Читать книгу The History of the West. Through the Eyes of Bears and Balalaikas - - Страница 11

By mid-1916, things were not going well for the Entente89. In short, the Germans were fighting better, having seized a fair amount of land, and now that the fronts had stabilized, taking it back was quite difficult. It was especially disheartening for Russia, from which the Germans and Austrians had taken Poland and Western Ukraine, territories the emperor was not at all pleased to part with. Therefore, the Russian General Staff began preparing an offensive operation – the Lutsk Breakthrough – which was supposed to regain at least part of the lost territories in the south.

They prepared thoroughly – with the mobilization of all possible forces and resources. And according to all the rules: the main strike, diversionary strikes, primary direction, secondary… The emperor personally coordinated the numerous fronts and generals who were not getting along with each other: recently, he had dismissed a capable but unlucky commander-in-chief90 and took charge of the army himself.

At the very end, when all the plans were agreed upon, the soldiers were seated in the trenches, the officers were given instructions, and the guns were aimed where the reconnaissance indicated, an unpleasant issue arose on the very last evening before the offensive: the front commanders in the auxiliary directions decisively did not want to advance. Understandably so: if there’s a defeat, it will be blamed on them, and they might even be demoted, but the victory will be entirely credited to General Brusilov, who was assigned the main role in the upcoming operation. The commanders were experienced people, and they were not interested in exposing themselves to such risks. In general, they collectively decided to sabotage the offensive, leaving the smartest one to sort it out himself.

Rumors spread across the land, and Brusilov learned in advance about the big deception. He found out and telegraphed the Tsar to curb the ambitions of his commanders and restore everything as planned. The Tsar did not respond. So, the general picked up the phone, as the era already allowed, and called directly to the General Staff. To his superior, General Alekseyev. And Alekseyev, without hesitation, confidentially said something like: “Listen, Lesha, to be honest, the emperor also doesn’t really want to advance, and it’s kind of scary, what if we fail? Let’s postpone everything, discuss it once more, and consult.”.

Brusilov, whose guns were already loaded, was cursing out the superiors and demanding to be connected with the Tsar: if he doesn’t want to advance, then let him remove Brusilov from command. In general, he was furious and offended.

And it turns out that the sovereign emperor is already resting, meaning he went to sleep. And it’s not allowed to wake him. Without the sovereign, no one can remove Brusilov, cancel the offensive, or hold colleagues accountable.

Thus, the Russian army went on the attack all over the place. And the result was so-so.

Interestingly, twenty-eight years later, this story practically repeated itself word for word, only in another country and with different personalities. On June 6, 1944, upon learning that American marines were brazenly landing on Omaha Beach, Field Marshal von Rundstedt91 called Hitler, whom he couldn’t stand, to request tank reserves. The phone was answered by the chief of the general staff, now, of course, German, Alfred Jodl, who repeated General Alekseev’s words verbatim: the Führer had taken his pills and gone to bed and must not be woken under any circumstances, so deal with the Americans on your own. And when by morning Rommel came with the same request, it was already too late to deal with the Americans.

Both Nikolai and Hitler had very little time left to live after their sweet dreams: less than two years for one and less than a year for the other. So, if you are a great military leader and absolutely need to get some sleep, allow yourself to be woken up, at least on particularly significant occasions.