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1898 map of Petrograd, the Russian capital, Kronstadt Bay, and the Russian naval base of Kronstadt, from a German atlas. Petersburg, or Petrograd, is on Kronstadt Bay, an extension of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. Kronstadt was an important naval base. North and east of central Petrograd was the Vyborg district, site of many factories and housing for workers.
Parted red curtains; in the center, in a trench, a German soldier, eyes closed, hands in overcoat pockets, leans against one side of a trench, smoking a pipe, his rifle resting on the other side of the trench. To the right, a Red soldier, red from red fur hat to red boots, holds two rifles. To the left, a Russian soldier casts away his his hat, backpack, and rifle. Across the bottom of the stage it reads, 1918. Operett: "Trockij", Operetta Trotsky. A watercolor postcard by Schima Martos.
Photograph from overhead of bomber, likely an Italian Caproni Ca.1, a two-engined biplane.
Headstone of Private R. H. Stuckey, East Kent Regiment (the Buffs), died May 5, 1917 age 29 years. Buried at Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Stereo card of French Generals, Henri Philippe Pétain, Paul Henrys, and Émile Fayolle and French Raymond President Poincaré in the Verdun sector. Pétain is on the left and Poincaré behind him. Henrys is in the foreground, back to the camera, and Fayolle on the right.
"On June 16 when the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets met in Petrograd under the presidency of Chkheidze, the delegates (248 Mensheviks, 285 Social Revolutionaries and 105 Bolsheviks) gave their approval for a new offensive against Germany and Austria. The Bolsheviks of course voted against the resolution, but they were shouted down, and Lenin in particular was met with jeers." ((1), more)
"On June 4, a declaration that I had submitted concerning Kerensky's preparation for an offensive at the front was read by the Bolshevik faction at the congress of the Soviets. We had pointed out that the offensive was an adventure that threatened the very existence of the army. But the Provisional government was growing intoxicated with its own speechifying. The ministers thought of the masses of soldiers, stirred to their very depths by the revolution, as so much soft clay to be moulded as they pleased. Kerensky toured the front, adjured and threatened the troops, kneeled, kissed the earth—in a word, clowned it in every possible way, while he failed to answer any of the questions tormenting the soldiers. He had deceived himself by his cheap effects, and, assured of the support of the congress of the Soviets, ordered the offensive." ((2), more)
"The men stay on the mountainside for eight days. When the skies clear on 18 June, the artillery opens up and the infantry attacks again, with air support from Caproni bombers. That afternoon the clouds return. The next day, men of the 52nd Division hack their way to the summit of Ortigara with daggers and bayonets, capturing a thousand prisoners and several guns. They hang on until the 25th, resisting bombardments and counter attacks, until stormtroopers sweep them off with gas and flame-throwers." ((3), more)
". . . Our peace-terms remain the same, 'the destruction of Kaiserism and Prussianism'. I don't know what aims this destruction represents.I only know, and declare from the depths of my agony, that these empty words (so often on the lips of the Jingos) mean the destruction of Youth. They mean the whole torment of waste and despair which people refuse to acknowledge or to face; from month to month they dupe themselves with hopes that 'the war will end this year'." ((4), more)
"The harsh realization that France was running out of men added to the urgency of Pétain's reforms. On June 20 [1917] the General Staff in Paris published a study analyzing the effects of France's looming shortage of soldiers. The study stated:'It is not necessary to deny that after three years of war and after having supported until now the greater part of the common effort, the French army has lost many of its offensive qualities. The crisis of personnel, which can only become more acute with each passing day, can only aggravate the situation. Consequently, the day is approaching when a large offensive by us must be curtailed because we cannot fill the vacancies in our units.'" ((5), more)
(1) Russian Minister of War Alexander Kerensky returned to Petrograd on June 14, 1917 after a three-week tour of the Russian Front to attend the All-Russian Congress of Soviet and Front Line Organizations. Since the February Revolution, the Russian army, which had suffered mutiny, enormous numbers of desertions, and incidents of officers being killed by their men, was beginning to stabilize as the Congress began, with increased support for the Provisional Government and for waging war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Vladimir Lenin was utterly opposed to the war. Many other Bolsheviks supported the war, but not the offensive that would soon begin.
The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead, page 199, copyright © 1958 by Time, Inc., publisher: Carroll and Graf, publication date: 1989
(2) Russian Minister of War Alexander Kerensky returned to Petrograd on June 14, 1917 after a three-week tour of the Russian Front to attend the All-Russian Congress of Soviet and Front Line Organizations. The declaration our author, Leon Trotsky, wrote was delivered on June 17, 1917 (June 4, Old Style.) The Russian army, which had suffered mutiny, enormous numbers of desertions, and incidents of officers being killed by their men in the months since the February Revolution, was beginning to stabilize when the Congress began, with increased support for the Provisional Government and for waging war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin, and other Bolsheviks voted against the resolution for Kerensky's offensive.
My Life: an Attempt at an Autobiography by Leon Trotsky, page 311, publisher: Dover Publications, Inc., publication date: 2007
(3) The Battle of Mount Ortigara, June 10 to 25, 1917, was fought on the Asiago Plateau, on Italy's northern border with Austria-Hungary by the Tirol. A year earlier, on May 14, 1916, the Austrians had launched the Asiago Offensive in the same region. Most of the land war between the two countries was fought on the Isonzo River, a rough and natural approximation of the border in Italy's northeast. Mount Ortigara is roughly 40 kilometers east of Trento, Italy (in 1917 Austria-Hungary) and 20 km north of Asiago. Mount Ortigara would end as another failed Italian offensive.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, pp. 259–260, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
(4) Excerpt from the entry for June 19, 1917, from the diary of Siegfried Sassoon, British poet, author, Second Lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and recipient of the Military Cross for gallantry in action. Sassoon had been wounded, shot through the shoulder by a sniper, in an April 16 attack on the village of Fontaine-lès-Croisilles in the Battle of Arras, and was on convalescent leave in England in June.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, page 175, copyright © George Sassoon, 1983; Introduction and Notes Rupert Hart-Davis, 1983, publisher: Faber and Faber, publication date: 1983
(5) French general Henri Philippe Pétain was given command of the French Army on May 15, 1917 after the failure of Commander in Chief Robert Nivelle's spring offensive, and as mutinies spread in the army, ultimately affecting nearly half the army. Pétain assured the soldiers he would not squander their lives, and that France would build the materiel—tanks, heavy artillery, aircraft—that could bring victory. He also set about reforming the army, ensuring officers mingled with their men, and recognizing the danger presented by France's heavy losses since the beginning of the war.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 368, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
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