Periodization of the main events of the First World War. Causes, nature and main stages of the First World War

Having learned about the German invasion of Belgium and Luxembourg and having received the first intelligence data, the French command decided to strike in the south, avoiding a head-on collision with German troops in Belgium. The French military and political command believed that the rapid capture of Alsace would raise the spirit of the army and cause a new patriotic wave among the population of France. On the morning of August 7, the French suddenly struck near Mühlhausen and captured it. The Germans retreated beyond the Rhine, but, having received reinforcements, recaptured the city two days later. By August 28, the situation on the Southern Front near the Swiss border had stabilized, and. Since then, military operations there have been only limited. The center of gravity of the struggle again moved north, towards Belgium.

On August 21-25, in a “border” battle, the German armies pushed back the Anglo-French troops, invaded Northern France and, continuing the offensive, reached the river by the beginning of September. Marne between Paris and Verdun. The “border” battle was conceived on both sides as a large-scale strategic offensive operation: the French hoped to defeat the enemy on their territory and in Belgium, and the Germans hoped to implement the Schlieffen plan and reach Paris. However, neither side was able to carry out what was planned - the battle ended with the strategic retreat of the allied Anglo-French troops, but the Germans never defeated the main enemy forces. Nevertheless, German troops continued to advance deep into French territory. Paris was under threat of capture - Minister of War A. Millerand even proposed leaving the capital, declaring it an open city, and the French high command had already decided to blow up all the forts of the Verdun fortress.

However, after the formation of two new armies, it was decided to launch a counter-offensive. The Battle of the Marne has begun. moose September 5th. 6 Anglo-French and 5 German armies took part in it - a total of about 2 million people. The fighting unfolded from the suburbs of Paris to Verdun and covered almost the entire Western Front. The French army launched an attack west of the Ourcq River and was able to move forward a little, and the British attacked on the westernmost section of the front, where they successfully launched an offensive at a speed of 7-14 km per day. On September 8, the advancing Anglo-French troops wedged themselves between the 1st and 2nd German armies, after which they had to retreat 60 km. Thus, the Anglo-French troops stopped the advance of German troops towards Paris, and on September 9, the German High Command ordered its troops to retreat beyond the river. Enu. On September 14, the Chief of the German General Staff, Colonel General Moltke Jr., was removed from office for the failure of the operation to capture Paris, and Minister of War Lieutenant General E. Falkenhayn was appointed in his place.

Subsequently, the opposing sides began to transfer new troops to the Western Front. The opponents' desire to cover each other's open flanks led to maneuver operations (September 16 - October 15), called "Run to the Sea." They ended when the front reached the sea coast.

In October and November, bloody battles in Flanders exhausted and balanced the forces of the parties. The largest of these were the battles in Flanders from October 19 to November 14. However, as a result of all these operations, none of the warring parties succeeded in achieving the goal and entering the enemy’s flank. In the end, a continuous front line stretched from the Swiss border to the North Sea. Maneuvering actions in the West gave way to positional struggle. The opponents found themselves facing each other's well-fortified fortifications on a huge front stretching more than 700 km. Germany's expectation of a lightning defeat and the withdrawal of France from the war did not materialize.

The “Miracle on the Marne” and the German retreat from Paris were largely facilitated by the offensive actions of Russian troops in East Prussia. The Russian command, yielding to the persistent demands of the French government, decided to take active action even before the end of the mobilization and concentration of its armies. According to the plan developed by the Supreme Commander's Headquarters, the Russian 1st Army was to launch an offensive bypassing the Masurian Lakes from the north and cutting off German troops from Konigsberg and the Vistula. The 2nd Army was intended to conduct an offensive bypassing the Masurian Lakes from the west and prevent the withdrawal of German troops beyond the Vistula. In general, the plan of the East Prussian operation was to cover the enemy group from both flanks. Russian troops had superiority over the enemy in all positions, which made it possible to hope for the success of the planned offensive operation.

On August 4, the 1st Russian Army under the command of General P.K. Rennenkampf crossed the state border and entered the territory of East Prussia. During fierce fighting, German troops began to retreat to the west. Soon the 2nd Russian Army of General A.V. Samsonov also crossed the border of East Prussia. The German headquarters had already decided to withdraw troops beyond the Vistula, but, taking advantage of the lack of interaction between the 1st and 2nd armies, the mistakes of the Russian high command, or even simply the criminal negligence of the commanders, the German troops, under the leadership of the new commanders - Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff, managed to inflict a heavy defeat on the 2nd Army, and then push the 1st Army back to its original positions. As a result, the Northwestern Front lost almost 80 thousand soldiers and. The tactical successes of the Russians in the first days of the operation resulted in heavy losses at the final stage due to the command.

Despite the failure of the operation, the invasion of the Russian army into East Prussia had important consequences. It forced the Germans to transfer two army corps and one cavalry division from France to the Russian front, which seriously weakened their strike force in the west and was one of the reasons for its defeat in the Battle of the Marne. At the same time, by their actions in East Prussia, the Russian armies shackled the Germans and kept them from assisting the Austro-Hungarian troops.

Another major military operation on the Eastern Front was the Battle of Galicia. In its scale it significantly exceeded the East Prussian operation. It involved 4 armies of the Russian Southwestern Front, whose commander-in-chief was General N.I. Ivanov, and the chief of staff was General M.V. Alekseev, and 3 Austro-Hungarian armies. Before the start of the operation, the troops of the Southwestern Front were deployed in an arc of over 400 km against Austria-Hungary. According to the directive, the 8th Army under the command of General A.A. Brusilov was the first to act, and the 3rd Army of General N.V. Ruzsky was to enter battle the next day.

According to the plan of the Russian command, the troops of the Southwestern Front were to carry out a large-scale enveloping maneuver with the aim of encircling and subsequently destroying the main forces of the Austro-Hungarian army. The Chief of the General Staff of Austria-Hungary, Field Marshal K. von Holzendorf, also set big goals for himself. German troops were also ready to come to the aid of their allies in the Sedlitz area. The desire of both sides to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy and achieve convincing success in the first stage of the war led to the scale of the battle for Galicia. Up to 2 million people took part in the battle, and the theater of military operations extended between the rivers from the Dniester to the Vistula.

During the operation (August 5 - September 8), Russian troops, repelling the enemy onslaught, launched a counteroffensive and captured Lvov and Galich. Subsequently, the Russian armies advanced 200 km inland and occupied Galicia. The threat of invasion of Hungary and Silesia was created, and the military power of Austria-Hungary was significantly undermined. In the Battle of Galicia, the Austro-Hungarian troops lost over 300 thousand people, of which more than 100 thousand were prisoners. The Russian armies lost about 200 thousand people. Until the end of the war, the Austro-Hungarian army lost the ability to conduct operations independently, without the support of German troops. The favorable outcome of the Battle of Galicia for Russian weapons strengthened Russia’s military-strategic position; moreover, through its actions it provided enormous assistance to the armies of England and France in an extremely difficult situation on the Western Front. The enemy could not help but admit this. “Events on the Marne and Galicia postponed the outcome of the war to a completely indefinite period. The task of quickly achieving solutions, which until now had been the basis for the German way of warfare, was reduced to zero,” E. Falkenhayn later recalled.

