It’s Christmas and most of the fronts have gone quiet as winter has set in.
Not all of them, though, and there are still actions both major and minor throughout Europe,
but a major political bombshell is dropped this week in Russia, as Rasputin is assassinated.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week the Battle of Verdun, raging since February, came to an end.
In Romania, the Central Powers were gearing up to attack the Russo-Romanian forces once
again.
The British captured El Amish, an important supply point, on the Palestine Front, the
Germans took Russian positions near Kovel, and the turmoil in Greece continued, with
the Allies demanding control of the post, the telegraph, and the railways.
Both Verdun and the Somme were over.
The Western Front was quiet.
Here’s what went on during quiet: let’s look at December 28th.
Between the Aisne and Oise rivers near Quennevieres, French artillery pounded German positions
during the day.
The Germans were forced to evacuate their trenches.
On the left bank of the Meuse, the Germans bombed the French positions between the Meuse
and Avocourt all day long.
The Germans also made several grenade attacks in this sector, but they were unsuccessful.
That night British troops made a successful raid against German trenches east of Le Sars.
Also that night the Germans attacked NW of Verdun on a three-kilometer front between
Hill 304 and Dead Man’s Hill.
French machine guns and infantry stopped the Germans but the accounts from Berlin say that
they penetrated to the 2nd and 3rd French lines, taking 222 prisoners, 4 of them officers,
and seven machine guns.
Berlin also says the French were unable to retake the trenches.
“The closing days of the year were not marked by any important military operations on either
side.
Though no great attacks were attempted, the old business of trench warfare being resumed,
the opposing forces continued to harass and destroy each other at every opportunity...
This period of “peace” was really one of ceaseless activity...
To prevent the building of defenses, or smash them when built, to concentrate gunfire on
communication trenches so as to render them impassable, to destroy reliefs coming in or
going out, to carry death to the foe in ditches and dugouts - in short to injure him in any
way that human ingenuity and military science could devise- such were the tactics employed
by belligerents during the days and nights when in official language there was “nothing
to report”.”
There was much to report on another German front, though, in Romania.
General Erich von Falkenhayn’s men attacked the Russians at Rimnicu Sarat, but to his
surprise, they did not retreat.
Instead they offered spirited defense and the attack bogged down.
Also, on Falkenhayn’s right, the Danube Army under s August von Mackensen did not
advance, so the Russians could take units from opposite them and throw them at Falkenhayn.
Falkenhayn, of course, asked Mackensen to please attack, but he refused, thinking that
if he did so he’d expose his own flank to the enemy.
Finally, on the 24th, the Germans broke the Russian trenches on the far west flank, and
there was a lot of hand-to-hand bayonet fighting, but still, after two days of battle with not
much to show for it, Falkenhayn thought he’d lost the battle.
The night of the 24th he sent his reserves in, and on Christmas Day Mackensen finally
began to move, though he didn’t make much headway because his artillery hadn’t damaged
the enemy trenches.
On the 26th, the reserves stormed the Russian lines at 1 PM, and took the second and third
trench lines.
On the afternoon of the 27th, the German reserves entered Ramnicu Sarat and the Russians retreated
along the whole line.
Over the six day battle the Germans took 10,000 Russian prisoners and 58 machine guns.
And speaking of Russians, there was big news in Russia itself this week.
Now, there were enormous political machinations in Russia in 1916.
Boris Stürmer had been Prime Minister for much of it.
Here’s what the Story of the Great War has to say about him, “Stürmer, where his predecessors
had been merely incompetent, now set about consciously to make a separate peace with
Germany, and this object he hardly took the trouble to hide.
Through censorship he suppressed the loyal press and encouraged a number of papers which
openly denounced Russia’s allies and demanded a separate peace with the Kaiser... so openly
that it was known all over Russia, even among the peasants, that a separate peace was being
prepared.”
Stürmer suppressed democratic organizations, had Sergei Sazanov - who admired the British
and French - removed as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and personally replaced him.
Yep, he held both offices simultaneously.
He was ALSO the Minister of the Interior.
During his tenure there he was responsible for food shortages in the cities.
He even encouraged a group of financiers to take control of food supplies, thereby making
a huge profit himself at the expense of his people.
