, after a 2-year prior warning, withdraw from the League, provided that by that time all its international obligations, including the obligations of this agreement, have been fulfilled.

Art. 2. - The activities of the League, as defined in this treaty, are carried out through the Assembly and the Council, with the help of a permanent secretariat.

Art. 3. - The Assembly consists of representatives of the members of the League.

It shall meet at fixed dates and at any other time, if the circumstances so require, at the seat of the League or at any other place that may be appointed. The Assembly is in charge of all matters within the scope of the League or threatening the peace of the universe.

Each member of the League cannot have more than three representatives in the Assembly and has only one vote.

Art. 4 - The Council is composed of representatives of the major Allied and Associated Powers, as well as representatives of the four other members of the League. These four members of the League are freely appointed by the Assembly and for a term of its choice.

Before the first appointment by the Assembly, the members of the Council are representatives of Belgium, Brazil, Spain and Greece.

With the approval of the majority of the Assembly, the Council may also appoint other members of the League, whose representation shall henceforth be permanent in the Council. He may, with the same approval, increase the number of members of the League elected by the Assembly to represent the Council.

The Council meets when circumstances so require and at least once a year at the seat of the League or such other place as may be appointed.

The council is in charge of all matters within the scope of the league or threatening the peace of the universe.

Each member of the League not represented in the Council is invited to send his representative to the meeting when a question of special interest to him is brought up for discussion by the Council.

Each member of the League represented in the Council has only one vote and has only one representative.

Art. 5. - Except as expressly contrary to the provision of this treaty, subject to this treatise, the decisions of the Assembly or the Council shall be taken by the members of the League represented at the meeting, unanimously.

All questions concerning the procedure that arise in the Assembly or the Council, including the appointment of questionnaire commissions on private issues, are regulated by the Assembly or the Council and are decided by a majority of the members of the League represented at the meeting.

The first session of the Assembly and the first session of the Council are called by the President of the United States of America.

Art. 6. - A permanent secretariat is established at the seat of the League. It consists of the General Secretary, as well as secretaries and necessary staff.

The first General Secretary is listed in the appendix. Thereafter, the General Secretary will be appointed by the Council with the approval of a majority in the Assembly.

The secretaries and staff of the Secretariat are appointed by the General Secretary of the Assembly and the Council.

The expenses of the Secretariat shall be borne by the members of the League in the proportion established for the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union.

Art. 7. - The seat of the League is established in Geneva.

The Council may at any time decide to establish it in any other place.

All functions of the League or the services associated with it, including the Secretariat, are equally accessible to men and women.

Representatives of the members of the League and its agents shall, in the performance of their duties, enjoy diplomatic privileges and immunity.

Buildings and sites occupied by the League, its services or its meetings are inviolable.

Art. 8.--The members of the League recognize that the maintenance of peace requires the limitation of national armaments to the minimum compatible with national security and with the fulfillment of international obligations imposed by joint activities.

The Council, formed with the geographical position and special conditions of each state, prepares plans for this reduction in the form of discussion by various governments and their decisions.

These plans should be the subject of a new study and, if there is a reason for this, revision at least every 10 years.

The armament limit, as adopted by the various governments, cannot be exceeded without the consent of the Council.

Considering that the private fabrication of armaments and war material is seriously objectionable, the members of the League instruct the Council to take care to take the measures necessary to avoid undesirable consequences from this, taking into account the needs of the members of the League who cannot produce armaments and war material necessary for their security.

The Members of the League undertake to exchange, in the most frank and fullest manner, all information concerning the level of their armaments, their programs, military, sea and air, and the state of those branches of their industry that can be utilized for war.

Art. 9. - A standing commission will be formed to give its opinion to the Council on the implementation of the provisions of Articles 1 and 8, and in general on military, naval and air matters.

Art. 10. - Members of the League undertake to respect and protect against any external attack the territorial integrity and political independence in its present in the idea of ​​all members of the League.

In the event of an attack, threat or danger of attack, the Council shall have judgment on the measures to be taken to ensure the fulfillment of this obligation.

Art. 11 - It is deliberately declared that every war or threat of war, whether directly or not directly affecting one of the members of the League, interests the League as a whole, and that the latter must take measures that can really protect the peace of nations. In such case, the General Secretary shall immediately convene the Council, at the request of any member of the League.

In addition, it is declared that each member of the League has the right to draw the attention of the Assembly or the Council in a friendly manner to any circumstance capable of prejudicing international relations and threatening to have as a consequence a breach of the peace, or a good harmony among nations, on which the world depends.

Art. 12. - All members of the League agree that if a conflict arises between them that could lead to a break, then they will submit it either to arbitration procedure or to the consideration of the Council. They also agree that in no case should they resort to war before the expiration of 3 months after the decision of the arbitrators or the conclusion of the report of the Council.

In all cases provided for in this article, the decision of the arbitrators must be made within a reasonable time, and the report of the Council must be drawn up within 6 months from the day it took up the conflict.

Art. 13.--The Members of the League agree that if a conflict arises between them which, in their opinion, can be resolved by arbitration, and if this conflict cannot be satisfactorily settled by diplomatic means, then the matter will be fully arbitrated.

Disagreements concerning the interpretation of a treaty, on any point of international law, on the validity of any fact which, if it were established, would constitute a breach of an international obligation, or on the amount and nature of the reparation due for such a breach.

The arbitral tribunal for consideration of which the case is submitted is the court indicated by the parties or provided for by their previous agreements.

The members of the League undertake to carry out in good faith the decisions made and not to resort to war against any member of the League who conforms to them. If the decision is not implemented, the Council proposes measures to ensure its effectiveness.

Art. 14. - The Council is instructed to prepare a draft of a permanent chamber of international justice and present it to the members of the League. All conflicts of an international nature that the parties submit to it will be subject to the jurisdiction of this chamber. She will also give deliberative opinions on any disagreement or any question that the Council or Assembly brings to her.

Art. 15 - If a conflict arises between the members of the League that could lead to a rupture, and if this conflict is not subject to arbitration under Art. 13, then the members of the League agree to transfer it to the discussion of the Council.

For this, it is enough that one of them notifies the General Secretary of the conflict, who does everything necessary for the purposes of the questionnaire and a complete study (survey).

As soon as possible, the parties must communicate to him the statement of their case with all relevant facts and supporting documents. The Council may order their immediate publication.

The Council is trying to ensure the settlement of the conflict. If he succeeds, he publishes, insofar as he considers it useful, a report setting out the facts, the explanations connected with them, and the forms in which the conflict is settled.

If the disagreement could not be settled, then the Council draws up and publishes a report, adopted either unanimously or by a majority of votes, in order to acquaint with the circumstances of the conflict and with the solutions recommended by it, as the most just and suitable for the case.

Each member of the League represented on the Council may likewise publish statements of the facts of the conflict and its own conclusions.

If the report of the Council is adopted unanimously, apart from the vote of the representatives of the parties in determining this unanimity, then the members of the League undertake not to resort to war against any side consistent with the conclusion of the report.

In the event that the Council fails to effect the adoption of its report by all its members, except for representatives of the parties to the conflict, the members of the league retain the right to act as they deem necessary for the maintenance of law and justice.

If one of the parties makes a claim, and the Council accepts that the conflict concerns an issue which international law grants the exclusive competence of that party, the Council states it in the report without proposing any solution.

The Council may, in all cases provided for in this article, bring the conflict to the consideration of the Assembly. The assembly must also have a judgment on the conflict at the request of one of the parties; such petition must be submitted within 14 days of the date the dispute is brought before the Council.

In every case referred to the Assembly, the provisions of this article and Art. 12, concerning the activities and powers of the Council, apply equally to the activities and powers of the Assembly. It is recognized that a report adopted by the Assembly, with the approval of the representatives of the members of the League represented in the Council, and of the majority of the other members of the League, except, in each case, the representatives of the parties, has the same force as the report of the Council, adopted unanimously by its members, except for the representatives of the parties.

Art. 16.- If any member of the League resorts to war contrary to the obligations assumed in articles 12, 13 or 15, he is considered to be the very fact (ipso facto) who committed an act of war against all other members of the League. These latter undertake to immediately break off with him all relations, commercial or financial, to prohibit all communications between their own subjects and the subjects of the state that violates the contract, and to stop all communications, financial, commercial or personal, between the subjects of this state and the subjects of any other state, member or non-member League.

In this case, the Council should recommend to the various governments concerned the composition of the armed forces, military, naval and air, by which the members of the League would respectively participate in the armed forces appointed to ensure respect for the obligations of the League.

The Members of the League furthermore agree to give each other mutual support in the application of the economic and financial measures taken under this Article, in order to minimize the losses and inconveniences that may result therefrom. They likewise give mutual support to resist any special measure directed against one of them by a state that is in breach of the treaty. They shall take the necessary measures to facilitate the passage through their territory by the forces of every member of the League participating in general activities to ensure respect for the obligations of the League.

Every member found guilty of violating one of the obligations arising from the treaty may be expelled from the League. The exception is made by the vote of all other members of the League represented in the Council.

Art. 17.-- In the event of a conflict between two states, of which only one is a member of the League or one does not participate in it, this state or states alien to the League are invited to submit to the obligations imposed on its members for the purpose of settling the conflict on terms recognized by the Council as just . If this invitation is accepted, the provisions of Articles 12 to 16 shall apply, subject to modifications deemed necessary.

From the moment this invitation is sent, the Council opens a questionnaire on the circumstances of the conflict and proposes the measure that seems to it the best and most valid in this case.

If the invited state, refusing to accept the obligations of the members of the League in order to resolve the conflict, resorts to war against a member of the League, then the provisions of Article 16 apply to it.

If both parties, when invited, refuse to accept the obligations of a member of the League in order to resolve the conflict, then the Council may take all measures and make all proposals capable of preventing hostile actions and bringing the conflict to a solution.

Art. 18. - Every treaty, international obligation, concluded in the future by one of the members of the League, must be immediately registered by the Secretariat and published by it at the first opportunity. None of these treaties or international obligations will be binding until they are registered.

Art. 19.--The Assembly may, from time to time, invite the members of the League to proceed to reconsider treaties which have become inapplicable, as well as international provisions, the maintenance of which may endanger the peace of the universe.

Art. 20.--The Members of the League recognize, each insofar as it concerns him, that the present treaty revokes all inter se obligations and agreements inconsistent with its provisions, and solemnly undertake not to enter into such in the future.

If, prior to joining the League, one of the members assumed obligations inconsistent with the provisions of the treaty, then he must take urgent measures to free himself from these obligations.

Art. 21. - International obligations, arbitration treaties, and local agreements, such as the Monroe Doctrine, which provided for the maintenance of peace, are not considered inconsistent with any provisions of this treaty.

Art. 22.- The following principles apply to colonies and territories which, as a result of the war, have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the states which previously ruled them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet capable of governing themselves under particularly difficult conditions. modern world. The welfare and development of these peoples constitute the sacred mission of civilization, and therefore it is appropriate to include in this treaty guarantees to ensure the fulfillment of this mission.

The best way to ensure the practical implementation of this principle is to entrust the guardianship of these peoples to the advanced nations who, by virtue of their resources, their experience or their geographical position, are most equipped to bear this responsibility, and who are willing to assume it: they will exercise this responsibility in as mandate holders and on behalf of the League of Nations.

The nature of the mandate must vary according to the degree of development of the people, geographic location territory, its economic conditions and all other similar circumstances.

Certain areas which formerly belonged to the Ottoman Empire have reached such a stage of development that their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized, provided that the advice and assistance of the Mandatory direct their administration until they are able to govern themselves. The wishes of these areas should be taken into account before others in the selection of the mandate.

The level of development at which other peoples are found, especially in central Africa, requires that the mandate holder there take over the administration of the territory on conditions which, together with the intersection of abuses such as: slave trading, arms sales and alcohol, would guarantee freedom of conscience and religion , without any restrictions whatsoever, other than those imposed by the maintenance of public order and good morals and the prohibition of building fortifications or military or naval bases, and of giving military training to the natives, except for the purposes of the police and the defense of the territory, and which will provide, equal thus, for the other members of the League, conditions of equality in regard to exchange and trade.

