Eastern Front (World War I)

Eastern Front
Part of the European theatre of World War I

Clockwise from top left: soldiers stationed in the Carpathian Mountains, 1915; German soldiers in Kiev, March 1918; the Russian ship Slava, October 1917; Russian infantry, 1914; Romanian infantry
Date1 August 1914 – 3 March 1918
Location
Central and Eastern Europe
Result Central Powers victory[1][2]
Belligerents
Central Powers:
 Allied Powers:
Commanders and leaders
Units involved
Units
Units
Strength

October 1917

1,178,600 infantry
39,000 cavalry
1,690 light guns
2,230 heavy guns

October 1917

2,166,700 infantry
110,600 cavalry
1,226 light guns
1,139 heavy guns
Casualties and losses
1,612,089[3]–2,000,000[4]
317,118[5]–517,000[6] dead
1,151,153 wounded[7]
143,818 captured[8]
4,377,000–5,172,000:[9]
726,000–1,150,000 dead[10]
2,172,000 wounded
1,479,289–1,850,000 captured[11][12]
45,000:[13][14]
8,000 dead[15]
22,000 wounded[15]
10,000 captured[16]
30,250[17][18]
Total:
5,952,000–6,452,000+ casualties
  • 1,038,000–1,458,000 dead
 6,042,425[19]–7,567,000
See casualities selection[b]
535,700:[20]
335,706 dead
120,000 wounded
80,000 captured
Total:
~7,035,700–8,054,569+ casualties
  • 1,110,706–2,590,100 dead
Civilian deaths:
2,000,000+
Russian Empire:
410,000 civilians died due to military action
730,000 civilians died of war-related causes[21]
Kingdom of Romania:
130,000 civilians died due to military action
200,000 civilians died of war-related causes[22]
Austria-Hungary:
120,000 civilians died due to military action
467,000 civilians died of war-related causes[23]

The Eastern Front or Eastern Theater of World War I [c] was a theater of operations that encompassed at its greatest extent the entire frontier between Russia and Romania on one side and Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, and Germany on the other. It ranged from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, involved most of Eastern Europe, and stretched deep into Central Europe. The term contrasts with the Western Front, which was being fought in Belgium and France. Unlike the static warfare on the Western Front, the fighting on the geographically larger Eastern Front was more dynamic, often involving the flanking and encirclement of entire formations, and resulted in over 100,000 square miles of territory becoming occupied by a foreign power.[24][25]

At the start of the war Russia launched offensives against both Germany and Austria-Hungary that were meant to achieve a rapid victory. The invasion of East Prussia was completely defeated while the advance into Austria-Hungary stalled in the Carpathians, and following successful offensives by the Central Powers in 1915 its gains were reversed. Germany and Austria-Hungary defeated Russian forces in Galicia and Poland, causing Russia to abandon the Polish salient, parts of Belarus and the Baltic region, and Galicia.[26] However, the campaigns of 1914–1915 also failed to achieve Germany's objective of taking Russia out of the war, and by 1916 Germany prioritized its resources for winning in the West.[27]

Russia went on the offensive to take pressure off of France at Verdun: Russia's attack near Lake Naroch in early 1916 was quickly defeated by Germany, but in the summer of 1916 the Brusilov offensive became the largest Entente victory in the war. Russia inflicted over one million casualties on Austria-Hungary and forced Germany to redeploy divisions from the Western Front, at the cost of its own heavy losses. In August 1916 Romania entered the war but was quickly overrun by Germany, though Russia helped prevent a total Romanian collapse.[28][29][30] The events of the February Revolution in March [O.S. February] 1917, caused by food shortages in Russian cities,[31] began a decline in discipline among the troops.[32][33]

After the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, the Russian Provisional Government chose to continue the war to fulfill its obligations to the Entente.[34] In July 1917 Russia's last offensive of the war ended in failure, and in September Germany captured Riga, bringing the German Army closer to the Russian capital. This was followed by a military coup attempt that weakened the Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian Republic in the October Revolution of November [O.S. October] 1917. Despite the political instability, the majority of the Russian Army was still intact and stayed at the front line until early 1918,[35] though the Bolsheviks began taking steps to dissolve it in December 1917 while maintaining some forces against the Central Powers as their negotiations were ongoing.[36]

