Why did Russia perform so poorly in WW1?

File: Russian_soldiers_of_the_5th_Zemgale_Latvian_riflemen_regiment_in_the_Tirelis_swamp_winter_1916-1917_note_Arisaka_T38_rifles.jpg (456KB, 1280x859px) Image search: [Google]

456KB, 1280x859px

The Russian Army was poorly lead, usually poorly trained, and poorly motivated. The domestic Russian arms industry was a league below that of Germany and could not match it for production.

>>35041900

But Germany was under a blockade basically the entire war. Beating their production should have been quite easy.

>>35041900
>The Russian Army was poorly lead, usually poorly trained, and poorly motivated.
Not really
Poorly supplied? Yes.
>France ask for help
>Russia send soldiers
>France pls feed our soldiers for a while
>hon hon no u fucking poorfag quatre-vingt-dix-neuf

File: German_inventory_of_battlefield-recovered_weapons_on_the_Eastern_Front_WW1.jpg (262KB, 1200x799px) Image search: [Google]

262KB, 1200x799px

>>35041912
>Beating their production should have been quite easy.
Russia wasn't doing the blockading, Anon. You're really overestimate Russian industrialization at the time.You know why the Russians had to buy Mosins and Winchesters from America, and Arisakas from Japan? They were losing more rifles on the battlefield in a month than they could manufacture.

>>35041958

It doesn't matter who was doing the blockading. It still meant that Germany's manufacturing was crippled for most of the war. Russia should easily have been able to outdo them.

>>35041974
shut the fuck up

File: Russian_troops_take_cover_during_opening_battles_with_Austria-Hungary_August_1914.jpg (513KB, 1841x1227px) Image search: [Google]

513KB, 1841x1227px

>>35041974
>Russia should easily have been able to outdo them.
With what?

File: Самолет__Илья_Муромец_.jpg (56KB, 630x466px) Image search: [Google]

56KB, 630x466px

>>35042002

No.

>>35042012

With this.

>>35041974
>Russia should easily have been able to outdo them.
Except that Russia was simply not as industrialized as Germany. Huge social unrest and poverty didn't help.

Commie fucking shits were trashing the place

>>35041850
Russia really didn't perform that badly. No worse than any of the other allied nations.

The Russians managed to advance deep into East Prussia in 1914 and pulled out 1916 Brusilov offensive, the largest breakthrough of the entire war. Bear in mind that before August 1914 no one in Entente could've anticipated that modern war will become the war of industrial production, where Germany would easily outstrip Russia which didn't have proper railway infrastructure in the border regions and couldn't even arm each soldier with a rifle. Plus the Russian populace didn't have faith in the just cause of the war, it was purely imperialistic sparring match, so the officers of noble birth were losing control over peasant troops as the conflict dragged on. The army was more interested in political reforms back home than fighting on the front, so it was literally falling apart even when commanders gained real competence and the factories started meeting demand in weapons and ammunition.

In many ways, German success on Eastern front in WW1 was a reason to their defeat in WW2. Motorized divisions, T-34 spearheads, combined arms offensive doctrine with aerial bombers, industrialized war economy, none of this was accounted for by German intelligence in 1941 on the experience of Russia's poor performance in 1914. At the same time, the German army of WW2 was in many ways inferior to the German army of WW1. It could pack a powerful punch, bit did not have the stamina of its predecessor. The Germans of WW2 were dealing with Soviet soldiers and civilians with far greater brutality, which gave the Russians a far greater incentive to fight than 25 years ago.

>>35041974
>Russia should easily have been able to outdo them
Russia was basically still in the 18th century industry wise around the time WW1 rolled around, Stalin was the dude who began the massive industrialization program well after the war ended.

>>35042501
>none of this was accounted for by German intelligence in 1941 on the experience of Russia's poor performance in 1914
Are you retarded? Germany trained with the USSR and had military tech/training exchange program for many years.

>>35042500
>no worse than any of the other allied nations.
Are you fucking serious?

>>35042554
Are you talking about before or after the abysmal performance in winter war and the officer purge?

>>35042562
Eastfront had much mobile and dynamic battles than stalemate on West, infiltration tactics and tunnelling were more advanced. The big meme battle that affects everyone's viewpoint on Russia is tanmenburg which is a fluke. Logically ludendorff should have retreated behind Vistula

>>35041974


how can you be so retarded

>>35042594
>Are you talking about before or after the abysmal performance in winter war and the officer purge?
in other words, you've never read a book in your life.

File: 205502092017.png (796KB, 1366x768px) Image search: [Google]

796KB, 1366x768px

>>35042554
There is no evidence those exchange officers were EVER questioned, or that their reports figured in enemy assessment. German intelligence failed to predict everything, from the armor of KV-1 to the number of divisions the USSR could raise and equip in half a year.

>>35042562
Read a book that doesn't begin and end at Tannenburg.

>>35042622
what?

>>35042860
You don't know anything about a very prominent event leading up to WW2. That leads me to believe you have never read a book, or possibly never read a book about WW2, in your life. Understand?

>>35042714
This. Abwehr completely under-performed their role the entire pre-war and wartime game.

>>35042501
Do you have literal autism?

>>35042562
>What is the Brusilov Offensive
>What was storming through the caucuses

>>35041923
Dan Carlin disagrees

>>35042978
The reason he makes sure to keep saying he isn't a historian is to try and stop illiterate retards like yourself quoting him as a source

>>35041850
It's obvious. I know they don't teach you this in liberal arts school, but come on: Socialism will never work. It only looks good on paper, but every time it was ever tried, it failed miserably. Kaiser Wilhelm II didn't even have a hard time when it came to invading Russia. I guess "Human nature" isn't such a social construct, huh? people will always want to compete for more than what's "fair"

>>35043118
Holy shit you are stupid. We are talking about tsarist russia here you moron.

File: 1489630508358.jpg (34KB, 657x527px) Image search: [Google]

34KB, 657x527px

>>35043118

>>35043272
>hurr muh true socialism has never been tried strawman

Face it you commie fuck, if they hadnt been socialist, they could have easily taken Berlin by christmas. Socialism and competency cannot go hand and hand. Same reason they lost to the Japs even though they had the same numerical superiority, it just prevents any kind of cohesion and patriotic fighting spirit.

>>35043317
weak bait dear

>>35043317
Thew where not socialists you idiot. World War one started in 1914. The communist didn´t take over until november 1917, by the time the russians where already militarily defeated. This whole thread is basically about why the russian army underperformed so badly that they came to a point that it came to the revolution.

>>35043410
I´ve talked to poeple like this afk. Never underestimate the power of ignorance.

>>35043317
>He thinks Russia lost the Russo-Japanese war because of muh Socialism

Stay in school, kids.

>>35043317
Do you know what political ideology the last force that took Berlin adhered to?

Russian army in WW1 was an interesting contradiction. Some solid firearms designs (i.e. Mosin-Nagant) and probably some of the most innovative officers of the war, marred by the corrupt and inept Tsarist bureaucracy.

The main problem, ultimately, was lack of motivation. The Tsar became quite unpopular after the 1905 revolution fiasco and he couldn't rally the country to war as the other leaders did. Peasant conscripts in Russia didn't care about what was going on in the Balkans.

This lack of caring and morale was another issue for the Winter War in WW2, but why the Red Army suddenly became so tenacious when the Germans entered Russia proper. Motivation helps a lot.

>>35043943
Islam?

>>35041850
homosexuality and communism

>>35044676
>WW1
>Communism
whoa there pal

>>35042978
He also isn't very well read on it and openly admits his focus for the series is on the western front. The Russians did very well against the Turks and Austrians, and handed plenty of defeats to the Germans as well. The Russian military was very capable in spite of all the problems that they had.

>>35041923
>Poorly lead
>Not really

The entire nation was poorly lead.

>Tsar Nicholas decides to command army
>Leaves inept German wife (who most of the population hates because of that fact) to run country
>Has a homeless-looking kook named Rasputin make a bunch of decisions at home.

>>35041850
They were incredibly behind technologically

Hell the Hague convention happened primarily because Russia didn't want to be left in the dust when actual war happened

Also naval technology was advancing at such a alarming rate that empires with the greatest fleets in the world would have those fleets considered obsolete within a couple of decades

File: 1374869680955.jpg (68KB, 807x571px) Image search: [Google]

68KB, 807x571px

Jew saboteurs, and communist... Czar Nicholas's fall into paranoia.

>>35044695
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I#Russian_Revolution

>>35044700
>handed plenty of defeats to the Germans

any major ones?

>>35045173
holys hit they look gay af

>>35044517
So basically Nationalism>Communism

>>35041850
Brusilov offensive motherfucker, look it up. Before THAT they pretty much destroyed Austria's army.

>>35041912
>>35041974
>Blockade
>Crippled for most of the war

Nigga no. Germany didn't start really feeling the pinch of the blockade until 1916 or 17, and that was less industrial capacity and more food. They didn't lack for weapons as they had no problem sending arms to their allies.

>>35041850
>Lacking standardisation of ammo and guns
>Illiterate soldiers
>Generals hating each others guts
>Poor encryption
>Multi ethnic army
>Poor railway maintanance
>Sub par war industry
>Retarded national leadership

This basically. There was no actual reason for Russia to fight - together with Austria-Hungary and Germany they're united in keeping a powerful Polish state from emerging while Germany/A-H dont actually have much business with the Ottomans, the Russian hereditary enemy.

>>35041850
>Why did Russia perform so poorly in WW1?
It didn't? You've been playing too much Battlefield and started confusing WW1 with WW2, mate.

>>35047328
>Lacking standardisation of ammo and guns
>Illiterate soldiers
>Generals hating each others guts
>Poor encryption
>Multi ethnic army
>Poor railway maintanance
>Sub par war industry
>Retarded national leadership

So Austria-Hungary?

>>35047333
>he thinks Russia performed poorly in WW2

I love the meme k/d ratio battles too man, but let's be real

you are like a little babby watch this

>C O M M U N I S M

>>35047336
Not quite.

AH had
Farily good standardization of ammo/guns
Higher literacy rate of soldiers
Generals not hating each other
Better encryption (though right before the war an intelligence officer defected and gave all mobilization plans to Russia)
Good railways
OK industry for the non tier 1 nations
OK leadership (note: the idea that AH could have stayed out has no basis in reality - the French literally armed the Serbians for 20 years for the fight)

File: 1504055263134.jpg (22KB, 276x413px) Image search: [Google]

22KB, 276x413px

Massive distances, shitty roads and rail networks meant that strategic supply was very difficult.
Industries were not prepared for maneuverable total war, the bureaucracy of specialised middle management was slowed 1. From slowed immigration due to war and 2. The war drawing away skilled managers for service.
The fighting itself was very fluid and the russian officer corps was not prepared to fight the decentralised prussian system of command. So just like ww2 russian armies could be tenacious, resourceful and hit like a sledge hammer, the iniative of officers to exploit weaknesses was not there as a general rule.
The germans could shift enough armies east to take russia out of the war directly so they turned to esoteric weapons (Gas) and politicking ie boshevicks to knock russia out of the war.

>>35042419
commies turned russia into a superpower from an agricultural backwater shithole

>>35047341
They ended up quite decent but the start of the war was a total shitshow on their part. The successful but far too costly invasion of Poland, the late mobilization because Stalin wouldn't take the hint Hitler stabbed him in the back, etc.
They pulled through and raped Germany at its strongest really hard, but they had a rough start.

WW1 is a different matter altogether. They had weapons, they knew who they were fighting and did much better than the rest of the Entente. The problem was the fact they didn't see a reason to fight the war, hence the reluctance to commit the navy against the Turks, soldiers refusing to fight and in the end, their formal surrender to Germany alongside the ensuing revolution.

>>35047096
WW2.....

>ww1
>communism

that sad part is that they are not baiting, just retarded alt right cucks who know nothing

File: 1487831255862.png (1MB, 800x800px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 800x800px

>>35047356
>Not quite.
>AH had
>Good railways
>OK industry for the non tier 1 nations
>OK leadership

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

>good railways
tell that to the poor logistics officers who had to deal with 50 different rail gauges all around the """empire"""

>OK industry
their industry was a step above Italy's, not even quite at Russia-tier

>OK leadership
laughingCadorna.jpg
laughingConradvonhotzendorf.webm

get out austriaboo

>>35047384
Are you trying to say Cadorna was good?

File: austro-hungarian-empire-railway-network-1912-2-2-smallmid-size.png (989KB, 1972x1467px) Image search: [Google]

989KB, 1972x1467px

>>35047384
Show me other nations which fought 4 front wars for the whole duration of the war.

>>35047356
You literally don't have the slightest idea of what AH was like.

For starters, they didn't have good railways. It was a spaghetti mess that would make your first date look like a fine social gathering in comparison.
A billion gauges all around the place, tracks specifically laid in weird ways as to not allow rebellious elements to communicate or support each other, reloading trains all the time.
These guys had to slow down every train they had to the speed of the slowest one in the entire empire just to make sense of the logistics chain.

Then you have the ridiculously high desertion rates as craploads of Austro-Hungarians fought AGAINST it in hopes of its dissolution.

Did I mention they had an extreme problem with finding officers to lead all the soldiers since the people were literate, but they were literate in their own language, not German or Hungarian. This was a nation of what, 7 distinct nationalities with their own languages? Do you have any idea what kind of a clusterfuck that is? And these people spoke other languages to boot. For instance, they had to find officers who spoke English, fucking English, to the Upper Hungarian (Slovakian nowadays) units as there were far more of them learning English to emigrate to the US than there have been those who were fluent in Hungarian.

>>35047394
The rail was good enough to successfully redirect the whole fucking army from an already underway offensive on Serbia to Galicia to fight the Russians instead.

Compare it with the French whos idea of mobilization was "lol use taxis".

>>35043943
to be fair, the last force to take berlin didn't take it because they had ideology
they took it because they had more soldiers than the germans had bullets

>>35047096
I'd say that historically speaking the Russian people have been much better at being nationalists than being communists

>>35044531
>islam
>political ideology

>>35047558
It pretty much is, though

>>35047539
>They took it because they had more soldiers than the Germans had bullets.

That's bullshit and you know it.

>>35047584
Berlin is not London

>>35044531
I mean once again, seriously why would you switch topics? Why would you bring up London in a discussion about Berlin?

>>35041850
Russians suck at war

>>35041850

>Why did Russia perform so poorly in WW1?

Except they didn`t. Apart from that, Russian army was plagued by political turmoil, poor infrastructure of homeland and their arms industry was lagging behind - they just couldn`t build enough guns and ammo to supply their massive army.

>>35048492

Summer is over. Go back to school, kiddo

>>35041974
It's why you stockpile resources anon to supplement local resource production. Also, the Rhineland is a resource rich area - a reason why the French didn't want the Germans to retain it after WW1.

>>35045173
>Jew saboteurs, and communists
>Paranoia
Both of those pretty much defined Russia from 1914 to 1991, what the hell are you talking about?

File: 1444458534225.gif (45KB, 913x940px) Image search: [Google]

45KB, 913x940px

>>35048492
Yeah

>>35041850
Why does OP always performs so poorly at not being a faggot?

>>35042035
Kids?

>>35047367
>implying that the russian empire wasn't already a great power
>implying that industrialization wasn't going to happen anyways
>implying that the retarded soviet system isn't the reason eastern europe is decades behind of the west

>>35041974
The russians had nowhere near the manufacturing ability of the germans
It's why the 5 year plans under the commies happened

>>35047367
>commies turned russia into a superpower from an agricultural backwater shithole

It was such a shithole it was the only threat to the British Empire at its peak. They never had a shot at the Brits, but they were the closest you could get to that.

Commies took what was there and fucked it all up. No nation with such enormous resource base has any business being as backwater as they are.

>>35042881
Anon if you're wondering why you never got a response it's because holy fuck you're retarded. If you think you've read something leading you to this conclusion surely you misread it or are completely delusional.

>>35048861
Yeah anon, the russians are so good at fighting countries with 1/15th their population, size and resources....
This is sarcasm by the way.

>>35041850
They weren't organized, trained well, and the lack of western russian railroads made quick mobilization extremely difficult.

>>35047367
American aid turned the USSR into an industrial superpower. We gave them more machine tools than they manufactured from 1917-1967.

>>35041850
They literally had no standard train track size and couldnt supply troops because trains would have be made to fit tracks all the time

Probably would have preformed better if all instead of some of their soldiers actually were given guns before sent off to slaughter

>>35049974
wow that meme never dies...

>>35041850

No air superiority. Tanks couldn't hit shit with their main guns. No air superiority. Navy couldn't do shit. No air support. No air superiority. Most soldiers had little training. Also a complete lack of air superiority.

>>35047558

Someone doesn't know or realize the (((plan)))

File: 15036597402240.jpg (285KB, 2622x1966px) Image search: [Google]

285KB, 2622x1966px

>>35041850
Kaiser started preparing for the war really early. German General Staff was really into innovation on the battlefield. WW1 brought so much new shit to the table for the first time in a major European war: trenches, barbwire, combat gases, tanks, machine guns, airplanes, mass mobilization, concept of total war. Russia wasn't nearly as industrialized as German Reich. Russia had no goals in the war. None at all. Russian soldiers didn't know what they fight for. Russia had little to none heavy artillery in 1914.

>>35049687
>American aid
So you basically say that the whole production lines that were sold by American business to the USSR during the Great Depression which coincidentally is the time of Stalin's industrialization of the Soviets counts as aid? Are you retarded?

>>35047042
Brusilov Offensive comes to mind.

File: 1503478263001.jpg (21KB, 351x351px) Image search: [Google]

21KB, 351x351px

>>35049479
>Yeah anon, the russians are so good at fighting countries with 1/15th their population, size and resources....
>Nicaragua 1912
>Haiti 1915
>Dominican Republic 1916
>Vietnam
>Grenada 1983
>Panama 1989
>Afghanistan 2001
>Iraq 2003
Burger, please. All major powers do it.

>>35041850
>Why Russia sucked during WWI
>Anti-communist posts
What in the nigger?

>>35051364
>USA sucking as well somehows makes Russia not suck
Why do you little vatnik shits always drag the US into everything?

>>35051470
>Communist dissidents and revolutionaries didn't exist before ww2

>>35051516

Communists had no power in Russia until 1917. By then, the war had already been going on for a while.

The problem was lack of good mobility for supplies 'n' organization. We can see this when they fought the Hapsburg early in the war.

>kickinass.jpg
>no more train tracks
>loses all of the grown they made & could not finish the job.

File: 1485569976130.jpg (108KB, 900x900px) Image search: [Google]

108KB, 900x900px

>>35043317

>>35041850
Logistics. Russia's massive army is useless if it can only bring 10% of it to bear because of a combination of domestic issues which necessitated more important matters to devote their forces to and the fact that their was simply no easy way for them to keep an army of their size supplied with the infrastructure they possessed. Their few trucks needed roads that didn't exist at the time.

>>35041850
The Russians were hindered by their racial inferiority.

File: urn-cambridge.org-id-binary-20160805133331866-0516-76385map9_3.png (2MB, 1298x1742px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1298x1742px

Brusilov offensive best day of my life

>>35056067
Pretty much. Expecting Russians to accomplish anything without fucking it up is like a trying to teach a pig how to ride a bicycle.

File: 830415_orig.png (716KB, 1005x746px) Image search: [Google]

716KB, 1005x746px

>>35056208
>Tzar: How do we win this?
>Generals: We attack the Carapthian mountains!
>Tzar: Brillian!

>>35048861
i like how someone put polish uprisings here
they really show how russia is superior to scythe welding peasants

File: jIHYWdh.jpg (349KB, 1807x1384px) Image search: [Google]

349KB, 1807x1384px

>>35041850
Did you forget about that other time?

>>35056561
srussia was NEVAR superior to no one, nor EVAR will be. Now would you, Iwan, kys?