The tsar was looking out for Russia by committing them for a course of war as it had potential to benefit them. Russia Empire was vast and they would not want to expand much more but to keep its borders strengthened. With the Germans growing in power in the west their eyes would have been set on spreading their land towards the east into Russian lands. With this in mind the Russians had began negations with France which stated if one of them was attacked the other would come to the aid. This was known as the “triple entante” France would have agreed, for it would have feared for its own safety from the German threat. By agreeing to this treaty Russia is also keeping its friendship with Europe strong as it would need them to trade with also if it let Germany take on France alone France would lose. This would seem a good idea as they would lose no men and could let Europe sort it out but sooner or later Germany’s eyes would turn onto Russian held lands. This was Russia’s best chance to crush Germany before it grew strong enough to take on Russia.
Germany had also been thinking of these problems that it could end up with a war on two fronts so it had made an alliance of its own called the “triple alliance” this had Germany, Italy and Austria. Austria was looking to expand its own borders as countries were breaking away from the failing Turkish Empire one of these was Serbia. Serbia was important to the Russians as it was Russia’s only way into the European sea via the “phoseprus”. The Russians didn’t use this as there excuse when they came to the aid of Serbia when Austria attacked. Russia said it was the mother land and protected the Slavs. Austria attacked Serbia using the death of Arch Duke Ferdinand as its reason to blaming it on Serbian terrorists. If Russia had let this happen and not intervene Serbia would have been crushed and its way into the European seas along with it. She then mobilised her forces towards Austria and Germany.
Russia had only thought up to battle plans for the war each of these so detailed once the wheels had been set in motion then they couldn’t be stopped. One of these was the mobilisation of her forces all out against Austria sending men to the aid of Serbia and keeping its entrance to the sea open. The other was to split its forces and go after both Austria and Germany. The alliances were well known around the world and Russia was aware that Germany may go to the aid of Austria therefore would be forced to attack them. The Russian military decided to split her forces and go after Germany and Austria. Some could say this sparked of the chain of events that brought Germany, France and Britain into the war. The Germans then seeing Russian troops coming into their land declared war on Russia. France then came to its ally’s aid by declaring war on Germany.
Russia had been in a war with Japan just 9 years ago and had suffered a terrible defeat and was in need of a victory. The Russians had a past of military wins and would think that they could win this. There was wide spread belief that the war would be over in a short space of time. The war sent a wave of patriotism across the country which saved the tsar from a lot of the problems that was going on in his country as peoples attention turned towards the war and away from the problems back home. The Russian economy was not prepared for a long term war though and soon the realisation of the war came in and supplies were unable to get to the front of be produced quickly. In the past a war has boosted a country’s economy by making industries make large produce as the government will by it of them. New ideas start to come about and new inventions are designed. All across Europe countries had been going through an industrial revolution that had been happening naturally. Russia had tried to forces its country to have one and it wasn’t working as they drafted in peasants from the country side and output went down by 50%. This is because the peasants didn’t have any real training for use of the machines. This also caused agriculture produce to go down and this was Russians primary export.
Russia merchant fleet was terrible and that is putting it in a nice term. Russian merchant fleet combined with Finland’s accounted for 5% of the world’s tonnage. Half of this was sail powered and therefore was at the mercy of the elements and would been seen as a joke by any enemies ships who could ram through the ship to save ammo. Russia was trading with other countries at the time but wasn’t exploiting its huge resources it had in the east and was importing lots of resources it had. This could be accounted down to the fact that there wasn’t an efficient transport system to get goods from east to west.
The transport system problem also would leave troops stuck at one station which had multiple entrances but only one exit. This would mean that men and supplies wouldn’t be able to get to the front line in time. Men could get there but not have enough supplies to survive. This is the story of 1 rifle between 3 men came about. Russian troops had a wave of patriotism about them that would have made them good fighting men due to the fact they are willing to die for the country. The generals were unable to or did not take advantage of this fact.
The generals themselves were behind in idea of warfare and most of them were put into the job because of their social status. There were not enough generals who had risen through the ranks and knew how to fight and win a war.
Baring all of these factors in mind you could say the idea behind going to war was a good one. There were many points to be gained and could be seen as a wise move for the future. Although the lack of a good transport system, merchant navy and industrial system. The country wasn’t ready for the vastness of the task ahead.
