In 1894, after the death of Tsar-peacemaker Alexander III, his son Nicholas II ascended the throne, and his reign marked the end of the three-hundred-year-old Romanov dynasty. Objectively, nothing foreshadowed such an outcome. According to the custom of the dynasty, Emperor Nicholas II received an excellent education and upbringing. At the turn of the century, Russia developed rapidly in all areas of popular life: economic, cultural, public education, transport and finance. The country's powerful internal growth aroused fear among its neighbors and everyone expected what policies would be adopted by the new reign. In the West, Nicholas II continued to strengthen the Franco-Russian alliance. In the Far East, the country's interests clashed with the interests of Japan and England. In 1895, Japan attacked China, captured Korea, Kwantung and began to threaten the Russian Far East. Russia came out in defense of China, managed to involve Germany and France in a coalition against Japan.
The allies threatened Japan with a naval blockade and forced her to leave the Asian continent and be satisfied with the island of Formosa (Taiwan). Russia for this service to China received a concession for the construction of the Sino-Eastern Railway (CER) with the right to own Manchuria and the lease of the Kwantung Peninsula with a military base in Port Arthur and the commercial port of Dalniy (Dalian). With the construction of the Siberian railroad, Russia was firmly established on the Pacific coast. But with regard to Japan, a number of mistakes, miscalculations and underestimations were made, which allowed the Japanese to create a powerful fleet and ground forces significantly exceeding the fleet and army of the Russian Empire in the Pacific Ocean. One of the main mistakes was that the Minister of Finance, Count Witte, granted a huge loan to China, due to which the Chinese immediately paid off their debts to Japan. The Japanese used this money to build a fleet and strengthen the country's military power. This and other mistakes led to a war with Japan, which was able to decide to go to war only given Russia's weakness in the Far East. The Russian public saw the reasons for the war in the intrigues of private commercial dealers who managed to influence the emperor and even involve members of the imperial family in forestry concessions. Even then, the tsarist government demonstrated a narrow approach and disregard for national interests. The real reason for the Russo-Japanese war was the increased economic importance of the Pacific Ocean zone, and its importance became no less important than that of the Atlantic. Russia, while strengthening its position in the Far East, continued to pay its main attention to the West and paid little attention to Manchuria, hoping to cope with Japan without difficulty in the event of a conflict. Japan carefully prepared for the war with Russia and focused all its attention on the military theater of Manchuria. In addition, in the brewing conflict, England's anti-Russian influence was becoming clearer.
The war began without a declaration by the Japanese fleet attacking the Russian fleet in Port Arthur on the night of February 3–4, 1904. The forces that Russia had in the Far East were determined at 130 thousand people, including 30 thousand in the Vladivostok region and 30 thousand in Port Arthur. Strengthening the army was supposed to be due to new formations and the sending of corps from central Russia. The Russian troops were well armed, the quality of rifled weapons and artillery was higher than that of the Japanese, but there were not enough mountain guns and mortars. In Japan, universal conscription was introduced in the 70s of the 19th century and by the beginning of the war it had up to 1.2 million people liable for military service, including up to 300 thousand people of a permanent and trained staff. The most important feature of the theater of operations was the link between the troops and the rear, and in this respect the position of both sides was the same. For the Russian army, the only railway from Syzran to Liaoyang served as a connection with the rear, due to its unfinishedness, cargo had to be reloaded through Lake Baikal. The connection of the Japanese army with the mother country was exclusively naval and could be carried out only under the conditions of the dominance of the Japanese fleet at sea. Therefore, the first goal of the Japanese plan was to lock up or destroy the Russian fleet in Port Arthur and ensure the neutrality of third countries. By the end of February, the Russian fleet suffered significant losses, the Japanese seized supremacy at sea and ensured the possibility of an army landing on the mainland. General Kuroki's army landed first in Korea, followed by General Oku's army. The Russian command ineptly slept through the beginning of the Japanese landing operation, when the small Japanese bridgehead was most vulnerable. In these conditions, the task of the Russian army was to attract all the forces of the Japanese and pull them away from Port Arthur.