And now we introduce Alexander Protopopov, who became Stürmer’s Minister of the Interior
in September.
Protopopov and Rasputin were tight, as were Stürmer and Rasputin, and it was Rasputin’s
influence at court that got Protopopov his position.
Rasputin by this time had enormous power over the court of the Tsar and Tsarina, and we’re
kind of re-introducing Protopopov since we mentioned him last month as having been in
Stockholm informally meeting with Germans to talk about a separate peace.
(story) “Of a deep significance... was the appointment of Alexander D. Protopopov as
Minister of the Interior.
This was the man who was finally to kick aside the last wedge shoring up the tottering walls
of the Russian autocracy...
It was undoubtedly he who conceived the idea of staging a revolution in Russia, of creating
or precipitating a premature uprising, as had been done in 1905, but for a different
purpose.”
The purpose was to create such internal disorder in Russia that the government would have a
pretext for making a separate peace with Germany.
You could use the revolutionaries to cause the disorder, make the peace while everyone
was occupied with the uprising, then bring home the troops and easily put down the revolution
with the millions of trained soldiers you’d just brought home.
Simple, right?
So placards began appearing in factories calling for demonstrations and strikes.
Actual police agents went undercover into industrial plants and preached revolution.
Protopopov was deliberately breaking the machinery of a nation to facilitate a Russian defeat.
The Duma, which hadn’t met since February, opened November 14th, and it was the last
hope of the people.
Stürmer was sacked after it was proved that he had received bribes from food speculators,
for his policies of “stupidity or treason”, and though Alexander Trepov became the new
Prime Minister, in actuality it was now a battle between the Duma and the Russian people
on one side, and Protopopov on the other.
But his forces included Rasputin, the Tsarina, and- unconsciously- the Tsar.
“Protopopov now began persecuting the members and leaders of the social forces... he endeavored
to have Paul Milukov (leader of the Constitutional Democrats) assassinated but the assassin revealed
the plot... he gathered together former members of the Black Hundreds and recruited them into
the police force and trained them in machine gun practice.
And finally he renewed the energy with which he had begun to organize revolutionary disorders
among the workers.”
But this week a spanner was thrown into Protopopov’s works.
On the evening hours of December 30th- yes, one day in the future, but some sources say
it was the 29th.
Anyhow, a group of men drove up to Prince Felix Yusupov’s house.
Among them were Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch and former Interior Minister Alexei Khvostov.
They entered the house.
A policeman nearby heard shots fired but didn’t dare to pursue inquiries because of the rank
of the house’s owner.
The next day a hole was found in the ice of the Neva River.
Further search revealed the body of Rasputin.
Now, there are a lot more details about this killing and we’ll cover them in a special
bio episode about Rasputin.
Anyhow, the Tsarina was hysterical and Protopopov fainted when he heard the news.
Rasputin was buried with pomp usually reserved for the royal family, with both the Tsar and
Protopopov as pallbearers.
The people of Russia treated this as if it were a great military victory and celebrated.
The details of the assassination were printed in the papers, including the names of the
men involved, and they went unprosecuted, mostly because of rank, but still.
And that’s where we stand as the week comes to an end.
Russians retreating in Romania, day to day actions continuing unabated on the Western
Front, the British capturing Magdhaba in the Sinai, defeating a Turkish force of 3,000,
and on December 27th, Joseph Joffre, whose calm and sangfroid had very much saved France
in the early days of the war, was “promoted” to Marshal of France and shuffled out of the
way to relative obscurity.
And it was Christmas.
But of course there would be no Christmas truce this year.
Not on any of the fronts.
And Rasputin was assassinated.
And this was a blow to Protopopov and the conspiracy to intentionally destabilize Russia
from within in order to betray its allies and make peace with Germany.
Rasputin had wielded great power.
Would the separate peace conspiracy die with Rasputin?
We shall see in 1917.
If you want to watch our christmas special from last year, you can check out the story
of the SMS Emden right here.
Our Patreon supporter of the week is Diego Bianco.
Help us on Patreon or visit our amazon store to spend all that christmas money you got
from aunt Ruth.
See you next year.