The First World War was very different in nature from the previous and next ones. The decades preceding this war were characterized in military affairs primarily by the fact that in their development the weapons of defense went sharply forward in comparison with the weapons of the offensive. The battlefield began to dominate: the rapid-firing magazine rifle, the rapid-firing rifled breech-loading cannon and, of course, the machine gun. All these weapons went well with the powerful engineering preparation of defensive positions: continuous trenches with communication trenches, minefields, thousands of kilometers of barbed wire, strongpoints with dugouts, pillboxes, bunkers, forts, fortified areas, etc. Under these conditions, any attempt by the troops to attack ended in disaster and turned into a merciless meat grinder, as under Verdun. The war for many years became a little maneuverable, trench, positional. Hitherto unprecedented losses and several years of great entrenchment led to fatigue and demoralization of the active armies, then led to fraternization with enemy soldiers, mass desertions, riots and revolutions, and ultimately ended with the collapse of 4 powerful empires: Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Germanic and Ottoman. And despite the victory, besides them, two more powerful colonial empires broke down and began to fall: the British and the French. In this sad story, we know more about the death of the Russian empire. But at the same time, we remember Lenin's words that the proletarian revolution in Russia was an unplanned, accidental phenomenon for the world communist movement, for most of the Western communist leaders believed that the world revolution would begin in one of the Western European countries. But this did not happen. Let's try to dig deeper into this story.
In France, unrest in the army in the field, among workers and the public began in January 1917. From the side of the soldiers, complaints arose about poor nutrition, the terrible conditions of trench life and the complete disorder in the country. The wives of the soldiers in letters complained about the lack of food and were next in line for them. The movement of discontent began to spread among the workers as well. The centers of opposition propaganda were the committees of the left parties, which had entered into contact with the International, and the syndicates (trade unions). Their main slogan was to end the war, for "only peace will solve the problem of the shortage of fuel, food and curb the galloping prices." The soldiers on leave then arrived in the trenches and talked about the plight of families in the rear. At the same time, propaganda was conducted about the capitalists' profiting from military supplies and from the military industry. For moral reasons, a cold winter with rain, snow and strong winds was added. Without that, the hard life in damp trenches, in the ground, frozen like a stone, became unbearable. In such conditions, preparations were made for the offensive of the French army in the spring of 1917, which was provided for by the joint plan of the Entente. Already in early March, propaganda from the Russian front began to take its toll. It also infiltrated Russian units on the French front. Most of the Russian troops in France refused to continue the war and demanded a return to Russia. Russian troops were disarmed, sent to special camps and isolated from communication with units of the French army.
Rice. 1. Russian corps on the French front
The ministers of security, internal affairs and defense in these conditions were supposed to take measures to restore order in the country and the army, but each tried to shift the responsibility onto the other. In the end, the responsibility for restoring order in the army was assigned to the commander of the troops, General Nivelles. On April 6, he convened a meeting of the command staff in Compiegne about the readiness for the offensive, in the presence of the commander-in-chief, President Poincaré. Those present identified many problems and did not express confidence in the success of the upcoming offensive. However, in pursuance of the agreed plan of the Allies, a decision was made to attack in mid-April. Soon a telegram was also received stating that the American Congress decided on April 6 to declare war on Germany. By the joint efforts of the command and the government, order was restored in the country, and discipline was restored in the army. All of France cherished the hope of success and the end of the war, General Nivel did not skimp on promises to the troops: "You will see, you will enter the line of the Boche trenches like a knife in butter." The transition to the offensive was announced on April 16 at 6 o'clock in the morning. 850,000 troops, 2,300 heavy and 2,700 light guns, tens of thousands of machine guns and 200 tanks were prepared for the offensive.