Finally, there is a territory, for example, south-west Africa and some islands of the South Pacific Ocean, which, due to low population density, limited surface, remoteness from the centers of civilization, geographical contiguity with the territory of the mandate holder and other circumstances, could not be better managed, than under the laws of the mandate holder, as an indivisible part of its territory, subject to the guarantees provided above, in the interests of the native population.

In all cases, the mandate holder must submit to the Council an annual report on the territories assigned to him.

If the degree of power, control or administration to be exercised by the Mandatory has not been the subject of prior agreement between the members of the League, then these points will be determined by a special decree of the Council.

The Standing Commission will be tasked with accepting and examining the annual reports of the mandate holders and giving its opinion to the Council on all matters relating to the implementation of the mandates.

Art. 23.- Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of international conventions now in existence or to be concluded in the future, the members of the League:

(a) endeavor to establish and maintain conditions of work just and humane for men, women and children in their territory, as well as in all countries to which their relations, commercial and industrial, extend, in order to establish, for this purpose, the necessary international organizations.

b) undertake to ensure fair treatment of the native population in the territories subject to their administration;

c) entrust the League with the overall control of agreements concerning the traffic in women and children, the trade in opium and other harmful drugs;

d) entrust to the League the overall control of trade in arms and military supplies with those countries where control over this trade is necessary in the common interest;

e) take the necessary measures to guarantee and maintain freedom of transit communications, as well as a fair trade regime for all members of the League, bearing in mind that the special needs of those devastated during the war of 1914-1918. districts must be taken into account;

f) make efforts to adopt measures of an international order for the prevention and control of diseases.

Art. 24. - All international bureaus previously established by collective agreements will, subject to the consent of the parties, be placed under the authority of the League. All other international bureaus and all commissions for the regulation of affairs of international interest which are hereafter established will be placed under the authority of the League.

Art. 25.--The Members of the League undertake to encourage and encourage the establishment and co-operation of National Voluntary Red Cross Organizations, duly authorized and concerned with the improvement of health, preventive protection from disease, and the alleviation of suffering in the universe.

Art. 26 - The amendments to this treaty shall come into force upon their ratification by those members of the League whose representatives form the Council, and by a majority of those whose representatives form the Council, and by a majority of those whose representatives form the Assembly.

Each member of the League is free not to accept changes to the agreement, in which case he ceases to participate in the League.

Application

Founding members of the League of Nations who signed the peace treaty:

USA
Belgium
Bolivia
Brazil
british empire
Canada
Australia
South Africa
New Zealand
India
China
Cuba
ecuador
France
Greece
Guatemala
Haiti
Gejas
Honduras
Italy
Japan
Liberia
Nicaragua
Panama
Peru
Poland
Portugal
Romania
State of Serbo-Croat-Slovenian
Siam
Czechoslovakia
Uruguay

States invited to join the treaty:

Argentina
Chile
Colombia
Denmark
Spain
Norway
Paraguay
Netherlands
Persia
Salvador
Sweden
Switzerland
Venezuela

II. First General Secretary of the League of Nations - the venerable Sir James Eric Drummond

Literature:

History of the First World War, in 2 vols. M., 1975
Ignatiev A.V. Russia in the imperialist wars of the early 20th century. Russia, the USSR and international conflicts in the first half of the 20th century. M., 1989
To the 75th anniversary of the start of the First World War. M., 1990
Pisarev Yu.A. Secrets of the First World War. Russia and Serbia in 1914–1915. M., 1990
Kudrina Yu.V. Returning to the origins of the First World War. Pathways to safety. M., 1994
World War I: debatable problems of history. M., 1994
World War I: pages of history. Chernivtsi, 1994
Bobyshev S.V., Seregin S.V. World War I and Prospects for Russia's Social Development. Komsomolsk-on-Amur, 1995
World War I: Prologue to the 20th Century. M., 1998

(July 28, 1914 - November 11, 1918) - one of the largest armed conflicts in the history of mankind.

This name was established in historiography only after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. In the interwar period, the name " Great War" (eng. TheGreatWar, fr. La GrandeGuerre), in Russian Empire she was sometimes called Second Patriotic", as well as informally (both before the revolution and after) -" German»; then in the USSR - " imperialist war».

The immediate reason for the war was the Sarajevo assassination on June 28, 1914 of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the nineteen-year-old Serbian student Gavrila Princip, who was one of the members of the terrorist organization Mlada Bosna, which fought for the unification of all South Slavic peoples into one state.

As a result of the war, four empires ceased to exist: Russian, Austro-Hungarian, German and Ottoman. The participating countries lost about 12 million people killed (including civilians), about 55 million were injured.

Members

Allies of the Entente(supported the Entente in the war): USA, Japan, Serbia, Italy (participated in the war on the side of the Entente since 1915, despite being a member of the Triple Alliance), Montenegro, Belgium, Egypt, Portugal, Romania, Greece, Brazil, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Siam, Haiti, Liberia, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador.

Background to the conflict

Long before the war in Europe, contradictions were growing between the great powers - Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Russia.

The German Empire, formed after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, sought political and economic dominance on the European continent. Having joined the struggle for colonies only after 1871, Germany wanted to redistribute the colonial possessions of England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal in its favor.

Russia, France and Great Britain sought to counteract Germany's hegemonic aspirations. Why was the Entente formed?

Austria-Hungary, being a multinational empire, was a constant hotbed of instability in Europe due to internal interethnic contradictions. She tried to hold on to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which she captured in 1908 (see: The Bosnian Crisis). It opposed Russia, which took on the role of the defender of all Slavs in the Balkans, and Serbia, which claimed to be the unifying center of the southern Slavs.

In the Middle East, the interests of almost all powers clashed, striving to be in time for the division of the crumbling Ottoman Empire (Turkey). According to the agreements reached between the members of the Entente, at the end of the war, all the straits between the Black and Aegean seas would go to Russia, thus Russia would receive full control of the Black Sea and Constantinople.

The confrontation between the Entente countries on the one hand and Germany with Austria-Hungary on the other led to the First World War, where the enemies of the Entente: Russia, Great Britain and France - and its allies were the bloc of the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria - in which Germany played a leading role. By 1914, two blocks had finally taken shape:

The Entente bloc (formed by 1907 after the conclusion of the Russian-French, Anglo-French and Anglo-Russian allied treaties):

• Great Britain;

Block Triple Alliance:

• Germany;

Italy, however, entered the war in 1915 on the side of the Entente - but Turkey and Bulgaria joined Germany and Austria-Hungary during the war, forming the Quadruple Alliance (or block of the Central Powers).

The reasons for the war mentioned in various sources include economic imperialism, trade barriers, the arms race, militarism and autocracy, the balance of power, local conflicts that took place the day before (the Balkan wars, the Italo-Turkish war), orders for general mobilization in Russia and Germany, territorial claims and alliance obligations of the European powers.

The state of the armed forces at the beginning of the war

A strong blow to the German army was the reduction in its numbers: the reason for this is considered the short-sighted policy of the Social Democrats. For the period 1912-1916, a reduction in the army was planned in Germany, which in no way contributed to an increase in its combat effectiveness. The government of the Social Democrats constantly cut funding for the army (which, however, does not apply to the navy).

This destructive policy towards the army led to the fact that by the beginning of 1914, unemployment in Germany had increased by 8% (comparing with the figures of 1910). The army experienced a chronic shortage of the necessary military equipment. Lack of modern weapons. There were not enough funds to adequately equip the army with machine guns - Germany lagged behind in this area. The same applied to aviation - the German fleet was numerous, but outdated. The main aircraft of the German Luftstreitkrafte was the most massive, but at the same time hopelessly outdated aircraft in Europe - a monoplane of the Taube type.

During the mobilization, a significant number of civil and mail aircraft were also requisitioned. Moreover, aviation was defined as a separate branch of the military only in 1916, before that it was listed in the "transport troops" ( Kraftfahrers). But aviation was given little importance in all armies, except for the French, where aviation was supposed to carry out regular air raids on the territory of Alsace-Lorraine, the Rhineland, and the Bavarian Palatinate. General financial costs for military aviation in France in 1913 they amounted to 6 million francs, in Germany - 322 thousand marks, in Russia - about 1 million rubles. The latter achieved significant success, building shortly before the start of the war the world's first four-engine aircraft, which was destined to become the first strategic bomber. Since 1865, the State Agrarian University and the Obukhov Plant have been successfully cooperating with the Krupp company. This Krupp firm cooperated with Russia and France until the very beginning of the war.

German shipyards (including Blohm & Voss) built, but did not have time to complete before the start of the war, 6 destroyers for Russia, according to the project of the later famous Novik, built at the Putilov plant and armed with weapons produced at the Obukhov plant. Despite the Russian-French alliance, Krupp and other German firms regularly sent their the latest weapons for trials in Russia. But under Nicholas II, preference began to be given to French guns. Thus, Russia, taking into account the experience of the two leading artillery manufacturers, entered the war with good artillery of small and medium caliber, while having 1 barrel for 786 soldiers against 1 barrel for 476 soldiers in the German army, but in terms of heavy artillery, the Russian army lagged significantly behind the German army, having 1 barrel for 22,241 soldiers and officers against 1 barrel for 2,798 soldiers in the German army. And this is not counting the mortars, which were already in service with the German army and which were not at all in the 1914 year in the Russian army.

Also, it should be noted that the saturation of infantry units with machine guns in the Russian army was not inferior to the German and French armies. So Russian infantry regiment The 4th battalion (16 company) staff had in its state of May 6, 1910 a machine gun team of 8 Maxim machine guns, that is, 0.5 machine guns per company, “in the German and French armies there were six per regiment” 12 company staff.

Events before the First World War

On June 28, 1914, Gabriel Princip, a nineteen-year-old Bosnian Serb, a student, a member of the nationalist Serbian terrorist organization Mlada Bosna, kills the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sofia Hotek in Sarajevo. The Austrian and German ruling circles decided to use this Sarajevo massacre as a pretext for unleashing a European war. On July 5, Germany promises to support Austria-Hungary in the event of a conflict with Serbia.

On July 23, Austria-Hungary, stating that Serbia was behind the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, announces an ultimatum to Serbia in which it requires Serbia to fulfill obviously impossible conditions, including: purge the state apparatus and the army of officers and officials seen in anti-Austrian propaganda; arrest suspected terrorists; allow the Austro-Hungarian police to carry out investigations and punishments of those responsible for anti-Austrian actions on Serbian territory. Only 48 hours were given for a response.

On the same day, Serbia begins mobilization, however, agrees to all the requirements of Austria-Hungary, except for the admission of the Austrian police to its territory. Germany persistently pushes Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia.

On July 25, Germany begins covert mobilization: without announcing it officially, summons to reservists began to be sent to recruiting stations.

July 26 Austria-Hungary announces mobilization and begins to concentrate troops on the border with Serbia and Russia.

July 28 Austria-Hungary, declaring that the requirements of the ultimatum have not been met, declares war on Serbia. Russia says it will not allow the occupation of Serbia.

On the same day, Germany presents an ultimatum to Russia: stop conscription or Germany will declare war on Russia. France, Austria-Hungary and Germany are mobilizing. Germany draws troops to the Belgian and French borders.

At the same time, on the morning of August 1, British Foreign Secretary E. Gray promised the German ambassador in London, Likhnovsky, that in the event of a war between Germany and Russia, England would remain neutral, provided that France was not attacked.

Campaign of 1914

The war unfolded in two main theaters of military operations - in Western and Eastern Europe, as well as in the Balkans, in Northern Italy (from May 1915), in the Caucasus and the Middle East (from November 1914) in the colonies of European states - in Africa, in China, Oceania. In 1914, all participants in the war were going to end the war in a few months by a decisive offensive; no one expected that the war would take on a protracted character.

Start of World War I

Germany, in accordance with the previously developed plan for conducting a lightning war, the “blitzkrieg” (Schlieffen plan), sent the main forces to the western front, hoping to defeat France with a quick blow before the completion of the mobilization and deployment of the Russian army, and then deal with Russia.

