The Guns Of August

Despite the recent failures of the Russian army, England and France still see her as a steam roller. She can put more men in the field than either country, and once she gets going, they believe, she will roll over everything in her path. The problem with this belief is that the Russian military, while improving since the 1905 war with Japan, is still far from favorable. Her ministers are corrupt or lazy. Her factories cannot make enough bullets or artillery.

Mostly though, corruption keeps her from being ready. General Sukhomlinov, Russia’s Minister of War, proudly proclaims he has not read a book on military strategy in twenty-five years. Like other Russian military officials, he revels in past glory and does not look to the future. He believes in the bayonet over the bullet.

Later, during the Bolshevik Revolution, Sukhomlinov will be arrested and tried as a representative of the old regime. The revolution, begun because of government inefficiency, grafting, and overall laziness, will hold men like Sukhomlinov accountable for the revolution itself. Actors like the Minister of War, then, bring about not only a weakened Eastern Front and slower Russian mobilization, but also the eventual overthrow of the Russian government toward the end of WWI, which ends Russian help for France and England.