Rice. 2, 3. The offensive of the French infantry and tanks on the march
But part of the Germans, anticipating the massive artillery preparation of the enemy before the offensive, left the first lines of trenches. The French fired millions of shells into the empty trenches and easily occupied them. But the unexpectedly advancing units were subjected to heavy machine-gun fire from the next line of trenches. They were stunned that the enemy's machine guns were not destroyed by artillery during the most powerful artillery barrage, and demanded help from the artillery. Light artillery launched massive fire on the enemy, but due to poor communication and coordination, part of the fire fell on their own troops. Particularly affected were the Senegalese divisions, deeply wedged into the enemy's defenses and caught in the crossfire of German machine guns and French artillery. Desperate resistance was met by the Germans everywhere. The French attacks were accompanied by unfavorable weather conditions, heavy rain and wind. Meanwhile, the headquarters of the High Command hastened to announce the occupation of the first lines of German defense, "filled with thousands of corpses of German soldiers." But in the afternoon, trains with the wounded began to arrive in Paris, telling the journalists terrible details. By this time, the defeated advanced Senegalese divisions rushed back, filling hospitals and ambulances. Tank units suffered a complete fiasco, out of 132 tanks that reached the front line and entered the battle, 57 were knocked out, 64 were out of order and were abandoned. Parts of the French in the occupied trenches were under heavy fire from German artillery and aviation and suffered huge losses, never reaching the main line of defense of the Germans. The lack of communication ruled out any possibility of interaction between the advancing lines and artillery, as a result, the French also constantly fell under the "friendly fire" of their own artillery. The rain and wind did not stop.
The situation in the rear and in transport was no better. The chaos in the delivery of supplies and the evacuation of the wounded was reminiscent of the worst past, as under Verdun. So, in a hospital with 3,500 beds, there were only 4 thermometers, no lighting, there was not enough heat, water and food. The wounded remained for several days without examination and dressing, at the sight of doctors they shouted "killers". The unsuccessful offensive lasted a week, and demands for the extradition of the head of General Nivelle began from the tribunes of parliament. Summoned to parliament, he continued to insist on continuing the offensive. In the army, among the commanding staff, disobedience to the orders of the headquarters, which they considered criminal, began to be observed, in response, Nivel began repressions. One of the disobedient generals removed from office made his way to the reception to Poincaré, after which he canceled the offensive with his power. Such interference by the authorities in the affairs of front management led to a collapse of the order of command, and the belief in the hopelessness of the war began to dominate among the command staff.
On April 27, an army commission was assembled to clarify the situation at the front. Commanders of the armies and chiefs of divisions were blamed for the losses incurred, after which the demoralization of Nivelle's army took on a general character. Whole divisions refused to carry out combat orders. Fighting at the front continued in some places, but in most cases with a sad outcome. Under these conditions, the War Ministry decided to save the army by removing Nivelle from it, and on May 15, General Pétain replaced Nivelle. To intimidate the rebel units, they took decisive measures, the instigators were identified and in some units they were shot right in front of the line in accordance with the laws of wartime. But Pétain saw that it was impossible to restore order in the army by shooting alone. The unrest spread to Paris; during the dispersal of the protesters, there were several wounded. In the units, protests began under the slogan: "Our wives are dying of hunger, and they are being shot at." Organized propaganda began and proclamations were distributed to the soldiers: “Comrades, you have the strength, do not forget this! Down with war and death to the perpetrators of the world massacre! " Desertion began, and the slogans of propaganda became more and more broad. “Soldiers of France, the hour of peace has struck. Your offensive ended in hopeless failure and enormous losses. You do not have the material strength to wage this aimless war. What should you do? The prospect of starvation, accompanied by death, is already evident in cities and villages. If you do not free yourself from the degenerates and arrogant leaders who are leading the country to destruction, if you cannot free yourself from the oppression of England in order to establish immediate peace, the whole of France will plunge into an abyss and irreparable devastation. Comrades, down with the war, long live peace!"
The propaganda was carried out within the country by the forces of syndicates, defeatists and Marxists. The Minister of the Interior wanted to arrest the leaders of the syndicate, but Poincaré did not dare. Of the 2,000 defeatists identified, only a few were arrested. Under the influence of agitators, several regiments went to Paris to carry out a revolution. Cavalry units loyal to the command stopped the trains, disarmed the rebels, and several people were shot. Everywhere in the military units, field courts were introduced, which passed death sentences for recalcitrant soldiers. Meanwhile, the leaders of the destruction remained unpunished and continued the destructive work, although they were well known to the ministries of security and internal affairs.
