States victorious in the First World War. Who won the first world war

From an article by Alexei Volynets.

During the First World War, only six states of Europe remained neutral - Holland, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Norway and Sweden. Their citizens were lucky enough to escape the horrors of carnage, occupation and devastation.
According to the results great war they all benefited - the economies of neutral countries worked hard for the warring powers, and sometimes at the same time for both sides. It was during the years of the Great War that the foundations of the current "Scandinavian socialism" and the glory of Swiss banks were laid.
However, this wealth was not given to most neutrals easily. Only a very limited number of bankers and industrialists personally profited from the war, and for most ordinary citizens the war turned into mass unemployment and the same ration cards.

Dutch army.

Holland.

Holland by 1914 was by no means a small European country, but a large and rich colonial empire. Its overseas possessions in the East Indies (Indonesia) and the West Indies (the islands of the Antilles archipelago and Suriname) exceeded the size of the metropolis by more than 60 times.
38 million people lived in the colonies, while the population of Holland proper barely exceeded 6 million. In terms of the formal number of subjects, Koninkrijk der Nederlande, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, was slightly inferior to Austria-Hungary, one of the largest powers of the early 20th century.
Moreover, according to the level economic development Holland was then one of the leading countries, occupying the 5th place in the world by 1914 in terms of foreign trade, and every tenth adult Dutch then worked in the banking and financial sector.

Shower room for Belgian refugees.

The Dutch never had to fight, but they faced another problem. By October 1914, 900 thousand people had fled to Holland from the territory of Belgium, where the fighting had unfolded. Later, several tens of thousands of refugees, deserters and runaway prisoners of war from both sides of the front were added to them.
In the Netherlands, it was necessary to organize 7 large camps for refugees from Belgium, as well as special camps for military internees, which were visited by 35 thousand Belgian soldiers, over 15 thousand deserted Germans, several hundred fugitive British prisoners, French and even several dozen Russians.
In 1918, when the issuance of products on cards was greatly reduced, a wave of riots swept through the cities of Holland. They were called "potato riots", as hungry crowds attacked shops, warehouses and barges with potatoes - the staple food of ordinary Dutch during the war years.

Distribution of products.

While the population of other countries was declining, in Holland it grew by half a million people, or 8%. The country's gold reserves increased by 4.5 times during the years of the World War. In 1915-18. over 400 tons of precious metal, mostly from Germany, got into the vaults of the central bank of the Netherlands.
By the end of the war, the value of the gold reserves of Holland was almost 2 times higher than the total nominal value of all paper money circulating both in the mother country and in the colonies.
The profits and benefits derived from neutrality gave Holland the opportunity not only to avoid revolutionary upheavals, but also to carry out social reforms. By 1920, the country introduced an 8-hour working day, a 45-hour working week, reduced retirement age from 70 to 65 years old, granted women the right to vote.

Switzerland.

More than half of the Swiss spoke and speak German, and only a fifth - in French. By the beginning of the 20th century, the economy of the confederation was most closely connected with Germany and Austria, and pro-German sentiments prevailed in the country. The Swiss army was built and trained according to the German model, Kaiser Wilhelm II visited her military exercises more than once.
By the autumn of 1918, the internal situation of Switzerland became even more complicated. Due to difficulties with food imports, bread rations on cards in cities have been reduced to 250 grams per day.
True, this was not a real famine, since food products could still be obtained from the market. But chronic malnutrition has affected the poor in Switzerland. The country's authorities even began the forced mobilization of the population for agricultural work.
On September 30, 1918, it came to the point that the bank clerks of Zurich went on strike, announcing that in 1917 the owners of banks on financial fraud on both sides of the front earned 35 million Swiss francs (over 100 tons of gold) in net profit, but at the same time continue to keep citizens countries on a half-starvation diet.
In November 1918, a general strike swept the country, in which more than 10% of the population took part. To suppress the unrest, the authorities even attracted parts of the army that did not fight.

Swiss Army.

The end of the war did not immediately lead to the normalization of life in Switzerland. For example, cards for bread were canceled only in August 1919, and for milk - in May 1920.
However, the end of the blockade and the funds accumulated over the years of the war in banks allowed the authorities to improve the lives of employees - since 1918, a 48-hour work week(whereas prior to 1914 wage earners worked an average of 60 hours per week).
It was after 1918 that Swiss banks began to gain worldwide fame - as reliable keepers of secret accounts and banking secrecy. The gold reserves of the confederation during the First World War increased by 2.5 times.
Until 1913, Brussels was the leading banking center for covert operations, but the Belgian capital was occupied by the Germans, and the role of intermediary bankers was taken over by the banks of Zurich, Geneva, and Bern. It was there that, in order to ensure financial transactions on both sides of the front, banking and commercial secrets were first equated with state secrets.