Among other strategic operations on the Eastern Front, Warsaw-Ivangorod and Lodz stood out. The first took place from September 28 to November 8, 1914, and it began with the offensive of the 9th German Army, supported by Austro-Hungarian units. The enemy quickly occupied the left bank of the Vistula, but was unable to capture the right bank, where the Ivangorod fortress was located. Moreover, more than 15 thousand German soldiers and were captured. German troops had to retreat from Warsaw and take up defensive positions. On October 18–23, after a regrouping, the Russian command launched a new offensive in the Warsaw and Ivangorod directions, as a result of which the German 9th Army was thrown back to the borders of Silesia, and the 1st Austro-Hungarian Army to the Kielce-Sandomierz line. Only the separation of the Russian rear bases from the rearguard by 150–200 km and the associated interruptions in the supply of food and military equipment forced our troops to stop their successful offensive. Nevertheless, we have to admit that this time too the Russian command was unable to take full advantage of the favorable situation and build on its success.

The Russian headquarters considered the hasty retreat of the German troops beyond the Vistula as a result of their complete defeat, but, having escaped defeat, the Germans, with the forces of the same 9th Army, began a retaliatory operation, which was called the Lodz operation and lasted from November 11 to 24, 1914. This was one of the most difficult operations of the First World War; about 600 thousand people took part in it on both sides.

The first blow was struck by the German 9th Army, which as a result managed to wedge itself between units of the 1st and 2nd Russian armies. The commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Front, Ruzsky, responded with a successful counterattack, but his troops were exhausted in the bloody battles for Lodz, and reinforcements arrived extremely slowly. At the same time, the Germans, who had an extensive network of railways, managed to quickly mobilize their reserves. The Lodz operation ended at the end of November without results for both sides: the Russians were unable to penetrate deep into Germany, and the Germans were unable to encircle and destroy the Russian armies. As a result, the warring parties exhausted their offensive capabilities and went on the defensive.

Assessing Russia's contribution to the 1914 campaign, the English Prime Minister of the First World War, D. Lloyd George, noted in 1939: “The ideal of Germany is and has always been a war quickly brought to an end... In 1914, plans were drawn up with precisely this goal, and it almost would not have been achieved if not for Russia...”

Military operations in 1914 were carried out in other land theaters, and not only in the East and West of Europe. On August 23, Japan declared war on Germany. Shortly before this, Tokyo presented an ultimatum to Berlin demanding that the territory of Jia-ozhou leased from China be transferred to Japan without any conditions or compensation. Having received no response, Japanese troops began an operation to capture this German colony and the Qingdao naval base. The siege of German possessions did not last long, and on November 7 the German garrison capitulated. German losses were 800 compared to 2,000 for the Japanese. After these events, Germany had no Far Eastern possessions left, and the Japanese practically no longer took part in the First World War.

In October, Türkiye entered the war on the side of the German bloc. Power in this country was essentially in the hands of the German generals, and primarily in the military adjutant of Sultan Mehmed V Reshad, Field Marshal K. von der Goltz and the chief of staff of the Turkish High Command F. von Schellendorff.

The Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century included a huge number of peoples living over a vast territory - from the Arabian Peninsula to the Caucasus. Accordingly, the Turks were forced to open several fronts. Thus, the 1st and 2nd Turkish armies were intended to protect the capital and the Black Sea straits, the 3rd under the command of Izzet Pasha was ordered to wage war in Western Armenia against Russia, the 4th army was to fight in Syria and Palestine, and the 6th I - to act in Mesopotamia. However, due to historical and geopolitical reasons, the main thing for the Turks was the Caucasian Front against Russia, where the most active military operations took place. For Russia, the Caucasian Front was by no means the most important, and therefore the Russian General Staff decided to limit itself in the Caucasus to only active defense, which, taking into account the terrain, did not require significant costs.

The war between Russia and Turkey began on October 30, 1914, when two German cruisers - “Goeben” and “Breslau”, from the stern of which German flags were lowered and Turkish flags were hung, attacked Sevastopol, Feodosia and Odessa. Military operations in the Caucasus began on November 2, when parts of the Russian army crossed the border in several places, and the Turks simultaneously invaded the Russian Empire in the area of ​​Batum and the fortified city of Kars. The Caucasian front stretched for 720 km, at its head was Count I. I. Vorontsov-Dashkov, but, taking into account his more than venerable age, all affairs were actually led by the chief of staff N. N. Yudenich. In total, the Russian command had 170 thousand bayonets at its disposal, the Turks had large forces.

The most significant event on the Caucasian front in 1914 was the Sarakamysh operation, which lasted from December 9 to 25. It ended in the complete defeat of the 3rd Turkish Army, which lost 90 thousand people and over 60 guns. Since then, the Ottoman Empire has never been able to restore its combat capability in the Caucasus. However, the losses of the Russian army during the operation were great - more than 20 thousand people.

As for military operations in the Middle Eastern theater of operations, events there at the end of 1914 developed slowly: the British managed to capture Basra and a number of other small towns in Mesopotamia, and the Turks, in turn, advanced several kilometers deep into the Sinai Peninsula and began to threaten an invasion Egypt.

It should be noted that at the very beginning of the war, Berlin lost all its colonial possessions both in the Pacific Ocean and in Africa. The Germans were unable to oppose anything to the superior forces of the Entente in Togo, Cameroon and South-West Africa.

Thus, in the 1914 campaign, neither side achieved its goals and was unable to achieve strategic superiority over the enemy. In conditions of approximate equality of forces, the warring parties now decided to make every effort to win over as many allies as possible.

The collapse of the strategy of lightning war - blitzkrieg - had much more important consequences for Germany and its allies than for the Entente countries. In those years, the sun still did not set on the British Empire, its colonies were rich and populous, and His Majesty’s fleet, as before, dominated the vast expanses of the world’s oceans. Boundless Russia also had inexhaustible human and food resources. The blockaded Central Powers, on the contrary, were practically deprived of the opportunity to conduct foreign trade; Germany's food reserves were limited and not designed for a long and persistent war on two fronts; Berlin also lacked a number of strategic materials. Therefore, realizing that they would never win a victory on two fronts in a war of attrition, the Germans decided to defeat the enemy piece by piece.

In January 1915, the German and Austro-Hungarian command approved a military action plan for the current year. This plan provided for active defense along the entire 700-kilometer length of the Western Front and powerful offensive actions in the East, which should have led to the complete defeat and withdrawal of Russia from the war. Germany was going to defeat Russia with the help of two powerful attacks in converging directions, in order to surround most of the Russian troops in the Polish cauldron, and then completely destroy them. After the surrender of Russia, all forces of the coalition allies were planned to be transferred to the Western Front to finish off England and France. It was no coincidence that the Germans chose Russia for the main attack: its armies were 1.5 times closer to Berlin than the French troops, and created a real threat of reaching the Hungarian Plain and defeating Austria-Hungary. At the same time, in Germany, among the authoritative military men, there were people who believed that decisive action must first be taken in the West, until England recovered and fully deployed its colonial units on the continent.

Unlike Berlin, there was complete disagreement in Petrograd regarding the plan for the 1915 campaign. Quartermaster General of the Supreme High Command, Yu. N. Danilov, advocated an offensive operation in the northwestern direction in order to deliver a subsequent blow to Berlin and eliminate the bulge of the East Prussian German group that was dangerously hanging over the Russian armies. He was supported by the Commander-in-Chief of the Northwestern Front, General Ruzsky. The commander of the Southwestern Front, General Ivanov, and his chief of staff, General Alekseev, on the contrary, believed that the shortest route to Berlin lay through the Danube Hungarian plains and Vienna, which were defended by the weak Austro-Hungarian army. As a result of these disputes, a compromise plan was adopted, the worst plan: two blows were simultaneously struck against the enemy - against East Prussia and Austria-Hungary. Russia had neither the strength nor the means for such an offensive in two divergent directions.

