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Eastern Front (World War I)

Eastern Front
Part of the European theatre of World War I and the Central Powers intervention in the Russian Civil War (1917-1918)

Clockwise from top left: soldiers stationed in the Carpathian Mountains, 1915; German soldiers in Kyiv, March 1918; the Russian ship Slava, October 1917; Russian infantry, 1914; Romanian infantry
Date
Location
Central and Eastern Europe
Result

Central Powers victory

Territorial
changes

Collapse of the Russian Empire

Belligerents
Central Powers:
 Germany
 Austria-Hungary
 Ottoman Empire (1916–17)
 Bulgaria (1916–17)
 Ukrainian People's Republic (1918)
Poland Polish Legionnaires
White Finland (1918)		 Allied Powers:
Russian Empire (1914–17)
 Russian Republic (1917)
 Romania (1916–17)
 Serbia (1916–17)
Belgium Belgium (1915–17)
 United Kingdom (1916–17)
 France (1916–17)
Czechoslovak Legion

Soviet Ukraine (1917–18)

Odesa Soviet Republic (1918)

Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic (1918)

Red Finland (1918)
Commanders and leaders
Paul von Hindenburg
Erich Ludendorff
Leopold of Bavaria
Max Hoffmann
Conrad von Hötzendorf
A. A. von Straußenburg
Cevat Pasha
Mustafa Hilmi Pasha
Nikola Zhekov		 Grand Duke Nicholas
Nicholas II
Mikhail Alekseyev
Aleksei Brusilov
Lavr Kornilov
Alexander Kerensky (1917)
Constantin Prezan
Nikolai Krylenko
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
1,500,000:[2][3][4]
300,000 killed
1,151,153 wounded
143,818 captured
4,377,000:[5][6]
730,000 dead
2,172,000 wounded
1,479,000 missing or captured
45,000:[7][8]
8,000 dead[9]
22,000 wounded[9]
10,000 captured[10]
30,250[11][12]
Total:
5,952,000+ casualties
  • 1,038,000+ dead
 Russia 6,500,000-7,375,000:[13]
775,000[14]-1,300,000 died[15]
4,200,000 wounded
2,420,000 captured
535,700:[16]
335,706 dead
120,000 wounded
80,000 captured
Total:
~7,035,700-8,054,569+ casualties
  • 1,110,706-2,590,075 dead
Civilian deaths:
2,000,000+
Russian Empire:
410,000 civilians died due to military action
730,000 civilians died of war-related causes[17]
Kingdom of Romania:
130,000 civilians died due to military action
200,000 civilians died of war-related causes[18]
Austria-Hungary:
120,000 civilians died due to military action
467,000 civilians died of war-related causes[19]

The Eastern Front or Eastern Theater of World War I (German: Ostfront; Romanian: Frontul de răsărit; Russian: Восточный фронт, romanized: Vostochny front) 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.

During 1910, Russian General Yuri Danilov developed "Plan 19" under which four armies would invade East Prussia. This plan was criticised as Austria-Hungary could be a greater threat than the German Empire. So instead of four armies invading East Prussia, the Russians planned to send two armies to East Prussia, and two armies to defend against Austro-Hungarian forces invading from Galicia. In the opening months of the war, the Imperial Russian Army attempted an invasion of eastern Prussia in the Northwestern theater, only to be beaten back by Germany after some initial success. At the same time, in the south, they successfully invaded Galicia, defeating the Austro-Hungarian forces there.[20] In Russian Poland, the Germans failed to take Warsaw. But by 1915, the German and Austro-Hungarian forces were on the advance, dealing the Russians heavy casualties in Galicia and in Poland, forcing them to retreat. Grand Duke Nicholas was sacked from his position as the commander-in-chief and replaced by Tsar Nicholas himself.[21] Several offensives against the Germans in 1916 failed, including the Lake Naroch Offensive and the Baranovichi Offensive. However, General Aleksei Brusilov oversaw a highly successful operation against Austria-Hungary that became known as the Brusilov offensive, which saw the Russian Army make large gains.[22][23][24] Being the largest and most lethal offensive of World War I, the effects of the Brusilov offensive were far reaching. It helped to relieve the German pressure during the Battle of Verdun, while also helping to relieve the Austro-Hungarian pressure on the Italians. As a result, the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces were fatally weakened, and finally Romania decided to enter the war on the side of the Allies. However, the Russian human and material losses also greatly contributed to the Russian Revolutions.[25]