The German command intended to inflict main blow through Belgium along the undefended north of France, bypass Paris from the west and take the French army, whose main forces were concentrated on the fortified eastern, Franco-German border, into a huge "cauldron".

On August 1, Germany declared war on Russia, on the same day the Germans invaded Luxembourg without any declaration of war.

France turned to England for help, but the British government, by 12 votes to 6, refused to support France, stating that "France should not count on help that we are not currently in a position to provide", while adding that "if the Germans invade to Belgium and occupy only the "corner" of that country closest to Luxembourg, and not the coast, England will remain neutral.

To which the French ambassador to Great Britain, Cambo, said that if England now betrays her allies: France and Russia, then after the war she herself will have a bad time, regardless of who will be the winner. The British government, in fact, pushed the Germans to aggression. The German leadership decided that England would not enter the war and moved on to decisive action.

On August 2, German troops finally occupied Luxembourg, and an ultimatum was put forward for Belgium to allow the German armies to pass to the border with France. Only 12 hours were given for reflection.

On August 3, Germany declared war on France, accusing her of "organized attacks and aerial bombardments of Germany" and "violation of Belgian neutrality."

August 4 German troops poured across the Belgian border. King Albert of Belgium appealed for help to the guarantor countries of Belgian neutrality. London, contrary to its previous statements, sent an ultimatum to Berlin: to stop the invasion of Belgium or England would declare war on Germany, to which Berlin announced "betrayal". After the expiration of the ultimatum, Great Britain declared war on Germany and sent 5.5 divisions to help France.

The First World War has begun.

The course of hostilities

French Theater of Operations - Western Front

Strategic plans of the parties to the beginning of the war. By the beginning of the war, Germany was guided by a rather old military doctrine - the Schlieffen plan - which provided for the instant defeat of France before the "clumsy" Russia could mobilize and push its army to the borders. The attack was envisaged through the territory of Belgium (in order to bypass the main French forces), Paris was originally supposed to be taken in 39 days. In a nutshell, the essence of the plan was outlined by Wilhelm II: “We will have lunch in Paris, and dinner in St. Petersburg”. In 1906, the plan was modified (under the leadership of General Moltke) and acquired a less categorical character - a significant part of the troops was still supposed to be left on the Eastern Front, it was necessary to attack through Belgium, but without touching neutral Holland.

France, in turn, was guided by the military doctrine (the so-called Plan-17), which ordered to start the war with the liberation of Alsace-Lorraine. The French expected that the main forces of the German army would initially be concentrated against Alsace.

German invasion of Belgium. Having crossed the Belgian border on the morning of August 4, the German army, following the Schlieffen Plan, easily swept away the weak barriers of the Belgian army and moved deep into Belgium. The Belgian army, which the Germans outnumbered by more than 10 times, unexpectedly offered active resistance, which, however, could not significantly delay the enemy. Bypassing and blocking the well-fortified Belgian fortresses: Liege (fell on August 16, see: Sturm of Liege), Namur (fell on August 25) and Antwerp (fell on October 9), the Germans drove the Belgian army in front of them and took Brussels on August 20, in that the same day coming into contact with the Anglo-French forces. The movement of the German troops was swift, the Germans, without stopping, bypassed the cities and fortresses that continued to defend themselves. The Belgian government fled to Le Havre. King Albert I continued to defend Antwerp with the last remaining units. The invasion of Belgium came as a surprise to the French command, but the French managed to organize the transfer of their units in the direction of the breakthrough much faster than the German plans suggested.

Actions in Alsace and Lorraine. On August 7, the French, with the forces of the 1st and 2nd armies, launched an offensive in Alsace, and on August 14 - in Lorraine. The offensive had a symbolic meaning for the French - the territory of Alsace-Lorraine was taken from France in 1871, after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. Although they initially succeeded in penetrating into German territory, capturing Saarbrücken and Mulhouse, the simultaneously unfolding German offensive in Belgium forced them to transfer part of their troops there. The ensuing counter-attacks did not meet with sufficient resistance from the French, and by the end of August the French army retreated to its previous positions, leaving Germany with a small part of French territory.

Border battle. On August 20, the Anglo-French and German troops came into contact - the Battle of the Border began. By the time the war began, the French command did not expect that the main offensive of the German troops would take place through Belgium, the main forces of the French troops were concentrated against Alsace. From the beginning of the invasion of Belgium, the French began to actively move units in the direction of the breakthrough, by the time they came into contact with the Germans, the front was in sufficient disorder, and the French and British were forced to fight with three non-contacting groups of troops. On the territory of Belgium, near Mons, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was located, southeast, near Charleroi, there was the 5th French Army. In the Ardennes, approximately along the border of France with Belgium and Luxembourg, the 3rd and 4th French armies were stationed. In all three areas, the Anglo-French troops suffered a heavy defeat (Battle of Mons, Battle of Charleroi, Ardennes operation (1914)), losing about 250 thousand people, and the Germans from the north invaded France on a wide front, delivering the main blow to the west, bypassing Paris, thus taking the French army in giant pincers.

The German armies were advancing rapidly. The British units retreated in disorder to the coast, the French command was not sure of the possibility of holding Paris, on September 2, the French government moved to Bordeaux. The defense of the city was led by the energetic General Gallieni. The French forces were regrouping to a new line of defense along the Marne River. The French energetically prepared for the defense of the capital, taking extraordinary measures. The episode is widely known when Gallieni ordered an urgent transfer of an infantry brigade to the front, using Paris taxis for this purpose.

The unsuccessful August actions of the French army forced its commander, General Joffre, to immediately replace a large number (up to 30% of total number) poorly performing generals; the renewal and rejuvenation of the French generals was subsequently evaluated extremely positively.

Battle of the Marne. To complete the operation to bypass Paris and encircle the French army, the German army did not have enough strength. The troops, having fought hundreds of kilometers, were exhausted, communications stretched out, there was nothing to cover the flanks and emerging gaps, there were no reserves, they had to maneuver with the same units, driving them back and forth, so the Stavka agreed with the commander’s proposal: making a detour maneuver 1 von Kluck's th army to reduce the front of the offensive and not to make a deep envelopment of the French army bypassing Paris, but to turn east north of the French capital and hit the rear of the main forces of the French army.

Turning east north of Paris, the Germans exposed their right flank and rear to the attack of the French grouping concentrated to defend Paris. There was nothing to cover the right flank and rear: 2 corps and a cavalry division, originally intended to reinforce the advancing group, were sent to East Prussia to help the defeated 8th German Army. Nevertheless, the German command made a fatal maneuver for itself: it turned its troops to the east without reaching Paris, hoping for the passivity of the enemy. The French command did not fail to take advantage of the opportunity and hit the naked flank and rear of the German army. The First Battle of the Marne began, in which the Allies managed to turn the tide of hostilities in their favor and push back German troops on the front from Verdun to Amiens 50-100 kilometers back. The battle on the Marne was intense, but short-lived - the main battle began on September 5, on September 9 the defeat of the German army became obvious, by September 12-13 the withdrawal of the German army to the line along the rivers Aisne and Vel was completed.

The Battle of the Marne was of great moral importance to all sides. For the French, it was the first victory over the Germans, overcoming the shame of defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. After the Battle of the Marne, the capitulatory mood in France noticeably began to decline. The British realized the insufficient combat power of their troops, and subsequently took a course to increase their armed forces in Europe and strengthen their combat training. German plans for a quick defeat of France failed; Moltke, who headed the Field General Staff, was replaced by Falkenhain. Joffre, on the other hand, acquired great prestige in France. The Battle of the Marne was the turning point of the war in the French theater of operations, after which the continuous retreat of the Anglo-French troops stopped, the front stabilized, and the forces of the opponents were approximately even.

"Run to the Sea". Battles in Flanders. The battle on the Marne turned into the so-called "Run to the Sea" - moving, both armies tried to surround each other from the flank, which only led to the fact that the front line closed, resting on the coast of the North Sea. The actions of the armies in this flat, populated area, saturated with roads and railways, were distinguished by extreme mobility; as soon as some clashes ended in the stabilization of the front, both sides quickly moved their troops to the north, towards the sea, and the battle resumed at the next stage. At the first stage (second half of September), the battles went along the lines of the Oise and Somme rivers, then, at the second stage (September 29 - October 9), the battles went along the Scarpa River (battle of Arras); in the third stage, battles took place at Lille (October 10-15), on the Isère River (October 18-20), at Ypres (October 30-November 15). On October 9, the last center of resistance of the Belgian army, Antwerp, fell, and the battered Belgian units joined the Anglo-French ones, occupying the extreme northern position at the front.

By November 15, the entire space between Paris and the North Sea was densely filled with troops from both sides, the front stabilized, the offensive potential of the Germans was exhausted, both sides switched to positional struggle. An important success of the Entente can be considered the fact that she managed to keep the ports most convenient for sea communication with England (primarily Calais).

By the end of 1914, Belgium was almost completely conquered by Germany. The Entente left only a small western part of Flanders with the city of Ypres. Further, south to Nancy, the front passed through the territory of France (the territory lost by the French had the shape of a spindle, 380-400 km long along the front, 100-130 km deep at its widest point from the pre-war border of France towards Paris). Lille was given to the Germans, Arras and Laon remained with the French; closest to Paris (about 70 km), the front approached in the area of ​​Noyon (behind the Germans) and Soissons (behind the French). The front then turned east (Reims remained behind the French) and passed into the Verdun fortified area. After that, in the Nancy region (behind the French), the zone of active hostilities of 1914 ended, the front went on as a whole along the border of France and Germany. Neutral Switzerland and Italy did not participate in the war.

Results of the 1914 campaign in the French theater of operations. The 1914 campaign was extremely dynamic. The large armies of both sides actively and quickly maneuvered, aided by the dense road network of the combat area. The disposition of the troops did not always form a solid front; the troops did not erect long-term defensive lines. By November 1914, a stable front line began to take shape. Both sides, having exhausted their offensive potential, began to build trenches and barbed wire, designed for permanent use. The war moved into a positional phase. Since the length of the entire Western Front (from the North Sea to Switzerland) was a little over 700 kilometers, the density of troops on it was significantly higher than on the Eastern Front. A feature of the company was that intensive military operations were carried out only in the northern half of the front (north of the Verdun fortified region), where both sides concentrated their main forces. The front from Verdun and south was regarded by both sides as secondary. The zone lost to the French (of which Picardy was the center) was densely populated and significant both in agricultural and industrial terms.

By the beginning of 1915, the warring powers were faced with the fact that the war had taken on a character that was not envisaged by the pre-war plans of either side - it had become protracted. Although the Germans managed to capture almost all of Belgium and a significant part of France, their main goal - a swift victory over the French - turned out to be completely inaccessible. Both the Entente and the Central Powers essentially had to start a new type of war that mankind had not yet seen - exhausting, long, requiring total mobilization of the population and economies.

The relative failure of Germany had another important result - Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance, refrained from entering the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

East Prussian operation. On the Eastern Front, the war began with the East Prussian operation. On August 4 (17), the Russian army crossed the border, launching an offensive against East Prussia. The 1st Army moved to Koenigsberg from the north of the Masurian Lakes, the 2nd Army - from the west of them. The first week of the actions of the Russian armies were successful, the Germans, who were numerically inferior, gradually retreated; The Gumbinen-Goldap battle on August 7 (20) ended in favor of the Russian army. However, the Russian command was unable to take advantage of the fruits of victory. The movement of the two Russian armies slowed down and mismatched, which was not slow to take advantage of the Germans, who struck from the west on the open flank of the 2nd Army. On August 13-17 (26-30) the 2nd army of General Samsonov was completely defeated, a significant part was surrounded and taken prisoner. In German tradition, these events are called the Battle of Tanneberg. After that, the Russian 1st Army, being under the threat of encirclement by superior German forces, was forced to retreat to its original position with battles, the withdrawal was completed on September 3 (16). The actions of General Rennenkampf, who commanded the 1st Army, were considered unsuccessful, which was the first episode of the subsequent distrust of military leaders with German surnames, and, in general, disbelief in the ability of the military command. In the German tradition, the events were mythologized and considered the greatest victory of German weapons; a huge memorial was built on the site of the battles, in which Field Marshal Hindenburg was later buried.