There was no firm command in the Russian army. The general leadership of the conduct of the war lay with the governor in the Far East, General Alekseev, and the Manchu army was commanded by General Kuropatkin, i.e. the control system was similar to the control system during the conquest of the Black Sea region at the end of the 18th century. The trouble was different. Kuropatkin was not Suvorov, Alekseev was not Potemkin, and Nicholas II was no match for Empress Catherine II. Due to the lack of unity and leadership abilities that were adequate to the spirit of their time, from the very beginning of the war, operations began to be spontaneous. The first major battle took place on April 18 between the eastern detachment of Kuropatkin's army and Kuroki's army. The Japanese had not only a numerical, but also a tactical advantage, since the Russian army was completely unprepared for modern warfare. In this battle, the Russian infantry fought without digging in, and the batteries fired from open positions. The battle ended with heavy losses and indiscriminate retreat of Russian troops, Kuroki advanced and ensured the landing of the second army on the Korean coast, then headed for Port Arthur. The defense of the naval fortress of Port Arthur was no less sad than the hostilities on the mainland. Generals Stoessel and Smirnov, the head of the fortified area and the commandant of the fortress, ignored each other out of personal animosity. The garrison was full of squabbles, gossip, and mutual grievances. The atmosphere in the leadership of the defense of the fortress was completely different from the one in which Kornilov, Nakhimov, Moller and Totleben in besieged Sevastopol created their immortal bastions out of nothing. In May, another Japanese army landed in Dogushan and the Japanese drove the eastern group of the Russian army from the Korean peninsula. By August, the eastern and southern groups of the Russian army were drawn to Liaoyan and Kuropatkin decided to fight there. From the Russian side, 183 battalions, 602 guns, 90 hundred Cossacks and dragoons participated in the battle, which significantly exceeded the forces of the Japanese. The Japanese attacks were repulsed with heavy losses for them, but the fate of the battle was decided on the left flank of the Russian army.
General Orlov's division, which consisted of non-fired reservists, guarded the left flank of the army. In the thickets of Gaolyan, she was attacked by the Japanese and fled without resistance, opening the flank of the army. Kuropatkin was terrified of being surrounded and on the night of August 19, he gave the order for the army to withdraw to Mukden. The withdrawal of the Russian army was several hours ahead of the decision of the Japanese army to retreat, but the Japanese troops were so upset by the previous battles that they did not pursue the retreating Russian troops. This case clearly demonstrated the almost complete absence of military intelligence and the gift of foresight in the command of the Russian army. Only in September, the Japanese troops, having received reserves, were able to advance to Mukden and occupy the front there. At the end of October, the Russian army went on the offensive, but did not achieve success, both sides suffered heavy losses. At the end of December, Port Arthur fell and in January 1905, the Russian army launched a new offensive, hoping to defeat the enemy before the Japanese army approached from Port Arthur. However, the offensive ended in complete failure. In February, the fighting near Mukden ended in a disorderly retreat of the Russian army. Kuropatkin was removed, a new commander, Linevich, was appointed. But neither he nor the Japanese, after heavy losses at Mukden, had the courage to attack.