Denmark.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the Kingdom of Denmark was not just a prosperous, albeit small, country, but one of the most "authoritative" in Europe - the Danish king Christian IX was the father of the English queen, the Russian empress and the Greek king.
By 1914 there were 21 large canned meat factories in Denmark. During the war, their number increased by 7 times - up to 148, and the export of canned meat to the Second Reich increased by more than 50 times. As a result, the livestock of large cattle and pigs in neutral Denmark declined in the same proportions as in warring Germany.
Prudent Danish businessmen, in order to increase profits, sold to the Germans mainly the so-called "goulash" - low-quality canned food, in which there was less meat than sauce and "vegetable content", and the meat itself was diluted with offal.
But starving Germany also bought such products in any quantity. The nouveau riche, fabulously rich in food supplies to the Germans, were then called "goulash barons" in the Scandinavian kingdom. During the war years, they built real palaces throughout the country, even giving rise to a special architectural style.

But even greater profits for neutral Denmark were brought by the resale of strategic raw materials and materials, which were purchased mainly in the United States. So, by November 1914, the kingdom was buying 13 times more copper there than before the war.
The Danish "East Asia Company", which was engaged in such operations, in 1916 paid dividends to its shareholders in the amount of 30% on the invested capital. The gold reserves of Denmark during the years of the World War increased by more than 2.5 times.
Danish capital was also active in Russia, where its interests were often lobbied by the mother of the last Russian tsar, Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna (nee Danish Princess Dagmar).
In particular, the "Danish Rifle Syndicate" built a machine-gun plant in the Vladimir province, the director of which was the captain of the Danish army Jurgensen. The royal treasury signed a contract with Danish shareholders for 26 million rubles in gold (about 895 million modern dollars).
However, superprofits mostly settled in the pockets of big capital, and for ordinary citizens the war brought mostly losses.

Meeting of the three kings of Scandinavia in Malmö. From left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, King Gustav V of Sweden and King Christian X of Denmark. December 18, 1914.

The war significantly changed the borders of the kingdom. The fact is that Denmark in the Middle Ages, a former great maritime power, has owned several islands in the Caribbean since the 17th century.
In August 1914, the United States just put the Panama Canal into operation, and these three islands immediately acquired strategic importance, allowing you to control the exit from the channel to the Atlantic.
Back in 1902, Washington offered Copenhagen to buy the islands, but the Danish Riksdag refused. In 1916, the United States was again asked to sell the Caribbean islands, and Secretary of State Lansing bluntly told the Danish envoy in Washington that "circumstances may force the United States, without the consent of Denmark, to take possession of the islands." The Danes then agreed to cede overseas territory for $25 million.
The funds accumulated over the years of neutrality allowed the Danish industry to "shoot" after the war - already in 1920, the volume of production exceeded the pre-war one by 40%, and the real incomes of industrial workers by 1919 increased by almost 1.5 times. Against this background, the introduction of the 8-hour working day no longer seemed like a huge achievement.

Scandinavian serenity.

Norway.

Formally, by the time the First World War began, Norway was the youngest independent state Europe - as an independent kingdom de jure, it arose only in 1905, after the dissolution of the union with Sweden.
By the beginning of the 20th century, Norway was a very prosperous and prosperous country. Unlike other European countries, by 1914 her land had not known war for two centuries (except for a skirmish with the Swedes in 1814, in which several dozen Norwegians died).
The neutrality of the country with a huge merchant fleet immediately turned into an increase in trade and huge profits. By 1916, the gross income of Norwegian shipowners from freight had increased 5 times compared to pre-war times.
In that year, when hundreds of thousands of soldiers perished near Verdun and in Galicia, Norwegian shipowners earned a fantastic amount of almost 18 billion dollars from the charter of their ships, in terms of the current exchange rate.

Norwegian monarchy.