Galician battle. On August 16 (23), the Battle of Galicia began - a huge battle in terms of the scale of forces involved between the Russian troops of the Southwestern Front (5 armies) under the command of General N. Ivanov and four Austro-Hungarian armies under the command of Archduke Friedrich. Russian troops went on the offensive along a wide (450-500 km) front, with Lvov as the center of the offensive. fighting large armies, which took place on a long front, were divided into numerous independent operations, accompanied by both offensives and retreats on both sides.

Actions on the southern part of the border with Austria at first developed unfavorably for the Russian army (Lublin-Kholm operation). By August 19-20 (September 1-2), Russian troops retreated to the territory of the Kingdom of Poland, to Lublin and Kholm. Actions in the center of the front (Galych-Lvov operation) were unsuccessful for the Austro-Hungarians. The Russian offensive began on August 6 (19) and developed very quickly. After the first retreat, the Austro-Hungarian army put up fierce resistance at the borders of the Golden Lipa and Rotten Lipa rivers, but was forced to retreat. The Russians took Lvov on August 21 (September 3), and Galich on August 22 (September 4). Until August 31 (September 12), the Austro-Hungarians did not stop trying to recapture Lvov, the fighting went 30-50 km west and north-west of the city (Gorodok - Rava-Russkaya), but ended in a complete victory for the Russian army. On August 29 (September 11), the general retreat of the Austrian army began (more like a flight, since there was little resistance to the advancing Russians). The Russian army maintained a high pace of advance and in the shortest possible time captured a huge, strategically important territory - Eastern Galicia and part of Bukovina. By September 13 (September 26), the front had stabilized at a distance of 120-150 km west of Lvov. The strong Austrian fortress of Przemysl was under siege in the rear of the Russian army.

The significant victory caused rejoicing in Russia. The capture of Galicia, with its predominantly Orthodox (and Uniate) Slavic population, was perceived in Russia not as an occupation, but as a return of the torn away part of historical Russia (see Galician Governor General). Austria-Hungary lost faith in the strength of its army, and in the future did not risk launching major operations without the help of German troops.

Military operations in the Kingdom of Poland. The pre-war border of Russia with Germany and Austria-Hungary had a configuration far from smooth - in the center of the border, the territory of the Kingdom of Poland protruded sharply to the west. Both sides apparently started the war by trying to flatten the front - the Russians were trying to even out the "dents" by advancing north into East Prussia and south into Galicia, while Germany sought to remove the "ledge", advancing in the center into Poland. After the Russian offensive in East Prussia failed, Germany could only advance further south, in Poland, so that the front would not fall apart into two incoherent parts. In addition, the success of the offensive in the southern part of Poland could help the defeating Austro-Hungarians.

On September 15 (28), the Warsaw-Ivangorod operation began with the German offensive. The offensive proceeded in a northeast direction, aiming at Warsaw and the Ivangorod fortress. On September 30 (October 12), the Germans reached Warsaw and reached the line of the Vistula River. Fierce battles began, in which the advantage of the Russian army was gradually determined. On October 7 (20) the Russians began to cross the Vistula, and on October 14 (27) the German army began a general retreat. By October 26 (November 8), the German troops, having not achieved results, withdrew to their original positions.

On October 29 (November 11), the Germans, from the same positions along the pre-war border, launched a second offensive in the same northeast direction (Lodz operation). The center of the battle was the city of Lodz, captured and abandoned by the Germans a few weeks earlier. In a dynamically unfolding battle, the Germans first surrounded Lodz, then they themselves were surrounded by superior Russian forces and retreated. The results of the battles were uncertain - the Russians managed to defend both Lodz and Warsaw; but at the same time, Germany managed to capture the northwestern part of the Kingdom of Poland - the front, which had stabilized by October 26 (November 8), went from Lodz to Warsaw.

The positions of the parties by the end of 1914. By the new year 1915, the front looked like this - on the border of East Prussia and Russia, the front went along the pre-war border, followed by a gap poorly filled with troops from both sides, after which a stable front began again from Warsaw to Lodz (northeast and east of the Kingdom of Poland with Petrokov , Czestochowa and Kalisz was occupied by Germany), in the region of Krakow (remained behind Austria-Hungary), the front crossed the pre-war border between Austria-Hungary and Russia and crossed into Austrian territory occupied by the Russians. Most of Galicia went to Russia, Lvov (Lemberg) fell into the deep (180 km from the front) rear. In the south, the front rested on the Carpathians, practically unoccupied by the troops of both sides. Located to the east of the Carpathians, Bukovina with Chernivtsi passed to Russia. The total length of the front was about 1200 km.

Results of the 1914 campaign on the Russian front. The campaign as a whole has developed in favor of Russia. Clashes with the German army ended in favor of the Germans, and on the German part of the front, Russia lost part of the territory of the Kingdom of Poland. The defeat of Russia in East Prussia was morally painful and was accompanied by heavy losses. But Germany, too, was not able to achieve the results she planned at any point, all her successes from a military point of view were modest. Meanwhile, Russia managed to inflict a major defeat on Austria-Hungary and capture significant territories. A certain pattern of actions of the Russian army was formed - the Germans were treated with caution, the Austro-Hungarians were considered a weaker enemy. Austria-Hungary turned for Germany from a full-fledged ally into a weak partner requiring continuous support. By the new year 1915, the fronts had stabilized, and the war moved into a positional phase; but at the same time, the front line (unlike the French theater of operations) continued to remain unsmoothed, and the armies of the parties filled it unevenly, with large gaps. This unevenness next year will make events on the Eastern Front much more dynamic than on the Western. By the new year, the Russian army began to feel the first signs of an impending crisis in the supply of ammunition. It also turned out that Austro-Hungarian soldiers were prone to surrender, while German soldiers were not.

The Entente countries were able to coordinate actions on two fronts - the Russian offensive in East Prussia coincided with the most difficult moment for France in the fighting, Germany was forced to fight in two directions at the same time, and also to carry out the transfer of troops from front to front.

Balkan theater of operations

On the Serbian front, things were not going well for the Austrians. Despite the large numerical superiority, they managed to occupy Belgrade, which was on the border, only on December 2, but on December 15, the Serbs recaptured Belgrade and drove the Austrians out of their territory. Although Austria-Hungary's demands on Serbia were the direct cause of the war, it was in Serbia that the hostilities of 1914 were rather sluggish.

Japan's entry into the war

In August 1914, the Entente countries (above all England) managed to convince Japan to oppose Germany, despite the fact that these two countries did not have significant conflicts of interest. On August 15, Japan presented an ultimatum to Germany, demanding the withdrawal of troops from China, and on August 23, it declared war (see Japan in the First World War). At the end of August, the Japanese army began the siege of Qingdao, the only German naval base in China, which ended on November 7 with the surrender of the German garrison (see Siege of Qingdao).

In September-October, Japan actively began to seize the island colonies and bases of Germany (German Micronesia and German New Guinea. On September 12, the Caroline Islands were captured, on September 29, the Marshall Islands. In October, the Japanese landed on the Caroline Islands and captured the key port of Rabaul. At the end In August, New Zealand troops captured German Samoa. Australia and New Zealand concluded an agreement with Japan on the division of German colonies, the equator was adopted as a dividing line of interests. German forces in the region were insignificant and sharply inferior to the Japanese, so that the fighting was not accompanied by major losses.

Japan's participation in the war on the side of the Entente turned out to be extremely beneficial for Russia, completely securing its Asian part. Russia no longer needed to spend resources on maintaining the army, navy and fortifications directed against Japan and China. In addition, Japan has gradually become an important source of Russia's supply of raw materials and weapons.

Entry into the war of the Ottoman Empire and the opening of the Asian theater of operations

With the outbreak of the war in Turkey, there was no agreement on whether to enter the war and on whose side. In the unofficial Young Turk triumvirate, Minister of War Enver Pasha and Interior Minister Talaat Pasha were supporters of the Triple Alliance, but Djemal Pasha was an Entente supporter. On August 2, 1914, a German-Turkish alliance treaty was signed, according to which the Turkish army was actually placed under the leadership of the German military mission. Mobilization was announced in the country. However, at the same time, the Turkish government issued a declaration of neutrality. On August 10, the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau entered the Dardanelles, having escaped the pursuit of the British fleet in the Mediterranean. With the advent of these ships, not only the Turkish army, but also the fleet was under the command of the Germans. On September 9, the Turkish government announced to all powers that it had decided to abolish the regime of capitulations (preferential legal status of foreign citizens). This provoked protest from all powers.

However, most members of the Turkish government, including the Grand Vizier, still opposed the war. Then Enver Pasha, together with the German command, started the war without the consent of the rest of the government, putting the country before a fait accompli. Turkey declared "jihad" (holy war) to the Entente countries. On October 29-30 (November 11-12), the Turkish fleet under the command of the German Admiral Souchon fired at Sevastopol, Odessa, Feodosia and Novorossiysk. On November 2 (15), Russia declared war on Turkey. England and France followed on 5 and 6 November.

The Caucasus Front arose between Russia and Turkey. In December 1914 - January 1915, during the Sarykamysh operation, the Russian Caucasian army stopped the advance of Turkish troops on Kars, and then defeated them and launched a counteroffensive (see Caucasian Front).

The usefulness of Turkey as an ally was reduced by the fact that the Central Powers had no communication with her either by land (between Turkey and Austria-Hungary was the not yet captured Serbia and so far neutral Romania), or by sea (the Mediterranean Sea was controlled by the Entente).

At the same time, Russia also lost the most convenient way of communication with its allies - through the Black Sea and the Straits. Russia has two ports left suitable for the transportation of a large amount of cargo - Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok; the carrying capacity of the railways approaching these ports was low.

Fighting at sea

With the outbreak of war, the German fleet launched cruising operations throughout the World Ocean, which, however, did not lead to a significant disruption of the merchant shipping of its opponents. Nevertheless, part of the fleet of the Entente countries was diverted to fight the German raiders. The German squadron of Admiral von Spee managed to defeat the English squadron in the battle at Cape Coronel (Chile) on November 1, but later she herself was defeated by the British in the Falkland battle on December 8.

In the North Sea, the fleets of the opposing sides carried out raiding operations. The first major clash occurred on August 28 near the island of Heligoland (Battle of Helgoland). The English fleet won.

Russian fleets behaved passively. Baltic Fleet Russia occupied a defensive position, to which the German fleet, busy with actions in other theaters, did not even approach. The Black Sea Fleet, which did not have large ships of the modern type, did not dare to enter into a collision with the two newest German-Turkish ships.

Campaign of 1915

The course of hostilities

French Theater of Operations - Western Front

Actions in early 1915. The intensity of operations on the Western Front has significantly decreased since the beginning of 1915. Germany concentrated its forces on preparing operations against Russia. The French and British also chose to take advantage of the resulting pause to build up forces. For the first four months of the year, an almost complete lull reigned at the front, hostilities were fought only in Artois, in the area of ​​​​the city of Arras (an attempted French offensive in February) and southeast of Verdun, where German positions formed the so-called Ser-Miel ledge towards France (an attempt French offensive in April). In March, the British made an unsuccessful offensive attempt near the village of Neuve Chapelle.

The Germans, in turn, launched a counterattack in the north of the front, in Flanders near Ypres, against the British troops (April 22 - May 25, see Second Battle of Ypres). At the same time, Germany, for the first time in the history of mankind and with complete surprise for the Anglo-French, used chemical weapons (chlorine was released from cylinders). 15,000 people were affected by the gas, of which 5,000 died. The Germans did not have sufficient reserves to take advantage of the result of the gas attack and break through the front. After the Ypres gas attack, both sides very quickly managed to develop gas masks of various designs, and further attempts to use chemical weapons no longer took large masses of troops by surprise.

In the course of these hostilities, which yielded the most insignificant results with noticeable casualties, both sides became convinced that the assault on well-equipped positions (several lines of trenches, dugouts, barbed wire fences) was futile without active artillery preparation.

