![]() The Russian army was accustomed to fighting more backward peoples in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The cruel irony of these words was fully revealed before the end of the year. Russia has always fought on foreign soil and has always been victorious. The army is not only large but excellently equipped. In March 1914, an article appeared in the Russian press that was generally thought to be the work of the War Minister, Sukhomlinov. On paper, Russia was an awesome military force, and the mood of Russia’s ruling circles was one of optimism. Russia paid with the blood of her people for her right to be a member of the rich man’s club of imperialism. The men in Paris were now calling in their debts. Since tsarist Russia was heavily in debt to French finance capital, there was no question of refusing to comply with the request from Paris, which was really more like a direct order. Threatened by the seemingly unstoppable German advance, the French imperialists were urgently demanding that the Russian army should attack in the East in order to relieve pressure on France and divert German forces from their goal: Paris.įrench imperialism was pressing Russia to begin hostilities as a means of diverting German forces to the East. But, in return for such promises, there was a price to be paid. It wished to expand its military-bureaucratic domination into Polish Galicia, to dominate the Balkans at the expense of Austria, and to strengthen its stranglehold over the Caucasus by the incorporation Armenia at the expense of Turkey.īritain and France were quite happy to promise these things, which they had no intention of delivering. This would then turn the Black Sea into a Russian lake and allow its navy free passage into the Mediterranean. Tsarism did not aspire to dominate Europe, but to seize the Turkish Straits and lay hands on Constantinople. ![]() However, Russia’s war aims were of a regional and provincial character, reflecting its relative weakness. Indeed, despite the economic backwardness of Russia, which never exported a single kopek of capital, Lenin included it as one of the five main imperialist countries. Russian tsarism combined elements of a semi-feudal, semi-colonial country, heavily dependent upon foreign capital, with the aggressive characteristics of imperialism. ![]() The apparent strength of the Russian Empire concealed its internal contradictions and fundamental weaknesses. ![]() In the bloody struggle for world domination Russia entered as a second-rate partner of the Entente. ![]()
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