DrWilk Loc: .

Thank you Richard. I have been an avid and anxious reader of your Historical writings ever since I discovered them here. Like many here, I wish that you would write more.
I hope my ramblings don't disappoint you.

DrWilk Loc: .

Thanks. I agree that the US had no valid cause to become involved. I was also tryting to get across that no one else really did either.
As for Zimmerman and Lusitania, I will dwell on them a bit later.
Thanks for your input and for reading.

DrWilk Loc: .

Thank you for your comments. I just realized I didnt give an explaination of what the pictures were of. I'll explain later in todays posting.

zaidy

Interesting... So, it's correct to call a strong man "dying", because of "imminent demise"?
And at the pre-Great War time there was no actuality in the imminent demise of Tsarist Russia.

DrWilk Loc: .

Look, you're getting into semantics and ignoring the entire purpose of the series, but to use your metaphor, who cares if your man is strong now if he's got a fatal cancer within?

All I can say is, if you don't like the way I'm presenting it, don't read it.

zaidy

Sorry, nothing personal. I just wondering, if "my man" really had got a fatal cancer within?

DrWilk Loc: .

Wouldn't you think that the overthrow of the Czars by the communists counts as a cancer?

zaidy

Tsar was overthrown by Russian liberals. But at the pre-war time Russian revolution was over and the Russian Empire was in a good shape, no cancer's symptoms. So, we're again at the point, where we started. It was nice to talk to you, DrWilk.
Zaidy

DrWilk Loc: .

Sorry, but the Russian Empire collapsed after Nicholas II abdicated. The two revolutions occurred in 1917, three years after the war started.

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

Don'cha love it? Russian liberals! Whooppee! Speaking of cancer, have you seen anything of that colon cancer you're obviously looking for?

Separate topic: I suggest "A World Undone" by G.J. Meyer. I have read many books on the Great War and this one is, by far, the best of them. Meyer includes "sidebars" on the players including the Romanoffs. The Russian nobility was rotten to the corps (intended) and not a liberal among 'em. How strange.

zaidy

Are you saying that Tsar was overthrown by "rotten" Russian nobility? And what's wrong with Russian liberals?

OldEarl Loc: Northeast Kansas

Did he mention Karensky. There was a democratic coalition called the Menshiviks who assumed power from the Tsar. They were overthrown in the October Revolution by the Bolsheviks. I had a professor who called it separating the Menshiviks from the Boyshiviks.

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

Russia in 1914 was running on inertia, much like we are today. Governance functioned with functionaries paying the snow-shovelers and road builders, keeping the railroads running close enough to schedule to avoid pissing people off. In other words, normal business so boring that revolutionaries were everywhere. Alexander III failed to prepare his son Nicholas II for succession and Nicholas wasn't interested (according to Meyer's sidebar on the Romanoffs)

The Russian army was large but not very good or well led. In their first battle with the Germans, they ran out of artillery ammo (that nobody had seen a need for). After the second battle, they were done. The Bolsheviks were organized and lucky. Being authoritarian, they were ruthless and were able to prevail.

Most of my reading of Russian history is years in the past but I am not aware that the truly hated ideas of liberalism such as, "It's always wrong to punish an innocent person," were issues in Russia at that time. Stalin developed a completely different attitude about punishment.

None of this is applicable to the matter at hand, the Great War (Part I).

zaidy

Actually, Mensheviki and Bolsheviki were 2 branches of the Russian Social-Democratic Party of Workers. Separation occurred in 1903. In 1918 Bolsheviki renamed themselves as Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviki).
In March 1917 last Russian Tsar abdicated in favor of his brother Mikhail, who, in turn, refused to take responsibility. Power in Russia after that belonged to Provisional Government, created by democratic coalition (Constitutional Democrats, Progressists, Octoberists, Working Unionists). In November 1917 they were overthrown by Bolsheviki.
Kerenski was the Russian liberal and leader of Working Unionist Party. He was one of the minister in the Provisional Government. In July 1918 he became the leader of Procvisional Government and the Commander-in-Chief.

Beard43 Loc: End of the Oregon Trail

I recommend a trip to Kansas City, Missouri and visit the WWI Museum. It has many artifacts and information regarding the war. I begins with maps and pictures of all the participants and a sequence of events leading up to the beginning and where the battles took place, casualties, etc. I went there three years ago and spent nearly the whole day just looking, reading, and photographing. One interesting part is as you enter the main area of the museum, you cross a glass bridge over a field of poppies. One for each American fatality. It's a version of "Flanders Field"

Ron