The Russians were the first to begin operations on the Eastern Front in 1915, but they failed to defeat the enemy on the right flank of the Northwestern Front. Moreover, they “slept through” the concentration of German forces in the Augustow area, where they were forced to retreat a little. At the same time, in the Carpathians throughout January and February there were fierce battles with Austro-Hungarian troops supported by 90 thousand Germans. As a result, Brusilov's army had to leave the foothills of the Carpathians and gain a foothold on the defense line between the Prut and Dniester rivers. Compensation for these losses for the Russians was the capture of the strategically important fortress of Przemysl and its 120,000-strong garrison on March 22, 1915. Thus, the enemy again faced the threat of a breakthrough of Russian troops onto the Hungarian Plain, and the Germans were forced to transfer several new divisions from the Western Front to the East.

It was precisely in order to prevent the Russians from breaking through to the plains of Hungary that the German and Austrian command prepared and carried out the Gorlitsky offensive operation. To break through the front in the area of ​​​​the town of Gorlitsa, the German command removed several selected corps from the Western Front and united them into the 11th Army under the command of General A. von Mackensen. In total, in the breakthrough area, the German and Austro-Hungarian troops had 126 thousand soldiers, compared to 60 thousand for the Russians. The superiority of the Central Powers in weapons was also enormous. The German offensive began on May 2 after a powerful artillery bombardment, and the Russian front in the Carpathian region, as the enemy had planned, was broken through. In total, the Gorlitsky operation lasted 52 days and became one of the largest defensive operations for Russia in the First World War. As a result, the Russians had to leave Galicia, and now the enemy hung over the East Prussian group of the Russian army from three sides at once - the Eastern Front began to resemble an arc with a convexity in the area from Osovets to Sokol, 300 km, and in depth from Brest-Litovsk to the left flank - 200 km. And yet, the enemy failed to achieve a solution to the main task during the Gorlitsky operation. The Russian front was not defeated, but only “pushed through,” and after the strategic retreat the concentration of forces began again.

In the summer of 1915, the Russian army fought major defensive battles in Poland and the Baltic states. In an extremely unfavorable geostrategic situation for the North-Western Front that arose after the retreat from the Carpathians, on July 5, under the threat of encirclement, Headquarters decided to straighten the front line and withdraw troops to the line Lomza - Upper Narev - Brest-Litovsk - Kovel. This decision was the only correct one and fully corresponded to the current situation. Thus, the Russian army was forced to leave Poland, although the grandiose plan of the German command to encircle Russian troops in the “Polish bag” was never realized. The occupation of Galicia, Poland, Lithuania and Courland by the Germans was, of course, a serious blow for the Russians, but did not lead to the defeat of the Eastern Front and Russia’s exit from the war with the conclusion of a separate peace. A thorough analysis of the situation on the Eastern Front that had developed by the fall led the Germans to the conclusion that new major offensive operations were impossible here, and a temporary lull occurred in the Eastern European theater of military operations. By October 1915, the front had finally stabilized on the line Riga - Dvinsk - Baranovichi - Ternopil. During the 1915 campaign, Russian troops suffered the greatest losses of the war - about 2.5 million people killed, wounded and captured. Enemy losses amounted to more than 1 million people.

The defeat of the Russian armies in 1915 had one important political consequence - as a result of palace intrigues, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, was relieved of his post, and his functions were assumed by Tsar Nicholas II, who had absolutely no ability for strategic thinking and did not enjoy authority in the army.

In contrast to the Eastern Front, the fighting on the Western Front took on a completely different character. From the border of Switzerland to the coast of the North Sea in Flanders, a continuous positional front was formed, where the opponents held a stubborn defense. Instead of one defensive line of trenches, three appeared here, and all of them were connected to each other by an extensive system of passages. Dense lines of wire fences were installed in front of the positions of the warring parties. It became simply impossible to break through such a defense without powerful artillery preparation.

And yet, in the spring of 1915, the Entente allies planned to deliver two strong blows to the Germans - in Champagne near Saint-Mihiel and in Artois near Arras. In the battles in Champagne, for example, 140 thousand people took part on the German side, 250 thousand on the British and French side. The breakthrough was made in an area 7 to 12 km wide, and the artillery density was 15–20 guns per kilometer of front. However, these operations did not bring success to the Allies - they advanced only 3–4 km per day, and then the offensive completely died out. It was then that Berlin's last fears about the stability of its Western Front disappeared, and the Germans boldly began transferring troops to the East to attack Russia.

At the same time, in battles with the allies near the city of Ypres, the German command used chemical warfare agents for the first time. The gas attack was so unexpected for the British that they abandoned their positions in panic. In total, on April 22, during this famous German attack, 15 thousand British soldiers were injured, of which 5 thousand died. As a result, a practically undefendable hole 10 km wide and 7 km deep appeared in the ranks of the British. However, fortunately for the Allies, this attack turned out to be tactically unprepared and the Germans did not have the reserves to build on their success.

In 1915, the warring parties acquired new allies: in the summer Italy entered the war on the side of the Entente, and in October Bulgaria joined the Austro-German bloc. In this regard, new fronts were formed, the largest of which was the Italian. Here Rome deployed four armies, consisting of 35 divisions, which numbered about 870 thousand soldiers and. Austria-Hungary was able to put only 20 divisions into the fight against Italy. Given that the bulk of the German and Austro-Hungarian troops were engaged on the Western and Eastern Fronts, in the Alps the allies of the Central Powers coalition decided to resort to defensive tactics.

Using their numerical superiority, on May 24, 1915, Italian troops went on the offensive in the area of ​​the Isonzo River, but they failed to break through the Austrian defenses in the Alps. In mid-June, in the Isonzo area, the Italians launched a second attack on Austrian positions, in the fall - a third, and then a fourth. However, they were unable to achieve their goal and break through the enemy’s defenses - they were sorely short of ammunition, artillery support was weak, and the level of professional training of command personnel left much to be desired, even in comparison with the multilingual army of Austria-Hungary. Over six months of fighting, the Italians suffered huge losses of 280 thousand people and lost their best personnel. And yet, the offensive of the Italian army at the Isonzo provided enormous assistance to Russia - the Austrians were forced to transfer 25 of their divisions from Galicia and Serbia to the new front. This was the only real help to Russia, which was in an extremely difficult situation at that time.

The treacherous entry of Bulgaria into the war on the side of Germany against its Slavic brothers sharply worsened the strategic position of Serbia. Serbia and Montenegro were left alone against the bloc of central powers, which was joined by Bulgaria, led by Tsar Ferdinand of the German Coburg dynasty. Now 10 German, 8 Austro-Hungarian and 11 Bulgarian divisions were concentrated against little Serbia, in the ranks of which there were over half a million people, while the Serbs themselves had half as many under arms. The Entente allies provided extremely insufficient assistance to Belgrade - only on October 5, the Anglo-French expeditionary force, initially numbering only 20 thousand people, was landed in Thessaloniki. This help was extremely insufficient and belated.

On October 15, 1915, the Central Powers went on the offensive against Belgrade. Despite the desperate resistance of the Serbs, the forces were not equal. “Serbia’s path to Golgotha”—the retreat—has begun. The Serbian army and the mass of the population fought their way to the Adriatic coast, only to later evacuate to the Greek island of Corfu or to the French naval base at Bizerte in Tunisia. In May 1916, Serbian troops, with the help of the allied fleet, were transferred to Thessaloniki, where they continued to fight as part of the Entente forces.

