World War I

Initial Actions

A German trench in the swamp area near the Mazuric Lakes on the Eastern Front. Picture taken in February 1915, just before the German winter-offensive started in heavy snowstorms.

While the Western Front had reached stalemate in the trenches, the war continued in the east. The Russian initial plans for war had called for simultaneous invasions of Austrian Galicia and German East Prussia. Although Russia's initial advance into Galicia was largely successful, they were driven back from East Prussia by the victories of the German generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff at the battles of Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes in August and September 1914. Russia's less-developed industrial base and ineffective military leadership was instrumental in the events that unfolded. By the spring of 1915, the Russians were driven back in Galicia and in May, the Central Powers achieved a remarkable breakthrough on Poland's southern fringes, capturing Warsaw on August 5 and forcing the Russians to withdraw from all of Poland. This became known as the "Great Retreat" by the Russian Empire and the "Great Advance" by Germany.

Russian Revolution

Dissatisfaction with the Russian government's conduct of the war grew despite the success of the June 1916 Brusilov offensive in eastern Galicia against the Austrians. The Russian success was undermined by the reluctance of other generals to commit their forces in support of the victorious sector commander. Allied and Russian forces revived only temporarily with Romania's entry into the war on August 27; German forces came to the aid of embattled Austrian units in Transylvania, and Bucharest fell to the Central Powers on December 6. Meanwhile, internal unrest grew in Russia as the tsar remained out of touch at the front. Empress Alexandra's increasingly incompetent rule drew protests from all segments of Russian political life and resulted in the murder of Alexandra's favorite, Grigori Rasputin, by conservative noblemen at the end of 1916.

In March 1917 demonstrations in St. Petersburg culminated in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the appointment of a weak Russian Provisional Government, which shared power with the socialists of the Petrograd Soviet. This division of power led to confusion and chaos both on the front and at home, and the army became increasingly ineffective.

Vladimir Lenin

The war, and the government, became more and more unpopular, and the discontent led to a rise in popularity of the Bolshevik political party, led by Vladimir Lenin, who were able to gain power. The October Revolution was followed in December by an armistice and negotiations with Germany. At first, the Bolsheviks refused to agree to the harsh German terms, but when Germany resumed the war and marched with impunity across Ukraine, the new government acceded to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, which took Russia out of the war and ceded vast territories, including Finland, the Baltic provinces, Poland, and Ukraine to the Central Powers.

After the Russians dropped out of the war, the Entente no longer existed. The Allied Powers led a small-scale invasion of Russia. The invasion was made with intent primarily to stop Germany from exploiting Russian resources and, to a lesser extent, to support the Whites in the Russian Revolution. Troops landed in Archangel and in Vladivostok.