Jun 24, 2025
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Romanians Launch Major Offensive
Romanian artillery firing during the Battle of Mărăști.
July 24 1917, Mărăști--The Romanian front had been relatively quiet since January, since the Germans had called off their offensive in late January. Romania had lost two-thirds of their country and needed time to rebuild their army; their Russian allies were quickly preoccupied with their own internal troubles. But by the summer, the Romanians were determined to go back on the offensive. They wanted to retake their country and prove that they were a valuable part of the Allied war effort, even after their disastrous debut. Plans were made for an offensive in late July, at which point the Central Powers would hopefully be distracted by the Kerensky Offensive to the north.
Of course, by late July, the Kerensky Offensive had petered out and then suffered significant reverses, and cold feet began to abound. The Romanian PM attempted to call off the offensive only hours after it had started, but was overruled by the King, the Chief of the General Staff, and the ranking Russian general in the area.
At 4 AM on July 24, the Romanian Second Army under Averescu attacked around Mărăști, to the west of the Siret. The First Army was due to attack across the Siret further east the next day. Although there had been substantial warning of Romanian preparations, the Austrian and German defenders were confident in their positions and had not sent any reinforcements to the area, which had been steadily stripped of soldiers bound for Italy and Galicia over the course of the year. This gave the Second Army at least a three-to-one advantage in infantry in many places.
The Russians and the Romanians on the left flank of the attack hit and quickly overwhelmed the German 218th Division. General Seeckt despaired: “strong is my fear that nothing can be done with this division....It is no longer capable of resistance.” The division lost 1500 prisoners that day, with the remainder precipitately retreating back. The Romanian left flank advanced two miles on the first day, exceeding even their initial expectations. The right flank, without adequate artillery support and attacking into more difficult terrain, had failed to make any progress. Nevertheless, the day was seen as a great success for Romanian arms, and Averescu was eager to continue the attack the next day.
The Germans, meanwhile, quickly realizing the threat the Romanians posed, had Mackensen hastily draw up plans for a general counteroffensive--but it would be some time before they would be ready.
Today in 1916: United States To Buy Virgin Islands from Denmark Today in 1915: Secret Service Finds German Spy Files in Briefcase Lost on Train Today in 1914: Sazonov’s Busy Day
Sources include: Glenn E. Torrey, The Romanian Battlefront in World War I.
Kerensky Halts Offensives, Reinstates Death Penalty at Front
Austrian prisoners captured during the Romanian offensive, whose success was now threatened by the general Russian halt.
July 25 1917, Petrograd--At least nominally, Kerensky had more power than ever, with the collapse of the uprising in Petrograd and his elevation to Prime Minister. But the ultimate, spectacular failure of the Kerensky Offensive put him in a difficult position, as he had staked so much of his reputation on it. He was already maneuvering Brusilov to take the blame for it, and in the meantime was trying to make sure the army did not collapse further.
On July 25, he announced that the death penalty would be restored within the Russian Army along the front, along with a more general system of courts martial. This greatly pleased the generals, especially Kornilov, who felt that a stern hand was needed to restore order. Within days, Kornilov began shooting deserters en masse.
There was a worry, of course, that such harsh measures would turn the Army against the Provisional Government. As an ameliorating measure, Kerensky called a complete end to all offensive action. In most areas, this did not matter; the armies that conducted the Kerensky Offensive were now falling back precipitately along a 150-mile front. The brief attack near Vilnius had petered out nearly two days prior.
Where this latter order did matter, however, was in Romania, where Russian troops were participating in a offensive alongside their Romanian allies. On July 25, the Romanians and Russians had continued and expanded their successful advance, pursuing the retreating Germans with cavalry and armored cars. However, with Kerensky’s order, the Russians had to stop. The head of the French mission told the Russian commander that if he had received such an order, “I would have simply put it in my pocket.” But the message had been sent by unencrypted wireless precisely for this reason; in fact, his soldiers knew of it before he did. The Russians ceased their attacks that evening, and the planned attack by the Romanian First Army along the Siret was called off at the last moment.
Averescu, commanding the Second Army, with little but fleeing Germans ahead of him, was determined to continue the advance, and did so despite orders to the contrary, though even he was forced to stop most of his advance within two days. A final push by the Romanian 8th Division failed, while nearby Russian units (including some of their elite shock troops) stood by and watched--or even in some cases fell back.
Today in 1916: Russian High Water Mark in the Caucasus Today in 1915: British Indian Force Captures Nasiriyah Today in 1914: Serbia Accepts All But One Demand in Austrian Ultimatum
Sources include: Glenn E. Torrey, The Romanian Battlefront in World War I; Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy.
The Breaking of the Russian Army
The insane pace of the advance soon caused supply nightmares for the German troops. Here are stalled German transport convoys near Tarnopol, pictured about a week after the start of the German counteroffensive.