Cossack units took an active part in the battles with the Japanese, they made up most of the cavalry. The Trans-Baikal Cossack army deployed 9 cavalry regiments, 3 foot battalions and 4 horse batteries. The Amur Cossack army fielded 1 regiment and 1 division, Ussuriysk - 1 regiment, Siberian - 6 regiments, Orenburg - 5 regiments, Ural - 2 regiments, Donskoy 4 regiments and 2 horse batteries, Kuban - 2 regiments, 6 Plastun battalions and 1 horse battery, Terskoe - 2 regiments and 1 horse battery. A total of 32 regiments, 1 battalion, 9 battalions and 8 batteries. As the Cossacks arrived in the Far East, they immediately received the baptism of fire. Participated in the battles at Sandepu, in a 500-kilometer raid on the Japanese rear in Honghe, Nangzhou, Yingkou, in the battles near the village of Sumanu, in the raid on the Japanese rear in the area of Haicheng and Dantuko, distinguished themselves in the raid on Fakumyn, in the attack on the enemy near the village Donsyazoy. On the Don, in July 1904, the 4th Don Cavalry Division, the 3rd Don Cossack Artillery Division and 2 medical trains from the Cossacks of the 2nd stage were mobilized. The emperor himself accompanied the Cossacks to the front, who specially arrived for this on the Don on August 29, 1904. In early October, the Cossacks arrived at the front and took part in a raid by the cavalry group of General Mishchenko on the rear of the enemy. For a number of reasons, the raid was unsuccessful, and after heavy fighting, the division was withdrawn to the rear for replenishment, then was sent to Mongolia to guard the Chinese Eastern Railway and fight the gangs of Hunghuz (Chinese robbers) led by Japanese officers. Among the Cossacks of this division, the dashing Mironov FK, the future famous red horseman and commander of the 2nd Cavalry Army, who was shot in 1921 by the Trotskyists, fought bravely. For the Russo-Japanese War, he earned 4 orders. In the same division, a young sergeant of the 26th Cossack regiment, SM Budyonny, the future legendary commander of the 1st Cavalry Army, began his military activities.
Rice. 1 Fight of the Cossacks with the Hunghuzes
The Cossacks, as cavalry, did not play their former prominent role in this war. There were many reasons for this: the increased strength of rifle and artillery fire, the deadly fire of machine guns, the extraordinary development of artificial obstacles, and the weakness of the enemy's cavalry. There were no big cavalry cases, the Cossacks were actually made dragoons, i.e. infantry, mounted on horses. As an infantry, the Cossacks acted very successfully, especially in the defense of the passes. There were also cavalry cases, but not on the same scale and not with the same success. Let us recall, for example, the case of General Mishchenko's Trans-Baikal brigade under Anchu, the case of the Siberians under Wa-fang-go, the raid in Korea on the rear of Kuroki's army, etc. Despite all the setbacks that relentlessly pursued our army, only thanks to the presence of the Cossacks, the Japanese were unable to advance north of Kuanchentzi and take possession of Vladivostok.
Rice. 2 Battle of the Cossacks with the Japanese cavalry at Wa-fang-go
Rice. 3 Raid of the Cossacks on the rear of the Japanese army
On May 14, 1905, the Russian squadrons of Rozhdestvensky and Nebogatov, deported from the Baltic Sea, were completely defeated in the Tsushima Strait. The Russian Pacific Fleet was completely destroyed, and this was a decisive moment in the course of the war. The victims of the sides in the Russo-Japanese War were great. Russia lost about 270 thousand people, of which 50 thousand were killed, Japan, with losses of 270 thousand people, had 86 thousand killed. At the end of July, peace talks began in Portsmouth. Under the Portsmouth Treaty, Russia retained northern Manchuria, ceded half of Sakhalin Island to Japan, and expanded its sea fishing zone. The unsuccessful war on land and at sea spurred confusion within the country and drained Russia to the extreme. During the war, the forces of the "5 column" of all stripes became more active in the country. In difficult moments of military failures on the fronts of Manchuria, the most "progressive" part of the Russian public filled restaurants and drank champagne for the enemy's success. The Russian liberal press of those years directed the entire stream of criticism against the army, considering it the main culprit of the defeat. If the criticism of the main command was correct, then in relation to the Russian soldier and officer, it was of a very nasty character and was only partially true. There were writers and journalists who, in the Russian warrior, were looking for someone to blame for all the failures in this war. Everyone got it: infantry, artillery, navy and cavalry. But most of all the dirt went to the Cossacks, who made up the majority of the Russian cavalry in the Manchurian army.
