1. THE COLLAPSE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE
(Dates in the New Style):
March 15, 1917: Strikes and mutinies compel Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate.
March-October 1917: Dual Sovereignty-- Provisional Government vies for power with the Petrograd Soviet.
July 1917: Bolshevik uprising crushed by Kerensky.
September 9-14, 1917: Kerensky must appeal for Bolshevik support against General Kornilov’s rebellion.
November 6-7, 1917: The Great October Revolution (Bolsheviks seize control of Petrograd and Moscow).

2. A Russian peasant village around 1900 (80% of the population were still peasants, mostly illiterate)
A Russian peasant village around Despite some progress toward industrialization, 80% of the Russian population were still peasants at the outbreak of the First World War, most of them illiterate.
SOURCE: T.C.W. Blanning, ed., _The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe_ (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 68.

3. LEFT: An oil field near Baku on the Caspian Sea
In 1906 the government abolished all restrictions on foreign investment and migration by peasants
LEFT: An oil field near Baku on the Caspian Sea
Russian peasants newly arrived in Moscow,
looking for work;
22% of all peasant heads of household seceded from their village collective in the years
Russian oil derricks near Baku, on the Caspian Sea, around The Baku oil fields lay close to the surface and were easy to tap, briefly making Russia the world's leading producer of petroleum around the turn of the century.
SOURCE: T.C.W. Blanning, ed., _The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe_ (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 47.
Russian peasants newly arrived in the city look for factory work, around Rural-urban migration in Russia peaked in the years , following the legal reforms of Stolypin.
SOURCE: T.C.W. Blanning, ed., _The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe_ (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 67.

4. SYMPTOMS OF ILLNESS IN THE RUSSIAN BODY POLITIC
Russia mobilized 11 million soldiers in 1914/15 but could not train competent officers to replace those killed at the front.
Most promotions to major commands were based on connections at court, not performance.
Russia produced a major food surplus, but the system to distribute food to urban centers often broke down.
By the end of the year 1916, almost 2 million soldiers were Absent Without Leave.
By the end of 1916, the cost of living was 4X higher than in 1913.
By the end of 1916, 1.7 million industrial workers had participated in strikes.
See Norman Stone, The Eastern Front, , New York: Scribner’s, 1975.

5. Anti-war demonstrators before the Winter Palace, Petrograd, January-February 1917: By March 9, half the city’s 400,000 industrial workers were on strike
Anti-war demonstrators gather before the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, January 1917.
SOURCE:

6. Mutinies spread after the Tsar ordered Petrograd’s military commander to open fire on demonstrators on March 10 (see Strachan, pp )
A detachment of insurrectionary soldiers in the February Revolution in Petrograd.
[Bildersammlung: Massenbewegungen. The Yorck Project: Das große dpa-Bildarchiv, S. 477
(vgl. dpa, S. 143) (c) 2005 The Yorck Project]
Funeral held in Mars Field, Petrograd, in March 1917 for the protesters who had died during the February Revolution. Tsar Nicholas II had sent a telegram on the evening of February 25, ordering army commanders in the Petrograd region to open fire on demonstrators, and some regiments obeyed these orders the next day, but by the morning of February 27 a mutiny spread quickly, and many soldiers joined armed protesters in the streets.
SOURCE:

7. Revolutionary soldiers and workers control Petrograd: Every large factory and army company sent delegates to the “Petrograd Soviet”
Source: PROLETARIAT, p. 260.

8. ORDER #1 OF THE PETROGRAD SOVIET, MARCH 14, 1917
In all military units and vessels of the navy, committees from the elected representatives of the lower ranks shall be chosen immediately.
…One representative from each company shall be selected [for the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies]….
In all its political actions, the military branch is subordinated to the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and to its committees.
The orders of the military commission of the State Duma shall be executed only in such cases as do not conflict with the orders and resolutions of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.
All kinds of arms… must be kept at the disposal and under control of the company and battalion committees, and in no case be turned over to officers, even at their demand.
During the performance of duties, soldiers must observe the strictest military discipline, but outside duty, …soldiers cannot in any way be deprived of those rights which all citizens enjoy. Standing at attention and compulsory saluting when not on duty is abolished.
The addressing of officers with the title, ‘Your Excellency,’ ‘Your Honor,’ etc., is abolished, and these titles are replaced by the address of ‘Mister General,’ ‘Mister Colonel,’ etc.
SOURCE: Frank A. Golder, ed., Documents of Russian History, (New York: The Century Company, 1927).