The army increasingly turned into a rebellious camp. The Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, Marshal Foch, held a meeting at Compiegne with the top military leaders. The general consensus was that the insurrection was the result of the propaganda of the socialists and the syndicates and the connivance of the government. The highest military ranks looked hopelessly even at the near future. They did not doubt the further active actions of the Germans at the front and the complete absence of the means and forces to counter them. But further political events helped France to get out of this hopeless situation safely. On May 5, 1917, the United States announced its entry into the war against Germany, not only at sea, but also on the continent. The United States immediately expanded its economic and naval assistance to the Allies and began training an expeditionary force to engage in hostilities on the Western Front. According to the law on limited military service, passed on May 18, 1917, 1 million men between the ages of 21 and 31 were drafted into the army. Already on June 19, the first American military units landed in Bordeaux, but it was not until October that the first American division arrived on the front line.
Rice. 4. American troops on the march
America's appearance on the side of the allies with its unlimited material resources quickly raised the mood in the army, and even more in the ruling circles. A decisive persecution of those involved in the demoralization of the army and the destruction of public order began. From June 29 to July 5, hearings began in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies on responsibility for the decomposition of the army. Up to 1,000 people were arrested, including not only opposition public figures, but also senior officials of public security and some ministers. Clemenceau was appointed minister of war, the army was put in order, and France escaped internal disaster. History, apparently, wanted the greatest turmoil of the 20th century to take place not in France, but at the other end of Europe. Probably, this lady considered that five revolutions for France are too many, four is enough.
This description serves as an example of parallel events and the morale of the armies of the warring countries and shows that military hardships and all kinds of shortcomings in the conditions of a three-year positional war were inherent not only in the Russian army, but, even to a greater extent, in the armies of other countries, including the German and French. Before the abdication of the sovereign, the Russian army did not know major unrest in military units, they began only closer to the summer of 1917 under the influence of general demoralization in the country, which began from above.
After the abdication of Nicholas II, the leader of the Octobrist Party, A. I. Guchkov. His competence in military matters, in comparison with other organizers of the overthrow of the monarchy, was determined by his stay as a guest performer during the Boer War. He turned out to be a "great connoisseur" of the art of war, and during his reign, 150 top commanders were replaced, including 73 divisional commanders, corps commander and army commander. Under him, order number 1 for the Petrograd garrison appeared, which became a detonator for the destruction of order in the capital garrison, and then in other rear, reserve and training units of the army. But even this inveterate foe of the Russian state, who staged a merciless purge of the command staff at the fronts, did not dare to sign the Declaration of the Rights of the Soldier, imposed by the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies. Guchkov was forced to resign, and on May 9, 1917, the new Minister of War Kerensky signed this Declaration, decisively launching into action a powerful instrument of decomposition of the army in the field.
Despite these destructive measures, the State Duma and the Provisional Government were afraid of the front units like fire, and it was precisely to protect revolutionary Petrograd from a possible raid by front-line soldiers that they themselves armed the Petrograd workers (who later overthrew them). This example also shows that revolutionary propaganda and demagoguery, in whatever country it is conducted, is built according to the same template and is based on the excitement of human instincts. In all strata of society and in the ruling elite, there are always people who sympathize with these slogans. But there are no revolutions without the participation of the army, and France was also saved by the fact that in Paris there was no accumulation, as in Petrograd, of reserve and training battalions, and it was also possible to avoid the flight of units from the front. However, her main salvation was in the entry of the United States into the war and in the appearance of American armed forces on its territory, which raised the morale of the army and the entire French society.
Survived the revolutionary process and the collapse of the army and Germany. After the end of the struggle with the Entente, the army completely disintegrated, the same propaganda was carried out inside it, with the same slogans and goals. Fortunately for Germany, inside her there were people who began to fight the forces of decay from the head. One morning, the communist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were found killed and thrown into a ditch. The army and the country were saved from the inevitable collapse and revolutionary process. Unfortunately, in Russia, the State Duma and the Provisional Government, which received the right to rule the country, in their activities and in revolutionary slogans did not differ in the least from the extreme party groupings, as a result they lost their authority and prestige among the masses of the people inclined to order, and especially in army - with all the ensuing consequences.
And the real winner in the First World 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 countries, but also imposed colossal and enslaving debts on them. Having entered the war at the final stage, the United States managed to grab for itself not only a solid share of the laurels of the winners and saviors of the Old World, 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. And in this top political pilotage of the American power elite of that time, there is something for the geopolitical mind to analyze and there is something for us to learn.
