Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
Image text:
French folding postcard map of Verdun and the Meuse River, number 9 from the series Les Cartes du Front. Montfaucon is in the upper left and St. Mihiel at the bottom.
Image text: Les Cartes du FrontVerdun et Côtes de MeuseEchelle 1:32,000RoutesChemin de ferCanauxMaps of the FrontVerdun and the Hills of the MeuseScale: 1:32,000RoadsRailwaysCanals1. - Les Flandres2. - Artois, Picardie3. - Aisne, Champagne4. - Argonne et Meuse5. - Lorraine6. - Vosges et Alsace7. - Route des Dame et Plateau de Craonne8. - Région de Perthes9. - Verdun10. - Somme et Santerre11. - Plateau d'Artois12. - Belgique - FlandresA. Hatier. Editeur.8.Rue d'Assas, Paris.Outer front:Correspondence of the ArmiesMilitary Franchise
1898 map of St. Petersburg, the Russian capital, from a German atlas. Central St Petersburg, or Petrograd, is on the Neva River. Key landmarks include the Peter and Paul Fortress, which served as a prison, Nevski Prospect, a primary boulevard south of the Fortress, the Finland Train Station, east of the Fortress, where Lenin made his triumphal return, the Tauride (Taurisches) Palace, which housed the Duma and later the Petrograd Soviet.
Image text: St Petersburg (Petrograd); Neva River, Peter and Paul Fortress; Nevski Prospect, Finland Bahnhof (Train Station); Taurisches (Tauride) Palace
The Royal Palace in Bucharest, Romania. A postcard altered to show the German flag flying over the palace.
Image text: Bucuresti. Palatul Regal, Königliches SchlossBucharest. Royal Palace
"[Austro-Hungarian Commander in Chief] Conrad, undeterred as always, resumed the offensive on 27 February [1915] by sandwiching his Second Army between the Third Army and the Südarmee. The result was the same: 40 000 of its 95 000 men were captured or lost in the snow and 6000 incapacitated by hostile fire. The 'South Army' was down to one-third of its strength. Nearly 800 000 casualties attested to the severity of the fighting in the east early in 1915." ((1), more)
"After five days of battle, and much slaughter, the battle [of Verdun] was to go on. Douaumont remained in German hands, but continued ferocious German shelling and daily assaults, while they savaged the French defenders, failed to give the Germans their entry into the city. In the week beginning on February 27 [1916], the French brought to Verdun, along the Voie Sacrée, 190,000 men and 23,000 tons of ammunition. That same week an unexpected spring thaw turned the battlefield and road into a sea of mud, but mud was no deterrent to the continued fighting, or to the intensity of the artillery barrages. In the first five weeks of conflict at Verdun, German soldiers were killed at the astounding rate of one every forty-five seconds. French deaths were even higher. The Kaiser's biographer, Alan Palmer, has written: 'Ultimately on this one sector of the Western Front the Germans suffered a third of a million casualties in occupying a cratered wasteland half the size of metropolitan Berlin.'" ((2), more)
"On February 27 the Duma was due to reassemble, and from all sides there were plans to mark the day with an attack upon the government. Leaflets appeared in the industrial districts urging the workers to rise against the government, and although the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks tried to sabotage one another's plans a demonstration did take place. Inside the Duma Kerensky made a violent speech in which he declared that Russia was exhausted, and that the moment had come for 'liquidating' the war." ((3), more)
"'What [Kerensky] had to say on 14 February as the Duma reconvened was a stirring example of playing to the Soviet gallery.'The country now realizes that the Ministers are but fleeting shadows. The country can clearly see who sends them here. To prevent a catastrophe the Tsar himself must be removed, by force if there is no other way . . . If you will not listen to warning now you will find yourself face to face with the facts, not warning. Look up at the distant flashes that are lighting the skies of Russia.'Even as Kerensky was delivering his broadside, outside a massive demonstration of over 90,000 striking workers stormed along the Nevsky bearing aloft anti-war and anti-government banners. In the windows of the bakeries in Petrograd and Moscow the handwritten, whitewashed signs were becoming painfully familiar: 'No Bread Today — And None Expected'. At the Tsar's palace in Tsarskoe-Seloe, Alexandra, incandescent at Kerensky's oratory, called for his arrest and execution. But no one was listening." ((4), more)
"Our peace terms are so mild that they are as a generous gift offered to vanquished Rumania and are not at all to be made a subject for negotiations. In no case are these negotiations to assume the character of trading or bargaining. If Rumania refuses to conclude peace on the basis laid down by us our answer can only be a resumption of hostilities.I consider it highly probable that the Rumanian government will run that risk to prove her necessity in the eyes of the Western Powers and her own population. But it is just as probable that after breaking off negotiations she will just as quickly turn back and give way before our superior forces.At the worst a short campaign would result in the total collapse of Rumania." ((5), more)
(1) Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf launched a winter offensive in January 1915 to recapture Galicia and Bukovina, Austria-Hungary's northeastern provinces and territory he had lost in 1914. He also hoped to end the threat of the Russians advancing through the passes of the Carpathian Mountains, which would put them in a position to strike Budapest, the Hungarian capital. The Südarmee was a German-led, primarily Austro-Hungarian army.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 137, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
(2) French Commander Joseph Joffre tasked General Henri Philippe Pétain with the defense of Verdun, a salient in the northeast corner of the French front. Verdun was connected to the rest of France along the Bar-le-Duc road, the Voie Sacrée. Pétain organized the provisioning of the front with supplies and with fresh troops. The road was shelled constantly; repair crews maintained it day and night.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 232, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(3) KerenskyDumaBolsheviksPetrograd
The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead, page 135, copyright © 1958 by Time, Inc., publisher: Carroll and Graf, publication date: 1989
(4) The Russian Duma reconvened on February 27 (New Style, the 14th Old Style). Alexander Kerensky was a leading Socialist and member of the Petrograd Soviet. The bitterly cold weeks before Kerensky spoke led to a failure of the transport system and deliveries of food including to Petrograd and Moscow. Bolsheviks and others were active in the military and factories. Nobles and business people privately discussed the removal of Tsar Nicholas, but Kerensky's public call was a new step, one that infuriated Empress Alexandra.
1917: Russia's Year of Revolution by Roy Bainton, page 62, copyright © Roy Bainton 2005, publisher: Carroll and Graf Publishers, publication date: 2005
(5) Excerpt from a February 27, 1918 pro-memoria by Hungarian Count Stephen Tisza, Royal Hungarian Premier of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, delivered to Ottokar Czernin with the request he pass it to Austro-Hungarian Emperor Karl. Czernin, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Austria-Hungary's lead representative at the Brest-Litovsk peace negotiations with Russia, moved on to negotiations with Romania. With Russia out of the war, Romania's position was untenable.
In the World War by Count Ottokar Czernin, page 288, copyright © 1920, by Harper & Brothers, publisher: Harper and Brothers, publication date: 1920
