Russian assistance to Serbia during the First World War

At the beginning of the war, the government of tsarist Russia hoped to defeat Austria-Hungary alone and restore order on the Balkan Peninsula in its interests. The idea was to restore the Balkan Union of 1912 (aimed against Turkey that year), Serbia to strengthen and regulate relations with Bulgaria , and subsequently they would become the “broad arm” of Russia in Europe (the alliance of Russian satellites on the continent) and Russia would have had a wide passage to the Mediterranean Sea and to the Middle East .

According to this plan, after the war, Serbia was supposed to expand in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dalmatia and the north of Albania, but it would have to cede part of Macedonia in favor of Bulgaria. ^[1] . Territorial compensation of Bulgaria from Serbia would create conditions for peace between the South Slavic states, and, therefore, provide favorable conditions for the final collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The Serbian government refused to cede part of Macedonia to Bulgaria, which later led to Sofia entering the war on the side of the German bloc and Bulgaria’s attack on Macedonia (the southern half of then Serbia). Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov accepted the proposal of Serbia that it would unite only with the southern Slavs who were part of Austria-Hungary, and in order to regulate relations with Bulgaria, the Bulgarians proposed to expand their territory at the expense of the then territories of Greece and Turkey. Southern Slavs could lay claim to Italian lands, in connection with which the Russian government promised the Italians Trentino, Trieste and Valon already in 1914 if Italy abandoned the Yugoslav coast of the Adriatic Sea and the areas inhabited by southern Slavs [2].

The July Crisis

The close ties of Imperial Russia with Serbia and Montenegro became relevant again during the “July crisis”, when Russian diplomatic activity was noticeable both in the framework of appeasing (calming down) the situation, and in terms of obtaining guarantees that it would actively defend Serbia in case of war (meaning the opening of a second front against Austria-Hungary). Assistance with the outbreak of the conflict was primarily political and financial, and then military. ^[2] As early as August 11, in his request for military assistance sent to the Russian side, the Prime Minister of Serbia, Nikola Pasic, stressed the need for naval mines ^[3]

Special Expedition

The Russian Ministry of the Navy has committed itself to organizing and sending military assistance; The Special Purpose Expedition (EON) was formed. The mission of the EON was “the passage and escort of military cargo to Serbia” ^[4] , through the transportation of goods along the Danube. The expedition was formed on August 16, 1914, led by the first class captain M. M. Veselkin (later during the war Veselkin was promoted to rear admiral) ^[5] .

The capacities of the Black Sea Fleet of Tsarist Russia were used to transport goods, but large vessels could not be used in this operation, since they were not able to sail along the Danube. The expedition was attended by barges and merchant ships; In addition, EON included the Russian Shipping Company on the Danube. Soon, considerable funds were also received from the Russian Ministry of the Navy for the acquisition of new cargo ships.

All that EON transported was considered as “special-purpose goods”, which meant that railways and waterways would allow cargo to be passed priority, along with materials for the Russian army, and all this at the expense of the Russian treasury. The Russian port on the Danube, Reni, was chosen as the starting point of the route to the Serbian cities of Radujevac and Prahovo, which were unloading ports. The Russian fleet guarded a convoy (caravan) in case of a meeting or battle with Austro-Hungarian ships and aircraft, as well as in case of mines (guarded against collisions).

The Russian military mission has been on the territory of the Kingdom of Serbia since the end of August ^[6] . The first mission consisted of six hundred sailors led by Captain Yuri Volkovitsky ^[7] . This group trained Serbian soldiers, and then formed the “River Mine Command Command”, which became the first river mining organization in Serbia. Port Resnik on August 25, 1914, when Russian soldiers remained in Resnik, received a large number of water mines from Russia. The task of these troops was to blow up part of the basin, between n. Ostrozhnitsa and Umka, at a distance of several hundred meters. The warehouse of mines at the same time was in Valevo (or Vlore) ^[8] .

On October 13-14, a column of Colonel Veselkin with military equipment intended for the Serbian army left Reni and she arrived in Prakhovo on October 23. This was the first expedition from Russia that arrived in Serbia; it consisted of seven steamboats and sixteen barges.

