The Forgotten Front: The Eastern Theater of World War I, 1914 - 1915

403 Pages·2018·16.425 MB·English

by  Gerhard Paul Groß, Janice W Ancker

The Forgotten Front
Foreign Military Studies
History is replete with examples of notable military campaigns and
exceptional military leaders and theorists. Military professionals and
students of the art and science of war cannot afford to ignore these sources of
knowledge or limit their studies to the history of the US armed forces. This
series features original works, translations, and reprints of classics outside
the American canon that promote a deeper understanding of international
military theory and practice.
Series editor: Joseph Craig
An AUSA Book
The
Forgotten Front
The Eastern Theater
of World War I,
1914–1915
Edited by Gerhard P. Gross
Translated by Janice W. Ancker
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First English-language edition copyright © 2018 by The University Press of Kentucky
The present translation is based on the original German edition published in 2006
and represents the state of research at that time.
The University Press of Kentucky is scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern
Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky
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State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of
Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gross, Gerhard Paul, 1958- editor. | Ancker, Janice W., translator.
Title: The forgotten front : the Eastern Theater of World War I, 1914-1915 /
edited by Gerhard P. Gross ; translated by Janice W. Ancker.
Other titles: Vergessene Front—der Osten, 1914/15. English
Description: Lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, [2018] |
Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018012011| ISBN 0813175410 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN
0813175445 (online) | ISBN 0813175437 (pdf) | ISBN 0813175429 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: World War, 1914-1918—Campaigns—Eastern Front. | Collective
memory—Germany.
Classification: LCC D551 .V3813 2018 | DDC 940.4/22—dc23
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American
National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Member of the Association of University Presses
Contents
Foreword by Hans Ehlert vii
Translator’s Note ix
Introduction 1
1.The Eastern Front: Geopolitics, Geography, and Operations 11
Hew Strachan
Part 1. The Battles on the Eastern Front, 1914–1915
2.Introductory Remarks 29
Stig Förster
3.In the Shadow of the West: The German Conduct of War on the Eastern
Front up to the End of 1915 35
Gerhard P. Gross
4.Russia versus Germany: The Eastern Front of the First World War from
1914 to 1915 53
Boris Khavkin
5.Of Bastards and Brothers in Arms: Practical Constraints and Resentments
among the Central Powers in 1914–1915 75
Günther Kronenbitter
Part 2. The Battlefields of Concepts / Concepts of the Battlefields:
The Eastern Front of the First World War and Perceptions of the Enemy
6.Introductory Remarks 101
Jörg Baberowski
7.The Creation of an Identity for the Modern Polish Nation in the First
World War, 1914–1915 108
Piotr Szlanta
8.The Germans: Russian Perceptions of the Enemy 120
Hubertus F. Jahn
9.The Slavic Peoples: The Central Powers’ Self-Concept and Concept of the
Enemy 133
Peter Hoeres
10.All Quiet on the Eastern Front: German Literature and the Eastern Front
of the First World War 158
Eva Horn
11.August 1914: Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Russian Wartime Literature of
the Early Years of the War 173
Birgit Menzel
12.The Reality of War and the War Experience of Russian Soldiers on the
Russian Western Front, 1914–1915 192
Igor Narskij
13.The War in the East of 1914–1915 and the Experience of the German
Military 206
Hans-Erich Volkmann
14.From Ober Ost to Ostland? 245
Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius
Part 3. The Culture of Remembrance of the First World War
15.Introductory Remarks 265
Rainer Rother
16.War Exhibitions: Forms of Presentation of the World War for the
Homeland Front 269
Christine Beil
17.Suppressed Remembrances: On the History of the Moscow City Fraternal
Cemetery 287
Kristiane Janeke
18.The Unknown Soldier 305
Rainer Rother
19.The First World War on the Internet 325
Gundula Bavendamm
20.Prologue to the “War of Annihilation”? The Eastern Front of the First
World War and the Problem of Continuities 345
Rüdiger Bergien
List of Contributors 363
Index 365
Maps follow page 172
Foreword
Over a century after it began, the First World War, the first global conflict of
the past century, has once again captured public attention. In Germany, in con-
trast to France and Great Britain, where the “Great War” has been continually
present in political culture and historical research, interest in the First World
War has lingered in the background, overshadowed by the Second World War.
The academic debate over what has been called the seminal catastrophe of
the twentieth century was for a long time dominated by the casting of blame.
In the Fischer Controversy during the 1960s, the First World War was viewed
primarily from the perspective of revisionist political history. In the 1970s, it
was approached from the angle of structural and social history. In the 1990s,
a boom in German World War I research reflected the coming of age of a
younger generation of historians who were not directly affected by personal
experience of the war. Using multiple approaches and incorporating the per-
sonal and everyday recollections of participants, the history of mentalities, and
cultural history, new ground has been broken and a path has been forged out of
what historian Gerd Krumeich has called the “cul de sac of structural historical-