One of the largest landing operations during the First World War was the Dardanelles. It lasted for almost a whole year and lasted from February 19, 1915 to January 9, 1916.

The idea of ​​conducting a major landing operation in the Eastern Mediterranean among the Entente allies arose at the end of 1914. It was then, expecting a German offensive on the Western Front, that the Anglo-French command turned to their Russian colleagues with a request to intensify actions on the Eastern Front and not allow the Germans to transfer troops to Paris. From Petrograd, in response to the Allies' request, consent was conveyed, but with one condition: the British and French, in turn, would conduct a major naval or land operation in the Dardanelles region in order to divert part of the Turkish troops from the Caucasian front.

From a political point of view, this Russian proposal suited the allies very well: the British could thus be the first to enter Constantinople, which would become a trump card in subsequent negotiations on the post-war world order, and the French hoped by their actions in the Mediterranean to speed up Italy’s entry into the ranks of the Entente.

England and France actively began preparing for the operation. In London, one of its most active supporters was Navy Minister W. Churchill. However, this activity and the desire to turn the landing operation from a diversionary maneuver into a full-scale action seriously frightened the Russians - they themselves expected to receive Constantinople as the main prize after the war. Ultimately, the preparation of the Dardanelles operation stimulated the completion of negotiations on the fate of Constantinople between the Entente allies. Agreement on this matter was finalized in March-April 1915 in a series of treaties. England and France agreed to transfer Constantinople and its surrounding territories to Russia in exchange for other areas in the Asian part of the Ottoman Empire.

The Dardanelles operation consisted of two stages. At the first (from February 19 to March 18, 1915), only the fleet was supposed to be involved, and at the second (April 25, 1915 - January 9, 1916) a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula was planned, followed by the capture of enemy fortifications in the Dardanelles area. This would ensure the passage of the fleet into the Sea of ​​Marmara.

The operation began, as planned, on the morning of February 19 with the shelling of the outer forts of the Dardanelles by the allied Anglo-French fleet, and the general attack was scheduled for March 18. However, it did not lead to success: of the 16 large ships that took part in the breakthrough, 3 were killed and another 3 were out of action for a long time, while the Turkish forts were only slightly destroyed. During the operation, the Anglo-French fleet made a number of serious tactical mistakes, as a result of which it was never able to complete the tasks assigned to it: the fire was poorly adjusted, the Allies were not prepared at all to fight against field artillery, they underestimated the mine danger in the strait - The minesweepers failed to cope with their task.

The failure of the Allies' attempts to cross the Dardanelles and strike at Constantinople had very important political consequences: Bulgaria accelerated the process of rapprochement with the Triple Alliance, Germanophiles came to power in Greece, and the Italians thought about the advisability of joining the Entente.

Despite the serious setbacks that befell the Allies during the first phase of the Dardanelles operation, it was decided not to cancel its second phase - the landing. On the morning of April 25, French, English, New Zealand marine units and the Greek volunteer legion - a total of 18 thousand bayonets - landed in the Dardanelles Strait area. Heavy bloody battles began, which were aggravated by the loss of 2 British battleships. In July 1915, the Allied command decided to land several more divisions on the peninsula. However, the Entente failed to achieve the desired result and a decisive turn in the course of events in its favor. The Allies were completely stuck in the Dardanelles. Ultimately, they decided to evacuate their troops from Gallipoli and transfer them to the Salonika front. On January 9, 1916, the Gallipoli operation ended with the evacuation of the last British soldier. Its result for the Allies was extremely sad. One of its main initiators, W. Churchill, resigned from the post of minister and went into the active army as a simple officer.

As for other fronts, in 1915 the struggle was most active in the Caucasus, where the Russian army carried out a number of offensive operations that were not further developed due to a lack of ammunition and the transfer of the most combat-ready Russian units to the German front. On the Syrian-Palestinian front, Turkish troops attempted to cross the Suez Canal, but British troops and navies managed to repel it. In Mesopotamia, the troops of the Central Powers achieved some successes, which, however, did not change the overall strategic situation in the Middle East.

If we evaluate the results of 1915 as a whole, we have to admit that it turned out to be successful for the Central Powers. Russian troops abandoned Poland, Lithuania, Galicia, Serbia was defeated, a direct connection between Berlin and Vienna was established with the Ottoman Empire, and the Dardanelles operation failed. However, the main task - the defeat and withdrawal of Russia from the war - was not completed. The war on two fronts for the Germans and Austrians continued, and there was no end in sight.

V. Shatsillo. World War I. Facts and documents

First World War 1914 – 1918 became one of the bloodiest and largest conflicts in human history. It began on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. Thirty-eight states participated in this conflict. If we talk about the causes of the First World War briefly, then we can say with confidence that this conflict was provoked by serious economic contradictions between the alliances of world powers that formed at the beginning of the century. It is also worth noting that there was probably a possibility of a peaceful resolution of these contradictions. However, feeling their increased power, Germany and Austria-Hungary moved to more decisive action.

Participants in the First World War were:

• on the one hand, the Quadruple Alliance, which included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey (Ottoman Empire);
• on the other, the Entente bloc, which consisted of Russia, France, England and allied countries (Italy, Romania and many others).

The outbreak of World War I was triggered by the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife by a member of a Serbian nationalist terrorist organization. The murder committed by Gavrilo Princip provoked a conflict between Austria and Serbia. Germany supported Austria and entered the war.

Historians divide the course of the First World War into five separate military campaigns.

The beginning of the military campaign of 1914 dates back to July 28. On August 1, Germany, which entered the war, declared war on Russia, and on August 3, on France. German troops invade Luxembourg and, later, Belgium. In 1914, the most important events of the First World War unfolded in France and are today known as the “Run to the Sea.” In an effort to encircle the enemy troops, both armies moved to the coast, where the front line eventually closed. France retained control of the port cities. Gradually the front line stabilized. The German command's expectation of a quick capture of France did not materialize. Since the forces of both sides were exhausted, the war took on a positional character. These are the events on the Western Front.

Military operations on the Eastern Front began on August 17. The Russian army launched an attack on the eastern part of Prussia and initially it turned out to be quite successful. The victory in the Battle of Galicia (August 18) was accepted by most of society with joy. After this battle, Austrian troops no longer entered into serious battles with Russia in 1914.

Events in the Balkans also did not develop very well. Belgrade, previously captured by Austria, was recaptured by the Serbs. There was no active fighting in Serbia this year. In the same year, 1914, Japan also opposed Germany, which allowed Russia to secure its Asian borders. Japan began to take action to seize Germany's island colonies. However, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of Germany, opening the Caucasian front and depriving Russia of convenient communications with the allied countries. At the end of 1914, none of the countries participating in the conflict was able to achieve their goals.

The second campaign in the First World War chronology dates back to 1915. The most severe military clashes took place on the Western Front. Both France and Germany made desperate attempts to turn the situation in their favor. However, the huge losses suffered by both sides did not lead to serious results. In fact, by the end of 1915 the front line had not changed. Neither the spring offensive of the French in Artois, nor the operations carried out in Champagne and Artois in the fall, changed the situation.