9. A British Labourite delegation visits Petrograd after the February Revolution. Most socialists agreed at first that they should fulfill their treaty obligations and fight Germany.
Visit to Petrograd by a delegation from the British Labour Party after the February Revolution of This photograph shows Will Thorne MP from the National Union of General Workers, James O' Grady MP from the General Federation of Trade Unions and the Fabian, William Stephen Sanders who was given army leave to join the Delegation, visiting a barracks outside Petrograd to meet the soldier [standing with fixed bayonet] who persuaded his regiment to disobey their Colonel's orders to shoot down the people. The TUC Parliamentary Committee asked Thorne to convey their congratulations to the Russian people on "the overthrow of autocratic and despotic rule and the triumph of representative and democratic government by the Duma" and invited a fraternal delegate from the Russian unions to attend a future Congress. All three men held a staunchly patriotic, pro-war stance and the purpose of the visit was to encourage the Kerensky Government to continue the war against Germany. On their return, they made reports to the Cabinet and to King George V.
SOURCE:

10. War Minister Alexander Kerensky addresses troops about to leave for the front in 1917
Minister of War Alexander Kerensky ( ), addressing Russian troops about to leave for the front in A moderate, independent socialist, Kerensky had opposed the initial declaration of war but now believed firmly that Russia must honor its treaty obligations to the Western allies.
SOURCE: John Keegan, _An Illustrated History of the First World War_ (New York: Knopf, 2001), p. 308.

11. The new women’s “Battalion of Death” is blessed by the Orthodox Patriarch before being sent to the front, July 1917
A new woman's battalion of the Russian army being blessed by the Orthodox patriarch before departing for the front in July The Provisional Government promised improved rights for women, and a few hundred of them volunteered for this so-called "Battalion of Death." Note that some of these women are still wearing high heels. There is no evidence that they ever saw action against the enemy, but 140 women still served in the battalion when it sought to defend the Winter Palace against the Bolshevik uprising of October 1917.
SOURCE: John Keegan, _An Illustrated History of the First World War_ (New York: Knopf, 2001), p. 309.

12. Transform the Imperialist War into Civil War!
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, i.e., “Lenin” ( ), leader since 1903 of the “Bolsheviks”
After the outbreak of revolution, the German Army provided him a sealed train to return from Zürich to Petrograd via Finland….
LENIN’S APRIL THESES
Transform the Imperialist War into Civil War!
All Power to the Soviets!
Land for the Village Poor!
The Bolshevik campaign slogan: “PEACE AND BREAD!”
Lenin as a young man, ca

13. Machine gun fire disperses pro-Bolshevik demonstrators on Nevsky Prospect in Petrograd, July 4, 1917
Nevsky Prospect in Petrograd on 4 July 1917; demonstrators swiftly disperse as troops of the Provisional Government open fire with machine guns.
SOURCE:

14. General L.G. Kornilov waves to the crowd in Moscow in August 1917, shortly before attempting a military coup
General L.G. Kornilov waves to the crowd in Moscow in August Shortly thereafter he attempted to seize power in a military coup that was defeated with the help of the Bolsheviks.
SOURCE:

15. ELECTION RETURNS IN MOSCOW, 1917
City Duma
June 25
District Dumas
Sept. 24
Const. Assembly
Nov. 24 %
(votes)
Social Revolutionary
58.0
374,885
14.4
54,479
8.2
62,260
Minor Socialist
1.5
9,638
1.2
4,449
4.9
37,813
Bolshevik
11.7
75,409
50.9
193,489
47.9
366,148
Menshevik
11.8
76,407
4.1
15,618
2.8
21,597
Kadet
16.8
108,781
26.6
101,100
34.5
263,859
Minor Nonsocialist
0.2
1,440
10,504
1.7
13,086
Totals
100.0
646,560
379,639
764,763
Source: William Rosenberg, The Liberals in the Russian Revolution (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1974), pp

16. Climax of the “Great October Revolution”: Red Guards storm the Kremlin in Moscow
Red Guards enter the Kremlin on November 2, 1917, after two days of fighting. Lenin arrived in the Kremlin on March 11, 1918, and announced the transfer of the national capital to that city..
SOURCE: John Keegan, _An Illustrated History of the First World War_ (New York: Knopf, 2001), p. 316.

17. Fraternization on the Eastern Front after the armistice of December 1917
"The armistice on the eastern front: Life and business between the lines as Russians purchase articles of daily use," officially approved German postcard issued in Berlin in December SOURCE: Rainer Rother, ed., _Der Weltkrieg Ereignis und Erinnerung_ (Berlin: German Historical Museum, 2004), p. 220.

18. Leon Trotsky arrives at Brest-Litovsk for peace talks with Germany, January 9, 1918
Leon Trotsky ( ), the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the new Bolshevik government, arrives at Brest-Litovsk for peace negotiations with the Germans and Austrians on January 9, The Germans demanded vast territorial concessions, so Trotsky sought to prolong these talks while promoting the spread of the workers' revolution to Germany. His hand was forced in February 1918, however, when the German army seized even more Soviet territory.
SOURCE: John Keegan, _An Illustrated History of the First World War_ (New York: Knopf, 2001), p. 357.

19. Europe at the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 1918
Europe in March 1918, at the time of the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

20. THE CLIMAX OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR, 1917/18
March 1917: Abdication of Nicholas II
April 1917: USA declares war on Germany
April/May 1917: The Nivelle offensive sparks mutiny in the French army
November 1917: Bolsheviks seize power in Russia, and Clemenceau returns to power in France
March 1918: Bolsheviks sign Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
March-July 1918: The “Ludendorff Offensive” in the West is halted with the aid of American troops
October-November 1918: Collapse of the Ottoman, Austrian, and German Empires

21. The French newspaper Le Miroir published this photograph on May 21, 1916, of a dead French soldier with a German, after Interior Minister Malvy relaxed press censorship.
Early in the Great War, it was tacitly agreed that the press would only publish photographs of enemy corpses, and usually only from a distance. A major taboo was broken on 21 May 1916, when LE MIROIR published this grimly realistic picture of a dead German and Frenchman, lying together in a hole. This breakdown of self-censorship was one cause of Petain's anger with the the press and the laxity of the civil authorities.
From

22. General Robert Nivelle (1856-1924) and the botched offensive at Chemin des Dames, April 16-19, 1917
Flashpoint for mutiny in the French army: General Nivelle's botched offensive at Chemin des Dames, April 16-19, 1917.
SOURCE: Richard Holmes, _The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Course of History_ (London and New York: Viking, 1988), p. 157.
General Robert Nivelle ( )
SOURCE:
See Hew Strachan, pp 22

23. The ruined village of Soupir, one of the French staging areas for the Chemin des Dames offensive
The village of Soupir on the Chemin des Dames, one of the jumping-off points for French troops during the Nivelle offensive in May 1917.
SOURCE: John Keegan, _An Illustrated History of the First World War_ (New York: Knopf, 2001), p. 299.

24. Peace and the right to leaves, which are in arrears.
TYPICAL DEMANDS BY THE FRENCH MUTINEERS, MAY 1917 (from a letter by a soldier in the 36th Infantry Regiment to his uncle)
“When the time came to advance to the front line, an incident happened in the army corps in which we demanded our rights in the following things:
Peace and the right to leaves, which are in arrears.
No more butchery; we want liberty.
On food, which is shameful.
No more injustice.
We don’t want the blacks in Paris and in other regions mistreating our wives.
We need peace to feed our wives and children and to be able to give bread to the women and orphans.
We demand peace, peace.”
From Leonard Smith, Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau, and Annette Becker, France and the Great War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 124.