The new Soviet government established by the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers in March 1918 after Operation Faustschlag, taking Russia out of the war; leading to a Central Powers victory. However, the Western Entente soon defeated the Central Powers, with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk being annulled by the Armistice of 11 November 1918. Romania and the Central Powers signed a separate peace treaty on 7 May 1918, but it was canceled by Romania on 10 November 1918.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Pearson, Raymond (2014). The Longman Companion to European Nationalism 1789-1920. Routledge. p. 15. ISBN 9781317897774. Cheered by the Central Powers' victory on, then dissolution of, the eastern front, Germany finds herself fighting on one front for the first time.
  2. ^ Weinhauer, Klaus; McElligott, Anthony; Heinsohn, Kirsten (2015). Germany 1916-23: A Revolution in Context. transcript Verlag. p. 159. ISBN 9783839427347. The defeat of Russia gave Ludendorff only a small window of opportunity in order to concentrate military forces in France prior to an inevitable flood of fresh American troops.
  3. ^ Churchill, W. S. (1923–1931). The World Crisis (Odhams 1938 ed.). London: Thornton Butterworth. Page 558. Total German casualties for "Russia and all other fronts" (aside from the West) are given as 1,693,000 including 517,000 dead.
  4. ^ Oleynikov 2016, p. 261.
  5. ^ Sanitatsbericht uber das Deutsche Heer (Deutsches Feld- und Besatzungsheer) im Weltkrieg 1914-1918
  6. ^ Including all other fronts except the western one
  7. ^ Sanitatsbericht uber das Deutsche Heer (Deutsches Feld- und Besatzungsheer) im Weltkrieg 1914-1918
  8. ^ Sanitatsbericht uber das Deutsche Heer (Deutsches Feld- und Besatzungsheer) im Weltkrieg 1914-1918
  9. ^ Bodart, Gaston: "Erforschung der Menschenverluste Österreich-Ungarns im Weltkriege 1914–1918", Austrian State Archive, War Archive Vienna, Manuscripts, History of the First World War, in general, A 91. Reports that 60% of Austro-Hungarian killed/wounded were incurred on the Eastern Front (including 312,531 out of 521,146 fatalities). While the casualty records are incomplete (Bodart on the same page estimates the missing war losses and gets a total figure of 1,213,368 deaths rather than 521,146), the proportions are accurate. 60% of casualties equates to 726,000 dead and 2,172,000 wounded.
  10. ^ Россия в мировой войне 1914—1918 (в цифрах). — М.: ЦСУ, 1925. — Табл. 33. — С. 41.
  11. ^ Volgyes, Ivan. (1973). "Hungarian Prisoners of War in Russia 1916–1919". Cahiers du Monde Russe et Soviétique, 14(1/2). Page 54. Gives the figure of 1,479,289 prisoners captured in the East, from the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Defence archives.
  12. ^ The most common data on Austrian prisoners vary from 1,800,000 to 1,950,000
  13. ^ Erickson, Edward J. Ordered to die : a history of the Ottoman army in the first World War, p. 147. Total casualties of 20,000 are given for the VI Army Corps in Romania.
  14. ^ Atlı, Altay (25 September 2008). "Campaigns, Galicia". turkesywar.com. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Total casualties of 25,000 are given for the XV Army Corps in Galicia.
  15. ^ a b "turkeyswar, Campaigns, Eastern Europe". Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  16. ^ Yanikdag, Yucel (2013). Healing the Nation: Prisoners of War, Medicine and Nationalism in Turkey, 1914–1939. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-7486-6578-5.
  17. ^ Министерство на войната (1939), p. 677 (in Bulgarian)
  18. ^ Симеонов, Радослав, Величка Михайлова и Донка Василева. Добричката епопея. Историко-библиографски справочник, Добрич 2006, с. 181 (in Bulgarian)
  19. ^ Oleynikov 2016, p. 245.
  20. ^ Cox, Michael; Ellis, John (2001). The World War I Databook: The Essential Facts and Figures for all the Combatants. London: Aurum Press.
  21. ^ Erlikman, Vadim (2004). Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow. Page 18 ISBN 978-5-93165-107-1.(Civilians killed on Eastern Front)
  22. ^ Erlikman, Vadim (2004). Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow. Page 51 ISBN 978-5-93165-107-1.
  23. ^ Erlikman, Vadim (2004). Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow. Page 49 ISBN 978-5-93165-107-1.
  24. ^ Stone 2015, p. 1.
  25. ^ Stone 2015, p. 312.
  26. ^ Reese 2023, pp. 96–98.
  27. ^ Stone 2015, p. 6.
  28. ^ Reese 2023, pp. 98–100.
  29. ^ "Brusilov Offensive Begins". history.com. Archived from the original on 30 March 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  30. ^ Golovin, Nicholas (1935). "Brusilov's Offensive: The Galician Battle of 1916". The Slavonic and East European Review. 13 (39): 571–96.
  31. ^ Stevenson 2017, pp. 91–101.
  32. ^ Reese 2023, pp. 101–102.
  33. ^ Stevenson 2017, p. 113.
  34. ^ Beevor 2022, pp. 53–56.
  35. ^ Reese, Roger R. (2019). The Imperial Russian Army in Peace, War, and Revolution, 1856–1917. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. pp. 285–286. ISBN 978-0-7006-2860-5.
  36. ^ Ziemke, Earl F. (2004). The Red Army, 1918–1941: From Vanguard of World Revolution to America's Ally. Taylor & Francis. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-135-76918-5.