The situation on the Russian front changed for the worse. The winter offensive of the ill-prepared Russian army soon turned into the August German counter-offensive. And as a result of the Gorlitsky breakthrough of German troops, Russia lost Galicia and, later, Poland. Historians note that in many ways the Great Retreat of the Russian army was provoked by a supply crisis. The front stabilized only in the fall. German troops occupied the west of the Volyn province and partially repeated the pre-war borders with Austria-Hungary. The position of the troops, just as in France, contributed to the start of a trench war.

1915 was marked by Italy's entry into the war (May 23). Despite the fact that the country was a member of the Quadruple Alliance, it declared the start of war against Austria-Hungary. But on October 14, Bulgaria declared war on the Entente alliance, which led to a complication of the situation in Serbia and its imminent fall.

During the military campaign of 1916, one of the most famous battles of the First World War took place - Verdun. In an effort to suppress French resistance, the German command concentrated enormous forces in the area of ​​the Verdun salient, hoping to overcome the Anglo-French defense. During this operation, from February 21 to December 18, up to 750 thousand soldiers of England and France and up to 450 thousand soldiers of Germany died. The Battle of Verdun is also famous for the first time a new type of weapon was used - a flamethrower. However, the greatest effect of this weapon was psychological. To help the allies, an offensive operation called the Brusilov breakthrough was undertaken on the Western Russian Front. This forced Germany to transfer serious forces to the Russian front and somewhat eased the position of the Allies.

It should be noted that military operations developed not only on land. There was a fierce confrontation between the blocs of the world's strongest powers on the water as well. It was in the spring of 1916 that one of the main battles of the First World War at sea took place – the Battle of Jutland. In general, at the end of the year the Entente bloc became dominant. The Quadruple Alliance's peace proposal was rejected.

During the military campaign of 1917, the preponderance of forces in favor of the Entente increased even more and the United States joined the obvious winners. But the weakening of the economies of all countries participating in the conflict, as well as the growth of revolutionary tension, led to a decrease in military activity. The German command decides on strategic defense on land fronts, while at the same time focusing on attempts to take England out of the war using the submarine fleet. In the winter of 1916–17 there were no active hostilities in the Caucasus. The situation in Russia has become extremely aggravated. In fact, after the October events the country left the war.

1918 brought important victories to the Entente, which led to the end of the First World War.

After Russia actually left the war, Germany managed to liquidate the eastern front. She made peace with Romania, Ukraine, and Russia. The terms of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, concluded between Russia and Germany in March 1918, turned out to be extremely difficult for the country, but this treaty was soon annulled.

Subsequently, Germany occupied the Baltic states, Poland and part of Belarus, after which it threw all its forces onto the Western Front. But, thanks to the technical superiority of the Entente, the German troops were defeated. After Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria made peace with the Entente countries, Germany found itself on the brink of disaster. Due to revolutionary events, Emperor Wilhelm leaves his country. November 11, 1918 Germany signs the act of surrender.

According to modern data, losses in the First World War amounted to 10 million soldiers. Accurate data on civilian casualties does not exist. Presumably, due to harsh living conditions, epidemics and famine, twice as many people died.

Following the First World War, Germany had to pay reparations to the Allies for 30 years. It lost 1/8 of its territory, and the colonies went to the victorious countries. The banks of the Rhine were occupied by Allied forces for 15 years. Also, Germany was prohibited from having an army of more than 100 thousand people. Strict restrictions were imposed on all types of weapons.

But the Consequences of the First World War also affected the situation in the victorious countries. Their economy, with the possible exception of the United States, was in a difficult state. The standard of living of the population dropped sharply, and the national economy fell into disrepair. At the same time, the military monopolies became richer. For Russia, the First World War became a serious destabilizing factor, which largely influenced the development of the revolutionary situation in the country and caused the subsequent civil war.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, humanity experienced a series of wars in which many states took part and large territories were covered. But only this war was called the First World War. It was dictated by the fact that this military conflict became a war on a global scale. Thirty-eight of the fifty-nine independent states that existed at that time were involved in it to one degree or another.

Causes and beginning of the war

At the beginning of the 20th century, contradictions intensified between two European coalitions of European states - the Entente (Russia, England, France) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy). They were caused by the intensification of the struggle for the redistribution of already divided colonies, spheres of influence and markets. Having begun in Europe, the war gradually acquired a global character, covering the Far and Middle East, Africa, and the waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Indian oceans.

The reason for the outbreak of war was the terrorist attack committed in June 1914 in the city of Sarajevo. Then a member of the Mlada Bosna organization (a Serbian-Bosnian revolutionary organization that fought for the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Greater Serbia), Gavrilo Princip, killed the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with unacceptable terms of the ultimatum, which were rejected. As a result, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia stood up for Serbia, true to its obligations. France promised to support Russia.

Germany demanded that Russia stop mobilization actions, which were continued, and as a result, on August 1, it declared war on Russia. On August 3, Germany declares war on France, and on August 4, on Belgium. Great Britain declares war on Germany and sends troops to help France. August 6 - Austria-Hungary vs. Russia.

In August 1914, Japan declared war on Germany, in November Turkey entered the war on the side of the Germany-Austria-Hungary bloc, and in October 1915, Bulgaria.

Italy, which initially occupied a position of neutrality, declared war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915, under diplomatic pressure from Great Britain, and on August 28, 1916, on Germany.

Main events

1914

1915

1916

1917

1918

1919

Results of the war

The main result of the First World War was the enormous loss of life. In total, more than 10 million people died, with a significant proportion of the casualties being civilians. As a result, hundreds of cities were destroyed and the economies of the participating countries were undermined.

The result of the war was the collapse of four empires - Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian. Only the British Empire survived.

Literally everything in the world has changed - not only relations between states, but also their internal life. Human life, clothing style, fashion, women's hairstyles, musical tastes, norms of behavior, morality, social psychology, and the relationship between the state and society have changed. The First World War led to an unprecedented devaluation of human life and the emergence of a whole class of people ready to solve their own and social problems at the cost of violence. Thus the period of new history ended, and humanity entered another historical era.

