Page - 847 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Russian October Revolution Between 6 and 8 November 1917, or 24 and 26 October according to the Russian calendar, the Bolsheviks under Lenin’s leadership seized power in Russia, and on the evening of 8 November, the Second All-Russian Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies agreed to the proposals for peace by the new revolutionary government. Thus, an event occurred that the German Empire had been working towards for some time through targeted measures to support the revolutionisation of Russia, and which the Central Powers had been waiting for. In the east, hardly any more fighting had occurred since September 1917. In October, the events of March and April 1917 had been repeated. The Russians drastically re- duced their own military activities. For the most part, they behaved very calmly, sought to begin negotiations and pleaded for an end to hostilities. Only in some sections were attempts made by individual Russian officers or divisions, known as ‘battalions of death’, to continue the war. Time and again  – and this too was similar to the situation in March/April 1917  – individual batteries attacked and subjected Austro-Hungarian and German positions to harassment fire. In order to avoid being surprised by an offen- sive by the Central Powers, the Russian higher commands arranged for movements at the front to be monitored by aeroplanes ; this also frequently led to air battles. However, essentially, the Central Powers remained passive. Only the Germans had exploited the situation in order to occupy further territories, and had taken control of the Baltic Sea islands of Osel, Muhu and Hiiumaa. There was one single section of the eastern and south-eastern front where the image of a front at war had remained unchanged, and this was the southern wing in Romania. The revolution had not spilled over to the Romanians and, for a time, the threat made by the new French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, that he would abandon any support for Romania during future peace negotiations if Roma- nia failed to fight through until the end, appeared to be having an effect. Clemenceau announced via the chief of the French military mission in Romania, General Henri Berthelot, that if the Moldavia region were to be lost, then fighting would simply have to continue in Bessarabia and even further east. However, the Romanian request to compensate for the loss of the Russians by sending Czech legionaries and Serbian troops was not met.2015 At the end of the day, it would have made no difference an- yway.