The revolutionary part of the party groupings also rejoiced at the failures, seeing in them a means of fighting the government. Already at the very beginning of the war, on February 4, 1904, the Governor-General of Moscow, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, was killed. Under the influence of revolutionary propaganda, with the outbreak of the war, peasant pogroms began in Ukraine (traditionally the weak link of the empire). In 1905, factory workers joined the peasant pogroms. The revolutionary movement was promoted by industrialists who provided funds for the publication of revolutionary literature. All of Russia was gradually engulfed in unrest among peasants and workers. The revolutionary movement also affected the Cossacks. They had to act as pacifiers of revolutionaries and rioters. After all the unsuccessful attempts to involve the Cossacks in the revolutionary movement, they were considered a "stronghold of tsarism", "tsarist satraps" and according to party programs, decisions and literature, the Cossack regions were subject to destruction. Indeed, all the Cossack regions did not suffer from the main drawback of the peasantry - landlessness and demonstrated stability and order. But in the land question and in the Cossack regions, not everything was all right. What was only in its infancy when the Cossack lands were settled, at the turn of the century became a completely finished fact. The former foreman turned into gentlemen, into the nobility. Back in the Regulations of 1842, for the first time, one of these advantages of a foreman was entered. In addition to the usual Cossack land rights in the amount of 30 dessiatines per Cossack, the Cossack foreman was granted for life: 1,500 dessiatines per general, 400 dessiatines per headquarters officer and 200 dessiatines per chief officer. 28 years later, by the new regulation of 1870, the lifelong use of the officers' plots was replaced by hereditary ones, and private property was made from military property.
And after a while, part of this property had already passed into the hands of other owners, often not the Cossacks, to whom the Cossack officers and their descendants sold their plots. Thus, there was a firm nest of the kulaks on these military lands and, having arranged such an economically important point of support, the kulaks (being often from the Cossacks themselves) robbed the very Cossacks, whose ancestors had given the land with letters of gratitude on the basis of the military, general Cossack property. As we can see, with regard to the history of the development of Cossack land ownership, the Cossacks had "not all good luck" in this regard. This, of course, indicates that the Cossacks were people and that, as people, nothing human was alien to them. There was oppression, there was a seizure, there was a struggle, there was a disregard for the common good and the interests of one's neighbor. The Cossack made mistakes, fell into hobbies, but that was life itself, then there was its gradual complication, without which the history of the development of the phenomena under consideration would be unthinkable. Behind the general fact of land troubles was another fact dominating over these troubles, the existence and development of communal-land Cossack property. It was already important that for the Cossack communities, both in fact and by law, the rights to land were approved. And since the Cossack had land, it means that the Cossack had the opportunity to be a Cossack, support a family, maintain an economy, live in prosperity and equip himself for service.
