Question by : What are some ways the Russian Empire was backwards and obsolete?
I want to know how much the people suffered, and why they were so ineffective in so many wars.
I also want to know of the Russian campaign in WWI. If I’m not mistaken they were completely at the feet of the Germans the whole time?
Answers and Views:
Answer by ▐▀▀▼▀▀▌ ►Fail?◄ ▐▄▄▲▄▄▌
In World War I they led an offensive into Germany with very bad commanders. German commanders Hindenburg and Ludendorff destroyed them in the Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of Masurian Lakes. In fact, General Alexander Samsonov (the Russian commander) commit suicide after he realized his uncoded messages were being listened to by Germans, allowing for Ludendorff and Hindenburg to set a trap up with those battles.
Russia was not an industrialized nation. The problem was that Russia was a gigantic nation filled with many other nationalities. Russian soldiers were ill equipped for the First World War.
Read all the answers in the comments.
Give your own answer to this question!
Dr. Noah Tawl says
The Russian monarchy failed to modernize the country. I was really a middle ages style system of feudalism and serfdom right into the 20th century. It never developed much of a middle class so it's economy stagnated. The abysmal performance of the officer corps during WWI that resulted in huge troop losses built support for the revolution that ultimately took Imperial Russia out of the war.