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On 17th August 1914 the Russian army, led by General Paul von Rennenkampf marched into East Prussia. Stallupönen became the first battle to take place on the Eastern Front when the Russian 25th, 26th, 29th, and 40th Infantry Divisions met the numerically smaller German defenders under German General Hermann von François. Due in part to the defensive fortifications of the German Army and their howitzers called in from Tollmingkehmen alongside the worsening supply issue facing the Russian advance the battle ended in a German victory.

The battle whilst a minor German victory did little to halt the Russian invasion, naught but three days later the Battle of Gumbinnen would end is a Russian victory and the effects of that battle were far greater. The result was that the East Prussian capital of Königsberg was placed in danger of capture as well as the high-ranking general Maximilian von Prittwitz was replaced with the more competent Paul von Hindenburg to fix the Russian advance. It was François defiance of a retreat order given by Prittwitz that aided in the victory at the Battle of Stallupönen, once again showing the incompetence of Prittwitz.

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Beginning on the 23rd of August 1914 with the arrival of the newest commanders for the German Eastern front Paul von Hindenburg, Erich Ludendorff, and Max Hoffmann, the Battle of Tannenburg would become a turning point in the war. The Russian 1st and 2nd armies under the command of Paul von Rennenkampf and Alexander Samsonov.

Following the Russian victory at the Battle of Gumbinnen the German high command removed Maximilian von Prittwiz, the newest commanders of the German army devised a stratagy to annihilate the Russian armies in one drawn out engagement. On the 27th of August Francois's corps launched an artillery bombardment of Aamsonov's left wing, exposing the center, Quick to capitalize on this Francois moved to cut of the Russian retreat whilst the German XVII Corps took the Russian right flank by surprise decimating their number.

On the morning of the 28th of August Samsonov learned of his armies' heavy losses and rushed to take personal command yet never found them. Reportedly he and his staff got lost in the woods and he shot himself as a result of this defeat.

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The Battle of Sarikamish would take place from the 29th of December 1914 and would end on the 17th of January 1915. As the war raged on in the Western Front and fighting stalled for the Winter in the East over in the Caucus Mountains Turkish Minister of War Enver Pasha devised a plan to remove Russian forces from the region. By assaulting the forces at Sarikamish, and the Caucus's being far from the Russian front, the Ottoman forces could overwhelm the region.

Yet even before the battle Enver's desire for an Ottoman victory forced many soldiers to march through harsh winter conditions with inadequate equipment. Once the battle did commence on the 29th the Turkish force failed to dislodge the entrenched Russian forces. Evers desire for victory also led to him commanding theweakenedd Turkish forces to keep engaging even whilst Russian forces began to encircle them.

The result of the battle was dire. The Ottoman 3rd Army was all but destroyed and Enver Pasha would never again take personal command. By February Turkish forces were in full retreat with the Russian forces advancing into the Ottoman Empire.

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The German and Austrian movements and Russian retreat

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The Gorlice–Tarnów offensive was a German operation from the 2nd of May to 13th July 1915 and was originally conceived to be a minor victory eliminating Russian presence in the Gorlice and Tarnów area. The newly formed 11th German Army engaged the Russian forces at Gorlice in a surprise attack on the 2nd of May eventually routing them from the area.

This seemingly minor victory resulted in a hole within the Russian line as three divisions broke a retreated, the Russian commanders then ordered a retreat to the Vistula River consequently resulting in a mass fallback of the Russian line. On the 17th of June Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, supreme commander of the Russian Imperial Army ordered a fighting retreat to delay the enemy as long as possible, yet the Germans were advancing to fast.

This would be known as the Great Russian Retreat of 1915 and being followed up by the disastrous Third Battle of Warsaw would leave the Russian front in a weakened position from what it was even in January 1915. By August almost all of Russian held Poland was within Austro-German hands.

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Photograph taken from Florence Farmbourg 

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The Brusilov Offensive was the brainchild of General Aleksei Brusilov. Before the offensive took place the Germans had pulled back forces from the Eastern theater due primarily to the great victories achieved in 1915 and the subsequent Russian withdrawal. Now with many German forces over on the Western front the Russians engaged a three-day bombardment of the Austrian positions causing the Hapsburg Fourth Army to retreat to the defensible position beyond the Styr.

What followed was a three-month long assault by Russian and Austrian forces, aided later by German reinforcements in the latter's case. The Result was a phyric Russian victory as the offensive did alleviate the German presence over in Verdun, where many Eastern Front soldiers had been stationed. However, the toll was high especially for Russia, over 550,000 and 400,000 of the Fronts reserve had been lost in the assault to gain a small parcel of land. Yet it would go down as one of the most successful Entente victories of the war in terms of land gained in one operation.

Going into August 1916 the Russian front would become more extended than at any point previously in the war as the Russians would extend to the Carpathian foothills as well as this the Romanian front would open from the 27th of August 1916 causing the front to almost double.

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The Kerensky Offensive would be the last offensive Russia would make in the war and serve as the last gasp of Russia before its collapse following the October Revolution later that year. Lasting nineteen days from the 1st of July till the 19th of July 1917 this offence would be bloody and result in a huge Russian loss.

The Russian War Minister Alexander Kerensky needed to prove to Britian and France that Russia was still committed to the war in its new post-Tsar future, to that end beginning on the 1st of July a mass assault of the Austrian front line. The offensive was an initial success, in part due to Kerensky's personal attendance at many of the trenches extolling the virtues of the revolution and giving the soldiers hope.

However even with early success in Koniukhy, Zboriv, Halych, and Voinyliv by July 16th the Russian advance had all but collapsed. The Kerensky Offensive would remain a key moment as it would become the last true gasp of Russian contributions in the war. Following the October Revolution Russian participation in the war would become scares.

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By October 1917 the Russian Provincial Government was in a dangerous position. With the Kornilov affair recent in the minds of the residents of Petrograd, where the Cossack general Lavr Kornilov attempted to coup the government and was repulsed by a well-supplied Red Guard, the Bolsheviks grew to a majority in the Petrograd Soviet and soon in the Moscow Soviet. Lennin made passionate please for decisive action before the congress met and on the 24th of October this plea was headed.

They began by occupying key government buildings and began surrounding the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government was holding a session. On the night of the revolution Lennin came out of hiding in Finland and joined the revolutionaries and by the morning of the 25th the coup was all but a success-except for the Winter Palace where the Provisional Government was still under siege. However, this too fell by the evening.

With Petrograd under Bolshevik control and Lennin at the helm of a new Russian government a new Russia came into being, a one dominated by the Soviet and the Bolshevik party. Yet by the 7th of November the disgruntled old guard of Russia, all those from republicans to monarchists took arms to fight the new government setting the stage for the Russian Civil War.

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With Petrograd under Bolshevik control and Lennin at the helm of a new Russian government a new Russia came into being, a one dominated by the Soviet and the Bolshevik party. Yet by the 7th of November the disgruntled old guard of Russia, all those from republicans to monarchists took arms to fight the new government setting the stage for the Russian Civil War.

The new government need to secure peace with the Germans to deal with the growing White Army, given that the Germans aided in Lennin's return to Russia it is likely that this was the Germans plan beyond destabilizing Russia, to bring them to the negotiation table.

In January Trotsky met with the Germans yet rejected their offer. In retaliation the Germans marched deeper into the Ukranian region and with mounting pressure from Lennin Russia signed a peace treaty known as the Treaty of Brest-Litvok in March of 1917.

The treaty itself outlined that Russia would withdraw from the war and Germany would gain a quarter of the Russian population and nine tenths of its coal mines all concentrated in the west of Russia. This would be the end of Russia in the war.