Rice. 4 Cossacks at the mow
The special position of internal government, based on the principles of Cossack democracy, in the Cossack regions maintained the consciousness that they constituted a special, privileged class among the Russian people, and among the Cossack intelligentsia the isolation of Cossack life was confirmed and explained by references to Cossack history. In the internal life of the Cossacks, despite the government changes in the life of the country, the old Cossack way of life was preserved. Power and bosses showed themselves only in an official relation or to suppress willfulness, and the power consisted of their own Cossack environment. The nonresident population in the Cossack regions was engaged in trade, crafts or peasants, often lived in separate settlements and did not take part in the public life of the Cossacks, but it was constantly growing. For example, the population of the Don region at the beginning of the reign of Nicholas II was: 1,022,086 Cossacks and 1,200,667 non-Cossacks. A significant part of the non-Cossack population were residents of the cities of Rostov and Taganrog annexed to the Don, and workers of Donetsk coal mines. The total area of the land of the Don Army was 15,020,442 dessiatines and was distributed as follows: 9,316,149 dessiatines in stanitsa allotments, 1,143,454 in military possession under various institutions and forests, 1,110,805 military reserve lands, 53,586 dessiatines in the possession of cities and monasteries, 3 370 347 in the allotments of officers and officials. As you can see, in the Don Army, the Cossack had an average of about 15 acres of land, i.e. twice less than the 30-dessiatine allotment, determined by the laws of 1836 and 1860. The Cossacks continued to carry out general service, although they enjoyed certain privileges that exempted them from service in peacetime due to marital status and education. All equipment and a horse were purchased with the personal funds of the Cossacks, which was very expensive. Since 1900, in support of the cost of equipping a Cossack for service, the government began to release 100 rubles per Cossack. The habitual way of communal land use increasingly came into conflict with life. The cultivation of the land was carried out in the old fashioned way, when there was a lot of free land and there were virgin lands. The redistribution of land took place every 3 years; even an enterprising Cossack could not and did not want to invest capital expenditures on fertilizing the land. To abandon the old Cossack custom - equal allotments to everyone, was also difficult, because it undermined the foundations of Cossack democracy. Thus, the general situation and conditions in the country led to the fact that the Cossack life demanded significant reforms, but no sensible, constructive and productive proposals were received. The revolutionary movement of 1904-1906 put the Cossacks in an exceptional position. The government, considering the Cossacks loyal servants of the Fatherland, decided to use them to pacify the rebellion. Initially, all the regiments of the first stage were attracted for this, then, after mobilization, many regiments of the second stage, then part of the regiments of the third stage. All the regiments were distributed among the provinces most affected by the mutiny and put things in order.
Rice. 5 Cossack patrol on Nevsky Prospekt, 1905
The situation was aggravated by the fact that there were unrest in the army and navy, terrorist acts followed one after another everywhere. Under these conditions, politicians, the public and the government were looking for a way out of this situation. The political parties of the constructive opposition were weak and unauthorized and were only fellow travelers of popular unrest. The real leaders of the destructive revolutionary activity were the party leaders of the parties of socialists, populists and Marxists of various trends and shades, who challenged each other for primacy. Their activities were not limited to improving the people's life, not to solving pressing issues of the state and society, but to the fundamental ruin of everything that exists. For the people, they threw up ancient primitive slogans, understandable, as in the time of Pugachev, and easily applied in practice with a crumbling government. The future of the country and the people by these leaders seemed very vague, depending on the taste, fantasies and desires of each leader, not excluding promises, for those especially willing, and earthly paradise. The public was completely at a loss and did not find material, moral and ideological support for consolidation. The government's attempt to take the workers' movement into its own hands and lead it ended in the tragedy of the Bloody Resurrection on January 5, 1905. The military setbacks in Manchuria and the catastrophe of the fleet in the Pacific Ocean completed the matter.
A real idea of tsarist power as a herd of unafraid idiots was created: ignoramuses, inept and stupid, who would not undertake anything, everything falls out of their hands. Under these conditions, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich proposed to grant a constitution and convene the State Duma without the right to limit the autocracy. On October 17, 1905, a manifesto was issued, and on April 22, 1906, the elections of members of the State Duma were completed. In the troubled time of 1904-1906, the Cossacks fulfilled their duty to the Motherland, the rebellion was stopped and the government, by the beginning of the Duma, felt more confident. However, the elected Duma, already at the first meeting, demanded the resignation of the government, changes in the basic laws of the Empire, the deputies from the rostrum made pogrom speeches with impunity. The government saw that with such a composition of the State Duma, the state was under threat and on June 10, the emperor dissolved the Duma, at the same time appointing P. A. Stolypin. The Second Duma opened on February 20, 1907. The left-wing factions and the Cadets sat while reading the highest decree. By June it became clear that the Social Democratic faction was carrying out illegal work in military units, preparing a military coup. Prime Minister Stolypin proposed to exclude 55 deputies involved in this case from the Duma.
