The Eastern Front

Russia attacked Germany in 1914 and ensured that the Schlieffen Plan did not work. The Russian army was very large, rising to 3 million men by 1917 and was nicknamed 'the steamroller' by the Allies. However it was badly equipped and poorly organised. 

In 1914 it suffered two defeats with huge losses (rising to over 2 million by 1917)

• Tannenberg
• Masurian Lakes 

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In March 1918 Russia signed The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany which ended the war (which also gave Germany a lot of Russian land). The reasons for this were

• Tsar Nicholas II took command of the armies, but this was disatorious and thousands more were killed.
• The winter of 1916 was very hard and due to people in Russia starving the Tsar abdicated in 1917.
• The new Government continued the war but by 1917 many Russian soldiers were deserting and the army was falling apart.
•  The Bolsheviks took over in November as the German army was advancing into Russia
• The Bolshevik Government had little choice but to sign the peace treaty.

This video provides on overview of the Eastern Front during World War One