“Along with the horrifying large number of Russian soldiers killed and wounded, this great retreat led to a massive number of refugees,” Hartnett notes. READ MORE: World War I Battles: Timeline Russians Retreatīy the spring of 1915, Russian troops had to retreat before a combined German-Austrian onslaught.

Their loss weakened the army so much, he notes, “that when push came to shove in 1917, the army was not a reliable defender of the monarchy.” Though peasant soldiers suffered the most casualties, “for regime stability, the most serious losses were among the officer corps,” Miner explains. “By the end of the year, the Russian empire had lost more than one million men.” Russia’s ammunitions were all but exhausted and the country’s infrastructure was not equipped to efficiently resupply troops. “Things didn’t Improve as the months dragged on,” Hartnett says. Some 30,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded, and nearly 100,000 were taken prisoner by the Germans. The war quickly turned into a disaster, with Russia suffering a brutal defeat at the Battle of Tannenberg just a few weeks into the war. L-R: Grand Duchess Anastasia, Grand Duchess Olga, Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarevich Alexei, Grand Duchess Tatiana, and Grand Duchess Maria, along with Kuban Cossacks. The Romanovs visiting a regiment during World War I, c.

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