The proposal was rejected, and the Duma was dissolved on the same day. In total, in the IV Russian Dumas from 1906 to 1917. 85 Cossack deputies were elected. Of these, 25 people in the I Duma, 27 people in the II, 18 in the III and 15 in the IV. Some deputies were elected several times. So, prominent Cossack public figures of democratic orientation - the Don Cossack V. A. Kharlamov and the Kuban Cossack K. L. Bardizh - were deputies of the Duma of all four convocations. Don Cossacks - M. S. Voronkov, I. N. Efremov and the Ural Cossack - F. A. Eremin - deputies of three Dumas. Tersky Cossack - M. A. Karaulov, Siberian Cossack - I. P. Laptev, Don Cossack - M. P. Arakantsev and Zabaikalsky - S. A. Taskin was elected to the Duma twice. At the same time, it should be noted that out of 85 Cossack deputies, 71 people were delegated to the Cossack regions, and 14 were elected as deputies from non-Cossack provinces of Russia. Despite the difficult experience of attracting representatives of the people to state life, the latter's lack of experience in state work and responsibility, Russia during the reign of Nicholas II began to have two legislative institutions: the State Duma and the State Council. These institutions were limited in their activities by the power of the autocracy, but these restrictions were only slightly greater than in Austria, Germany or Japan. There is no responsibility of ministries to the people even in modern America, where the president is an autocrat. The reign of Nicholas II was a time of economic and cultural development. The population increased from 120 to 170 million people, the monetary deposits of the population increased from 300 million to 2 billion rubles, the collection of grain almost doubled, coal production increased more than six times, oil production and the length of railways doubled. The law practically prohibited the import of railway equipment, which led to the development of metallurgy and transport engineering. Public education developed rapidly, the number of pupils and students reached 10 million. The internal life of Russia after the unrest in 1907 came to rest.
International politics was mainly determined by relations between European powers and was complicated by strong competition in foreign markets. Germany, squeezed by the allied powers France and Russia on the mainland and Britain on the seas, sought to occupy a dominant position on the routes of the Near and Middle East. After failing to gain a foothold in Tunisia and North Africa, she began building a railway to Baghdad, heading towards Turkey, Persia and India. In addition to economic reasons, Germany's foreign policy was also determined by the psychology of its people. Prussian militarism, which in the 19th century managed to unite the disparate Germanic peoples into a single state, was brought up by German philosophy in the spirit of superiority over other peoples and pushed Germany towards world domination. Its weapons developed rapidly and forced other peoples to arm themselves as well. The military budgets of countries accounted for 30-40% of national spending. The plans for military training also included the political aspect, the incitement of discontent and revolutionary actions in the enemy countries. In order to stop the arms race and avoid an international conflict, Emperor Nicholas II proposed to the European peoples to create an arbitration court for the peaceful resolution of conflicts. For this purpose, an international conference was convened in The Hague. But this idea met with sharp opposition from Germany. Austria-Hungary gradually fell under the influence of Germany and formed an inseparable bloc with it. In contrast to the Austro-Prussian alliance, to which Italy adjoined, the Franco-Russian alliance, to which England was inclined, began to strengthen.
Russia developed rapidly and, with a population of 170 million, quickly turned into a giant country. In 1912, Russia outlined a large program for the comprehensive improvement of the country. Stolypin's firm control, who managed to curb the revolutionary forces in the country, created many enemies for him among not only the underground, but also the "progressive" part of society. The agrarian reform undertaken by Stolypin infringed upon the communal order of land use and aroused hatred against it on both sides. The people's democrats saw in the community the standard and guarantee of a future classless state, while the large landowners saw in private peasant land ownership a campaign against large landownership. Stolypin came under attack from two sides, right and left. For the Cossacks, the Stolypin reforms also did not have a positive meaning. In fact, by equating the Cossacks with the peasants in the economic situation, they only slightly lightened the burden of military service. In 1909, the general service life for the Cossacks was reduced from 20 to 18 years by reducing the "preparatory" category to one year. The reforms actually eliminated the privileged position of the Cossacks and in the future had great negative consequences for the tsarist government and Russia. Caused by the pre-war reforms and the failures of the First World War, the indifference of the Cossacks to the tsarist power subsequently gave the Bolsheviks a respite and the opportunity to gain a foothold in power after the October Revolution, and then the opportunity to win the civil war.
