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Photograph of the Russian monk Grigory Rasputin from The War of the Nations Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings Compiled from the Mid-Week Pictorial. Tsar Nicholas of Russia and his wife were introduced to Rasputin in 1907. According to Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, Rasputin, 'wheedled them, dazzled them, dominated them.'
A French officer charging into battle in a watercolor by Fernand Rigouts. The original watercolor on deckle-edged watercolor paper is signed F. R. 1917, and addressed to Mademoiselle Henriette Dangon.
The Allies welcome Italy to the victory banquet, serving her Trento and Trieste. Turkey, Austria-Hungary, and Germany (the Central Powers) look in on the feast. The artwork is from the period between Italy's entry into the war on May 23, 1915, and Bulgaria's joining the Central Powers on October 14. It was a difficult year for the celebrants. Postcard by Aurelio Bertiglia.
The Russo-Turkish frontier from Cram's 1896 Railway Map of the Turkish Empire. The Black Sea is in the northwest, Persia to the southeast. The area had a large Armenian and Christian population, and was a principal site of the Armenian Genocide and of Russian military successes.
Zeppelin Kommt! Children play a Zeppelin raid on London. Holding his bomb in the gondola is a doll of the airship's inventor, Count Zeppelin. The other children, playing the English, cower, and the British fleet — folded paper boats — remains in port. Prewar postcards celebrated the imposing airships and the excitement they generated with the same expression, 'Zeppelin Kommt!'. Postcard by P.O. Engelhard (P.O.E.). The message on the reverse is dated May 28, 1915.
"For the last three days I have been gathering information from all quarters about the new President of the Council,and I have no reason to congratulate myself on what I have ascertained. . . .Neither his personal qualifications nor his administrative record and social position marked him out as fitted for the high office which has just been entrusted to him, to the astonishment of everyone. But his appointment becomes intelligible on the supposition that he has been selected solely as a tool; in other words, actually on account of his insignificance and servility. This choice has been inspired by the Empress's camarilla, and warmly recommended to the Emperor by Rasputin, with whom Sturmer is on the most intimate terms. All this means pleasant times ahead!" ((1), more)
". . . By dawn [on February 6, 1916] the position had been consolidated. Casualties were light at first, but consolidation had to be done under artillery and machine-gun fire, bombs, rifle-grenades and trench-mortars: in the end they numbered about 40, including 5 officers. The position was shelled all afternoon, but there were no further casualties. Radford commanded the garrison of bombers until the relieving battalion came out at night. We found loopholes from which the Germans had fired into our front at a range of 35 yards. The Corps Commander was very complimentary about the whole affair." ((2), more)
"'The offensives,' continued Haig, 'must coincide on all fronts. This was the conclusion reached at the Chantilly conferences. The Russians will not be ready until July; the French will not act before that time. Being short of reserves, they can only undertake one or two important efforts.''The seriousness of the Allied situation,' I said, 'arises from the fact that the Russians have not come up to expectations. At the moment they appear to be in an irremediable muddle. . . .'" ((3), more)
"On the 17th and 20th of January [1916], Russian destroyers swept the coast of Lazistan destroying a large number of mostly small sailing craft assumed to be used by the Turks to supply their army. The weak naval force at Batum was strengthened by two torpedo boats and the gunboats Donetz and Kubanetz, the former salved after having been sunk at Odessa in the Turkish attack that began the war. They were joined by the old battleship Rotislav, escorted by two torpedo boats, for the attack on the strong Turkish position west of the Archave River that began on 5 February. The Rotislav and Kubanetz pounded the Turkish positions for three and a half hours and returned the following day to continue the barrage, which forced the Turks to abandon their position. The Turks fell back to new positions at Vice, which the Russians reached on the 8th." ((4), more)
". . . the mysterious happenings which recently led to the dismissal of the Minister of the Interior, Alexis Khvostov : they throw a melancholy light on the inner workings of the regime.When Alexis Khvostov received the portfolio of the Interior last October, his appointment was not only suggested to the Emperor but actually forced on him by Rasputin and Madame Vyrubova. . . .But before long there was a personal feud between the new minister and his assistant, the crafty Director of the Police Department, Bieletzky. . . . Khvostov thus gradually found himself at loggerheads with the whole gang which had raised him to power. . . .[The monk Heliodorus] had written a book full of scandalous revelations about his relations with the Court and Grishka [Rasputin]. . . .[Khvostov sent] one of his personal agents, Boris Rievsky, a doubtful journalist who had already served several sentences. While the latter was endeavouring to reach Norway through Finland, his wife, left behind in Petrograd and awaiting her revenge for his ill-treatment, denounced the whole plot to Rasputin, who immediately called in the help of his friend, Bieletzky. . . .[Detained at the Finnish border,] Rievsky confessed that he had been commissioned by Khvostov to arrange the murder of Rasputin with Helidorus. . . . Next morning Khvostov was no longer a minister." ((5), more)
(1) First and last paragraphs of the entry for February 5, 1916 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia. To the Extent Russia had a bicameral legislature, the Russian Council of the Empire was the upper, and appointed, house, the Duma the lower. Empress Alexandra wrote frequently to her husband Tsar Nicholas II urging him to replace key political and military figures. The appointments originated from her counselor Rasputin. A camarilla is a clique, the persons who, in an unofficial capacity, influence someone of greater authority.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 166, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(2) Extract from the entry for February 6, 1916 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers. Dunn was in the line at Annequin, France, west of La Bassée. The Germans had connected two craters by blowing a mine between them, creating a third, larger crater that connected the other two. From this position, they dominated the British nearby. The British took the craters on February 5, extended their sap or communication trench, and improved the new position. 'Radford' was Captain N.H. Radford.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, pp. 180, 181, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) Excerpt from the entry for February 7, 1916, from the war diary of Albert, King of the Belgians, the 'I' in the second paragraph, who met that day with Lord Curzon and Britain's Commander in Chief of its forces in France (and Belgium) General Douglas Haig. At the December, 1915 Second Chantilly Conference representatives from France, Great Britain, Russia, Serbia, and Italy had attempted to shape a common Entente Ally strategy. French Commander in Chief Joseph Joffre presided over the conference. As Lord Privy of the Seal, Curzon was a cabinet member without portfolio.
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, page 87, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
(4) The Turkish Sanjak of Lazistan was on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea; its eastern edge bordered Russia. The Russian fleet was working its way westward along the coast. Turkey had entered the war on October 29, 1914, shelling Russian Black Sea ports and sinking Russian ships.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 239, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(5) Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, in the entry for February 9, 1916 from his memoirs, recounts the rise and fall of Minister of the Interior Alexis Khvostov. Unmentioned in Paléologue's account is the Tsaritsa, Empress Alexandra, wife of Tsar Nicholas, a German by birth, who was suspected of German sympathies if not treachery. Madame Anna Vyrubova was her intimate friend. Rasputin recommended officials and officers for advancement, both directly to the Empress and through Vyrubova. The Empress in turn pressed these recommendations on her husband, following up in her correspondence if her the Tsar did not act expeditiously enough on the advice of 'our friend.' Nicholas and his wife isolated themselves from the public and from life in the capital. After assuming command of the Army in the summer of 1915 in the wake of Russia's Great Retreat, Nicholas became increasingly autocrat, a position again encouraged by his wife. The plots against Rasputin struck at the heart of the royal family.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, pp. 169-171, publisher: George H. Doran Company
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