Editing History of Russia (section)

=== World War I ===
{{Main|Russian entry into World War I|Russia in the First World War}}
[[File:Les troupes russe défilant devant Gouraud, Mailly oct 1916.JPG|thumb|[[Russian Expeditionary Force in France]], October 1916]]

On 28 June 1914, Bosnian Serbs [[Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand|assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austro-Hungary.]] Austro-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia, which it considered a Russian client-state. Russia had no treaty obligation to Serbia, and most Russian leaders wanted to avoid war. But in that crisis they had the support of France, and believed that supporting Serbia was important for Russia's credibility and for its goal of a leadership role in the Balkans.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Levy | first1 = Jack S. | last2 = Mulligan | first2 = William | year = 2017 | title = Shifting power, preventive logic, and the response of the target: Germany, Russia, and the First World War | journal = Journal of Strategic Studies | volume = 40 | issue = 5| pages = 731–769 | doi = 10.1080/01402390.2016.1242421 | s2cid = 157837365 }}</ref> Tsar Nicholas II mobilised Russian forces on 30 July 1914 to defend Serbia. [[Christopher Clark]] states: "The Russian general mobilisation [of 30 July] was one of the most momentous decisions of the [[July crisis]]".<ref>Clark, Christopher (2013). The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914. HarperCollins. {{ISBN|978-0-06-219922-5}}. p. 509.</ref> Germany responded with its own mobilisation and declaration of War on 1 August 1914. At the opening of hostilities, the Russians took the offensive against both Germany and [[Austria-Hungary]].<ref>W. Bruce Lincoln, ''Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians in War and Revolution, 1914–1918'' (1986)</ref>

The very large but poorly led and under-equipped Russian army fought tenaciously. Casualties were enormous. In the 1914 campaign, Russian forces defeated Austro-Hungarian forces in the [[Battle of Galicia]]. The success of the Russian army forced the German army to withdraw troops from the western front to the Russian front. However, victories in Poland by the Central Powers in the 1915 campaign, led to a major retreat of the Russian army. In 1916, the Russians again dealt a powerful blow to the Austrians during the [[Brusilov offensive]].

By 1915, morale was worsening.<ref>Allan K. Wildman, ''The End of the Russian Imperial Army'' (Princeton University Press, 1980) pp 76–125.</ref> Many recruits were sent to the front unarmed. Nevertheless, the Russian army fought on, and tied down large numbers of Germans and Austrians. When the homefront showed an occasional surge of patriotism, the tsar and his entourage failed to exploit it for military benefit. The Russian army neglected to rally the ethnic and religious minorities that were hostile to Austria, such as Poles. The tsar refused to cooperate with the national legislature, the Duma, and listened less to experts than to his wife, who was in thrall to her chief advisor, the holy man [[Grigori Rasputin]].<ref>Nicholas Riasanovsky, ''A History of Russia'' (4th ed. 1984) pp. 418-20</ref> More than two million refugees fled.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/refugees_russian_empire | title=Refugees (Russian Empire) &#124; International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1) | access-date=18 April 2017 | archive-date=19 April 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170419101232/http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/refugees_russian_empire | url-status=live }}</ref>
Repeated military failures and bureaucratic ineptitude soon turned large segments of the population against the government.<ref name=CurtisAut/> The German and Ottoman fleets prevented Russia from importing urgently needed supplies through the Baltic and Black seas.<ref name=CurtisAut/> By mid-1915 the impact of the war was demoralizing. Food and fuel were in short supply, casualties kept occurring, and inflation was mounting. Strikes increased among factory workers, and the peasants, who wanted land reforms, were restless.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Charques|title=The Twilight of Imperial Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PbUYPD6AY6wC&pg=PA232|year=1974|publisher=Oxford U.P.|page=232|isbn=9780195345872|access-date=25 October 2015|archive-date=22 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122071934/https://books.google.com/books?id=PbUYPD6AY6wC&pg=PA232|url-status=live}}</ref> Meanwhile, elite distrust of the regime was deepened by reports that Rasputin was gaining influence; his assassination in late 1916 ended the scandal but did not restore the autocracy's prestige.<ref name=CurtisAut/>