Russia's Part in the World WarShumsky-Solomonov, C. M.
History
Russia's Part in the World War
Shumsky-Solomonov, C. M.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Soviet Union
10.) Corresponding with the most important role that Russia played in
the War are her enormous sacrifices in men, material and treasure.
Her losses in men, amounting to 12,000,000, exceed several times the
casualties of any of the Allies; are almost equal to the losses of
all the Allies combined; exceed several times the total number of men
mobilized by any one of the Allies....
11.) Russia's role in the recent war was so important and extraordinary
that _without Russia the very idea of a struggle with German militarism
would have been impossible_. Germany would have been able to crush any
combination of the European Powers if Russia had not participated in
such combination. Were it not for Russia, Germany would now dominate
not only Europe, but probably the rest of the world as well.
12.) Russia's great role in the World War is so much the greater since
she fought under extraordinary circumstances, lacking so indispensable
an asset as a great network of railways, with a backward technique,
industry, etc. In the hard first years of the War the Russian Armies,
as we have seen, in extraordinary circumstances and frequently without
arms and munitions, did everything possible, and, together with
failures, had also their successes.
Ludendorf was able to achieve success on the Russian front only when
the Germans outnumbered their adversaries by at least three to two. At
Tannenberg the Germans had twice as many and, at certain stages, even
three times as many men as the Russians. Against Rennenkampf Ludendorf
had three men to every two of his enemy, and probably even as many
as two to one, as Rennenkampf had suffered severe losses during the
preceding days.
It is equally true that the Russians were able to defeat the Germans
whenever they had even a small superiority of force. Near Warsaw
the Russians had less than five men to every four Germans and they
succeeded in defeating the latter and throwing them clear across all
Poland.
It may seem strange that the Germans should have managed to have
numerical superiority over the Russians all the time. Regrettable as
it may be, it is nevertheless true, for the strength of an army is
determined not by the number of its men, but by the number of bayonets
(infantry), sabres (cavalry) and guns (artillery). The Russian Army
consisted of millions, but bayonets and guns it had only for one-tenth
of its number. In 1915 some Russian divisions numbered, instead of
20,000 bayonets, only a mere thousand, owing to disastrous losses. The
only employment of infantry during those days was as a screen for the
artillery, while the latter was quite useless for fighting purposes
because it had no ammunition whatever. Under such conditions many of
our corps often did not exceed the strength of a single regiment and
some armies numbered no more effectives than a single division. We
had plenty of men, but no arms and ammunition. Therefore, the Germans
frequently surpassed us not in men, but in bayonets and guns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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