After 1914, Norway became the main supplier of copper and Atlantic herring to Germany. The arms industry could not do without copper, and the fish was not only used for food - glycerin, necessary for the production of explosives, was obtained from fish oil.
Neutral Vikings actively traded not only with Germany - the volume of Norwegian exports to Russia in 1914-1916 increased almost 9 times in monetary terms.
During the war years, its active merchant fleet suffered the greatest losses among the ships of all neutral countries. From 1914 to 1918, 889 Norwegian ships were blown up and sunk by mines and torpedoes, about 2 thousand Norwegian sailors died.

Nevertheless, the world war turned into a literally golden rain for neutral Norway - by the end of 1918, the state gold reserve had increased more than 3 times compared to the pre-war one, thanks to the flows of foreign currency and gold, 75 new banks were created (by the way, Norwegian banks provided warring Germany loans for total amount over a billion modern dollars). During the war, the capital of all banks in the kingdom increased 7 times, and the size bank deposits Norwegians grew 4 times.
The growth of national wealth during the four years of neutrality allowed them to buy the shares of most enterprises from foreigners and sharply reduce the participation of foreign capital in the industry of Norway.
Before 1914, two centuries without war made Norway a prosperous country, and four subsequent years of neutrality and profitable trade on both sides of the front turned it into one of the richest and most prosperous states in Europe.

Spain.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Spain had lost its former greatness and was considered one of the poorest and most backward countries. Western Europe. The population of Spain on the eve of the war barely exceeded 20 million people.
If until 1914 the kingdom experienced a chronic trade deficit of about 100 million pesetas per year, then in 1914-1918 its annual foreign trade surplus reached 400 million pesetas.
As a result, during the war, Spain not only paid off its considerable external debts, but also increased its gold and foreign exchange reserves, which by 1917 had grown almost 4 times. In the first three years of the war, the Madrid central bank received almost 500 tons of gold from trading with all the warring powers.
However, these profits, due to the economic and social backwardness of the country, almost did not reach ordinary citizens. So, according to economists, the real incomes of workers in Spain during the years of World War II decreased by almost 30%. Already in August 1917, a general labor strike broke out in Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Bilbao and other cities, which the authorities were able to suppress only with the help of the army.
As a result, unlike the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands, which used the benefits of neutrality for further development and prosperity, non-participation in the world war turned out to be almost a disaster for Spain - the aggravation of social stratification and social contradictions in the future led it to a bloody civil war.

Sweden.

During the First World War, Sweden turned out to be the only European country that managed to sit on two chairs at once - frank militant revanchism and profitable, extremely cynical neutrality.
It was Sweden that supplied the Kaiser's army with leather boots, selling over 4.5 million pairs to Germany by the end of 1916. In March 1915 alone, the Swedes sold over 10,000 heavy horses for artillery to the Germans. Throughout the war, Swedish factories secretly produced shells of sea mines and spare parts for torpedoes for the German fleet.

Swedish entertainment.

Since the beginning of the war, the export of pork from Sweden to Germany has increased almost 10 times, beef - 4 times. If in 1913 Sweden sold 30 thousand tons of fish to Germany, then in 1915 - already 53 thousand tons. According to the results of 1915, sales of all types of food from Sweden to Germany increased by more than 5 times.
But neutral Sweden traded profitably not only with the Germans - by 1916, exports of Swedish goods to Russia also increased 5 times. Moreover, Sweden has taken an advantageous position as an intermediary between Russia and Germany.
All the years of the war, through the mediation of Swedish firms, the products of German factories were imported to Russia, and money was sent to Germany as payment for supplies.

The example of one of the smugglers detained by the British in 1916 testifies to the super-income of individual Swedish businessmen - in just six months he earned $ 80 million (in prices early XXI century) on the resale to Germany of rubber bought in England.
The state gold reserve of Sweden from 1914 to 1918 increased almost 3 times. More than 3 times increased the value of Swedish securities joint-stock companies, and the savings of ordinary Swedes in banks during the war years increased by an average of 1.5-2 times.
Already at the end of 1918, the Swedish parliament approved laws on an 8-hour working day, universal suffrage, a reduction in military service and wage increases.

Everything is shown on the map.

Nine European rulers at the funeral of Edward VII. 1910 Seated, from left to right: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King George V of Great Britain, King Frederick VIII of Denmark. Standing, from left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, King Manuel II of Portugal, German Emperor Wilhelm II, King George I of Greece, King Albert I of Belgium.