WORLD WAR I
(July 28, 1914 - November 11, 1918), the first military conflict on a global scale, in which 38 of the 59 independent states that existed at that time were involved. About 73.5 million people were mobilized; of these, 9.5 million were killed or died from wounds, more than 20 million were wounded, 3.5 million were left crippled.
Main reasons. The search for the causes of the war leads to 1871, when the process of German unification was completed and Prussian hegemony was consolidated in the German Empire. Under Chancellor O. von Bismarck, who sought to revive the system of unions, the foreign policy of the German government was determined by the desire to achieve a dominant position for Germany in Europe. To deprive France of the opportunity to avenge defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck tried to bind Russia and Austria-Hungary to Germany with secret agreements (1873). However, Russia came out in support of France, and the Alliance of the Three Emperors disintegrated. In 1882, Bismarck strengthened Germany's position by creating the Triple Alliance, which united Austria-Hungary, Italy and Germany. By 1890, Germany took the leading role 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, it concluded a military convention and an alliance treaty with Russia. The Russian-French alliance was supposed to serve as a counterweight to the Triple Alliance. Great Britain has so far stood aloof from competition on the continent, but the pressure of political and economic circumstances eventually forced it to make its choice. The British could not help but be concerned about the nationalist sentiments that reigned in Germany, its aggressive colonial policy, rapid industrial expansion and, mainly, the increase in 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 agreement" (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 the Triple Entente as a counterbalance to the Triple Alliance. Thus, the division of Europe into two armed camps took shape. One of the reasons for the war was the widespread strengthening of nationalist sentiments. In formulating their interests, the ruling circles of each European country sought to present them as popular aspirations. France hatched plans to return the lost territories of Alsace and Lorraine. Italy, even being in an alliance with Austria-Hungary, dreamed of returning its lands to Trentino, Trieste and Fiume. The Poles saw in the war an opportunity to recreate the state destroyed by the partitions of the 18th century. Many peoples inhabiting Austria-Hungary sought 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 they believed that the people of Great Britain would live in peace only by crushing their main enemy - Germany. Tensions in international relations were heightened by a series of diplomatic crises - the Franco-German clash in Morocco in 1905-1906; annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Austrians in 1908-1909; finally, the Balkan wars of 1912-1913. Great Britain and France supported Italy's interests in North Africa and thereby weakened its commitment to the Triple Alliance so much that Germany could practically no longer count on Italy as an ally in a future war.
The 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 Young Bosnia secret organization, 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 training exercises with the Austro-Hungarian troops. Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in the city of Sarajevo by high school student 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 become local if Russia did not defend Serbia. But if it provides assistance to 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 units be allowed into Serbia in order to, together with Serbian forces, suppress hostile actions. 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, Russian Foreign Minister, openly opposed Austria-Hungary, receiving assurances of support from French President R. Poincaré. On July 30, Russia announced 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. Following the German invasion of Belgium on 4 August, 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 stalemate. This period ended with negotiations for 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 of the United States into the war 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 offensive of the Central Powers in the west. The failure of this offensive was followed by revolutions in Austria-Hungary and Germany and the capitulation of the Central Powers.
First period. The 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 term, 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 copper, tin and nickel were supplied to German enterprises before the war. 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 effect the Schlieffen plan, which proposed to ensure rapid success in the West by attacking France with large forces through Belgium. After the defeat of France, Germany hoped, together with Austria-Hungary, by transferring the liberated troops, to deliver a decisive blow in the East. But this plan was not implemented. 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 invasion of southern Germany. On the night of August 4, the Germans invaded Belgium. It took them several days to break the resistance of the defenders of the fortified areas of Namur and Liege, which blocked the route to Brussels, but thanks to this delay, the British transported an almost 90,000-strong expeditionary force across the English Channel to France (August 9-17). The French 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 Kluck found itself 40 km from Paris. Continuing the offensive, the Germans crossed the Marne River and stopped along the Paris-Verdun line on September 5. The commander of the French forces, General J. Joffre, having formed two new armies from the reserves, decided to launch a counteroffensive. The First Battle of the Marne began on September 5 and ended on September 12. 6 Anglo-French and 5 German armies took part in it. 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 offensive on the weakened right flank made the withdrawal of the German armies to the north, to the line of the Aisne River, inevitable. The battles in Flanders on the Yser and Ypres rivers from October 15 to November 20 were also unsuccessful for the Germans. As a result, the main ports on the English Channel remained in Allied hands, ensuring communication between France and England. Paris was saved, and the Entente countries had time to mobilize resources. The war in the West took on a positional character; Germany’s hope of defeating and withdrawing France from the war turned out to be untenable. The confrontation followed a line running south from Newport and Ypres in Belgium, to Compiegne and Soissons, then east around Verdun and south to the salient near Saint-Mihiel, and then southeast to the Swiss border. Along this line of trenches and wire fences, the length is approx. Trench warfare was fought for 970 km 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. There remained hopes 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 towards Konigsberg. The German generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff were entrusted with leading 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 drive 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 southern direction, broke through the defenses of the Austro-Hungarian troops and, taking several thousand people prisoner, occupied the Austrian province of Galicia and part of Poland. The advance of Russian troops created a threat to Silesia and Poznan, important industrial areas for Germany. Germany was forced to transfer additional forces from France. But an acute shortage of ammunition and food stopped the advance of Russian troops. The offensive cost Russia enormous casualties, but undermined the power of Austria-Hungary and forced Germany to maintain significant forces on the Eastern Front. Back in August 1914, Japan declared war on Germany. In October 1914, Türkiye entered the war on the side of the Central Powers bloc. At 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 secret London negotiations in March-May 1915, the Entente countries promised to satisfy Italy's territorial claims during the post-war peace settlement if Italy came 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 at the Second Battle of Ypres. Here, during battles that lasted for a month (April 22 - May 25, 1915), chemical weapons were used for the first time. After this, poisonous gases (chlorine, phosgene, and later mustard gas) began to be used by both warring sides. The large-scale Dardanelles landing operation, a naval expedition that the Entente countries equipped at the beginning of 1915 with the goal of taking Constantinople, opening the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits for communication with Russia through the Black Sea, bringing Turkey out of the war and winning the Balkan states to the side of the allies, also ended in defeat. On the Eastern Front, by 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 never possible to force Russia to a separate peace. In October 1915, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia, after which the Central Powers, together with their 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 lines of communication open for US merchant ships. German colonies were captured, and German trade through sea routes was suppressed. In general, the German fleet - except for the submarine one - was blocked in its ports. Only occasionally did small flotillas emerge to strike British seaside towns and attack Allied merchant ships. During the entire war, only one major naval battle took place - when the German fleet entered the North Sea and unexpectedly met with the British one off 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. 6800 people killed, captured and wounded; the Germans, who considered themselves victors, - 11 ships and approx. 3100 people killed and wounded. Nevertheless, the British forced the German fleet to retreat to Kiel, where it was effectively blocked. The German fleet no longer appeared on the high seas, and Great Britain remained the mistress of the seas. Having taken a dominant position at sea, the Allies gradually cut off the Central Powers from overseas sources of raw materials and food. Under international law, neutral countries, such as the United States, could sell goods that were not considered “war contraband” to other neutral countries, such as the Netherlands or Denmark, from where these goods could also be delivered to Germany. However, warring countries usually did not bind themselves to adherence to international law, and Great Britain had so expanded the list of goods considered smuggled that virtually nothing was allowed 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 easily 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 rescue 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 William Wilson protested, and the United States and Germany exchanged harsh diplomatic notes.
Verdun and Somme. Germany was ready to make some concessions at sea and look for a way out of the impasse in actions 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 to launch a large-scale offensive operation on the Western Front that would turn the tide of the war and force France to sue for peace. The ancient fortress of Verdun served as a key point of French defense. After an unprecedented artillery bombardment, 12 German divisions went on the offensive on February 21, 1916. The Germans advanced slowly until the beginning of July, but did not achieve their intended goals. The Verdun “meat grinder” clearly did not live up to the expectations of the German command. During the spring and summer of 1916, operations on the Eastern and Southwestern Fronts were of great importance. In March, Russian troops, at the request of the allies, 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 some time and, keeping 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 achieve a breakthrough of the Austro-German troops to a depth of 80-120 km. Brusilov's troops occupied part of Galicia and Bukovina and 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 ease the 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 continuous 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.
Foundations for peace negotiations. At the beginning of the 20th century. The methods of warfare have completely changed. The length of fronts increased significantly, armies fought on fortified lines and launched attacks from trenches, and 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 resident 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 place left for ordinary civilian life: everything was subordinated to titanic efforts aimed at maintaining the military machine. The total cost of the war, including property losses, was variously estimated to range from $208 billion to $359 billion. By the end of 1916, both sides were tired of the war, and it seemed that the time had come to begin peace negotiations.
Second period.
