The Russian army ceased to exist at the end of 1917. She spent four years in the grueling and bloody battles of the First World War. However, the army died not because it was drained of blood by the fighting, but because its gigantic body was undermined by a revolutionary disease …
On the huge front from the Baltic to the Carpathians, cannons and machine guns fell silent. The Germans and Austrians smoked in their trenches, fearlessly stood up to their full height and watched in amazement as the Russians abandoned their equipment and ammunition and left their positions.
The active army turned into an inactive one - entire military units moved to the rear. No one admonished this crowd of many thousands of disheveled, angry, humming, drunken deserters, for it was easy to get a bullet in the forehead or a bayonet in the back.
Russia lost its balance, staggered as if in delirium. The time of the Provisional Government was inexorably coming to an end. Kerensky grimaced, the ministers chatted. “Something unimaginable was happening in the country,” wrote General Anton Denikin. “The newspapers of that time are full of daily reports from the localities, under the headlines that speak volumes: Anarchy, Riots, Pogroms, Lynching.”
They cursed the war, and everything started with her cursed. More precisely, with a certain stupidity in the Balkans - as the old man Bismarck predicted. After the Serb Gavrilo Princip shot the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand in June of the fourteenth, a big European porridge was brewed. Russia defended the Slavs. Although that dispute after more than a century seems empty - it could well have been resolved at the negotiating table. But the military's hands were desperately itching …
Two emperors, two cousins, two Second - Wilhelm and Nicholas exchanged messages in which they assured each other of good intentions. But it all turned out to be a waste of paper and ink. The cavalrymen were already saddling their horses, the gunners were cleaning the guns, and the generals were bending over the operational maps.
The German emperor, smiling maliciously through his mustache, looked at the columns of soldiers marching past the windows of the City Palace in Berlin. Everything had already been decided: he would go to Russia and smash it! In autumn, German dragoons and lancers will water their horses with water from the Neva …
Nicholas II from the balcony of the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg, looking at the endless human sea, which swayed below, said: "We firmly believe that in defense of the Russian Land, all our loyal subjects will stand up together and selflessly …"
Echelons with recruits were already rushing across the endless Russian expanses, announcing the surroundings with cheerful harmonica shimmers and melodies of dashing songs. In taverns and restaurants wine flowed like a river - they drank, of course, for a quick victory over the foe. The newspaper boys shouted joyfully in the streets, picking up their voices: “The Russian army has entered East Prussia! The Germans are retreating!"
Since then, rivers of blood have been shed. But the long-awaited victory never came. Moreover, the Russian army suffered a series of painful defeats. Almost the entire campaign of 1915, she backed away. Trapped to the East hordes of refugees, lines of carts and carts loaded with simple belongings.
By 1917, the whole of Russia was in the throes of a cursed war. There are innumerable soldiers' graves, hospitals and hospitals filled with bloodied, wheezing breathing bodies, the crippled and crippled wander sadly through the cities and villages, begging for alms. Tears of soldiers' mothers, wives, widows do not dry out …
And then the February Revolution appeared - under the rustle of banners, smelling of gunpowder smoke. And with her - and freedom. Her spirit intoxicated, finally discouraging the soldiers from fighting. Why fight there - people in shabby greatcoats did not salute the officers, insolently breathed fumes in their faces, spat at their feet the husks of sunflowers …
In March 1917, at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet, two Soviets - workers 'and soldiers' deputies - were united. Its activists issued Order No. 1, according to which military units were no longer subordinate to officers, but to their elected committees and the new Council. According to Denikin, that order gave "the first impetus to the collapse of the army." However, sober voices, barely sounding, disappeared in a cacophony of calls, slogans, oaths.
The mentioned document became the basis for new "initiatives". The soldiers' committees received complete freedom: they could remove one or another commander and choose a new one. That is, those who "sympathize" with them, do not bother with orders, drill and generally keep silent in a rag. Red, of course.
They not only urged the soldiers to abandon their weapons, but also actively incited social discord - they set soldiers against officers and called not only to disobey people in uniform, but also to exterminate them.
Conflicts arose incessantly: patriotic officers tried to restore order. The revolutionary "transformations" supported by the Provisional Government seemed to them not only meaningless, but also criminal - how it was possible, even more so, during the war, called, among other things, the Patriotic War, to turn the valiant Russian army into an uncontrollable, bitter, anarchist mass ! Is this really democracy, the rule of the people?
However, there were many more soldiers than officers, and the latter had no chance to change the situation. Many of them became victims of bloody lynching. The reprisals against officers became especially frequent after the speech of General Lavr Kornilov in August 1917. Here is just one of many examples: the soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division of the Southwestern Front killed the commander, General Konstantin Girshfeldt and the commissar of the Provisional Government Fyodor Linde. Their names were "let down": both came from Russified Germans and therefore they were declared "German spies".
Those who expressed disagreement with the new order were dismissed en masse from the army. For example, out of 225 full generals serving in March 1917, the Provisional Government dismissed 68. It can be assumed that the number of officers who rejected anarchy and lawlessness may have numbered in the thousands. And what role did they play? Silent and timid observers, whose life from now on was not worth a penny …
In such a situation, the Provisional Government decided - the allies desperately pressed on Kerensky! - on the offensive undertaken in June 1917 on the Eastern Front. As expected, it ended in a catastrophic defeat, for there were very few combat-ready units left in the Russian army.
