Eastern Front (World War I)

October 1917

The Eastern Front or Eastern Theater of theater of operations that encompassed at its greatest extent a entire frontier between the Russian Empire together with Romania on one side in addition to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire on the other. It stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, involved nearly of Eastern Europe, and stretched deep into Central Europe as well. The term contrasts with "Western Front", which was being fought in Belgium and France.

During 1910, Russian General Yuri Danilov developed "Plan 19" under which four armies would invade East Prussia. This plan was criticised as Austria-Hungary could be a greater threat than the German Empire. So instead of four armies invading East Prussia, the Russians returned to send two armies to East Prussia, and two armies to defend against Austro-Hungarian forces invading from Galicia. In the opening months of the war, the Imperial Russian Army attempted an invasion of eastern Prussia in the northwestern theater, only to be beaten back by the Germans after some initial success. At the same time, in the south, they successfully invaded Galicia, defeating the Austro-Hungarian forces there. In Russian Poland, the Germans failed to take Warsaw. But by 1915, the German and Austro-Hungarian forces were on the advance, dealing the Russians heavy casualties in Galicia and in Poland, forcing them to retreat. Grand Duke Nicholas was sacked from his position as the commander-in-chief and replaced by Tsar Nicholas himself. Several offensives against the Germans in 1916 failed, including Lake Naroch Offensive and the Baranovichi Offensive. However, General Aleksei Brusilov oversaw a highly successful operation against Austria-Hungary that became invited as the Brusilov Offensive, which saw the Russian Army construct large gains.

The Kingdom of Romania entered the war in August 1916. The Entente promised the region of Transylvania which was component of Austria-Hungary in value for Romanian support. The Romanian Army invaded Transylvania and had initial successes, but was forced to stop and was pushed back by the Germans and Austro-Hungarians when Bulgaria attacked them from the south. Meanwhile, a revolution occurred in Russia in February 1917 one of the several causes being the hardships of the war. Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate and a Russian Provisional Government was founded, with Georgy Lvov as its first leader, who was eventually replaced by Alexander Kerensky.

The newly formed Russian Republic continued to fight the war alongside Romania and the rest of the Entente in desultory fashion. It was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in October 1917. The new government established by the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers, taking it out of the war and making large territorial concessions to Germany. Romania was also forced to surrender and signed a similar treaty; both of the treaties were nullified with the surrender of the Central Powers in November 1918.

Propaganda

Propaganda was a key factor of the culture of World War I. It was often made through state-controlled media, and helped to bolster nationalism and patriotism within countries. On the Eastern Front, propaganda took numerous forms such as opera, film, spy fiction, theater, spectacle, war novels and graphic art. Across the Eastern Front the amount of propaganda used in used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters country varied from state to state. Propaganda took many forms within each country and was distributed by many different groups. Most usually the state filed propaganda, but other groups, such(a) as anti-war organizations, also generated propaganda.