Russia dropped out of the ranks of the winners in the First World War due to the outbreak of the revolution. Actually, the war itself became an important cause of the Russian revolution. However, it is not difficult to imagine scenarios in which the revolution could have occurred later than 1917, or victory in the war could have been achieved earlier. In this case, the Russian Empire would have been among the winners in the First World War on a par with Britain and France. How then could the future fate of Russia and the whole world be formed?

World War II might not have happened

An important factor that contributed to the revival of Germany's military power after the defeat in the First World War was cooperation with Soviet Russia. Both states sought geopolitical revenge. As a result, in 1922-1933 and 1939-1941. Soviet Union and Germany mutually supported each other, preparing for the battle with Western democracies for the redivision of the world (although, in the end, the same western states managed to set up Germany and the USSR for a battle, first of all, between themselves).
Well, if Russia in the First World War was among the powers that defeated Germany, on whom would the latter be able to rely then, counting on its revenge? There simply would not be such a friendly country for Germany. Therefore, with a high probability we can assume that the First World War would have been the last. The second would not have arisen. There would be no Hitler, no Nazis, no Holocaust. This is not certain, of course, but it is highly probable.
In addition, the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which ended the First world war, turned out to be very humiliating for the national dignity of Germany. We have the right to assume that this happened to a large extent because the conditions of this peace were worked out and dictated to Germany by the Western powers without any participation of Russia. And what if the All-Russian autocrat Nicholas II, whose cousin was the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, was among the participants in the peace conference? Wouldn't the tsar have tried to make the terms of the peace treaty as sparing as possible for Germany, so that she would not even have a desire for any kind of revenge?

Tsargrad is ours

Russia, when it entered the First World War, had very specific geopolitical plans. They found expression in a number of political statements, projects, treatises, as well as secret agreements with the allies. Based on them, a specific plan for the post-war world order, which Nicholas II aspired to, emerges.
First of all, Russia would receive Constantinople with the Bosporus and Dardanelles and adjacent parts of the European and Asian coasts. Most likely, Constantinople would have been declared the third capital Russian Empire, along with St. Petersburg and Moscow. The possession of Constantinople after the war was guaranteed to Russia by a secret agreement between three foreign ministers (Great Britain, France and Russia; the so-called Sykes-Picot-Sazonov agreement) signed in 1916.
In addition to access to the Mediterranean Sea through the straits from the Black Sea, this agreement ensured the transition to Russia of the entire Turkish part of Armenia. Curious fact: in January 1917 Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (the tsar's uncle), the commander-in-chief of the Caucasian front and the governor of the Caucasus, signed an order to organize another Russian Cossack army - the Euphrates - on the river of the same name, in the territory already occupied at that time by Russian troops.

Slavic question

It has long been no secret to anyone that, following the war, Nicholas II was going to unite all of Poland within ethnographic borders and give it the same independence that the Grand Duchy of Finland enjoyed as part of the Russian Empire. At the same time, it was planned to forever take away East Prussia from Germany and divide it between Russia proper and Poland - what Stalin did after World War II.
Nicholas II sympathized with the ideas of creating the Yugoslav and Czechoslovak federations. Austria-Hungary, in any case, would have expected the fate that eventually befell it - the collapse into nation-states. Yugoslavia, as it happened, would be headed by a Serbian dynasty. Well, the Russian emperor himself would nominally become the monarch of Czechoslovakia.

A constitutional monarchy

There can hardly be any doubt that parliamentary government, which began in Russia with the convocation of State Duma in 1906, would have received further development. And it would have happened without revolutions and civil wars. Gradually, during the 20th century, many national provinces of the Russian Empire would certainly acquire autonomy - as happened in similar cases in other states. Naturally, in such a Russian empire, political life. Development always goes through conflicts, sometimes bloody. But the fact of the matter is that these conflicts would not have a catastrophic outcome. The main thing is that in the history of our country there would not have been a radical breakdown of the social order, there would not have been mass repressions, the domination of one ideology, there would not have been bad traditions of suppressing dissent. Russia would be another country Western world. What's in real history happened Russian revolution, became a stimulus for the development of many leftist movements. In a world where the Russian Empire dictated to Germany the terms of a peace treaty, the conditions for such movements would hardly arise at all.

