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Issues of 2008
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Railroads of world war i
For obvious reasons in the early XXth century the majority of Russian regiments were located closely to the western frontier of the Empire. However, the government could not leave the Far East region unprotected; it was clear that distant areas of the country needed to be connected with the center by a network of transportation routes. The French Republic was greatly interested in rapid development of Russian railroads as well. By the time, relations between both countries were extremely warm due to complicated political situation in Europe and the threat of a global war. The Franco-Russian Alliance, or Dual Alliance was a military alliance between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire that ran from 1892 to 1917. Article 7 of the treaty required all its terms to be kept secret, and so it is also sometimes called The Secret Treaty of 1892.
The alliance ended the diplomatic isolation of France and undermined the supremacy of the German Empire in Europe. The 1882 Triple Alliance of Imperial Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy had left Russia vulnerable, while France had been diplomatically isolated since its defeat in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War and the subsequent policies of Otto von Bismarck. Despite the political differences between France, a republic and Russia, an absolute monarchy, relations between the two countries rapidly improved. The Russian Empire started preparing for the war long before 1914. Because of colossal length of the state frontiers and quickly rising strategic importance of the opposite edges of the vast empire — the eastern and the western ones, separated from each other by eleven thousand kilometers, the government faced the crucial problem of developing the national railroad system. From 1888, Russia was provided with cheap loans floated on the Paris Bourse, essential to rebuild the technologically deficient Russian military and construct a network of railroads. The alliance was to remain in place as long as the Triple Alliance existed. In case the forces of the Triple Alliance, or of one of the powers which are a party to it, should be mobilized, France and Russia, at the first indication of the event, and without a previous agreement being necessary, shall mobilize all their forces immediately and simultaneously, and shall transport them as near to their frontiers as possible. Thus, Germany will have to fight at the same time in the east and in the west. General de Boisdeffre and Alexander III agreed that «Mobilization is War». Both countries clearly understood the importance of the strategic objective — construction of railroad system. The railway system in Western Russia was divided in two unequal parts: the network of field railroads was managed by the Head of Military Transportation at the Supreme Commander-in-chief, while the main system of railroads was supervised by the Ministry of Railways (however, when carrying out transportation of troops, the Ministry had to follow the orders of the Department of Military Transportation of the General Staff). The boundary between two railway systems passed through the following stations: St. Petersburg, Bologoe, Velikie Liuki, Smolensk, Gomel, Kiev, Tcherkassy, Sinelnikovo and Alexandrovsk. The construction of one of the major field control railroads — Bologoe–Sedletsk — was started in 1902. It was a typical strategic railway with a very low commercial traffic. Notably, the French government specified the direction of that important double-track railroad. The railway was launched in April 1906. The Bologoe–Sedletsk railway was designed as a backbone railroad in the region. The railway had one track up to Velikie Liuki station, while the second parallel track was build from Velikie Liuki and to Sedletsk station. Construction works at the Moscow–Vindava and Novosokolniki–Vitebsk railways were finished two years earlier, in 1904. The Northern railway (St. Peterburg–Vyatka railway) linked to Nikolaevsky railroad at Obukhovo station. However, there were no major railroads in the Western part of the Russian Empire that served strategic purposes exclusively (as it is known, strategic railroads with high working capacity are characterized by extremely low commercial traffic in peacetime). St. Peterburg–Vyatka and Syzran–Vyasemskaya railways were the only railroads serving military purposes, as they were oriented on carrying troops and supplies from Siberia. The first of the mentioned railways was built to ease movement through the Syzran–Tchelyabinsk railway and open the second backbone railroad to Siberia.
The French General Staff insisted on constructing the second track along the Syzran–Vyasemsk railway. Moreover, the French government also required construction of sufficient number of new railroads. According to the French project, introduced in 1913, a major arterial railway would connect Ryazan, Tula, Baranovichi, Bobruisk, Tchermkha and Warsaw. That railway leading up to the Visla River would essentially strengthen Russian positions in the Western part of the country. The second line (Orel–St. Petersburg, 785 kilometers long), the project of the Department of Transport) was intended to take the burden of transporting fuel (gas and oil) from the Southeastern regions of the Russian Empire. The Department of military transportation also intended to build a line from Orel and up to Bologoe–Sedletsk crossing (that line was less important, though). However, construction works at the latter two railways were not completed as the war broke out much earlier than Russian and French strategists had expected. On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Yugoslav student, killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo. Princip was a member of Young Bosnia, a group whose aims included the unification of the South Slavs and independence from Austria-Hungary. The assassination in Sarajevo set into motion a series of fast-moving events that escalated into a full-scale war. Austria-Hungary demanded action by Serbia to punish those responsible, and when Austria-Hungary deemed Serbia had not complied, they declared war. Major European powers were at war within a matter of weeks because of overlapping agreements for collective defense and the complex nature of international alliances. Though the assassination was the event that started the war, it was the last in a long succession of complex causes and events that pitted the nations of Europe against each other. Closely related is the thesis adopted by many political scientists that the mobilization plans of Germany, France and Russia automatically escalated the conflict. Fritz Fischer emphasized the inherently aggressive nature of the Schlieffen Plan, which outlined a two-front strategy. Fighting on two fronts meant Germany had to eliminate one opponent quickly, before taking on the other. It called for a strong right flank attack, to seize Belgium and cripple the French army by pre¬empting its mobilization. After the attack, the German army would rush east by railroad and quickly destroy the slowly mobilizing Russian forces. France’s Plan XVII, envisioned a quick thrust into Germany’s industrial heartland, the Ruhr Valley. This would cripple Germany’s ability to wage war. Russia’s Plan XIX, foresaw a mobilization of its armies against both Austria-Hungary and Germany. All three blueprints created an atmosphere where speed was of the determining factors for victory. Elaborate timetables were prepared. Once mobilization had begun, there was little possibility of turning back. Diplomatic delays and poor communications exacerbated the problems. In addition, the plans of France, Germany and Russia were all biased toward the offensive, in clear conflict with the improvements of defensive firepower and entrenchment. Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian government used the assassination as a pretext to deal with the Serbian question. Germany supported the action. On 23 July, an ultimatum was sent to Serbia with demands so extreme that it was rejected. The Serbians, relying on support from Russia, ordered mobilization. Austria-Hungary issued a declaration of war on 28 July. Initially, Russia ordered partial mobilization, directed at the Austrian frontier. On 31 July, after the Russian General Staff informed the Czar that partial mobilization was logistically impossible, a full mobilization was ordered. The Schlieffen Plan, which relied on a quick strike against France, could not afford to allow the Russians to mobilize without launching an attack. Thus, the Germans declared war against Russia on 1 August and on France two days later. Next, Germany violated Belgium’s neutrality by the German advance through it to Paris, and this brought the British Empire into the war. With this, five of the six European powers were now involved in the largest continental European conflict since the Napoleonic Wars. Soon after the beginning of war, it became clear that the French army failed to organize an adequate resistance and almost entirely depended on military efforts of the Russians. On July 30, a Russian military attachÊ in Paris informed the Imperial General Staff that German troops could enter the capital of France in few weeks. Thus, the Russian regiments had to arrive to the Eastern front as soon as possible, providing movement of German forces eastwards. General Zhilinsky, Commander-In-Chief of the Northwestern front and General Yanushkevich, the Head of the General Staff believed that that attempt to aid French allies in the East Prussia is destined to fail. Meanwhile, the French government insisted, and unprepared Russian troops invaded the eastern Germany. Thus, the advance on Paris was suspended at the cost of the army commanded by General Samsonov (twenty thousand men killed and ninety thousand captured). On August 30, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sazonov told the French ambassador Maurice PalÊologue that it was the duty of Russians to martyr themselves for the cause of the mutual victory of Entente. The further development of the Russian railway system started late summer 1915, when the front line was not precisely defined. Initially, the Russians planned to stop the enemy either at the Western Dvina River or further eastwards at Tchydskoe Lake (Lake Peipus), protecting the routes of approach to Petrograd. The government decided to build the Pskov–Narva railway in six months. The track, parallel to the front line, was screened by the Tchudskoe Lake, providing an easy access to both flanks of the defense position. Construction works started on September 15. As the site was close to the combat theater, it was impossible to use prisoners of war in construction works; thus, civilian employee personnel carried out the job (6,000 men and 1,500 wagons). There were no ready construction materials, instruments and food supplies at the place; the needed supplies were taken from distant areas to Pskov and Narva by trains and then to the construction sites by horse¬driven carts. That plan entailed great labour upon those who carried it out due to the early winter, severe frost and established deadline (January 1916). A quite deep and wide Pluissa River (over seven kilometers from Narva) created additional difficulties for the plate¬layers. The builders had to construct a temporary bridge on barges in order to provide regular train traffic. On September 17, 1915, the Ministry of Railroads ordered the management of Moscow–Vindav–Rybinsk railroad to start construction of Petrograd–Novgorod line. The arterial railway was meant to connect the capital of the Russian Empire with the city of Orel via Tsarskoe Selo, thus facilitating fuel supply to Petrograd. However, the headquarters of the front did not consider the Petrograd–Novgorod line very important and insisted on building Luga–Novgorod line providing connection with the right flank of Tchudskie defensive fortifications. In August 1915 General Ruzsky, the Commander-In-Chief of the Northern front required construction of a convenient railway connecting the front with Nikolaevskaya, Northern and Murmansk railroads. The shortest route was Zvanka–Tchudovo–Schimsk–Soltsy. The Russian government approved of the both lines; Luga–Novgorod line was driven in spring 1916, Petrograd–Novgorod and Orel–Petrograd started to be driven later that year as well. The cargos transported by the latter line included coal from Donbass, food supplies, wood, cotton, machinery and oil. It was believed that the line would decrease annual expenditures by 375,000–412,000 roubles. Through 1915–1917, the Russian Empire intended to build several more railroads of bigger or lesser importance. For instance: Ostrov–Polotsk, Novosokolniki–Ostrov, Valdai–Novgorod lines, etc. Many prominent Russian public figures, artists, bankers and writers called to support their Motherland with everything possible, and bravely resisted hardships of wartime. Gradually, the war and the government became more and more unpopular. Discontent led to a rise in popularity of the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin. He promised to pull Russia out of the war and was able to gain power. The triumph of the Bolsheviks in November was followed in December by an armistice and negotiations with Germany. At first, the Bolsheviks refused to agree to the harsh German terms. But when Germany resumed the war and marched with impunity across Ukraine, the new government acceded to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918. It took Russia out of the war and ceded vast territories, including Finland, the Baltic provinces, parts of Poland and Ukraine to the Central Powers. Thus, there was no need to construct new strategic railroads, as the country faced numerous problems in economics, social life and military sphere. However, ten years later construction of Orel–Petrograd railroad resumed. As the importance of Orel–Riga railroad lost its importance, the bulk of cargos moved to Leningrad. The Pavlovsk–Novolisino–Novgorod section of Peterburg–Orel railroad was launched in 1926. Alas, the whole line was not finished. Nowadays, remains of bridges, «Austrian» ammunition (as it is called by the local youths) can still be found in the neighborhood of Novolisino station.
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