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Russian Army Русская Армiя Русская армия | |
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Active | 1917–1918 [lower-alpha 1] |
Country | Provisional Government (March–September 1917) Russian Republic (September 1917–January 1918) Russian SFSR [lower-alpha 2] (January–March 1918) |
Size | 7,060,700 (April 1917) [1] |
Part of | Ministry of War |
Supreme Headquarters | Mogilev, Minsk Governorate Petrograd, Petrograd Governorate |
Engagements | |
Commanders | |
Supreme Commander-in-Chief | Mikhail Alekseyev Aleksei Brusilov Lavr Kornilov Alexander Kerensky Nikolay Dukhonin Nikolai Krylenko |
In March [ O.S. February] 1917, the Russian Army formally ceased to be the Imperial Russian Army when Emperor Nicholas II abdicated and the Provisional Government became the governing authority. It was officially a caretaker government until September 1917, when the Russian Republic was proclaimed.
The Provisional Government shared power with the Petrograd Soviet, which issued Order No. 1 to the military garrison of Petrograd. [2] When it reached the front lines it was misinterpreted to mean that soldiers no longer had to follow orders from officers and could elect their own commanders. The Soviet later clarified that military discipline had to be maintained, but the order began a decline in discipline and army effectiveness over the course of 1917. Still, the army remained intact and the majority of troops stayed at the front lines, with rear-echelon units in the Russian interior being more affected by revolutionary sentiment. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Order No. 1 changed the relationship between officer corps and the ordinary soldiers, with the cooperation of elected soldiers' committees becoming necessary for army operations. The Russian Army was still capable of launching an offensive in July [ O.S. June] 1917, though it was defeated and reversed despite some initial success. The Provisional Government had promised to continue Russia's obligations to its Western allies in the Triple Entente. After the failure of the offensive, and despite the political machinations in Petrograd, the army was still an effective force at the front, though it was unwilling to go on the attack. [6] [7]
The Bolsheviks began taking control of the army in November 1917, after the October Revolution, and abolished the officer corps in December 1917. This began the process of disintegration, but the army did not cease existing at the front until February 1918, when negotiations between Germany and the Bolsheviks broke down. The Germans did not start transferring divisions from the Eastern Front to the west until the Bolsheviks agreed to an armistice in late 1917. [7] The Bolsheviks still wanted to maintain the Russian Army at the front while talks with Germany were ongoing, and the army was formally demobilized when the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed in March 1918. [8]
The revolutionary wave influenced the Army, and it was swept with the processes of democratization and the single line of command was questioned. The Order No. 1 issued by the Petrograd Soviet instructed soldiers and sailors to obey their officers and the Provisional Government only if their orders did not contradict the decrees of the Petrograd Soviet. The interpretation of the Order, both at the time and by the historians has been a matter of controversy. While many scholars agree that the order severely disrupted the army discipline, John Boyd argued that in fact, the order's intention was to restore the discipline and it clearly stated that it was to be applied only to the troops off the front lines. While the order did not call for the democratic election of the officers, it has been a widespread misinterpretation. [9]
The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution, October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917–1923. It was the second revolutionary change of government in Russia in 1917. It took place through an insurrection in Petrograd on 7 November 1917 [O.S. 25 October]. It was the precipitating event of the Russian Civil War. The initial stage of the October Revolution which involved the assault on Petrograd occurred largely without any human casualties.
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social change in Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government following two successive revolutions and a civil war. It can also be seen as the precursor for the other revolutions that occurred in the aftermath of World War I, such as the German Revolution of 1918–1919. The Russian Revolution was one of the key events of the 20th century.
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the social-democratic Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and later the Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of the Russian Revolution, which was one of the key events of the 20th century.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers, by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, which followed months of negotiations after the armistice on the Eastern Front in December 1917, was signed at Brest-Litovsk.
The Kornilov affair, or the Kornilov putsch, was an attempted military coup d'état by the commander-in-chief of the Russian Army, General Lavr Kornilov, from 10 to 13 September 1917, against the Russian Provisional Government headed by Aleksander Kerensky and the Petrograd Soviet of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies. The exact details and motivations of the Kornilov affair are unconfirmed due to the general confusion of all parties involved. Many historians have had to piece together varied historical accounts as a result.
Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki was a Russian military officer and Polish general, serving with the Imperial Russian and then Polish armies. He was also the military commander of the Greater Poland Uprising.
The Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, commonly known as the Petrograd Soviet Ispolkom was a self-appointed executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet. As an antagonist of the Russian Provisional Government, after the 1917 February Revolution in Russia, the Ispolkom became a second center of power. It was dissolved during the Bolshevik October Revolution later that year.
The Kerensky offensive, also called the June offensive in Russia or the July offensive in Western historiography, took place from 1 July [O.S. 18 June] to 19 July [O.S. 6 July] 1917 and was the last Russian offensive of World War I. After the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II during the February Revolution, the Russian Provisional Government pledged to fulfill Russia's existing commitments to the Triple Entente, which included launching an offensive in the spring of 1917. The operation was directed at capturing Lemberg and the rest of Galicia from Austria-Hungary.