But everything depended on Russia itself

However, the above could have happened in the ideal. After all, much depended on the state in which Russia could come to the victory of the Entente over the bloc of the Central Powers. After all, by the time of victory it could have been greatly weakened, and the allies could not have reckoned with its interests and trample on previously signed agreements. The example of Italy convinces us of the possibility of this. She was among the formal winners in the First World War. And the allies even fulfilled her wishes for the annexation of new territories to her. Nevertheless, in Italy after the war, a revolution almost took place, led by leftist forces, and then Italy became one of the allies of revanchist Germany. So the victory of Russia in the First World War could turn out differently for her. Although worse than what happened in reality, one can hardly imagine.

The First World War was the largest military conflict of the first third of the twentieth century and all the wars that took place before that. So when did World War I start and in what year did it end? The date July 28, 1914 is the beginning of the war, and its end is November 11, 1918.

When did World War I start?

The beginning of World War I was the declaration of war by Austria-Hungary on Serbia. The reason for the war was the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown by the nationalist Gavrilo Princip.

Speaking briefly about the First World War, it should be noted that the main reason for the outbreak of hostilities was the conquest of a place in the sun, the desire to rule the world with a balance of power, the emergence of Anglo-German trade barriers, such a phenomenon in the development of the state as economic imperialism and territorial claims that reached the absolute. one state to another.

On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Serb of Bosnian origin, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo. On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, main war the first third of the twentieth century.

Rice. 1. Gavrilo Princip.

Russia in the First World

Russia announced mobilization, preparing to defend the fraternal people, thereby incurring an ultimatum from Germany to stop the formation of new divisions. On August 1, 1914, Germany officially declared war on Russia.

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In 1914, hostilities in Eastern Front were fought in Prussia, where the rapid offensive of the Russian troops was driven back by the German counteroffensive and the defeat of Samsonov's army. The offensive in Galicia was more effective. On the Western Front, the course of hostilities was more pragmatic. The Germans invaded France through Belgium and moved to Paris at an accelerated pace. Only in the Battle of the Marne was the offensive stopped by the Allied forces and the parties switched to a long trench war, which dragged on until 1915.

In 1915, Germany's former ally, Italy, entered the war on the side of the Entente. Thus was formed the southwestern front. Fighting unfolded in the Alps, giving rise to mountain warfare.

On April 22, 1915, during the Battle of Ypres, German soldiers used chlorine poison gas against the Entente forces, which was the first gas attack in history.

A similar meat grinder happened on the Eastern Front. The defenders of the Osovets fortress in 1916 covered themselves with unfading glory. The German forces, several times superior to the Russian garrison, could not take the fortress after mortar and artillery fire and several assaults. After that, a chemical attack was applied. When the Germans, walking in gas masks through the smoke, believed that there were no survivors left in the fortress, Russian soldiers ran out to them, coughing up blood and wrapped in various rags. The bayonet attack was unexpected. The enemy, many times superior in number, was finally driven back.

Rice. 2. Defenders of Osovets.

In the Battle of the Somme in 1916, tanks were used for the first time by the British during an attack. In spite of frequent breakdowns and low accuracy, the attack carried more of a psychological effect.

Rice. 3. Tanks on the Somme.

In order to distract the Germans from the breakthrough and draw forces away from Verdun, the Russian troops planned an offensive in Galicia, the result of which was to be the surrender of Austria-Hungary. This is how the “Brusilovsky breakthrough” occurred, which, although it moved the front line tens of kilometers to the west, did not solve the main task.

At sea, a pitched battle took place between the British and the Germans in 1916 near the Jutland peninsula. The German fleet intended to break the naval blockade. More than 200 ships took part in the battle, with a majority of the British, but during the battle there was no winner, and the blockade continued.

On the side of the Entente in 1917, the United States entered, for which entry into the world war on the side of the winner at the very last moment became a classic. The German command from Lans to the River Aisne erected a reinforced concrete "Hindenburg Line", behind which the Germans retreated and switched to a defensive war.

The French General Nivel developed a plan for a counteroffensive on the Western Front. Massive artillery preparation and attacks on different areas front did not give the desired effect.

In 1917, in Russia, during two revolutions, the Bolsheviks came to power, by which the shameful separate Brest peace was concluded. On March 3, 1918, Russia withdrew from the war.
In the spring of 1918, the Germans launched their last "spring offensive". They intended to break through the front and withdraw France from the war, however, the numerical superiority of the Allies did not allow them to do so.

Economic exhaustion and growing dissatisfaction with the war forced Germany to sit down at the negotiating table, during which a peace treaty was concluded at Versailles.

What have we learned?

