The Russian Origins of the First World War

345 Pages·2011·1.7 MB·English

by  Sean McMeekin

The Russian Origins of
the First World War

The Russian Origins of
the First World War
Sean McMeekin
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts • London, Eng land
2011
Copyright © 2011 by Sean McMeekin
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
McMeekin, Sean, 1974–
The Russian origins of the First World War / Sean McMeekin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-06210-8 (alk. paper)
1. World War, 1914–1918—Causes. 2. World War, 1914–1918—Russia.
3. Russia—Foreign relations—1894–1917. 4. Imperialism—History—
20th century. 5. World War, 1914–1918—Campaigns—Eastern Front.
6. World War, 1914–1918—Campaigns—Middle East. I. Title.
D514.M35 2011
940.3'11—dc23 2011031427
For Ayla

Contents
Abbreviations ix
Author’s Note xi
Introduction: History from the Deep Freeze 1
1. The Strategic Imperative in 1914 6
2. It Takes Two to Tango: The July Crisis 41
3. Russia’s War: The Opening Round 76
4. Turkey’s Turn 98
5. The Russians and Gallipoli 115
6. Russia and the Armenians 141
7. The Russians in Persia 175
8. Partitioning the Ottoman Empire 194
9. 1917: The Tsarist Empire at Its Zenith 214
Conclusion: The October Revolution and
Historical Amnesia 234
Notes 245
Bibliography 289
Acknowledgments 303
Index 307
Maps
The Russian Empire on the Eve of World War I 8
The Polish Salient 18
The Peacetime Deployment of Russia’s Army
Corps 20
The Initial Mobilization Pattern on the Eastern
Front 83
Russian Claims on Austrian and German
Territory 91
“The Straits,” and Russian Claims on Them 132
Russia and the Armenians 167
Persia and the Caucasian Front 187
The Partition of the Ottoman Empire 206
The Eastern Front 219
Abbreviations
ATASE Askeri Tarih ve Stratejik Etüt Başkanlığı Arşivi (Archive of the Turkish Gen-
eral Staff). Ankara, Turkey.
AVPRI Arkhiv vneshnei politiki Rossiiskoi Imperii (Archive of the Foreign Policy of
the Russian Empire). Moscow, Russia.
BD British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914. 13 vols.
BOA Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (Ottoman Government Archives). Sultanah-
met, Istanbul, Turkey.
DDF Documents diplomatiques français (French Diplomatic Documents). Third
Series (1911–14). 41 vols.
GARF Gosudarstvenny Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (Government Archive of the
Russian Federation). Moscow, Russia.
HHSA Haus- , Hof, und Staatsarchiv (Diplomatic Archives of the Habsburg Em-
pire, [Austria- Hungary]). Vienna, Austria.
HS “Hoover Stavka.” Collection “Russia Shtab Verkhovnogo Glavno Koman-
duiushchego” (Stavka, or Russian Military Headquarters), Hoover Institu-
tion Archives, Stanford, California, United States.
IBZI Internationale Beziehungen im Zeitalter des Imperialismus. Dokumente Aus
den Archiven der Zarischen und der Provorischen Regierung (International
Relations in the Age of Imperialism. Documents from the Archives of the
Tsarist and Provisional [Russian] regimes). 8 vols+.
KA Krasnyi Arkhiv (The Red Archive). Secret Documents from the Tsarist Ar-
chives, especially the running “diary” of the Imperial Russian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. 106 vols.
ix