In 1911, celebrations were held in Kiev to mark the millennium of the adoption of Christianity in Russia. Stolypin arrived in Kiev, accompanying the sovereign. Under the most careful police control, terrorist agent Bagrov entered the Kiev opera and mortally wounded Stolypin. With his death, the country's domestic and foreign policy has not changed. The government firmly ruled the country, there were no open revolts. The leaders of the destructive parties, waiting in the wings, hid abroad, published newspapers and magazines, maintained contacts with like-minded people in Russia, not disdaining in their lives and activities sponsored help from the special services of Russia's geopolitical opponents and from various organizations of the international bourgeoisie. In foreign policy, Russia focused on the mainland of Europe and strengthened its alliance with France. That, for its part, held on tightly to Russia and released loans to strengthen its military power, primarily for the development of railways in the direction of Germany. The dominant idea in foreign policy again, as under Alexander II, was the Pan-Slavic question and the Balkan Slavs. This was a global strategic mistake that subsequently led to disastrous consequences for the country and the ruling dynasty. Objectively, the growth of the economy and foreign trade pushed Russia towards the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal, which is why the Slavic question took on such importance. But the Balkan Peninsula at all times was a "powder magazine" of Europe and was fraught with the danger of a constant explosion. Southern Europe even now has little economic and political importance, and at that time it was completely backwater. The main Russian political idea of "Pan-Slavism" was based on ephemeral concepts of "Slavic brotherhood" and at that time was fatally associated with a hotbed of permanent international conflict and instability. In the Balkans, the paths of Pan-Slavism, Pan-Germanism and the forces guarding the Bosphorus, Gibraltar and Suez crossed.
The situation was complicated by the internal political forces of the young Balkan countries, which were not distinguished by great state experience, wisdom and responsibility. In 1912, Serbia, in alliance with Bulgaria, declared war on Turkey in order to undermine its influence in Albania and Bosnia. The war was successful for the Slavs, but soon after the victory the victors fought among themselves, demonstrating to the whole world their extreme state immaturity and monstrous lightness of decisions. This frivolous behavior of theirs alerted the politicians of neighboring countries, including in Russia, but to a completely insufficient extent. The military analyzed only military experience and conducted large troop maneuvers. A military thunderstorm was not yet foreseen and there seemed to be no obvious reasons for a European geopolitical catastrophe. But in the military and political centers, the microbe of international devastation was persistently cultivated. By the beginning of the twentieth century, such destructive technical means were concentrated in the armies of the main European countries that each country considered itself invincible and was ready to take the risk of a military battle with the enemy. There was a treaty of the Hague Conference, signed by all the powers of Europe, which committed themselves to settling all political conflicts by means of arbitration courts. But in the prevailing political circumstances, when each country was morally ready for war, this treaty was just a piece of paper that no one thought to reckon with. To start the war, only a pretext was needed, and given the complex political relations, it was quickly found. On June 28, 1914, Crown Prince of Austria Franz Ferdinand, who came to Bosnia on an inspection and peacekeeping mission, was killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo. Austria, not trusting the Serbian authorities, demanded an investigation into Serbia, which violated its sovereignty. The Serbian government turned to Russia and France for help. But the ultimatum to Austria was supported by Germany, she firmly insisted on her own and began to concentrate troops on the borders of Serbia.