normative interpretations.”
The Military History Research Office (Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt,
MGFA) has contributed to the research debate in recent years with its own arti-
cles and by presenting new issues for research. On the occasion of the eightieth
anniversary of the outbreak of the war, an initial survey of the current status of
research was presented in Der Erste Weltkrieg: Wirkung, Wahrnehmung, Analyse
(The First World War: Effects, Perceptions, Analysis) on behalf of the MGFA, pub-
lished by Wolfgang Michalka in 1994. Another project, Kriegsende, 1918: Ereignis,
Wirkung, Nachwirkung (War’s End, 1918: The Event, Impact, and Aftereffects),
published on behalf of the MGFA by Jörg Duppler and Gerhard P. Gross in 1999,
analyzed the war’s end on the western front in 1918 in an approach that combined
cultural history, the history of mentalities, and the history of events. This was a
comparative study of the “era of world wars” incorporating both structural his-
tory and experiential history. A third study, Erster Weltkrieg–Zweiter Weltkrieg:
Ein Vergleich (First World War–Second World War: A Comparison), published
under the auspices of the MGFA by Bruno Thoss and Hans-Erich Volkmann in
vii
viii Foreword
2002, put this manner of research to the test, in a sense, in an effort to resolve
deficiencies in traditional analyses and develop a new approach to research. The
chapters in this present volume reflect these newer perspectives.
In the coming years the research interests of the MGFA will focus on the era
of world wars as a whole. In doing so, we will integrate the First World War to a
greater extent and in a way that will reach beyond the mere acknowledgment of
the war’s centennial in 2014. We have received encouragement on this path by
recent reviews of our research papers from a series of professional publications.
On the occasion of the ninetieth year after the outbreak of the war, the
German Historical Museum staged an exhibit called Der Weltkrieg, 1914–1918:
Ereignis und Erinnerung (The World War, 1914–1918: Event and Remem-
brance). The intensive and positive cooperation between the MGFA and the
German Historical Museum before the creation of the exhibit provided the
opportunity to combine military historical expertise with the capabilities of the
museum. The result was the genesis of this book, the Forty-Sixth International
Conference for Military History by the MGFA, Die vergessene Front—Der
Osten, 1914/15: Ereignis, Wirkung, Nachwirkung (The Forgotten Front—The
East, 1914–1915: The Event, Its Impact, and Aftereffects), which was held in
the portion of the German Historical Museum called the Zeughaus, an arse-
nal in former times. We wish to expressly thank the museum’s general director,
Professor Dr. Hans Ottomeyer, for his cooperation. The positive reception from
the public, the media, and the academic sphere helped to draw positive atten-
tion to the themes of the conference and exhibit.
I also wish to thank our professional colleagues from both home and abroad
who, as presenters and discussion participants, presented their research and
made it available for publication.
In the original German edition of this book, the editorial staff of the MGFA
supervised the publication project all the way to the setting of the print: Michael
Thomae was in charge of coordinating the articles, Rüdiger Bergien (Berlin) han-
dled the copyediting; Antje Lorenz was responsible for the layout, and Bernd Nogli
prepared the accompanying maps for the volume. Ulrike Lützelberger (Branden-
burg) prepared the index. She also handled the transliteration of locations and per-
sonal names from the Cyrillic alphabet. Our thanks to them for the commitment
they all demonstrated, and especially to Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel) Dr.
Gerhard P. Gross, who was not only responsible for the academic supervision of
the conference but edited the resulting volume as well. The book is a cooperative
effort introducing the new series Zeitalter der Weltkriege (Era of the World Wars),
which is published by the MGFA and the Ferdinand Schönigh publishing house in
Paderborn. I wish this volume a positive reception in the academic sphere.
Dr. Hans Ehlert
Colonel and Bureau Chief of the Military History Research Office
(Foreword to the German edition, 2006)
Translator’s Note
I wish to thank the Association of US Army (AUSA) Book Program for the
opportunity to translate this volume, which I believe offers valuable perspec-
tives and new avenues for further research. I specifically want to thank Roger
Cirillo, now retired from his post with AUSA, for his ability to find amazing
material for translations. Thanks also to Joseph Craig, the present director of
the book program at AUSA, for continuing the project.
Many experts were essential to this translation. My deepest thanks go to my
husband, COL (Ret.) Clinton J. Ancker III, for his expertise in military history
and military terminology. Thanks also to the very helpful research librarians at
the Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, and
to Russian linguists Associate Professor Benjamin Tromley at the University
of Puget Sound and LTC (Ret.) William Connor. Many thanks to the excellent
staff at the University Press of Kentucky and superb copyeditor Robin DuBlanc.
The issue of the capitalization of military organizations and military and politi-
cal titles is governed by The Chicago Manual of Style. Thus, the Great General
Staff of the German Forces is capitalized, but the general staffs of subordinating
organizations are not.
For the occasional foreign words and expressions that resist smooth trans-
lation into English, I have provided a brief explanation either in translator’s
notes or parentheses.
Janice W. Ancker
ix