25. The new French commander-in-chief, Philippe Pétain, tours front-line army kitchens in May 1917: He improved the soldiers’ welfare but also executed 43 “ringleaders” of the mutiny
After the dismal failure of his offensive at Chemin des Dames, General Nivelle was replaced by Pétain, who was made Commander-in-Chief of the French Armed Forces on 15th May Charged with putting down the mutinies and restoring confidence to the troops, he imposed harsh disciplinary measures but kept the executions ordered by the Council of War to a minimum (49 executions out of 554 death sentences). He brought to an end the poorly-prepared offensives and improved the physical conditions and morale of the soldiers, who were waiting for "the Americans and tanks." Here the new commander is seen on his extensive tour of front-line units, during which he always sampled an ordinary meal being served to the troops.
SOURCE:

26. The Radical Republican Georges Clemenceau ( ) returned to power in November 1917 with a program for “total war” (Strachan, pp )
Georges Clemenceau ( ) visits the front soon after the beginning of the First World War. SOURCE: Rainer Rother, ed., _Der Weltkrieg Ereignis und Erinnerung_ (im Auftrag des Deutschen Historischen Museum, Berlin: Edition Minerva, 2004), p. 147.

27. “We’ll get them!” (France, 1916)
THE FRENCH IDEAL EVOLVED FROM ENTHUSIASM
TO STOIC ENDURANCE
“We’ll get them!” (France, 1916)
“The Poilu” (1920)
Jules Abel Faivre, "We'll get them!" (France, 1916). This appeal to subscribe to war bonds was one of the most famous and widely imitated posters of the First World War. From Lewis & Paret, PERSUASIVE IMAGES, p. 41.
Camille GODET , Poilu. 1920
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes (
The city council of Rennes decided in 1918 to creat a “Pantheon” in honor of the 936 citizens of that city who had died in the war, in the form of a specially decorated chamber within City Hall, which was completed in This painting in honor of the simple French infantryman was the centerpiece of the decoration.

28. German troops captured at Cambrai, 20 November 1917, after the British deployed 300 tanks in a single attack
A German flame-thrower team seeks to halt the advance of a British tank, 1917/18.
From Stuermer, GERMAN CENTURY, p. 101.
German troops captured in the Battle of Cambrai, 20 November The first shock of the deployment of 300 British tanks in this battle demoralized the troops in the front German lines. The tanks could only advance at 3 miles per hour, however, and German reserves were soon able to organize an effective counter-attack. SOURCE: John Keegan, _An Illustrated History of the First World War_ (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), p. 348.
A German flame thrower team seeks to halt the advance of a British tank, 1917/18

29. German troops move through Saint Quentin to prepare for the “Ludendorff Offensive,” launched on March 21, 1918
German troops move through San Quentin, near the Somme River, before launching their great offensive on 21 March 1918 against the British Fifth Army. The collapse of Russia had permitted the German army command to transfer nearly two million troops from the Eastern Front to the Western. From Keegan, ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR, p. 365.

30. The Ludendorff Offensive, March-July 1918: Each assault was very well prepared, but their force tended to dissipate…
Map of the five German offensives in the spring and summer of From Keegan, ILLUSTRATED FIRST WORLD WAR, p. 366.

31. American troops disembark at Le Havre, July 12, 1918: They numbered one million in July 1918, and two by October
As the Lundendorff Offensive petered out in July 1918, German commanders were disheartened by the knowledge that endless columns of fresh American troops were disembarking at the Channel ports (in this case, Le Havre, 12 July 1918). The number of American troops in France doubled from May to July 1918, from 500,000 to one million, and it doubled again by the end of October. From Keegan, ILLUSTRATED FIRST WORLD WAR, p. 380.