Spring operation in Artois. On May 3, the Entente launched a new offensive in Artois. The offensive was carried out by joint Anglo-French forces. The French were advancing north of Arras, the British - in an adjacent area in the Neuve Chapelle area. The offensive was organized in a new way: huge forces (30 infantry divisions, 9 cavalry corps, more than 1,700 guns) were concentrated on 30 kilometers of the offensive sector. The offensive was preceded by a six-day artillery preparation (2.1 million shells were used), which, as expected, was to completely suppress the resistance of the German troops. The calculations were not justified. The huge losses of the Entente (130 thousand people) suffered in six weeks of fighting did not fully correspond to the results achieved - by mid-June, the French advanced 3-4 km along a 7 km front, and the British - less than 1 km along a 3 km front.

Autumn operation in Champagne and Artois. By the beginning of September, the Entente had prepared a new big offensive, the task of which was to liberate the north of France. The offensive began on September 25 and took place simultaneously in two sectors, 120 km apart from each other - on the 35 km front in Champagne (east of Reims) and on the 20 km front in Artois (near Arras). If successful, the troops advancing from two sides were to close in 80-100 km on the border of France (near Mons), which would lead to the liberation of Picardy. Compared to the spring offensive in Artois, the scale was increased: 67 infantry and cavalry divisions were involved in the offensive, up to 2600 guns; over 5 million shells were fired during the operation. The Anglo-French troops used the new offensive tactics in several "waves". At the time of the offensive, the German troops managed to improve their defensive positions - a second defensive line was built 5-6 kilometers behind the first defensive line, poorly visible from the enemy’s positions (each of the defensive lines consisted, in turn, of three rows of trenches). The offensive, which lasted until October 7, led to extremely limited results - in both sectors it was possible to break through only the first line of the German defense and recapture no more than 2-3 km of territory. At the same time, the losses of both sides were huge - the Anglo-French lost 200 thousand people killed and wounded, the Germans - 140 thousand people.

The positions of the parties by the end of 1915 and the results of the campaign. For the whole of 1915, the front practically did not move - the result of all the fierce offensives was the advance of the front line by no more than 10 km. Both sides, more and more strengthening their defensive positions, were unable to develop tactics that would make it possible to break through the front, even under conditions of an extremely high concentration of forces and many days of artillery preparation. Huge sacrifices on both sides did not produce any significant result. The situation, however, allowed Germany to intensify the onslaught on the Eastern Front - all the strengthening of the German army was aimed at fighting Russia, while the improvement of defensive lines and defense tactics allowed the Germans to be confident in the strength of the Western Front with a gradual reduction in the troops involved on it.

The actions of the beginning of 1915 showed that the prevailing type of hostilities creates a huge burden on the economies of the warring countries. New battles required not only the mobilization of millions of citizens, but also a gigantic amount of weapons and ammunition. The pre-war stocks of weapons and ammunition were exhausted, and the warring countries began to actively rebuild their economies for military needs. The war gradually began to turn from a battle of armies into a battle of economies. The development of new military equipment was intensified as a means of overcoming the stalemate at the front; armies became more and more mechanized. The armies noticed the significant benefits brought by aviation (reconnaissance and adjustment of artillery fire) and cars. The methods of trench warfare were improved - trench guns, light mortars, and hand grenades appeared.

France and Russia again attempted to coordinate the actions of their armies - the spring offensive in Artois was designed to distract the Germans from an active offensive against the Russians. On July 7, the first Inter-Allied Conference opened in Chantilly, aimed at planning joint actions of the allies on different fronts and organizing various types of economic and military assistance. On November 23-26, the second conference took place there. It was recognized as necessary to begin preparations for a coordinated offensive by all allied armies in the three main theaters - French, Russian and Italian.

Russian theater of operations - Eastern Front

Winter operation in East Prussia. In February, the Russian army made another attempt to attack East Prussia, this time from the southeast, from Masuria, from the city of Suwalki. Poorly prepared, unprovided with artillery support, the offensive instantly bogged down and turned into a counterattack by the German troops, the so-called August operation (after the name of the city of Augustow). By February 26, the Germans managed to push the Russian troops out of the territory of East Prussia and advance deep into the Kingdom of Poland for 100-120 km, capturing Suwalki, after which the front stabilized in the first half of March, Grodno remained with Russia. XX Russian Corps was surrounded and surrendered. Despite the victory of the Germans, their hopes for the complete collapse of the Russian front did not come true. During the next battle - the Prasnysh operation (February 25 - the end of March), the Germans met with fierce resistance from the Russian troops, who turned into a counterattack in the Prasnysh area, which led to the withdrawal of the Germans to the pre-war border of East Prussia (the Suwalki province remained with Germany).

Winter operation in the Carpathians. On February 9-11, the Austro-German troops launched an offensive in the Carpathians, pressing especially hard on the weakest part of the Russian front in the south, in Bukovina. At the same time, the Russian army launched a counter offensive, hoping to cross the Carpathians and invade Hungary from north to south. In the northern part of the Carpathians, closer to Krakow, the forces of the opponents turned out to be equal, and the front practically did not move during the fighting in February and March, remaining in the foothills of the Carpathians on the Russian side. But in the south of the Carpathians, the Russian army did not have time to group, and by the end of March, the Russians lost most of Bukovina with Chernivtsi. On March 22, the besieged Austrian fortress of Przemysl fell, more than 120 thousand people surrendered. The capture of Przemysl was the last major success of the Russian army in 1915.

Gorlitsky breakthrough. The beginning of the Great Retreat of the Russian armies is the loss of Galicia. By mid-spring, the situation at the front in Galicia had changed. The Germans expanded their zone of operations by transferring their troops to the northern and central part of the front in Austria-Hungary, the weaker Austro-Hungarians were now responsible only for the southern part of the front. On a sector of 35 km, the Germans concentrated 32 divisions and 1,500 guns; Russian troops were inferior in number by 2 times, and were completely deprived of heavy artillery, and the lack of shells of the main (three-inch) caliber began to affect. On April 19 (May 2), German troops launched an attack on the center of the Russian position in Austria-Hungary - Gorlitsa - aiming the main blow at Lvov. Further events developed unfavorably for the Russian army: the numerical predominance of the Germans, unsuccessful maneuvering and the use of reserves, the growing shortage of shells and the complete predominance of German heavy artillery led to the fact that by April 22 (May 5) the front in the Gorlitz region was broken through. The retreat of the Russian armies that had begun continued until June 9 (22) (see The Great Retreat of 1915). The entire front south of Warsaw moved towards Russia. In the Kingdom of Poland, the Radom and Kielce provinces were left, the front passed through Lublin (beyond Russia); most of Galicia was left from the territories of Austria-Hungary (the newly taken Przemysl was left on June 3 (16), and Lvov on June 9 (22), only a small (up to 40 km deep) strip with Brody remained behind the Russians, the entire region Tarnopol and a small part of Bukovina. The retreat, which began with the breakthrough of the Germans, by the time Lvov was abandoned, had acquired a planned character, the Russian troops retreated in relative order. But nevertheless, such a major military failure was accompanied by a loss of morale by the Russian army and mass surrenders.

The continuation of the Great Retreat of the Russian armies is the loss of Poland. Having achieved success in the southern part of the theater of operations, the German command decided to immediately continue an active offensive in its northern part - in Poland and in East Prussia - the Ostsee region. Since the Gorlitsky breakthrough did not ultimately lead to the complete fall of the Russian front (the Russians were able to stabilize the situation and close the front at the cost of a significant retreat), this time the tactics were changed - it was not supposed to break through the front at one point, but three independent offensives. Two directions of the offensive were aimed at the Kingdom of Poland (where the Russian front continued to form a ledge towards Germany) - the Germans planned breakthroughs of the front from the north, from East Prussia (a breakthrough to the south between Warsaw and Lomza, in the area of ​​the Narew River), and from the south, from sides of Galicia (to the north along the interfluve of the Vistula and the Bug); at the same time, the directions of both breakthroughs converged on the border of the Kingdom of Poland, in the region of Brest-Litovsk; in the event that the German plan was carried out, the Russian troops had to leave all of Poland in order to avoid encirclement in the Warsaw area. The third offensive, from East Prussia towards Riga, was planned as an offensive on a wide front, without concentrating on a narrow sector and breaking through.

The offensive between the Vistula and the Bug was launched on June 13 (26), and on June 30 (July 13) the Narew operation began. After fierce fighting, the front was broken through in both places, and the Russian army, as envisaged by the German plan, began a general withdrawal from the Kingdom of Poland. On July 22 (August 4), Warsaw and the Ivangorod fortress were abandoned, on August 7 (20) the Novogeorgievsk fortress fell, on August 9 (22) the Osovets fortress, on August 13 (26) the Russians left Brest-Litovsk, and on August 19 (September 2) - Grodno.

The offensive from East Prussia (the Riga-Shavel operation) began on July 1 (14). For a month of fighting, Russian troops were pushed back beyond the Neman, the Germans captured Courland with Mitava and the most important naval base of Libava, Kovno, came close to Riga.

The success of the German offensive was facilitated by the fact that by the summer the crisis in the military supply of the Russian army had reached its maximum. Of particular importance was the so-called "shell hunger" - an acute shortage of shells for the 75-mm guns prevailing in the Russian army. The capture of the Novogeorgievsk fortress, accompanied by the surrender of large parts of the troops and intact weapons and property without a fight, caused a new outbreak of spy mania and rumors of treason in Russian society. The Kingdom of Poland gave Russia about a quarter of coal production, the loss of Polish deposits was never compensated, from the end of 1915 a fuel crisis began in Russia.

The end of the great retreat and the stabilization of the front. On August 9 (22) the Germans moved the direction of the main attack; now the main offensive was taking place along the front north of Vilna, in the Sventsyan region, and was directed at Minsk. On August 27-28 (September 8-9), the Germans, taking advantage of the loose location of the Russian units, were able to break through the front (Sventsyansky breakthrough). The result was that the Russians were only able to fill the front after they had withdrawn directly to Minsk. The Vilna province was lost by the Russians.

On December 14 (27), the Russians launched an offensive against the Austro-Hungarian troops on the Strypa River, in the Ternopil region, caused by the need to divert the Austrians from the Serbian front, where the position of the Serbs became very difficult. Attack attempts did not bring any success, and on January 15 (29) the operation was stopped.

Meanwhile, the retreat of the Russian armies continued to the south of the Sventsyansky breakthrough zone. In August, Vladimir-Volynsky, Kovel, Lutsk, and Pinsk were abandoned by the Russians. On the more southern part of the front, the situation was stable, since by that time the forces of the Austro-Hungarians were diverted by fighting in Serbia and on the Italian front. By the end of September and the beginning of October, the front had stabilized, and there was a lull along its entire length. The offensive potential of the Germans was exhausted, the Russians began to restore their troops, which had been badly damaged during the retreat, and strengthen new defensive lines.

The positions of the parties by the end of 1915. By the end of 1915, the front had become practically a straight line connecting the Baltic and Black Seas; the protrusion of the front in the Kingdom of Poland completely disappeared - Poland was completely occupied by Germany. Courland was occupied by Germany, the front came close to Riga and then went along the Western Dvina to the fortified area of ​​​​Dvinsk. Further, the front passed along the North-Western Territory: Kovno, Vilna, Grodno provinces, the western part of the Minsk province was occupied by Germany (Minsk remained with Russia). Then the front passed through the South-Western Territory: the western third of the Volyn province with Lutsk was occupied by Germany, Rivne remained with Russia. After that, the front moved to the former territory of Austria-Hungary, where the Russians left part of the Tarnopol region in Galicia. Further, to the Bessarabian province, the front returned to the pre-war border with Austria-Hungary and ended on the border with neutral Romania.

The new configuration of the front, which had no ledges and was densely filled with troops from both sides, naturally pushed for a transition to positional warfare and defensive tactics.