Romania entered the war in August 1916. The Allied Powers promised the region of Transylvania (which was part of Austria-Hungary) in return for Romanian support. The Romanian Army invaded Transylvania and had initial successes, but was forced to stop and was pushed back by the Germans and Austro-Hungarians when Bulgaria attacked them from the south. Meanwhile, a revolution occurred in Russia in March 1917 (one of the causes being the hardships of the war). Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate and a Russian Provisional Government was founded, with Georgy Lvov as its first leader, who was eventually replaced by Alexander Kerensky.

The newly formed Russian Republic continued to fight the war alongside Romania and the rest of the Entente in desultory fashion. It was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in November 1917. Following the Armistice of Focșani between Romania and the Central Powers, Romania also signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers on 7 May 1918, however it was canceled by Romania on 10 November 1918. The new government established by the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers in March 1918, taking it out of the war; leading to a Central Powers victory on the Eastern Front and Russian defeat in World War I.

  1. ^ Page 116
  2. ^ McRandle & Quirk 2006, p. 697.
  3. ^ "Sanitatsbericht fiber das Deutsche Heer... im Weltkriege 1914–1918", Bd. Ill, Berlin, 1934, S. 151. 149,418 casualties in 1914, 663,739 in 1915, 383,505 in 1916, 238,581 in 1917, 33,568 in 1918. Note: the document notes that records for some armies are incomplete. Losses include not only the Eastern front, but all fronts except the Western Front. Including the German war against Romania, Serbia, etc.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ a b "turkeyswar, Campaigns, Eastern Europe". Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ Министерство на войната (1939), p. 677 (in Bulgarian)
  12. ^ Симеонов, Радослав, Величка Михайлова и Донка Василева. Добричката епопея. Историко-библиографски справочник, Добрич 2006, с. 181 (in Bulgarian)
  13. ^ Олейников 2016, p. 245.
  14. ^ Россия в мировой войне 1914-1918 гг. (в цифрах). - М., 1925. С. 4.
  15. ^ Количество русских солдат - участников войны 1914-17 гг. (по архивным данным) // Военное дело. 1918. Nº 17. С. 19.
  16. ^ Cox, Michael; Ellis, John (2001). The World War I Databook: The Essential Facts and Figures for all the Combatants. London: Aurum Press.
  17. ^ Erlikman, Vadim (2004). Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow. Page 18 ISBN 978-5-93165-107-1.(Civilians killed on Eastern Front)
  18. ^ Erlikman, Vadim (2004). Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow. Page 51 ISBN 978-5-93165-107-1.
  19. ^ Erlikman, Vadim (2004). Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow. Page 49 ISBN 978-5-93165-107-1.
  20. ^ World War I — 1914 Opening Campaigns The Germans would establish a superiority over the Russians over the course of the war, but Austria-Hungary continuously suffered defeats against the Russian Army. Archived 2015-04-03 at the Wayback Machine Kennedy Hickman.
  21. ^ The Great Retreat, Eastern Front 1915 Archived 2015-03-14 at the Wayback Machine Military History Online. Michael Kihntopf.
  22. ^ "Brusilov Offensive Begins". history.com. Archived from the original on 30 March 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference Tunstall2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Golovin, Nicholas (1935). "Brusilov's Offensive: The Galician Battle of 1916". The Slavonic and East European Review. 13 (39): 571–96.
  25. ^ Spencer C. Tucker (2002). The Great War, 1914-1918 (Warfare and History). Routledge. p. 119. ISBN 9781134817504.

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