July 19 1917, Zolochiv--Within two weeks, the Kerensky Offensive had run out of steam. Kornilov’s Eighth Army had made an impressive advance of more than fifteen miles, but the Eleventh and Seventh Armies to the north refused to follow up on their flank; they considered their task complete after the first two days of attacks. This left the Eighth Army increasingly exposed, as the Germans began to move reserves from the Western Front to shore up the area and prepare for a counterattack.
On July 19, after a brief bombardment, six German and Austrian divisions under Max Hoffmann attacked the northern portion of the Eleventh Army on a twelve-mile front, hoping to break through and leave the Eighth Army in a completely untenable position. The Russians collapsed, and the Germans advanced over nine miles on the first day. The next day, with the Russian forces ahead of them having effectively evaporated, the leading units advanced an additional eighteen miles. The Germans captured over 6000 PoWs; most of the Russian troops simply retreated east as fast as they could, despite ever-more-desperate exhortations from Brusilov to stand fast.
Further to the south, the Austrians attacked the Eighth Army’s salient head-on, retaking Kalusz and forcing them back to the Limnycja River. This was a solid defensive line for the Russians, but with the Germans now nearly fifty miles in their rear, the position was ultimately untenable. Most Russian troops began to fall back instantly once attacked; those few who held out were quickly outflanked and forced to retreat or surrender. Within two weeks, the Russians had lost most of their gains of the last two years, thousands of PoWs, and tens of thousands of deserters.
Today in 1916: First Australian Attack on the Western Front Today in 1915: British Explode Largest Mine of the War at Hooge Today in 1914: Austrian Ministerial Council Officially Approves Demarche To Serbia
Sources include: Randal Gray, Chronicle of the First World War; Robert B. Asprey, The German High Command at War; David R. Stone, The Russian Army in the Great War.
Kornilov Replaces Brusilov
August 1 1917, Mogilev--The spectacular failure of the Kerensky Offensive made it inevitable that the conduct of Russia’s war could not continue unchanged in its present form. The obvious target, Kerensky himself, had more power than ever after the failure of the Bolshevik-inspired “July Days” in Petrograd and his accession as Prime Minister. Kerensky did consider what may have been (in hindsight) the only sensible option, a separate peace with Germany. Ultimately, however, he felt that starting his rule by signing a presumably-humiliating peace with Germany would have been politically disastrous, and decided against it.
Attention thus turned to Brusilov, commander-in-chief of the armies and military architect of the offensive. He had had severe doubts in the final days before the offensive, only to be overruled by Kerensky, but he was still unavoidably tied to its failure. Furthermore, he was politically unpopular among the generals and the Kadets in the Provisional Government for tolerating and even welcoming the soldiers’ committees and other democratic reforms in the Army. He also managed to (unintentionally) snub Kerensky when the latter visited Stavka on July 29. Two days later, he was sacked.
On August 1, his replacement was announced in the form of General Kornilov, whose Eighth Army had achieved the most success in the offensive; in the chaos after its collapse, he had been promoted to command of the whole Southwest Front. His higher command experience was relatively limited, having spent much of the war as an Austrian prisoner of war. Alexeyev said he had “the heart of a lion, the brains of a sheep.” He had a large following among the right wing of the government, however, for his firm stance on military discipline and for standing up to the Petrograd Soviet during his short tenure as commander of the garrison there.
Kornilov’s own ambitions, and more importantly, the ambitions of his political supporters, would soon become a source of conflict between him and Kerensky. He demanded a restoration of the death penalty nationally (not just at the front) and an assurance that he would only be responsible to his “conscience and to the nation as a whole.” While Kornilov soon backed down from his more aggressive demands, he was still clearly bringing the Army in a right-wing direction--and Kerensky would remember this implicit challenge to his authority.
Sources include: Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy
The Kerensky Offensive
Troops from the Czechoslovak Brigade, pictured around the time of the offensive in early July. Their attack on July 2 was a great success, breaking through the Austrian lines and taking roughly as many prisoners as there were soldiers in their own brigade.
July 1 1917, Tarnopol--After a two-day preliminary barrage, the Russians began their first major offensive after the revolution on July 1. The plan for the offensive was quite similar to last year’s Brusilov Offensive, featuring careful reconnaissance, sapping, and coordination between infantry and artillery. The offensive was taking place over a narrower front than in 1916, allowing a greater concentration of Russian manpower and artillery--though it would also allow a greater concentration of German and Austrian reserves.
Morale in the Russian armies was extremely low, as Brusilov recognized. Although the troops on the Southwest Front were more reliable than those closer to revolutionary Petrograd, the planners of the offensive still made sure that the troops in the vanguard were mainly not European Russians, instead using troops from Siberia and Finland, a brigade of Czechoslovak volunteers, as well as highly trained and reliable shock battalions.
