Since the February Revolution in Russia ended the Tsarist Empire, the Provisional Government
and the Petrograd Soviet had vied for control, but there were several other factions at play,
and this week a new one gets traction - the call for a military dictatorship.
I'm Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week the Italians launched the 11th Battle of the Isonzo River, but they failed to take
advantage of a couple of breakthrough opportunities.
The French and the Canadians launched successful diversionary attacks at Verdun and Hill 70,
but what they were diverting the Germans from - the Battle at Passchendaele - was not going
so well for the British and was suspended for the time being.
The Romanian front saw some intense fighting, in the far north the Germans began to drive
toward Riga, and the great fire of Salonika destroyed half of that city, an Allied base
for the region.
But what was going on in Russia?
Well, the Moscow State Conference was held August 25-28 by our calendar.
It was the large landlords, the top bourgeoisie, generals of the army, and leaders of the Mensheviks,
Cossacks, and Socialist Revolutionaries.
Some 2,500 of those people met to hammer out their anti-Bolshevik program outlined in speeches
by General Lavr Kornilov, General Alexei Kaledin, and Pavel Milyukov.
They wanted to eliminate the soviets, abolish social organizations within the army, and
continue the war to its conclusion.
Menshevik leaders also gave speeches supporting the Provisional Government.
On the day the conference opened, though, there was a one-day general strike.
400,000 workers went on strike in Moscow alone, and the Bolsheviks called the conference a
conspiracy against the people.
After the conference, Kornilov, who openly criticized the Provisional Government and
wanted a return to monarchy, had several discussions about how government authority could be strengthened
and how radical socialism must be crushed.
Aboard a train, he met with several wealthy Russians to try and get their backing - both
moral and financial - for a military occupation of Petrograd, the capital.
Now, he claimed he had Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky's approval to march his army to
the capital, arrest the Bolsheviks, disperse the Petrograd Soviet, and restore order.
And at the conference that day, he said that the Germans would now take Riga, and if he
weren't allowed a full military dictatorship, Petrograd would also fall.
The government was very strongly divided now between pursuing social democracy or military
dictatorship.
It is, as it has been most of the year in Russia, an unholy mess.
As Milyukov described it, "chaos in the army, chaos in foreign policy, chaos in industry,
chaos in the nationalist questions".
But it wasn't just at home that times were turbulent.
There was Russian action on the Black Sea, and there had been throughout the summer,
and going back, morale in the Black Sea Fleet had been cracking.
In June there had been a mutiny in Odessa, when four "objectionable" officers were
arrested by their men.
Admiral Alexander Kolchak had thrown his sword overboard rather than be disarmed.
Now, he had problems of his own.
After the February revolution, there had been rumors that he had put the fleet to sea just
to avoid any sort of putsch in port, and while sailors under his command were willing to
do their duty, soldiers recruited into the Black Sea Division were not.
A May operation against Sinop was supposed to involve 2,000 soldiers landing to attack
the port, but every one of them refused to go.
Kolchak had even requested to be relieved of his command and he was eventually relieved
in late June.
He went to Petrograd, and there were enough anti-Bolshevik groups that wanted Kolchak
as a future dictator that Kerensky ordered him to go to America.
He went as far as Britain, where he met Admiral John Jellicoe, visited the American fleet
there, and decided to return to Russia via Japan.
Also in late June, the largest Russian ship squadron yet assembled had made for the Bosporus,
though it pulled back after just a brief engagement.
"The Tsargrad (Constantinople) dream refused to die, but the sting was out of the beast."
(McMeekin).
Last week on August 23rd, Russian troops did make an amphibious landing at Ordu, but they
just blew up a few buildings before heading home.
This week on the 27th, they tried a landing at Vona, but broke it off as soon as the Turks
opened fire on them.
So they weren't exactly enthusiastic.
There had been unusual machinations on the Black Sea as well.
On July 26th, a lone Russian motorboat went through the Ottoman minefields of the Bosporus
until it was close enough to Constantinople for the crew to throw overboard a message
in a bottle, containing a "Proclamation from the Russian revolutionary Fleet to the
Turkish nation".
"The Germans should take their hands off Russia and Turkey.