On December 12, 1916, the Central Powers turned to the United States with a request to transmit a note to the allies with a proposal to begin peace negotiations. The Entente rejected this proposal, suspecting that it was made with the aim of breaking up the coalition. Moreover, she did not want to talk about a peace that did not include the payment of reparations and recognition of the right of nations to self-determination. President Wilson decided to initiate peace negotiations and on December 18, 1916, asked the warring countries to determine mutually acceptable peace terms. On December 12, 1916, Germany proposed convening a peace conference. The German civil authorities clearly sought peace, but they were opposed by the generals, especially General Ludendorff, who was confident of victory. The Allies specified their conditions: 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 the idea of ​​peace negotiations seriously. Germany intended to take part in the peace conference in December 1916, relying on the benefits of its military position. It ended with the Allies signing secret agreements designed to defeat the Central Powers. Under these agreements, Great Britain claimed the German colonies and part of Persia; France was to gain 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 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 Irish Americans who were hostile to England and German Americans - supported Germany. Over time, government officials and ordinary citizens became increasingly inclined to side with the Entente. This was facilitated by several factors, most notably the propaganda of the Entente countries and the submarine war of Germany. On January 22, 1917, President Wilson outlined peace terms acceptable to the United States in the Senate. The main one boiled down to the demand for “peace without victory,” i.e. without annexations and indemnities; others included the principles of equality of peoples, the right of nations to self-determination and representation, freedom of the seas and trade, the reduction of armaments, and the rejection of the system of rival alliances. If peace were made on the basis of these principles, Wilson argued, a world organization of states could be created that would guarantee security for all peoples. On January 31, 1917, the German government announced the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare with the aim of disrupting enemy communications. The submarines blocked the Entente's supply lines and put the Allies in an extremely difficult position. There was growing hostility toward Germany among Americans, since the blockade of Europe from the West foreshadowed troubles for the United States as well. In case of victory, Germany could establish control over the entire Atlantic Ocean. Along with the above-mentioned circumstances, other motives also pushed the United States to war on the side of its allies. US economic interests were directly linked to the Entente countries, as military orders led to the rapid growth of American industry. In 1916, the warlike spirit was spurred by plans to develop combat training programs. Anti-German sentiment among North Americans increased even more after the publication on March 1, 1917 of Zimmermann's secret dispatch of January 16, 1917, intercepted by British intelligence and transferred to Wilson. German Foreign Minister A. Zimmermann offered Mexico the states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona if it supported Germany's actions in response to the US entry into the war on the side of the Entente. By early April, anti-German sentiment in the United States had reached such intensity that Congress voted on April 6, 1917 to declare war on Germany.
Russia's exit from the war. In February 1917, a revolution occurred in Russia. Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate the throne. 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 Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty was concluded. Russia renounced its rights to Poland, Estonia, Ukraine, part of Belarus, Latvia, Transcaucasia and Finland. Ardahan, 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 ample reason to be optimistic. The German leadership used the weakening of Russia, and then its withdrawal from the war, to replenish resources. Now it could transfer the eastern army to the west and concentrate troops on the main directions of attack. The Allies, not knowing where the attack would come from, were forced to strengthen positions along the entire front. American aid was late. In France and Great Britain, defeatist sentiments grew with alarming force. On October 24, 1917, Austro-Hungarian troops broke through the Italian front near Caporetto and defeated the Italian army.
German offensive 1918. On the foggy morning of March 21, 1918, the Germans launched a massive attack on British positions near Saint-Quentin. The British were forced to retreat almost to Amiens, and its loss threatened to break the Anglo-French united 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 Chateau-Thierry. The situation of 1914 repeated itself: the Germans reached the Marne River just 60 km from Paris. However, the offensive cost Germany major losses - both human and material. The German troops were exhausted, their supply system was shaken. The Allies managed to neutralize 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 the 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 Chateau-Thierry. The second decisive battle of the Marne unfolded. In the event of a breakthrough, the French would have to abandon Reims, which, in turn, could lead to an Allied retreat along the entire front. In the first hours of the offensive, German troops advanced, but not as quickly as expected.
The last Allied offensive. On July 18, 1918, a counterattack by American and French troops began in order to relieve pressure on Chateau-Thierry. At first they advanced with difficulty, but on August 2 they took Soissons. At the Battle of Amiens on August 8, German troops suffered a heavy defeat, and this undermined their morale. Previously, German Chancellor Prince von Hertling believed that by September the Allies would sue for peace. “We hoped to take Paris by the end of July,” he recalled. “That’s what we thought on the fifteenth of July. And on the eighteenth, even the greatest optimists among us realized that everything was lost.” Some military personnel convinced Kaiser Wilhelm II that the war was lost, but Ludendorff refused to admit defeat. The Allied offensive began on other fronts as well. On June 20-26, the Austro-Hungarian troops were thrown 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 desertion of Poles, Czechs and South Slavs. The Central Powers mustered their remaining forces to hold off the expected invasion of Hungary. The path to Germany was open. Tanks and massive artillery shelling were important factors in the offensive. At the beginning of August 1918, attacks on key German positions intensified. In his 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 into captivity almost without a fight. By the end of September even Ludendorff was ready to capitulate. After the September offensive of the Entente on the Soloniki front, Bulgaria signed an armistice on September 29. A month later, Türkiye 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. 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 entire battle its name. On October 27, Emperor Charles I made an appeal for a truce, and on October 29, 1918 he agreed to conclude peace on any terms.
Revolution in Germany. On October 29, the Kaiser secretly left Berlin and went to the general headquarters, feeling safe only under the protection of the army. On the same day, in the port of Kiel, the crew of two warships disobeyed and refused to go to sea on a combat mission. By November 4, Kiel came under the control of the rebel sailors. 40,000 armed men intended to establish councils of soldiers' and sailors' deputies in northern Germany on the Russian model. By November 6, the rebels took power in Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen. Meanwhile, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Foch, said that he was ready to receive representatives of the German government and discuss the terms of the armistice with them. The Kaiser was informed that the army was no longer under his command. On November 9, he abdicated the throne 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 Compiegne Forest (France), the German delegation signed the Compiegne Armistice. 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 cars, 5,000 automobiles; release all prisoners immediately. The Navy was required to surrender all submarines and almost all 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 - payment of reparations for destruction and return of valuables. The Germans tried to negotiate an armistice based on Wilson's Fourteen Points, which they believed could serve as a preliminary basis for a "peace without victory." The terms of the truce required almost unconditional surrender. The Allies dictated their terms to a bloodless Germany.
Conclusion of peace. The peace conference took place in 1919 in Paris; During the sessions, agreements regarding 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) Peace Treaty of Sevres with Turkey on August 20, 1920. Subsequently, according to the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923, changes were made to the Treaty of Sevres. Thirty-two states were represented at the peace conference in Paris. Each delegation had its own staff of specialists who provided information regarding the geographical, historical and economic situation of the countries on which decisions were made. After Orlando left the internal council, not satisfied with the solution to the problem of territories in the Adriatic, the main architect of the post-war world became the “Big Three” - Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George. Wilson compromised on several important points in order to achieve the main goal of creating the League of Nations. He agreed to the disarmament of only the Central Powers, although he initially insisted on general disarmament. The size of the German army was limited and was supposed to be no more than 115,000 people; universal conscription was abolished; The German armed forces were to be staffed by volunteers with a service life of 12 years for soldiers and up to 45 years for officers. Germany was prohibited from having combat aircraft and submarines. Similar conditions were contained in peace treaties signed with Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria. A fierce debate ensued between Clemenceau and Wilson over 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 state. France's plan contradicted the proposals of Wilson, who opposed annexations and favored self-determination of nations. A compromise was reached after Wilson agreed to sign loose war 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 a 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. The coal deposits known as the Saar Basin also became the property of France for 15 years; the Saar region itself came under the control of the League of Nations commission. After the expiration of the 15-year period, a plebiscite was envisaged on the issue of statehood 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 resolve the issue of the disputed territories themselves. According to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was deprived of its colonial possessions. Great Britain acquired German East Africa and the western part of German Cameroon and Togo; South-West Africa, the north-eastern regions of New Guinea with the adjacent archipelago and the Samoan islands were transferred to the British dominions - the Union of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. France received most of German Togo and eastern 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 envisaged 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 repealed the Treaty of Sèvres and allowed Turkey to retain Eastern Thrace. Türkiye regained Armenia. Syria went to France; Great Britain received Mesopotamia, Transjordan and Palestine; the Dodecanese islands in the Aegean Sea were given to Italy; the Arab territory of Hejaz 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 proposed that instead of actually transferring the colonies to new owners, they should be allowed to govern as trustees of the League of Nations. Such territories were called “mandatory”. Although Lloyd George and Wilson opposed punitive measures for damages caused, the fight on this issue ended in victory for the French side. Reparations were imposed on Germany; The question of what should be included in the list of destruction presented for payment was also subject to lengthy discussion. At first, the exact amount was not mentioned, only in 1921 its size was determined - 152 billion marks (33 billion dollars); this amount was subsequently reduced. The principle of self-determination of nations became key for many peoples represented at the peace conference. Poland was restored. The task of determining its boundaries was not easy; Of particular importance was the transfer to her of the so-called. the "Polish corridor", which gave the country access to the Baltic Sea, separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany. New independent states emerged 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 controversial. The problem turned out to be complex due to the mixed settlement of different peoples. When establishing the borders of the Czech state, the interests of the Slovaks were affected. Romania doubled its territory at the expense of 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 had decreased greatly and was 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 like-minded people, the League of Nations was supposed to become a guarantee of security for all peoples. Finally, the League's charter was adopted and, after much 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.
See also LEAGUE OF NATIONS. The League of Nations agreement represented that part of the Treaty of Versailles that Germany was also offered to sign. But the German delegation refused to sign it on the grounds that the agreement did not comply with Wilson's Fourteen Points. Ultimately, 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, ecstatic with victory in the Franco-Prussian War, proclaimed the creation of the German Empire.
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 of the first half of the 20th century. M., 1989 To the 75th anniversary of the beginning 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. Turning to the origins of the First World War. Paths 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. The First World War and prospects for social development in Russia. Komsomolsk-on-Amur, 1995 World War I: Prologue of the 20th century. M., 1998
Wikipedia