Results of the 1915 campaign on the Eastern Front. The results of the 1915 campaign for Germany in the east were in a certain way similar to the 1914 campaign in the west: Germany was able to achieve significant military victories and capture enemy territory, Germany's tactical advantage in maneuver warfare was obvious; but at the same time, the general goal - the complete defeat of one of the opponents and his withdrawal from the war - was not achieved in 1915 either. While scoring tactical victories, the Central Powers were unable to completely defeat the leading opponents, while their economy was increasingly weakened. Russia, despite heavy losses in territory and manpower, fully retained the ability to continue the war (although its army lost its offensive spirit during the long period of retreat). In addition, by the end of the Great Retreat, the Russians managed to overcome the military supply crisis, and the situation with artillery and shells for it returned to normal by the end of the year. Fierce struggle and great loss of life brought the economies of Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary to an overstrain, the negative results of which will be more and more noticeable in subsequent years.

Russia's failures were accompanied by important personnel changes. On June 30 (July 13), Minister of War V. A. Sukhomlinov was replaced by A. A. Polivanov. Subsequently, Sukhomlinov was put on trial, which caused another outbreak of suspicion and spy mania. On August 10 (23), Nicholas II assumed the duties of commander-in-chief of the Russian army, moving Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich to the Caucasian front. At the same time, the actual leadership of military operations passed from N. N. Yanushkevich to M. V. Alekseev. The acceptance of the supreme command by the tsar entailed extremely significant domestic political consequences.

Italian entry into the war

With the outbreak of the war, Italy remained neutral. On August 3, 1914, the Italian king informed Wilhelm II that the conditions for the outbreak of war did not correspond to the conditions in the Triple Alliance treaty under which Italy should enter the war. On the same day, the Italian government issued a declaration of neutrality. After lengthy negotiations between Italy and the Central Powers and the countries of the Entente, on April 26, 1915, the London Pact was concluded, according to which Italy undertook to declare war on Austria-Hungary within a month, and also to oppose all enemies of the Entente. As "payment for blood" Italy was promised a number of territories. England gave Italy a loan of 50 million pounds. Despite the ensuing reciprocal offers of territories from the Central Powers, against the backdrop of fierce internal political clashes between opponents and supporters of the two blocs, on May 23, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary.

Balkan theater of operations, Bulgarian entry into the war

Until autumn, there was no activity on the Serbian front. By the beginning of autumn, after the completion of a successful campaign to oust Russian troops from Galicia and Bukovina, the Austro-Hungarians and Germans were able to transfer a large number of troops to attack Serbia. At the same time, it was expected that Bulgaria, impressed by the successes of the Central Powers, intended to enter the war on their side. In this case, a sparsely populated Serbia with a small army would find itself surrounded by enemies from two fronts, and it would face an inevitable military defeat. Anglo-French help arrived very late - only on October 5 did troops begin to land in Thessaloniki (Greece); Russia could not help, since neutral Romania refused to let the Russian troops through. On October 5, the offensive of the Central Powers from the side of Austria-Hungary began, on October 14, Bulgaria declared war on the Entente countries and began military operations against Serbia. The troops of the Serbs, the British and the French were numerically inferior to the forces of the Central Powers by more than 2 times and had no chance of success.

By the end of December, Serbian troops left the territory of Serbia, leaving for Albania, from where in January 1916 their remnants were evacuated to the island of Corfu and Bizerte. In December, the Anglo-French troops withdrew to the territory of Greece, to Thessaloniki, where they were able to gain a foothold, forming the Thessaloniki Front along the border of Greece with Bulgaria and Serbia. The personnel of the Serbian army (up to 150 thousand people) were retained and in the spring of 1916 they strengthened the Thessaloniki Front.

The accession of Bulgaria to the Central Powers and the fall of Serbia opened up direct overland communication with Turkey for the Central Powers.

Military operations in the Dardanelles and on the Gallipoli Peninsula

By the beginning of 1915, the Anglo-French command had developed a joint operation to break through the Dardanelles and enter the Sea of ​​Marmara, to Constantinople. The task of the operation was to ensure free sea communication through the straits and divert Turkish forces from the Caucasian front.

According to the original plan, the breakthrough was to be carried out by the British fleet, which was to destroy the coastal batteries without landing. After the first unsuccessful attacks in small forces (February 19-25), the British fleet launched a general attack on March 18, which involved more than 20 battleships, battlecruisers and obsolete ironclads. After the loss of 3 ships, the British, having not achieved success, left the strait.

After that, the tactics of the Entente changed - it was decided to land expeditionary forces on the Gallipoli peninsula (on the European side of the straits) and on the opposite Asian coast. The landing of the Entente (80 thousand people), consisting of the British, French, Australians and New Zealanders, began landing on April 25th. The landings were made on three bridgeheads divided among the participating countries. The attackers managed to hold out only in one of the sections of Gallipoli, where the Australian-New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) was parachuted. Fierce fighting and the transfer of new Entente reinforcements continued until mid-August, but none of the attempts to attack the Turks yielded a significant result. By the end of August, the failure of the operation became apparent, and the Entente began to prepare for the gradual evacuation of troops. The last troops from Gallipoli were evacuated in early January 1916. The bold strategic plan initiated by Winston Churchill ended in complete failure.

On the Caucasian front in July, Russian troops repelled the offensive of Turkish troops in the area of ​​​​Lake Van, while losing part of the territory (Alashkert operation). The fighting spread to the territory of Persia. On October 30, Russian troops landed in the port of Anzeli, by the end of December they defeated the pro-Turkish armed groups and took control of the territory of Northern Persia, preventing Persia from opposing Russia and securing the left flank of the Caucasian army.

Campaign of 1916

Having not achieved decisive success on the Eastern Front in the 1915 campaign of the year, the German command decided in 1916 to strike the main blow in the west and withdraw France from the war. It planned with powerful flank strikes at the base of the Verdun ledge to cut it off, surrounding the entire Verdun enemy grouping, and thereby creating a huge gap in the Allied defenses, through which it was then supposed to strike at the flank and rear of the central French armies and defeat the entire Allied front.

On February 21, 1916, German troops launched an offensive operation in the area of ​​the Verdun fortress, called the Battle of Verdun. After stubborn fighting with huge losses on both sides, the Germans managed to move 6-8 kilometers forward and take some of the forts of the fortress, but their advance was stopped. This battle continued until December 18, 1916. The French and British lost 750 thousand people, the Germans - 450 thousand.

During the Battle of Verdun, for the first time, a new weapon was used by Germany - a flamethrower. For the first time in the history of warfare, the principles of aircraft combat operations were worked out in the sky over Verdun - the American Lafayette squadron fought on the side of the Entente troops. The Germans first began to use a fighter aircraft in which machine guns fired through a rotating propeller without damaging it.

On June 3, 1916, a major offensive operation of the Russian army began, which was called the Brusilov breakthrough after the front commander A. A. Brusilov. As a result of the offensive operation, the Southwestern Front inflicted a heavy defeat on the German and Austro-Hungarian troops in Galicia and Bukovina, the total losses of which amounted to more than 1.5 million people. At the same time, the Naroch and Baranovichi operations of the Russian troops ended unsuccessfully.

In June, the battle on the Somme began, which lasted until November, during which tanks were used for the first time.

On the Caucasian front in January-February in the battle of Erzurum, Russian troops utterly defeated the Turkish army and captured the cities of Erzurum and Trebizond.

The successes of the Russian army prompted Romania to take the side of the Entente. On August 17, 1916, an agreement was concluded between Romania and the four powers of the Entente. Romania took the obligation to declare war on Austria-Hungary. For this, she was promised Transylvania, part of Bukovina and Banat. On August 28, Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary. However, by the end of the year, the Romanian army was defeated and most of the country's territory was occupied.

The military campaign of 1916 was marked by an important event. May 31 - June 1, the largest naval battle of Jutland took place in the entire war.

All the previous described events demonstrated the superiority of the Entente. By the end of 1916, both sides lost 6 million people killed, about 10 million were wounded. In November-December 1916, Germany and its allies proposed peace, but the Entente rejected the proposal, pointing out that peace is impossible "until the restoration of violated rights and freedoms, the recognition of the principle of nationalities and the free existence of small states" is ensured.

Campaign of 1917

The position of the Central Powers in the 17th year became catastrophic: there were no more reserves for the army, the scale of famine, transport devastation and fuel crisis grew. The Entente countries began to receive significant assistance from the United States (food, industrial goods, and later reinforcements), while strengthening the economic blockade of Germany, and their victory, even without offensive operations, became only a matter of time.

Nevertheless, when, after the October Revolution, the Bolshevik government, which came to power under the slogan of ending the war, concluded a truce with Germany and its allies on December 15, the German leadership had hope for a favorable outcome of the war.

Eastern front

On February 1–20, 1917, the Petrograd Conference of the Entente countries took place, at which plans for the 1917 campaign of the year and, unofficially, the internal political situation in Russia were discussed.

In February 1917, the size of the Russian army, after a major mobilization, exceeded 8 million people. After February Revolution in Russia, the Provisional Government advocated the continuation of the war, which was opposed by the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin.

On April 6, the United States came out on the side of the Entente (after the so-called "Zimmermann telegram"), which finally changed the balance of power in favor of the Entente, but the offensive that began in April (the Nivel Offensive) was unsuccessful. Private operations in the area of ​​the city of Messines, on the Ypres River, near Verdun and at Cambrai, where tanks were first massively used, did not change the general situation on the Western Front.

On the Eastern Front, due to the defeatist agitation of the Bolsheviks and the indecisive policy of the Provisional Government, the Russian army was decomposing and losing combat effectiveness. The offensive launched in June by the forces of the Southwestern Front failed, and the armies of the front retreated 50-100 km. However, despite the fact that the Russian army had lost the ability to actively fight, the Central Powers, who suffered huge losses in the campaign of 1916, could not use the opportunity created for themselves to inflict a decisive defeat on Russia and withdraw it from the war by military means.

On the Eastern Front, the German army limited itself to only private operations that did not affect the strategic position of Germany in any way: as a result of Operation Albion, German troops captured the islands of Dago and Ezel and forced the Russian fleet to leave the Gulf of Riga.

On the Italian front in October-November, the Austro-Hungarian army inflicted a major defeat on the Italian army at Caporetto and advanced 100-150 km deep into Italian territory, reaching the approaches to Venice. Only with the help of the British and French troops transferred to Italy was it possible to stop the Austrian offensive.

In 1917, a relative calm was established on the Thessaloniki front. In April 1917, the allied forces (which consisted of British, French, Serbian, Italian and Russian troops) carried out an offensive operation that brought little tactical results to the Entente troops. However, this offensive could not change the situation on the Thessaloniki front.

Due to the extremely harsh winter of 1916-1917, the Russian Caucasian Army did not conduct active operations in the mountains. In order not to suffer unnecessary losses from frost and disease, Yudenich left only military outposts on the achieved lines, and deployed the main forces in the valleys in the settlements. In early March, the 1st Caucasian Cavalry Corps, Gen. Baratov defeated the Persian grouping of the Turks and, having captured the important road junction Sinnakh (Senendej) and the city of Kermanshah in Persia, moved southwest to the Euphrates towards the British. In mid-March, units of the 1st Caucasian Cossack division of Raddatz and the 3rd Kuban division, having covered more than 400 km, joined with the allies at Kizyl Rabat (Iraq). Turkey lost Mesopotamia.

After the February Revolution, active hostilities by the Russian army on the Turkish front were not conducted, and after the conclusion of the Bolshevik government in December 1917, the truce with the countries of the Quadruple Alliance ceased completely.

On the Mesopotamian front, British troops in 1917 achieved significant success. Having increased the number of troops to 55 thousand people, the British army launched a decisive offensive in Mesopotamia. The British captured a number of important cities: El Kut (January), Baghdad (March), etc. Volunteers from the Arab population fought on the side of the British troops, who met the advancing British troops as liberators. Also, by the beginning of 1917, British troops invaded Palestine, where fierce battles began near Gaza. In October, having brought the number of their troops to 90 thousand people, the British launched a decisive offensive near Gaza and the Turks were forced to retreat. By the end of 1917, the British captured a number of settlements: Jaffa, Jerusalem and Jericho.

In East Africa, the German colonial troops under the command of Colonel Lettov-Vorbeck, significantly outnumbered by the enemy, offered prolonged resistance and in November 1917, under pressure from the Anglo-Portuguese-Belgian troops, invaded the territory of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique.