After the fall of Serbia, a dramatic retreat of the Serbian army and part of the country's population on the Albanian coast followed. The agreement with the Western Allies was that the Allied ships would wait for the Serbs off the coast of Albania, provide them with the necessary support, transport the military to a safe place and prepare for a counteroffensive. The first group of Serbs, led by the government and the high command, arrived in Shkoder (this is the northern major port of Albania) on December 6, 1915. But it turned out that the help that the allied governments promised the Serbs did not exist at all! The Allies did not fulfill their part of the deal: the Italians, who were required to organize the evacuation of the Serbs, did not provide any assistance. On December 28, Nicola Pasic was presented with a statement by the Italian government stating that the Serbian army should not cross the Shkumba river so as not to conflict with the Italian. Immediately after that, the representative of Russian diplomacy in Rome replied that the Italians simply did not want to help. According to the High Command of Serbia, about 110,000 Serbian soldiers and 2,350 officers arrived on the Albanian coast. On January 15, 1916, Prime Minister Nikola Pasic sent a letter to Russian Tsar Nicholas II asking for help. The Russian tsar informed the king of Great Britain and the president of France that if the Serb army was not saved, Russia would cease allied relations with them and withdraw from the war. After the intervention of the Russian Emperor, the French sent their ships to help the Serbs, and Italy allowed the Serbian army to enter the Albanian city of Vlore.

In January 1916, the remnants of Serbian troops were evacuated from Albania to the island of Corfu and to Bizerte. In December 1915, the Anglo-French troops retreated to Greece, to Thessaloniki, where they were able to gain a foothold, forming the Thessaloniki Front along the Greek border with Bulgaria and Serbia. The personnel of the Serbian army (up to 150 thousand people) were retained and in the spring of 1916 strengthened the Thessaloniki Front.

This was Russia's biggest contribution to the victory of the Entente and Serbia in the First World War. About half of all troops of the Triple Alliance (Germany and its satellites) were deployed on the Russian front, stretching for thousands of kilometers. More than half of the losses are also in the Russian expanses. If it weren’t for Russia’s participation in the war, the bloc of Central European powers could transfer these troops to the French-Belgian and Serbian fronts, and would surely have won the war back in 1914. Russian soldiers distracted the forces of the Triple Alliance under each of the three successive governments: 2½ years of the tsar’s reign (from August 1914 to February 1917), and 8 months of the Kerensky government (until October 1917), and even 1 year after coming to power in Russia Bolsheviks (as those represented by the negotiator of Trotsky at the beginning refused to sign a peace agreement with the German unit, and the last troops were advancing eastward along the entire front of hundreds of kilometers, and then were forced to remain in the occupied territories in order to counter la and order). German troops in the fighting against Russia lost 400 thousand troops killed and prisoners - at least 250 thousand. The Turkish side lost 200 thousand killed and 100 thousand prisoners. But the data on the direct adversary of Serbia - the Dual Monarchy - are much more significant. In the hostilities against Russia, Austria-Hungary lost more than 60% of the military killed (at least 800 thousand), and together - about 74% of all their losses (including those captured: 1.85 million were captured). Thus, the forces of Austria-Hungary were crushed precisely by Russia.

• Serbia in the First World War
• Russia in the First World War
• World War I

• Popovich, Nicola B. Serbs in the First World War 1914-1918 .. - Novisad: Society of Historians of the South Bach and Sremsky Districts, 2000.
• A. Pisarev, “Some Aspects of Relations with Russia, Montenegro and Serbia at the Beginning of the First World War”
• Sergey Kursk, “The diversion of troops and resources of the Triple Alliance to the Russian Front”
• Nikola Popovic, Serbia and Tsarist Russia, Belgrade 1994.
• Dushan Babac, Serbia and Russia at the Great War (i.e. in the First World War), Belgrade 2014.
• A. Timofeev, D. Kremich, Russia At the Serbian Front, Moscow, 2014