The First World War in world history is conventionally divided into three periods, or stages:

1. Maneuverable - summer 1914 - summer 1915;
2. Positional – 1916 – 1917;
3. Final – 1917 – November 1918.

The maneuver period of the First World War was named this way for a reason, since the fighting that began in the summer of 1914 could not be called either retreat or offensive; the warring parties carried out a number of maneuvers that helped them gain a foothold in their positions, leaving the enemy with the most unsuccessful ones from the point of view of strategy and battleground tactics.

The maneuvers undertaken did not involve active combat operations, but they still existed, since on the Eastern front the Austrian forces very actively tried to resist the Russians, and in the west the Germans opposed the British and French, while two Russian armies of generals Samsonov marched across the territory of East Prussia and Rehnenkampf. Fearing that they would be encircled during this maneuver, the German command, in turn, undertook a retaliatory maneuver - transferring part of the troops from near the Marne to the eastern front.

The support received made it possible to stop the Russians, but the British and French, having learned about it, intensified their offensive in the direction of the Marne and broke through the front, trying to encircle the German army. In principle, both maneuvers had very good chances of success, but due to the complete incompetence of the command and the lack of speed of action necessary in this case, both of them did not end quite as the Entente allies expected. At the same time, the Battle of Galicia, which began in the fall of 1914, ended in the complete defeat of the German army, again due to the fact that the Russians undertook a completely unexpected maneuver for the Germans, approaching the enemy where he least expected it. Only towards the end of autumn did the Germans manage to stop the breakthrough of Russian troops in Poland and prevent the transfer of hostilities to German territory. As a result of a very successful maneuver by the enemy, the front was held by Russian soldiers only due to personal courage and bravery, which also had to be demonstrated in the battles with the Turks in the Caucasus that followed in December of the same year.

Having considered all possible scenarios for the development of events, the German command decided in the spring of 1915 to pay more attention to the Eastern Front, transferring most of the troops in reserve to suppress the military power of Russia, knowing full well that without the support of the latter, neither England nor France would be able to fight for long . in April, the German armies began to actively prepare for an offensive, during which the Germans regained Galicia and Poland, and the Russian troops were forced to retreat; the enemy entered Russian territory. Almost all the lands conquered during the summer-autumn maneuvers of 1914 were lost. A new positional stage has begun in the war.

Position period

By the beginning of this stage, the front was an elongated line between the Baltic and Black Seas. Courland and Finland were completely occupied by German troops, the front line approached Riga, advancing along the Western Dvina, right up to the Dvinsk fortress, some Russian provinces, including Minsk, were occupied by Germany. In some places, the border that ran through Bessarabia extended all the way to Romania, which was still maintaining a neutral position. Since the front line had no irregularities, the armies opposing each other filled it almost completely, in some places even mixing with each other, there was no way to advance further and the armies began to strengthen their own positions, actually moving on to the so-called positional war. At the same time, the obvious failed victory in the east did not please the German command much, so it decided in the following 1916 to send most of its forces to suppress the resistance of the French troops, but in the famous battle of Verdun and in the no less famous Jutland naval battle, the Germans were unable to achieve All the tasks set for themselves, the Entente allies clearly won, losing thousands of soldiers, but not retreating a step back. In the winter of 1916, Germany asked for peace, but this request was rejected, since the peace conditions did not satisfy British, French and even Russian ambitions. The war continued, which meant the quick and complete defeat of exhausted Germany and its weakened allies - Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria and the victory of the Entente, which by this time was receiving significant support from America, which actually ends the positional stage in the war, Germany moves on to a clear retreat .

Final period

At the final stage of hostilities, one important political event occurred that had a direct impact on the plans of the Allies - the Revolution in Russia and the latter’s premature withdrawal from hostilities by concluding a separate peace with Germany. Neither England nor France expected such actions from Russia and were absolutely unprepared for them, considering them illegal and unlawful, leading to negative consequences for these countries - emboldened Germany tried to gain time and recapture part of the lands captured by the Allies, from which Russian troops were leaving.

A few months before the events mentioned above, in November 1917, the Austro-Hungarian army defeated the Italian allies of the Entente and stood on the approaches to Venice, stopped by the forces of the British and French gathered there. But at the same time, Germany and its allies suffered defeat on all fronts, including the African one, being pressed by an ever-increasing enemy. In March 1918, peace was finally concluded between Germany and Russia, which went down in history as the Brest-Litovsk peace, but this did not save the situation; Germany, in turn, already in the summer asked for peace from its former Entente allies, agreeing to fulfill the conditions they proposed. As a result, on June 28, 1919, Germany and its allies signed the Treaty of Versailles, which ended not only the third period of the First World War, but also its entirety.