Innovation and Learning in the Russian Army, 1913-1915

Unlike the Western front, which was locked down in a trench stalemate by December 1914, the Eastern front saw manoeuvre warfare for longer. It was not until autumn 1915, after the devastating Austro-German offensive at Gorlice-Tarnovo and a thousand-kilometre retreat of the Russian army, that the Eastern front stabilised and began to resemble France and Flanders.

Thus, in the first year of the war the Russian Army was fighting the war that it was preparing for in years preceding August 1914.

This presentation explores in detail how the Russian army fought in 1914-1915, what it has learned and how adapted to the trench warfare in autumn 1915. It argues that the decentralised command system adopted by the Russian Army at the outbreak of the war and the lack of initiative on behalf of the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich’s Headquarters made enforcing any uniform warfare guidance in the Russian army difficult and eventually hampered a quick adaptation to the trench warfare in 1915.