Here is a striking example: three German companies put two Russian rifle divisions to flight: the 126th and the 2nd Finnish divisions!
Another characteristic testimony is Denikin, who at that time commanded the Western Front: “The units moved to the attack, marched two or three enemy trench lines in a ceremonial march and … returned to their trenches. The operation was thwarted. I had 184 battalions and 900 guns in a 19-verst area; the enemy had 17 battalions in the first line and 12 in reserve with 300 guns. 138 battalions were brought into battle against 17, and 900 guns against 300”.
Fraternities began, or rather, fraternities began to emerge with renewed vigor - the soldiers climbed over the trenches and arranged gatherings: they made fires, cooked food, drank, and discussed current events.
But if the Russians behaved carelessly, the "adversaries" kept their ears open. According to historian Sergei Bazanov, under the cover of fraternization, Austro-Hungarian intelligence made 285 intelligence contacts.
The number of fraternisations in September 1917 doubled in comparison with August, and in October increased five times (!) In comparison with September. They became more massive, organized, it was felt that the soldiers were led by agitators, mostly Bolsheviks. Their slogans were close to servicemen. The main thing that Lenin's comrades-in-arms stood for was the end of the war and the return home, to their homes.
But even these data cannot be considered reliable, because the commanders underestimated the information, firstly, expecting the soldiers to change their minds and return to their positions and, secondly, not wanting to get scolded from their superiors - they say, why did not such and such not follow ?!
If we rely on the data of enemy intelligence, then the number of deserters in the Russian army by the spring of 1917 reached two million (!) People. Moreover, the soldiers fled not only from the front. Some servicemen, barely putting on their overcoat and picking up a rifle, were already looking around, striving to run away at the first opportunity. According to the head of the interim committee of the State Duma, Mikhail Rodzianko, replenishments arrived at the front with a 25 percent leak of soldiers scattered along the road.
Crowds of armed people, similar to hordes of savages, having lost their heads from impunity, not only robbed private houses and staged a mess there, but also devastated shops, shops, warehouses that met on their way. They littered the streets, publicly relieved themselves, and molested women. But no one could stop them - the police had been disbanded long ago, there were no military patrols. Ugly and hooligans could do anything with impunity!
Moreover, deserters captured entire trains! Often, they even forced the drivers to change the direction of trains on pain of death, which brought unimaginable chaos to the movement on the railways.
“By May (1917 - VB), the troops of all fronts were completely out of control, and it was impossible to take any measures of influence,” General Aleksey Brusilov recalled. "Yes, and the appointed commissars were obeyed only insofar as they pandered to the soldiers, and when they went against them, the soldiers refused to obey their orders."
Another sign of the times: a huge number of missing persons. This often meant that the soldiers either fled to the Austro-German positions, or surrendered to the advancing enemy units. This "movement" has become widespread. In fairness, it should be noted that this was not only a consequence of revolutionary agitation, but also the reason for the changed conditions of servicemen after the February Revolution. The supply of equipment and ammunition slowed down and decreased, food supply deteriorated. The reason for this is the collapse of the entire state mechanism, stoppages or interruptions in the work of factories, plants, railways …
What was it like to the soldiers - hungry, cold, and even restless? For a year they have been “fed” with promises of a quick victory - first the Tsar-Father, then the Ministers of the Provisional, with patriotic slogans.
They endured hardships, overcoming fear, went on the attack, endured the officers' bullying. But now that's it, that's enough - the cup of patience is overflowing …
[After the October Revolution, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, General Nikolai Dukhonin, refused to carry out the order of the Council of People's Commissars to begin peace negotiations with the Central Powers. For insubordination to the new government, he was removed from his post and replaced by the Bolshevik Nikolai Krylenko, who arrived at headquarters in Mogilev in early December 1917.
Dukhonin was arrested and brought to the station to be sent to Petrograd. An armed crowd gathered there, eager to kill the general. The situation escalated, in the end, the unfortunate Duhonin was taken out into the street. Shots rang out, butts clattered, frenzied shouts. When the soldiers, having quenched their thirst for blood, dispersed, the lifeless body of a military Russian general, Knight of St. George was left in the snow …
A new series of fraternizations, this time a massive one, many thousands. Communication of yesterday's enemies turned into trade, exchange of things and products. A gigantic, unimaginable "international" market has emerged. The chief of staff of the infantry corps of the Northern Front, Colonel Alexei Belovsky, wrote that “there is no army; comrades sleep, eat, play cards, do not follow anyone's orders and orders; communications have been abandoned, telegraph and telephone lines have collapsed, and even the regiments are not connected to the division headquarters; the guns were abandoned in their positions, swam with mud, covered with snow, shells with their caps removed (poured into spoons, cup holders, etc.) are immediately lying around. The Germans know all this very well, because under the guise of shopping they climb into our rear, 35-40 versts from the front …"
Soon the countries of the Central Powers will put forward a brazen ultimatum to Soviet Russia - immediately cede a huge part of the territory.
There were no forces to repulse the enemy offensive. And therefore the government of the republic was forced to agree to the shameful conditions of the Brest Peace. It was then that the new Bolshevik government saw with horror the fruits of its "labor" in the collapse of the Russian army. There was no one to defend the Motherland from the invasion of foreigners …