32. German POWs captured in France, April 1918
German POWs captured in April Their uniforms and equipment are falling apart, and their malnourished frames contrast dramatically with those of the American troops arriving in France. From Keegan, ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR, p. 381.

33. “A Warm Lunch for 35¢” (Berlin, 1917): Ute Daniel has shown that German women standing in bread lines were the first to grow disillusioned with the war
"A Warm Lunch for 35 Cents." Strict food rationing was introduced in Germany in 1916 but could not prevent the spread of malnutrition. By 1917 various private charities, including the "League of Berlin People's Kitchens" at work here, sought without much success to reverse the trend. From Dieter Vorsteher and Maike Steinkamp, eds, THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: PHOTOGRAPHS OF GERMAN HISTORY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE GERMAN HISTORICAL MUSEUM (Heidelberg: Wachter Verlag, 2004), p See also Ute Daniel, The War from Within: German Working-Class Women in the First World War (Oxford: Berg, 1997).

34. The breach of the “Hindenburg Line” at St. Quentin, 2 Oct 1918
British troops line the banks of the St. Quentin Canal
Their multitude of German prisoners
British soldiers of the 136th Brigade line the banks of the dry St. Quentin Canal, which they have just captured on October 2, The canal served as an enormous trench for the Hindenburg Line, which was now effectively broken.
SOURCE: John Keegan, _An Illustrated History of the First World War_ (New York: Knopf, 2001), p. 386.
Thousands of German POWs held at St. Quentin, 2 October 1918, following the Allied breakthrough into the Hindenburg Line at the end of September. From Keegan, ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR, p. 385.

35. In October 1918 Ludendorff told the Kaiser to appoint Prince Max of Baden head of a “parliamentary” government, but Max soon turned to Friedrich Ebert of the SPD
Prince Max of Baden.
SOURCE:

36. Social Democratic politicians address revolutionary sailors at Kiel, November 5, 1918: Mutiny broke out when German admirals ordered a desperate attack on the British fleet
The Social Democrat Gustav Noske addresses German naval mutineers in Kiel, 5 November Most of these sailors are from the submarine crews, which were more willing to continue fighting than the long idle crews of the surface navy. Noske's largely successful efforts to promote consensus among the sailors in favor of revolution but without any “excesses” earned him appointment as the first minister of war of the Weimar Republic. His later collaboration with the leaders of the Free Corps earned him the bitter nickname, “The Bloodhound,” among German Communists. From Keegan, ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR, p. 391.

37. Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann (SPD) proclaim the Republic from the balcony of the Reichstag on 9 November 1918
Ausrufung der Republik vor dem Reichstagsgebäude durch Philipp Scheidemann
Photographie
Berlin, 9. November 1918
DHM, Berlin (

38. “The Stab in the Back” (Nazi magazine cover, 1924)
"The Stab in the Back," cover page of the Süddeutschen Monatshefte, Munich, April 1924, in the German Historical Museum of Berlin ( 38

39. The Boulevards of Paris, 11 November 1918
Crowds rejoicing on a Paris boulevard, 11 November From Keegan, ILLUSTRATED FIRST WORLD WAR, p. 401.

40. French troops enter Strasbourg, 29 November 1918
French troops enter Strasbourg on 29 November 1918 as a result of the terms of the Armistice signed on 11 November. This is the Colonial Infantry Regiment of Morocco, whose soldiers were, despite the title, all native Frenchmen. It was the most highly decorated regiment in the whole French army and has been given the highest honor that the French army command could bestow, that of liberating the capital of Alsace. A joyous crowd turned out to greet them, because public opinion even among the German-speaking population of Alsace had overwhelmingly favored reincorporation in France ever since From Keegan, ILLUSTRATED FIRST WORLD WAR, p. 395.

41. ESTIMATED COMBAT FATALITIES IN THE GREAT WAR
Austria-Hungary
1,200,000
France
1,385,000
Germany
1,800,000
Great Britain
947,000
Italy
460,000
Ottoman Empire
325,000
Russia
1,700,000
Serbia
360,000
United States
115,000
Compare