Diplomatic efforts

On July 19, 1917, the German Reichstag adopted a resolution on the need for peace by mutual agreement and without annexations. But this resolution did not meet with a sympathetic response from the governments of Britain, France and the USA. In August 1917, Pope Benedict XV offered his mediation to conclude peace. However, the Entente governments also rejected the papal proposal, as Germany stubbornly refused to give unequivocal consent to the restoration of Belgian independence.

Campaign of 1918

Decisive Entente victories

After the conclusion of peace treaties with the Ukrainian People's Republic (ukr. Beresteyskiy world), Soviet Russia and Romania and the elimination of the Eastern Front, Germany was able to concentrate almost all its forces on the Western Front and try to inflict a decisive defeat on the Anglo-French troops before the main forces of the American army arrived at the front.

In March-July, the German army launched a powerful offensive in Picardy, Flanders, on the Aisne and Marne rivers, and during fierce battles advanced 40-70 km, but could not defeat the enemy or break through the front. The limited human and material resources of Germany were depleted during the war years. In addition, having occupied the vast territories of the former Russian Empire after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the German command was forced to leave large forces in the east in order to maintain control over them, which had a negative impact on the course of hostilities against the Entente. General Kuhl, Chief of Staff of Prince Ruprecht's Army Group, puts the number of German troops on the Western Front at about 3.6 million; on the Eastern Front, including Romania and excluding Turkey, there were about 1 million people.

In May, American troops began to operate at the front. In July-August, the second Battle of the Marne took place, which marked the beginning of the Entente counteroffensive. By the end of September, the Entente troops, in the course of a series of operations, liquidated the results of the previous German offensive. In the course of a further general offensive in October and early November, most of the occupied French territory and part of Belgian territory were liberated.

At the Italian theater in late October, Italian troops defeated the Austro-Hungarian army at Vittorio Veneto and liberated Italian territory captured by the enemy the previous year.

In the Balkan theater, the Entente offensive began on 15 September. By November 1, the Entente troops liberated the territory of Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, entered the territory of Bulgaria after the truce and invaded the territory of Austria-Hungary.

Bulgaria signed a truce with the Entente on September 29, Turkey on October 30, Austria-Hungary on November 3, and Germany on November 11.

Other theaters of war

There was a lull on the Mesopotamian front throughout 1918, the fighting here ended on November 14, when the British army, not meeting resistance from the Turkish troops, occupied Mosul. In Palestine, too, there was a lull, as the eyes of the parties were turned to more important theaters of war. In the autumn of 1918, the British army launched an offensive and occupied Nazareth, the Turkish army was surrounded and defeated. Having captured Palestine, the British invaded Syria. The fighting here ended on 30 October.

In Africa, the German troops, pressed by superior enemy forces, continued to resist. Leaving Mozambique, the Germans invaded the territory of the English colony of Northern Rhodesia. Only when the Germans learned of Germany's defeat in the war did the colonial troops (who numbered only 1,400 men) lay down their arms.

The results of the war

Political results

In 1919, the Germans were forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which was drafted by the victorious states at the Paris Peace Conference.

Peace treaties with

• Germany (Treaty of Versailles (1919))
• Austria (Treaty of Saint-Germain (1919))
• Bulgaria (Treaty of Neuilly (1919))
• Hungary (Trianon Peace Treaty (1920))
• Turkey (Sevres Peace Treaty (1920)).

The results of the First World War were the February and October revolutions in Russia and the November revolution in Germany, the liquidation of three empires: the Russian, Ottoman empires and Austria-Hungary, the latter two being divided. Germany, having ceased to be a monarchy, was cut down territorially and weakened economically. The Civil War began in Russia, on July 6-16, 1918, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (supporters of Russia's continued participation in the war) organized the assassination of the German ambassador Count Wilhelm von Mirbach in Moscow and the royal family in Yekaterinburg, with the aim of disrupting the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Soviet Russia and Kaiser Germany. After the February Revolution, the Germans, despite the war with Russia, worried about the fate of the Russian imperial family, because the wife of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, was German, and their daughters were both Russian princesses and German princesses. The US has become a great power. The difficult conditions for Germany of the Treaty of Versailles (payment of reparations, etc.) and the national humiliation it suffered gave rise to revanchist sentiments, which became one of the prerequisites for the Nazis to come to power and unleash the Second World War.

Territorial changes

As a result of the war, there were: the annexation by England of Tanzania and South-West Africa, Iraq and Palestine, parts of Togo and Cameroon; Belgium - Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda; Greece - Eastern Thrace; Denmark - Northern Schleswig; Italy - South Tyrol and Istria; Romania - Transylvania and Southern Dobruja; France - Alsace-Lorraine, Syria, parts of Togo and Cameroon; Japan - the German islands in the Pacific Ocean north of the equator; French occupation of the Saar.

The independence of the Byelorussian People's Republic, the Ukrainian People's Republic, Hungary, Danzig, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland and Yugoslavia was proclaimed.

Republic of Austria founded. The German Empire became a de facto republic.

The Rhine region and the Black Sea straits were demilitarized.

Military totals

The First World War spurred the development of new weapons and means of combat. Tanks, chemical weapons, gas masks, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns were used for the first time. Airplanes, machine guns, mortars, submarines, and torpedo boats were widely used. The firepower of the troops increased sharply. New types of artillery appeared: anti-aircraft, anti-tank, infantry escorts. Aviation became an independent branch of the military, which began to be subdivided into reconnaissance, fighter and bomber. There were tank troops, chemical troops, air defense troops, naval aviation. The role of the engineering troops increased and the role of the cavalry decreased. Also appeared "trench tactics" of warfare in order to exhaust the enemy and deplete his economy, working on military orders.

Economic results

The grandiose scale and protracted nature of the First World War led to an unprecedented militarization of the economy for industrialized states. This had an impact on the course of economic development of all major industrial states in the period between the two world wars: strengthening state regulation and economic planning, the formation of military-industrial complexes, accelerating the development of nationwide economic infrastructures (energy systems, a network of paved roads, etc.) , growth in the share of production of defense products and dual-use products.

Opinions of contemporaries

Churchill on Russia in World War I:

Losses in World War I

Losses armed forces of all the powers participating in the world war amounted to about 10 million people. Until now, there are no generalized data on the losses of the civilian population from the impact of military weapons. The famine and epidemics caused by the war caused the death of at least 20 million people.

War memory

France, UK, Poland

Armistice Day (Fr. jour de l "Armistice) 1918 (November 11) is a national holiday in Belgium and France, celebrated annually. Armistice Day in England armisticeday) is celebrated on the Sunday closest to November 11 as Remembrance Sunday. On this day, the fallen of both the First and Second World Wars are commemorated.

In the first years after the end of the First World War, every municipality in France erected a monument to fallen soldiers. In 1921, the main monument appeared - the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

The main British monument to those who died in the First World War is the Cenotaph (Greek Cenotaph - "empty coffin") in London on Whitehall Street, a monument to the Unknown Soldier. It was built in 1919 on the first anniversary of the end of the war. On the second Sunday of every November, the Cenotaph becomes the center of the national Memorial Day. A week before, millions of Britons wear small plastic poppies on their chests, bought from a special charity fund for veterans and military widows. At 11 pm on Sunday, the queen, ministers, generals, bishops and ambassadors lay poppy wreaths at the Cenotaph, and the whole country stops for two minutes of silence.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw was also originally built in 1925 in memory of those who fell on the fields of the First World War. Now this monument is a monument to those who fell for the Motherland in various years.

Russia and Russian emigration

Russia does not have an official day of remembrance for those who died in the First World War, despite the fact that Russia's losses in this war were the largest of all the countries that participated in it.

According to the plan of Emperor Nicholas II, Tsarskoye Selo was to become a special place of memory of the war. The Sovereign's Military Chamber founded there in 1913 was to become the Museum of the Great War. By order of the emperor, a special area was allocated for the burial of the dead and deceased officials of the Tsarskoye Selo garrison. This site became known as the "Cemetery of Heroes". At the beginning of 1915, the "Cemetery of Heroes" was named the First Fraternal Cemetery. On August 18, 1915, a temporary wooden church was laid on its territory in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Satisfy my Sorrows” for the funeral of the dead and those who died from wounds. After the end of the war, instead of a temporary wooden church, it was supposed to erect a temple - a monument to the Great War, designed by architect S. N. Antonov.

However, these plans were not destined to come true. In 1918, the National Museum of the War of 1914-1918 was created in the building of the Military Chamber, but already in 1919 it was abolished, and its exhibits replenished the funds of other museums and repositories. In 1938, the temporary wooden church at the Fraternal Cemetery was dismantled, and a wasteland overgrown with grass remained from the graves of the soldiers.

On June 16, 1916, a monument to the heroes of the "Second Patriotic War". In the 1920s, this monument was destroyed.

On November 11, 2008, a memorial stele (cross) dedicated to the heroes of the First World War was installed on the territory of the Fraternal Cemetery in the city of Pushkin.

Also in Moscow on August 1, 2004, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, on the site of the Moscow City Fraternal Cemetery in the Sokol district, commemorative signs were placed “To those who fell in the World War of 1914-1918”, “Russian sisters of mercy”, “Russian aviators buried at the Moscow city fraternal cemetery.

1914, June 28 Assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne Franz Ferdinand and his wife by the secret organization "Young Bosnia" in Sarajevo. The reason for the outbreak of the First World War.

1914, August - September East Prussian operation of the Russian North-Western Front. It ended with the defeat of the Russian troops.

1914, August - September In the Galician operation, the troops of the Russian Southwestern Front repelled the offensive of the Austro-Hungarian armies in Galicia and Poland.

1914, September Marne operation of the Anglo-French troops. The German troops advancing on Paris were stopped on the Marne River. The German plan to quickly defeat France was thwarted

1914, October November The first battle of Ypres (Hungary). Failures of the German armies. The solid line of the Western Front stretched to the North Sea. The war took on a protracted character and became positional.

1914 December sea ​​battle between the German and English squadrons near the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Almost all German ships are sunk; The English squadron had no losses.

1915, April - May The second battle of Ypres. German troops first used chemical weapons - chlorine.

1916, February - December Verdun operation on the Western Front. The German army tried to break through the front of the French troops in the Verdun region, but met stubborn resistance. In prolonged fierce battles, both sides suffered huge losses.

1916, May 31 - June 1 Battle of Jutland between the English and German fleets. England retained its dominance at sea.

1916, June - August Offensive of the Russian Southwestern Front ("Brusilovsky breakthrough"), commander - General Brusilov. Russian troops broke through the positional defense of the Austro-Hungarians.

1916, July - November Anglo-French troops on the Somme River (east of Amiens) tried to break through the positional defense of the German army. On the Somme, on September 15, British troops used tanks for the first time.

1916, August Romania entered the war against Germany (by the end of the year the Romanian army was defeated). Italy declared war on Germany.

1917, July - November The third battle of Ypres. On July 12, the Germans first used mustard gas, which received the name "mustard gas" (after the battlefield).

1917, October - December German-Austrian troops inflicted a major defeat on the Italian army near the village of Kobarid in Slovenia.

1917, December 15 (2) The Soviet government signed an armistice agreement with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey.

1918, March 3 Brest-Litovsk peace treaty between Russia and Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey. Germany annexes Poland, the Baltic States, part of Belarus and Transcaucasia.

1918, May - June German offensive on the rivers Aisne and Oise. Having broken through the French defenses, the German troops reached the Marne River, finding themselves less than 70 km from Paris.

1918, July 15 - August 4 Second Battle of the Marne. German troops crossed the river. But during the counteroffensive, the allies advanced 40 km and saved Paris from the threat of capture.

1918, September 26 The beginning of the offensive of the armies of the anti-German coalition (Entente) on the Western Front.

1918, September - November Capitulation of Bulgaria (September 29), Austria-Hungary (November 3) and Germany (November 11); armistice between Turkey and England (October 30). End of the First World War.

