LuanNguyen WWI
In World War I, Russia was the biggest army in the world with 1 400 000 soldiers. The number got to 5000 000 when it fully mobilized. However, they could not arm all their soldiers because of the lack of supplies. They only had 4600 000 rifles. The Russian Military consisted of 115 infantry and more than 38 cavalry divisions. Their power came from the resources of 25 million men of combat age. During the whole war, almost 15 million people served the Russian Army and the casualties was about 1.8 million people died, 2.8 million wounded and more than 2.4 million were taken prisoners.
Russia had a very strong industry which could be as large as that of the German, Austro and Hungary. Therefore, the Russia kept expanding their
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After winning the Eastern Prussia, the Russian military was preparing to attack Berlin. The Russian artillery was effectively used because they were put inside giant fortresses with powerful guns. The Russian military spent a lot of the funds to develop the fixed artillery instead of the moving artillery. In 1906, 700 million Roubles were used for the fortress guns development and only 113 million roubles were spent for field artillery. The Mosin Ngant and Variants are two very popular rifles in the Russian military during World War I. The Mosin Nagant had a special design that allowed its bold to retract more effectively, so the soldiers did not have to clean after multiple shots. It has the standard 7.62 mm round so that the Russia did not have to make more various size of ammunition. The Mosin Ngant was known as the most popular and effective rifle in the Russian army during the war. Beside the rifles, the Russian military also armed their men with powerful pistols with the Nagant M1895, which became the standard side arm for the Russian soldiers during the World War I and even for Red Army in World War II. The pistols is a very useful weapon in the battlefield as a secondary weapon because of its small size. The Russian were weapons master, they were not only famous of making rifles, but also good at developing the mortars, which gained extreme advantage in the battlefield. A 9-cm mortar
Russia had a smaller economy, Russia was technologically limited, Russia was bigger, exerted more power
The development of iron and coal industries in the area of Moskow, St. Petersburg,the Baltic coast and the Ural Mountains to the east was heavily. This industrial growth helped Russia being the fourth largest industrail economy in those times.
This was because they had no materials for shelter, a shortage of food and medical services, and they were in bad fighting conditions. Of the 6,553,000 men in the army in December1914, only 4,652,000 had rifles. Untrained troops had to enter the battle without sufficient arms or ammunition. Furthermore, it was reported that 100,000 new rifles were needed each month but Russian factories could not even produce half of this. Wounded soldiers often had to go five days before they were attended to, as neither wagons, horses, first aid, nor any other organisations were allowed to go the forward areas.
Russian inability to recognize changing tactics and weapons of modern warfare is inexcusable but sadly explainable. Because the Czar tended to centralize power and surround himself with "yes men," he missed the good advice of those in his country who could have helped guide Russia into war. Some of these choices can also be blamed on misconceptions of Russian capabilities, and of its military identity. The military reforms that were not completely halted by inept leaders were otherwise thwarted by the lack of details with which an army mobilizes and fights. Details were not an important aspect for Russian pre-war strategy or estimations.
The argument that the First World War led to the downfall of the Tsardom in Russia is supported by how unprepared the military were from the outset and throughout the war. Poor conditions and lack of weaponry led to low morale. Production of weapons was seriously flawed as seen in the Russian front at Gorlice, where “many soldiers had no rifles and had to wait for a comrade to be killed before taking his weapon”3. “By the end of December 1914, 6,554,000 men had been mobilized with only 4,652,000 rifles available to them”4. Furthermore the appalling conditions that were reported in the Russian trenches caused outbreaks of diseases such as typhoid and cholera creating tensions amongst Russia's “indestructible army”5. The dreadful conditions caused soldiers to turn against their
This battle went to show that the Russian military was a threatening group. Even though the Russians had withdrawn from this battle, they had previously used their artillery and caused much havoc before leaving. The book goes on to say, “Had the factors of distance and weather, both of which hit the French campaign in Poland, been comparable to those in Russia in 1812, then it is possible that the failure of the Napoleonic system would have been dated earlier.” When Napoleon’s army had beat the Russian military at Friedland, not only did this allow the Prussians and Russians to find peace with each other, but this also made Napoleon think he could beat
The Soviets, on the other hand, were exactly the opposite. They could not afford technology advancement or innovative weaponry. Instead, they relied on older weapons and upgraded them only as necessary. These weapons were also much easier to maintain (Stewart, 6).