The enemy of the Turks and our enemy is the same.
It is Germany... we could live together with you as good neighbors..."
(McMeekin)
However, this didn't actually differ much from former Tsarist foreign policy, and if
the sailor revolutionaries, and Kerensky and co, really wanted to win in the Black Sea,
why had they fired Kolchak?
And trying to convince the Turks to turn on Germany?
That was the Turks' paymaster.
The Bolsheviks, alone among all the various competing political factions in Russia, managed
to avoid confusion in foreign policy.
Leader Vladimir Lenin wasn't one for foreign policy twists and turns.
He promised the people, peace, land, and bread, and though there was no bread to give out
and he damn sure didn't intend to let the peasants keep their land, he really did want
to end the war, even if that meant surrendering to Germany.
One Bolshevik slogan actually was "We don't want the Dardanelles".
The other Allies were all imperialists anyhow.
Lenin was kind of the only one who wanted a revolution in foreign policy, not just domestically.
As long as I'm talking about the Black Sea, you know what we haven't heard much about
this year?
The Caucasus front.
There was plenty of action there in 1916, but this year it was so quiet that even in
2017 little is known of what happened there.
The Ottoman Third Army rested and regrouped, the Russians opposite them, thanks to high
morale in the undefeated Army of the Caucasus, did not have the same mutinous spirit we've
seen in the Russians on the Eastern Front and Black Sea.
Okay, General Yudenich did order the evacuation of Mush back in May, but that was actually
a political gesture to Tiflis, and had nothing to do with Ottoman actions.
In fact, in the official history of the war later published by the Turkish General Staff,
all of 1917 takes up 20 pages out of 1,660 and the Russians are barely mentioned at all
(Ottoman Endgame).
But there was reported action on other fronts.
In the west, the 2nd Battle for Verdun continued, with the French advancing all week.
By the 28th, their new lines, now supported by positions on Cote 304 and the Mort Homme
were nearly completely back to where they were before the Battle of Verdun began.
There was still fighting on the Italian front for the Bainsizza Plateau and Mont San Gabriele,
and by the 25th, the Italians had taken 600 officers and 23,000 men (Story).
And on September 5th, German submarine U-88 was sunk by British mines.
Its Captain, Walther Schwieger, was the man who'd sunk the Lusitania in 1915, one of
the 49 ships his sub had sunk.
He had been awarded the Pour la Merite, the highest German decoration, six weeks ago for
having sunk 190,000 tons of Allied shipping.
The Lusitania, at 30,000 tons, had easily been his largest victim.
And a summer note here - at a secret meeting in Switzerland, British arms manufacturer
Sir Basil Zaharoff met with Enver Pasha, Ottoman Minister of War, and offered him personally
1.5 million dollars in gold to sign a separate peace with the Allies (Gilbert).
That's a $31,219,655.17 today.
Enver was apparently tempted, but refused.
And the week ends, with political chaos in Russia, low morale in the Black Sea Fleet,
and fighting in France and Italy.
One of the smaller tales of the horrors of the war also took place this week on the 5th.
I read it in Martin Gilbert's "The First World War".
British Private James Smith was executed for desertion that day.
He had been in the army since 1910, and had fought at both Gallipoli and on the Western
Front.
In 1916, he was buried by a German shell, and twice later in the year was brought up
on disciplinary charges, losing two Good Conduct badges in the process.
He deserted last month and when he was caught was sentenced to death by firing squad.
Thing is, after the volley was fired, he was still alive.
The officer in charge was to kill him with his revolver, but couldn't go through with
it, and gave the gun to Private Richard Blundell, who knew Smith well, to do it.
Blundell did as ordered and was given ten days home leave in return.
72 years later, on his deathbed, Blundell kept on repeating the words, "what a way
to get leave, what a way to get leave."
If you want to know more about the Verdun region which saw battle 100 years ago again,
you can click right here for our episode exploring Fort Douaumont.
Our Patreon supporter of the week is Chris Conard - thank you Chris and thank you to
the now more than 4000 people for your ongoing support which makes this show what it is.
Don't forget to subscribe and tell everyone in your new history course this semester to
watch our show.
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