But the outcome at the end of the first calendar year of the war suggests that here too there will be no easy or quick victory. There will be more movement in the east, on the open plains between Germany and Russia. By this time the western front is already paralyzed in the stalemate of trench warfare. At the end of 1914 much of Galicia is still in their hands. The Russian general, Aleksandr Vasiliyevich Samsonov, shoots himself.įurther south the Russians have slightly more lasting success in their invasion of Austria-Hungary. About half the Russian army is destroyed, including the capture of 92,000 men. The result is that a much smaller German force is able to effect a devastating pincer movement during August 26-8 to encircle the Russians at Tannenberg (the site also of a famous medieval battle).
And Russian commanders incautiously send each other uncoded radio messages which are intercepted by the Germans. The large Russian army in east Prussia is ill-fed and exhausted. Disaster strikes before the end of the month. But events soon suggest that Russia has entered the field unprepared. This move has the desired short-term effect, causing the Germans to withdraw four divisions from Belgium for the eastern front. As a result early gains are made, with Russian armies advancing into east Prussia and into Galicia (the northeast corner of Austria-Hungary). Russia mobilizes rapidly in August 1914, in an attempt to relieve the German pressure on France.
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