Various factions fought over Ukrainian territory after the collapse of the Russian Empire following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and after the First World War ended in 1918, resulting in the collapse of Austria-Hungary, which had ruled Ukrainian Galicia. The crumbling of the empires had a great effect on the Ukrainian nationalist movement, and in a short period of four years a number of Ukrainian governments sprang up. This period was characterized by optimism and by nation-building, as well as by chaos and civil war. Matters stabilized somewhat in 1921 with the territory of modern-day Ukraine divided between Soviet Ukraine and Poland, and with small ethnic-Ukrainian regions belonging to Czechoslovakia and to Romania.
1st Polish Corps in Russia was a military formation formed on 24 July 1917 in Minsk from Polish and Lithuanian personnel serving in the Western and Northern Fronts of the Russian Army.
The Order No. 1 was issued March 1, 1917 and was the first official decree of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The order was issued following the February Revolution in response to actions taken the day before by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, headed by Mikhail Rodzianko. On February 28, the Provisional Committee, acting as a government following the disintegration of Tsarist authority in Petrograd and fearing that the soldiers who had gone over to the revolution on February 26–27 (O.S.) without their officers constituted a potentially uncontrollable mob that might threaten the Duma, issued an order through the Military Commission of the Duma calling on the soldiers to return to their barracks and to obey their officers. The soldiers were skeptical of this order; for one thing, they saw Rodzianko as too close to the Tsar. Some soldiers perhaps feared that in sending them back to their barracks, he was attempting to quash the Revolution, though most were concerned that in being sent back to the barracks they would be placed under their old commanders whose heavy-handedness had led them to mutiny on the 26th; thus their grievances would go unaddressed. In response, the Petrograd Soviet issued Order Number 1.
The Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets was a short-lived (1917–1918) Soviet republic of the Russian SFSR that was created by the declaration of the Kharkiv All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets "About the self-determination of Ukraine" on 25 December [O.S. 12 December] 1917 in the Noble Assembly building in Kharkov. Headed by the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine formed earlier in Russian Kursk. The republic was later united into the Ukrainian Soviet Republic and, eventually, liquidated, because of a cessation of support from the government of the Russian SFSR when the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed.
The Operation Faustschlag, also known as the Eleven Days' War, was a Central Powers offensive in World War I. It was the last major offensive on the Eastern Front.
The Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (PMRC) (Russian: Петроградский военно-революционный комитет, romanized: Petrogradskiy voyenno-revolyutsionnyy komitet) was a militant group of the Petrograd Soviet and one of several military revolutionary committees that were created in the Russian Republic. Initially the committee was created on 25 October 1917 after the German army secured the city of Riga and the West Estonian Archipelago (see Operation Albion). The committee's resolution was adopted by the Petrograd Soviet on October 29, 1917.
The Riga offensive, also called the Jugla Offensive or the Battle of Riga, took place in early September 1917 and was last major campaign on the Eastern Front of World War I before the Russian Provisional Government and its army began disintegrating.
On 15 December [O.S. 2 December] 1917, an armistice was signed between the Russian Republic led by the Bolsheviks on the one side, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Bulgaria, the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire—the Central Powers—on the other. The armistice took effect two days later, on 17 December [O.S. 4 December]. By this agreement, Russia de facto exited World War I, although fighting would briefly resume before the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on 3 March 1918, and Russia made peace.
Central Powers intervention in the Russian Civil War consisted of a series of multi-national military expeditions starting in 1918. This intervention was picking up from the Eastern Front against the newly set up Russian Republic. The main goals of the intervention were to maintain the territories received in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, prevent a re-establishment of the Eastern Front, and administer new conquered territories. After the defeat of the Central Powers, many armies that stayed mostly helped the Russian White Guard eradicate communists in the Baltics until their eventual withdrawal and defeat. In addition, pro-German factions fought against the newly independent Baltic states until their defeat by the Baltic States, backed by the victorious Allies.
The Stavka of the Supreme Commander was the supreme headquarters of the Russian Imperial Army in the field during World War I until the demobilization of the army in March 1918.
The Establishment of Soviet power in Russia was the process of establishing Soviet power throughout the territory of the former Russian Empire, with the exception of areas occupied by the troops of the Central Powers, following the seizure of power in Petrograd on October 25, 1917, and in mostly completed by the beginning of the German offensive along the entire front on February 18, 1918.
The 1st Ukrainian Corps was a Ukrainianized combined–arms military formation created during the "democratization" of the army in Russia in August 1917 based on the 34th Army Corps of Lieutenant General Pavlo Skoropadskyi. After the October Revolution, the 1st Ukrainian Corps became part of the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic, but it ceased to exist in January 1918.