From the go Russia was mobilized and war ready faster than the Germans and themselves expected, they was only expecting a short war. Russia had no extended war plans of ammo, food, clothing and equipment and extremely bad organisation led to many un-necessary deaths and illnesses. They naively thought that 7 million shells would last the whole war, but in 1916 that was just enough for 10 days. In 1914 only 41 rifles were
Furthermore, while these rifles were better, the soldiers were not properly trained in using them; therefore, they were often use erroneously. This misuse hindered their accuracy. With the misuse and the lack of ammunition, they were not actually any better than the previous rifles.
During WW I, a huge Imperial Russian army (estimated at 19 million soldiers and officers representing over 15% of the Russian population) had been fighting Germany on the Eastern front with little success. Under-equipped, poorly trained and supervised, it had lost close to 9 million soldiers through desertions, deaths, wounded or prisoners.
This demonstrates that since the stress of waging war was tremendous, it should be no surprise that the first war could be a primary cause of the Russian Revolution. Moreover, the major powers of Europe hurt Russia in World War I; yet, by 1917, all the combatants horrifically suffered from the strains of war economically, proving this to be a long-term cause. This was, to a great extent, considerable because the military defeats and social strains of World War I had created a crisis in Imperial Russia. Before, Russia had some military accomplishments and they were on their way to being successful. Nevertheless, their triumphs were not long-standing; hence, Russia was not able to be victorious due to the fact that Russia decreased in economy because of the limitations in Russia. Similarly, restraints included the shortage of food and the huge problems with getting the obligatory materials for the army during World War I, which shows that this was momentous. Along with Russia being defeated and having a scarcity of supplies, Russia also showed economic oppression due to the pressure in jobs workers faced.
According to David Berreby, humanities are simply “unlike anything else found in nature” (par. 24). Human behavior is so complex that sometimes everyday interactions by humans seem unreal when studied more in depth. John Berger and David Berreby both discuss how humans view other humans. Berger claims that humans, especially women, are seen solely as objects or sights. However, although Berreby claims that humans have subconscious impressions of one another, he would likely disagree that humans are seen as objects, instead seeing deeper, meaningful human connection within one another.
After suffering a bloody defeat against the Turks in the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-1878, the Russians were looking to modernize the Imperial Army’s arsenal by adopting a new service rifle. In 1889, two test rifles were submitted; one by Captain Sergei Ivanovich Mosin, and another by Belgian designer Léon Nagant. In the testing trials, both rifles were found to have issues and the best components of both were incorporated into each other to make the Mosin Nagant 1891 or M91. It first saw extensive use in World War 1 with success. Its design was later improved in 1930, creating the Mosin
By 1916 russia had 4 and a half times more men captured than killed. In contrast England had 5 times more killed than taken prisoner. This was mainly due to the lack of equipment and weapons the Russian troops had.
The artillery and small arms were years behind that of France. The Russian army was a conscription army, meaning that local farmers had to furnish a certain number of surfs for military service, as opposed to a professional, trained army where the government supplies the soldiers with all of their needs. An amazing half-million soldiers had enlisted in Napoleon’s Grand Armée (Saglamer, Beginning of the March). This was the largest army gathered for one single invasion. Russia’s army was out numbered 3:1 with only one hundred-seventy thousand soldiers. Not only was the Russian army not well trained, they were also ill equipped. Napoleon recognized that it would be difficult and extremely slow for Russia to mobilize her army due to her enormous size and weak infrastructure. If Napoleon invaded now, he knew that he could be well into the Russian territory before meeting any major opposition. On June 24, 1812, Napoleon began his fatal Russian campaign. The Grand Armée, led by Napoleon, crossed the Nieman River, into Russia. On the journey to Moscow, Napoleon met virtually no major opposition. The first stop in the campaign was Kovono. Early into the campaign, the Grand Armée was affected by a colic epidemic that claimed the life of nine thousand horses and thousands of soldiers (Web, Russian Embassy). This slowed the pace of the army. Harsh weather conditions caused the dry roads to turn to mud, making it extremely difficult to maneuver the