Despite who fought with whom and who won, history has shown that the end of the First World War did not solve all the problems of mankind. The battle for the redivision of the world did not end, the allies did not finish off Germany and its allies completely, but only economically exhausted, which led to the signing of peace. The Second World War was only a matter of time.

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Although Britain was destroyed and ruined, from a military point of view, she and her allies won. November 11, 1918 was the day of the surrender of Germany in the First World War.

And the results of the war can be called - February and October Revolution in Russia, the November Revolution in Germany, and of course the beginning of the penetration of American capital into Europe.

And the world war also gave impetus to the development of new weapons - chemical weapons were used for the first time, mortars, flamethrowers, torpedo boats, and a gas mask were invented. In general, the militarization of the economy took place, and indeed the style of warfare itself has changed.

Weird. that at the beginning of the First World War, almost all the monarchs of European countries were related. For example, the Emperor of Germany Wilhelm II was an uncle to the Emperor of the Russian Empire, Nicholas II. which did not prevent them from going to war against each other. Then at the end it was Brest Peace. and England was already attacking Russia, fearing to lose superiority at sea. The result of the First World War was the defeat of Germany and its allies. Was signed Treaty of Versailles. according to which Germany was in the status of a slave to countries triple alliance Entente, and could not have advancing weapons. Everything changed only with the coming to power Hitler and his party NSDAP.

It's pretty interest Ask. In this terrible First World War, so many states participated in one way or another, and such were the huge losses of some of the states participating in this war. That many people assumed that humanity from this horror would still come to its senses for a long time, and in the near future there would be no wars for a very long time. However, those who think as we now know were mistaken, because soon the Second World War came!

If you do not look at the formal side of the one who won the First World War, then we can say that no one won.

If we talk about the winner of the First World War, then we should first remember about its participants. The war involved countries from all continents, up to the exotic Brazil and Japan, which at that time opposed Germany. But the main instigators of the war were Great Britain, France and Russia on the one hand, and Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other. Formally, the Entente won, as Germany signed the surrender and was completely destroyed. But all participants suffered. Empires collapsed, 10 million people died, the map of the world was greatly redrawn. Russia dropped out of the list of winners, since at the time the war ended the former empire no longer existed - Soviet Russia arose, but formally it was Russia's contribution that turned out to be decisive in the victory of the Entente.

1914 - 1918 World War I. 38 states fought. More than 10 million were killed, more than 20 million were maimed and injured.

• France wanted to be main country in Europe.
• Great Britain wanted to prevent the rise of anyone in Europe.
• Russia wanted to protect countries of Eastern Europe from aggression.
• Strong contradictions between the countries of Europe and Asia in the struggle for spheres of influence.

Triple Alliance military bloc of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.

Entente military bloc of Great Britain, France and Russia.

CAUSE for war: in the city of Sarajevo, a fanatic killed the prince of Austria-Hungary. As a result, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Turkey and Bulgaria began to fight against the Entente countries.

In August 1914 Russia made progress, but then the inconsistency of the armies, supply problems, betrayal and espionage led to defeats. By the end of 1915 Russia has lost the Baltic States, Poland, part of Ukraine and Belarus. In 1916 under the leadership of General Brusilov, a breakthrough was made on the Southwestern Front. More than 400 thousand enemies were killed, wounded and taken prisoner. Germany transferred forces to the aid of Austria-Hungary and saved her from disaster. On the March 1, 1917 a general offensive of the Russian army was being prepared along the entire front line. But a week before that, the enemies staged a revolution in Petrograd. The offensive failed. The February revolution destroyed all the victorious plans of the army. Mass desertion began, the soldiers did not obey orders, intelligence was declassified. As a result, all the offensives of the Russian army failed. There were many killed and captured.

RESULTS: After October 1917 the Bolsheviks came to power. March 1918 they made with Germany Brest Peace, gave the western lands of Russia and stopped participating in the war. Russia lost the most: more than 6 million killed, wounded, maimed. The main industrial areas were destroyed.

Sources: www.bolshoyvopros.ru, 1line.info, ria.ru, zapolni-probel.ru, news.liga.net

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On November 11, 1918, Germany capitulated. The signing of the armistice that ended the Great War took place in the French region of Picardy, ironically home to the Gothic architecture so beloved by the Germans. The agreement, known as the First Compiegne Truce, officially ended hostilities in Western Europe. In the east, the outcome was much more dramatic and tragic: in March 1918, Soviet Russia withdrew from the war, signing a separate peace with Germany and its allies.