1919, June 28 Treaty of Versailles. He consolidated the redistribution of the world in favor of the victorious powers. Germany recognized the independence of all the territories that were part of the former Russian Empire by August 1, 1914, as well as the abolition of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918 and all agreements concluded by it with the Soviet government. An inseparable part of the treaty was the statute of the League of Nations.

1917, November 7 (October 25) October socialist revolution in Russia. The leader is Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin).

1918, November 9 Abdication and flight to Holland of Kaiser Wilhelm I. Overthrow of the monarchy in Germany.

1918 - 1922 Civil war in Russia. Armed struggle between the Soviet government and its opponents. According to various sources, from 8 to 13 million people died during the civil war from hunger, disease, terror and in battles; about 2 million were in exile. Main events:

1918, March - April - landing in Murmansk troops of England, France and the United States, in Vladivostok - troops of Japan;

1918, May - August - rebellion of the Czechoslovak military corps (former prisoners of war) in the Volga region, in the Urals and in Siberia;

1918, summer - the formation of the White Guard, Russian military formations that fought against Soviet power;

1919, March - May - the offensive of the White Guard forces from the east, south and west (Admiral A.V. Kolchak, generals A.I. Denikin and N.N. Yudenich), they were all defeated;

1919, autumn - the defeat of Yudenich's army near Petrograd;

1921, March 1-18 - Kronstadt uprising, caused by dissatisfaction with the Soviet government in connection with hunger, economic ruin and repression; crushed by the Red Army

On July 31, 1919, the German Constituent National Assembly adopted the Weimar Constitution, which formalized the replacement of the semi-absolutist monarchy with a parliamentary republic.

1920, June 12 Official opening of the Panama Canal (the first ship passed through the canal in August 1914).

1922, April 16 Rapallo Soviet-German Treaty on the restoration of diplomatic relations and trade and economic ties. It meant a breakthrough in the economic and political blockade of Soviet Russia.

1922, October 27 In Italy, the Nazis came to power, led by Benito Mussolini (head of government since October 30).

1922, December 30 Treaty on the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) as part of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Federation of Transcaucasian Republics.

On October 29, 1922, a republic was proclaimed in Turkey, Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) became its first president.

1923 November Nazi beer hall putsch in Munich to overthrow the Bavarian government. The organizers are General Erich Ludendorff and the leader of the National Socialist Party, Adolf Hitler. The latter was arrested and imprisoned.

1924, January 21 Death of the leader of the USSR Lenin. The beginning of the struggle for leadership between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky.

1929, October The global economic crisis (1929-1933) began with a sharp drop in the stock price on the New York Stock Exchange.

1929, December 27 Proclamation of I.V. Stalin's course to start in the USSR "complete collectivization."

1931, April The overthrow of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic in Spain. In December 1931 a republican constitution was adopted.

1931, February - March Formation of the state of Manchukuo in the territory of Northeast China, occupied by Japanese troops.

1933-1945 Franklin Roosevelt - 32nd President of the United States. He carried out a number of reforms to eliminate the economic crisis of 1929-1933 and mitigate the contradictions of American capitalism. On November 17, 1933, the Roosevelt government established diplomatic relations with the USSR. From the beginning of the Second World War, he offered to support Great Britain, France and the USSR (since June 1941) in their fight against Nazi Germany. He made a significant contribution to the creation of the anti-Hitler coalition. attached great importance the formation of the UN and post-war international cooperation, including between the USA and the USSR.

1934, July 25 Supporters of the Anschluss (joining Germany) killed the Austrian Federal Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss.

On August 2, 1934, Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler became President of Germany. He concentrated legislative and executive power in his hands, established the regime of the Nazi dictatorship in the country and launched active preparations for war.

1935-1936 Italo-Ethiopian war. It ended with the annexation of Ethiopia by Italy.

1936-1939 Spanish Civil War. The republican government of socialists and communists was defeated by the army of General Franco. With the military support of Italy and Germany, an extreme right-wing regime was established, led by Franco.

1936, October The Berlin Agreement formalizes the military-political alliance of Germany and Italy ("Berlin-Rome Axis").

1936, November "Anti-Comintern Pact" between Germany and Japan. Italy joined a year later.

1937, July - 1938, October The invasion of Japanese troops into China, the capture of Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing and Guangzhou.

1938 March German troops occupied Austria; proclaimed its accession to Germany (Anschluss).

1938, September Munich Agreement between Great Britain (N. Chamberlain), France (E. Daladier), Germany (A. Hitler) and Italy (B. Mussolini). It provided for the separation from Czechoslovakia and the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany, as well as the satisfaction of territorial claims to Czechoslovakia from Hungary and Poland.

1939, August Soviet-German non-aggression pact ("Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact") with a secret appendix establishing the delimitation of "spheres of interest" of the parties; Soviet Union, under this agreement, could annex Eastern Poland, the Baltic States, Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and part of Finland (the capture took place in 1939-1940).

Attitude towards the Brest Peace

"Left Communists" (Bukharin) - against peace, for a revolutionary war

L. Trotsky: "No peace, no war!"

V. I. Lenin: "Peace at any cost!"

Other political forces: against peace with Germany.

Consequences of the Brest peace:

The Bolsheviks got a breather and retained power

The loss of grain-producing areas led to famine

Pursuing a policy of "war communism" - the requisition of bread from the peasants, which led to discontent

Open intervention of the Entente

Russia was not invited to the Versailles Conference and received no compensation

Consequences of the war for Russia

Political:

Defeat in the war

End of an empire

October Revolution of 1917, power of the Soviets

Economic:

Militarization of the economy

Reduction of enterprises and output

Loss of a significant part of economically important territories

Social:

Significant decline in the standard of living of the population

Population decline. Decreasing birth rate

Famine, epidemics, diseases

From the history of the First World War:

The war lasted from July 28, 1914 - November 11, 1918(officially the state of the world was approved on June 28, 1919)

38 states participated in the war (4 on the side of the German bloc: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria), the rest on the side of the Entente.

About 74 million people were mobilized, more than 10 million were killed, more than 20 million were wounded.

August 21-25, 1914 - battle at Charleroi, the defeat of the British and French troops.

September 5-12, 1914 - German defeat at the Battle of Marne, stopped the advance of Germany in France.

February-December 1916- Verdun operation(“Verdun meat grinder”, more than 2 million soldiers died)

July-November 1916 - fighting on the river Somme.

In war first used tanks, aviation. chemical weapon.

All countries were seriously affected by the war. Only Great Britain remained the winner - new colonies were added, the country began to own almost a fourth of the land.

November 11, 1918 - signing of an armistice between the victors (the countries of the Entente) and Germany in Compiègne forest(France)

Parisian peace conference (January 18, 1919 - January 21, 1920) 27 countries participated. The conference prepared the main treaties following the results of the war. Russia - did not participate (it was considered a country that lost the war, Soviet power was considered temporary)

Versailles peace treaty signed June 28, 1919, entered into force - January 10, 1920. The treaty officially ended the First World War, secured a new redistribution of the world. Russia - did not participate (for the same reasons as at the Paris Conference)

In the First World War FOR THE FIRST TIME:

Applied chemical weapon- Germans, near the river Ypres (hence mustard gas) in 1915

tanks- the British were the first to use them in the battle on the Somme on September 15, 1915 against Turkey

Submarines- England, Germany

Aviation- By the beginning of the war, aviation was part of the armies of developed countries as auxiliary forces. (The first combat use of aircraft refers to the Balkan wars in 1912-1913)

Some terms

The Schlieffen Plan - Germany's blitzkrieg plan (2-3 months) - the defeat of France, without which Great Britain would not be able to wage war. Then a peace conference would be held and the colonies would be divided in a new way.

Trench warfare - a war in which the struggle is fought on continuous, relatively stable fronts (positions), great attention is paid to defense.

"Progressive bloc '- created in 1915, it is a coalition of progressive deputies in State Duma, the demand for reform.

Organizations created during the war in Russia:

May 1915- Central Military Industrial Committee for the organization of production for defense needs and the distribution of military orders (headed by the Octobrist Guchkov)

July 10, 1915 - the joint committee of the All-Russian Zemsky and City Unions - Zemgor- supplying the army, helping it (at the head- Lviv, close to the cadets)

Versailles system- the world order approved by the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919: strengthening the positions of the victorious countries in the war (France and Great Britain)

Today no one remembers when it was World War I who fought with whom and because of what the conflict itself began. But millions of soldiers' graves all over Europe and modern Russia do not allow to forget about this bloody page of history, including our state.

Causes and inevitability of war.

The beginning of the last century was quite tense - revolutionary sentiments in the Russian Empire with regular demonstrations and terrorist attacks, local military conflicts in southern Europe, the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the exaltation of Germany.

All this did not happen in one day, the situation developed and escalated over decades and no one knew how to “blow off steam” and at least delay the start of hostilities.

By and large, each country had unsatisfied ambitions and claims against its neighbors, which, in the old fashioned way, they wanted to solve with the help of force of arms. They just didn’t take into account the moment that technological progress gave real “infernal machines” into human hands, the use of which led to a bloody massacre. It was with these words that veterans described many battles of that period.

The balance of power in Europe.

But in a war there are always two conflicting sides that are trying to get their way. During WWI, these were Entente and Central Powers.

In unleashing a conflict, it is customary to place all the blame on the losing side, so let's start with it. The list of Central Powers at various stages of the war included:

• Germany.
• Austria-Hungary.
• Turkey.
• Bulgaria.

There were only three states in the Entente:

• Russian empire.
• France.
• England.

Both alliances were formed at the end of the nineteenth century, and for some time they balanced the political and military forces in Europe.

Awareness of the inevitable major war on several fronts at the same time often stopped them from making hasty decisions, but the situation could not continue like this for a long time.

What started World War I?

The first state to announce the start of hostilities was Austro-Hungarian Empire. As enemy spoke Serbia, which sought to unite under its command all the Slavs in the southern region. Apparently, this policy was not particularly liked by the restless neighbor, who did not want to get a powerful confederation at his side that could jeopardize the very existence of Austria-Hungary.

Reason for declaring war was the murder of the heir to the imperial throne, who was shot dead by Serbian nationalists. Theoretically, this would have ended - this is not the first time that two countries in Europe have declared war on each other and, with varying degrees of success, carried out offensive or defensive operations. But the fact is that Austria-Hungary was only a protege of Germany, which had long wanted to reshape the world order in its favor.

The reason was failed colonial policy of the country who got involved in this fight too late. One of the advantages of having a huge number of dependent states was a market that was practically unlimited. Industrialized Germany desperately needed such a bonus, but could not get it. It was impossible to resolve the issue peacefully, the neighbors safely received their profits and did not burn with the desire to share with someone.

But the defeat in hostilities and the signing of surrender could somewhat change the situation.

Allied Member States.

From the above lists, it can be concluded that no more than 7 countries, but why then is the war called the World War? The fact is that each of the blocks had allies who entered the war or left it at certain stages:

1. Italy.
2. Romania.
3. Portugal.
4. Greece.
5. Australia.
6. Belgium.
7. Japanese empire.
8. Montenegro.

These countries did not make a decisive contribution to the overall victory, but we must not forget their active participation in the war on the side of the Entente.

In 1917, the United States joined this list, after another attack by a German submarine on a passenger ship.

The results of the war for the main participants.

Russia was able to fulfill the minimum plan for this war - ensure the protection of the Slavs in Southern Europe . But the main goal was much more ambitious: control over the Black Sea straits could make our country a truly great maritime power.

But the then leadership did not succeed in dividing the Ottoman Empire and getting some of its most “tasty” fragments. And given the social tension in the country and the subsequent revolution, slightly different problems arose. The Austro-Hungarian Empire also ceased to exist - the worst economic and political consequences for the initiator.

France and England were able to gain a foothold in leading positions in Europe, thanks to impressive indemnities from Germany. But Germany was waiting for hyperinflation, the rejection of the army, a severe crisis with the fall of several regimes. This led to the desire for revenge and the NSDAP at the head of state. But the United States was able to capitalize on this conflict, incurring minimal losses.

Do not forget about what the First World War is, who fought with whom and what horrors it brought to society. The growth of tension and the conflict of interests may once again lead to such irreparable consequences.

Video about the First World War