In St. Petersburg, in order to strengthen the Franco-Russian alliance, at that time French President Poincaré and Defense Minister Joffre were on a visit. The assassination of the crown prince hastened their departure to France, they left, accompanied by Emperor Nicholas II, who intended to meet at sea with Emperor Wilhelm and settle the conflict. At first it seemed that they succeeded. But the political atmosphere became more and more tense, in each of the countries the "war party" gained more and more influence and the negotiations became more and more irreconcilable. Partial mobilizations were carried out, first in Austria, then in Russia, France and Germany. Then Austria declared war on Serbia and moved troops to its borders. To keep her from decisive action, Emperor Nicholas II wrote a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm, but Austrian troops invaded Serbia. On Russia's demand to stop the war, Austria declared war on Russia. Then Germany declared war on Russia and then France. Three days later, England took the side of Russia and France. Russia boldly and decisively walked into the trap set, but despite this it was seized by general euphoria. It seemed that the decisive hour had come in the centuries-old struggle between the Slavs and the Germans. So the world war began, which lasted from the end of June 1914 to November 1918. With the declaration of war, 104 Cossack regiments and 161 separate hundred were mobilized into the Russian army. The ensuing war was very different in character from the previous and subsequent ones. The decades preceding the war in military affairs were characterized, first of all, by the fact that in their development the weapons of defense went sharply forward in comparison with the weapons of the offensive. The rapid-firing magazine rifle, the rapid-firing rifled breech-loading cannon and, of course, the machine gun began to dominate the battlefield. All these weapons were well combined with powerful engineering preparation of defensive positions: continuous trenches with communication trenches, thousands of kilometers of barbed wire, minefields, strongholds with dugouts, bunkers, bunkers, forts, fortified areas, rocky roads, etc.
Under these conditions, any attempt by the troops to attack ended in a catastrophe such as the defeat of the Russian armies at the Mazurian Lakes, or turned into a merciless meat grinder, as at Verdun. The war for many years became a little maneuverable, trench, positional. With the increase in firepower and striking factors of new types of weapons, the centuries-old glorious combat fate of the Cossack cavalry, the element of which was a raid, bypass, coverage, breakthrough, and offensive, came to an end. This war turned into a war of attrition and survival, led to the economic undermining of all the belligerent countries, claimed millions of lives, led to global political upheavals and completely changed the map of Europe and the world. Hitherto unprecedented losses and several years of great entrenchment also led to demoralization and decay of the active armies, then led to mass desertions, riots and revolutions, and ultimately ended with the collapse of 4 powerful Empires: Russian, Austro-Hungarian, German and Ottoman. And, despite the victory, besides them, two more powerful colonial empires broke down and began to fall: the British and the French.
And the real winner in this war was the United States of America. They profited unspeakably from military supplies, not only swept away all the gold and foreign exchange reserves and budgets of the Entente powers, but also imposed enslaving debts on them. Having entered the war at the final stage, the United States grabbed for itself not only a solid share of the winners' laurels, but also a fat piece of reparations and indemnities from the vanquished. It was America's finest hour. Only a century ago, US President Monroe proclaimed the doctrine "America for Americans" and the United States entered into a stubborn and merciless struggle to oust the European colonial powers from the American continent. But after the Versailles Peace, no power could do anything in the Western Hemisphere without the permission of the United States. It was a triumph of forward-looking strategy and a decisive step towards world domination.
The perpetrators of the war, as a rule, remain defeated. Germany and Austria became such, and all the costs of restoring the destruction of war were assigned to them. Under the terms of the Versailles Peace, Germany had to pay 360 billion francs to the allies and restore all the provinces of France destroyed by the war. A heavy indemnity was imposed on the German allies, Bulgaria and Turkey. Austria was divided into small national states, part of its territory was annexed to Serbia and Poland. Russia on the eve of the end of the war, because of the revolution, withdrew from this international conflict, but because of the ensuing anarchy plunged itself into a much more destructive civil war and was deprived of the opportunity to attend the peace congress. France got back Alsace and Lorraine, England, destroying the German fleet, retained dominance in the seas and in colonial politics. A secondary consequence of the First World War was the even more destructive and prolonged Second World War (some historians and politicians do not even divide these wars). But that's a completely different story.