Today, the day of the signing of the Armistice of Compiègne is a public holiday in many countries of Europe and the British Commonwealth of Nations.

The armistice was preceded by a revolution that began in Germany, which was rather unexpected for Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was at that time in Spa. The emperor clearly did not want to end the war, trying to buy time through long but meaningless negotiations with the Entente countries. However, when he failed to suppress the speeches on the territory of his own country, Wilhelm II chose to flee to Holland. The last blow to the Kaiser was the transition to the side of the revolutionaries of the fleet, which Wilhelm II rightfully considered his brainchild and loved very much.

Germany was proclaimed a republic. And shortly before that, Prince Maximilian of Baden, who had become chancellor, initiated negotiations.

At the same time, the situation in Germany itself was spiraling out of control. So, on the territory of the disputed Alsace, the Alsatian Soviet Republic was created at all, which existed before Alsace and Lorraine were annexed by France.

In fact, negotiations have been going on since October 8 in the carriage of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, Frenchman Ferdinand Foch. The consensus was reached on November 11, at 5 am local time, and entered into force at 11 am. Many newspapers published on that day symbolically called the agreement "the truce at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month." On the last day of the war, 2,738 people died.

The main points of the truce, which was subsequently extended several times, were the withdrawal of all German troops to German territory, the occupation of part of Germany by the Allied forces and the mass surrender of weapons. In addition, Germany's refusal of the separate Brest peace followed as a separate item.

It was assumed that German troops remain in the occupied Russian territories. However, they still came out. Meanwhile foreign intervention to Russia from the side of the Entente was in full swing.

Winners are not judged

Despite the fact that the countries of the Entente and the United States are officially considered the winners of the First World War by many historians, several reservations should be made. Thus, Russia had the biggest losses, which, after the advent of Soviet power, preferred to get out of the "imperialist war" through a separate peace. In addition to 1.773 million Russian soldiers, about 1.7 million German soldiers died. More than a million of the population from the Entente countries lost France, as well as two losing powers - Germany and Austria-Hungary.

One of the outcomes of the First World War was the fall of several powers: Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. In addition, Finland and the Baltic countries gained independence.

At the same time, there were also economic repercussions, with GDP growth seen in the UK and the US, as well as in Italy. In addition, the consequences of the Great War for Austria were tragic: all the pigs were slaughtered there, and the country was simply left without meat. The Netherlands, which remained neutral in the First World War, also suffered enormous economic losses.

The United States, following the Monroe Doctrine, which meant non-interference in the affairs of continental Europe, nevertheless decided to participate in the First World War in 1917. It was the intervention of the United States and the "fourteen points" of US President Woodrow Wilson that became the "final nail" in the "coffin" of Germany's hopes for a positive outcome. global confrontation. And the reason for this was the US military power, untapped resources, as well as a timed strike that allowed the US to stand on a par with countries that have been at war since 1914.

The Americans themselves believe that the early years of the First World War are a testament to how terrible conflicts can be if the United States is not involved in their resolution.

In 1924, the book "The Economics of War" was published, which, among other things, mentioned the expenses of the powers for the First World War. Thus, the Entente countries and the United States in general spent about $147 billion on the war in terms of the then exchange rate. At the same time, Germany and its allies - only $ 61 billion in terms of the then dollars. Of this money, the United States, which entered the First World War later than everyone else, while receiving good bonuses, including the status of a victorious power, accounted for $27 billion.

Soviet Russia lost more than others in the First World War. The war, although it continued with varying success, could bring Russia, if not territorial acquisitions, then the status of one of the victorious powers. However, Leon Trotsky, who was supported by many of the "architects" of the new country, preferred the shameful separate peace to continue the confrontation to its logical conclusion. The winners are not judged, and the dubious achievements of the losing countries are discussed in 2014.

The main result of the First World War was the redistribution of colonial possessions. It persisted until the end of the Second World War, during which the Compiègne truce also took place, unlike the first, which consolidated the successes of Germany, and not the allied forces. But Russia could well have won, including if the scenario of its alliance with Germany suddenly came true ...

In our country, the First World War was remembered only in the year of the centenary from the time it began. Bookshelves turned out to be filled with literature claiming to be scientific, monuments and memorials began to open. However, there are still no real studies on this topic in Russia. And not yet expected.