The left flank of the attack had little success, making few gains, none of them permanent. On the right flank, however, the Eleventh Army made excellent progress. Russian heavy artillery had wreaked havoc on the Austrian lines, shock troops quickly broke through weak points, and the preponderance of Russian infantry soon overwhelmed the rest. In the first two days of the offensive, the Eleventh Army had taken the first two Austrian trench lines, captured 18,000 prisoners, and opened a three-mile gap between enemy armies. Whether they could exploit these gains in the coming days, however, was still quite uncertain.
Today in 1916: The First Day on the Somme Today in 1915: SS Armenian and Her Cargo of Mules Sunk by U24 Today in 1914: Hungarian Prime Minister Tisza Formally Protests Austrian Plans For War
Sources include: David R. Stone, The Russian Army in the Great War; Arthur Banks, A Military Atlas of the First World War.
Ukraine Sets Up Its Own Government
A modern view of the building that housed the Ukrainian Rada in Kiev.
June 29 1917, Kiev [Kyiv]--The fall of the Czar had, in addition to its myriad other effect, had also brought nationalist problems to the forefront in Russia. The Provisional Government had largely embraced Wilson’s language about self-determination, and unsurprisingly many ethnic minorities in the former Russian Empire did so as well. A Ukrainian parliament, the Rada, had been quickly set up after the revolution and had been attempting to convince the Provisional Government to make needed concessions in the Ukraine. Chief among these were Ukrainian autonomy, the appointment of Ukrainians to governmental posts in the Ukraine, Ukrainian participation in any peace settlement, and extensive land reforms.
The Provisional Government stalled, questioning the Rada’s authority to speak on behalf of the Ukraine, and saying that they could not make any substantial agreement with Ukraine until elections were held in both Russia and the Ukraine. The Rada grew impatient at the Provisional Government’s delays, and on June 23 unilaterally declared Ukrainian autonomy within Russia. On June 29, after the declaration was approved by the local Soviets, the new General Secretariat of Ukraine had its first meeting. Only a few hundred miles to the west, the Russian army was beginning its barrage preparatory to the upcoming offensive, as the state behind it was coming apart at the seams.
Presented with the fait accompli in Kiev, the Provisional Government eventually recognized Ukrainian autonomy and the General Secretariat. The more right-wing members of the Provisional Government would strongly object to this, however, leading to further divisions in the Russian state.
Today in 1916: First Gas Attack on the Isonzo Today in 1915: Last Turkish Assault on ANZAC Cove Today in 1914: New York Times’ Reaction to the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand; Austria-Hungary Has A New Heir;Condolences from President Wilson
Sources include: Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy.
Russia Rejects German Armistice Offer
June 9 1917, Petrograd--Since the Revolution, many of Russia's soldiers had questioned why Russia should remain in the war. The Provisional Government had (despite some objections) sworn off any goal of annexing territory or receiving reparations from the war, and urged other countries to do the same. Despite this, they were unwilling to conduct a separate peace with Germany, a position they reiterated on June 9 by rejecting an armistice offer the Germans had broadcast by radio. There were several reasons for this. The new political leaders took Russia's commitments to her Allies seriously, and did not want autocratic Germany to win the war in the west; if Russia pulled out now, there could very well be annexations elsewhere. Furthermore, Russia, having suffered grave defeats in 1915, and now dealing with the aftermath of the Revolution, would be negotiating from a position of weakness, and would likely have to make many concessions to the Central Powers. While much of the land occupied was in Poland (which the Provisional Government had promised independence anyway), a peace would likely still be humiliating for Russia and her government.
Lastly, the revolutionaries hoped (despite copious evidence to the contrary) that the war would unify Russia around the revolution, by defending it from a foreign threat. Their favorite analogy was to France in the 1790's, but this was flawed; Germany was not attempting to restore the Czar or undo the revolution.
Often, the soldiers took matters into their own hands. Around the same time, the soldiers' committees of XXXIII Corps received a German officer, Lt. Bauermeister, who gave lectures well behind the Russian lines, saying that Germany wanted peace and that the Provisional Government was a tool of Allied bankers. The speeches were well-received, and the men of XXXIII Corps declared that they wanted an armistice, raising white flags along their front, despite vehement protests from the officers. The Germans were more than glad to go along with this, until the Russians launched a general offensive a few weeks later. Elsewhere, soldiers increasingly found themselves drawn to the Bolsheviks, the only party advocating for an immediate peace.
Today in 1916: Franklin Roosevelt Promotes “Plattsburgh of the Sea” Today in 1915: Italians Take Monfalcone, Repulsed Near Sagrado
Sources include: Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy.