The Russian Origins of the First World War

[Martin Bennitt]

After his 'Berlin-Baghdad' Express, about the Kaiser`s bid to gain Islamic support for Germany before and during the war, which created a bit of debate on the forum, this is the latest book by Sean McMeekin, a US academic currently teaching at a Turkish University. Drawing on sources in half a dozen countries, it postulates that Tsarist Russia as much as the Central Powers was responsible for the outbreak of the War. The Sarajevo incident gave Russia the excuse it was looking for to further its main imperialist aims: in the west to win Galicia from Austria, in the south (most importantly) to gain control of European Turkey and Constantinople to ensure it had free passage from the Black Sea, and to the southeast to conquer Persia. In contrast France was only seeking to recover Alsace-Lorraine while Britain might well have stayed out if Germany had not invaded Belgium. In furtherance of its aims, says McMeekin, Russia secretly mobilised first (in complicity with the French), encouraged the Gallipoli campaign, backed Armenian uprisings against Turkey but did nothing to save the Armenians from massive Turkish reprisals, and occupied a large slice of northern Persia. The villain in the tale is the Machiavellian Russian foreign minister Sergei Sazonov, who managed to outmanoeuvre both Britain and France -- and notably Sykes and Picot when carving up the Ottoman Empire -- securing their support for its aims while doing little to help them in return. As a result the Russians were in a strong position on the Turkish front in 1917, but failure in the west and internal political collapse ruined their ambitions.

This is another fascinating book about a theatre of what was after all a world war that is much less well known in the West, the arguments are well backed up, the footnotes useful, the sources copious, the style easy and even the maps are good. Well recommended.

cheers Martin B