How the 1st World War began. Part 1.
Sarajevo murder
On August 1, 1914, the first world war. There were many reasons for it, and all it needed was a reason to start it. This reason was the event that occurred a month earlier - June 28, 1914.
Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne Franz Ferdinand Karl Ludwig Joseph von Habsburg was the eldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig, brother of Emperor Franz Joseph.
Archduke Karl Ludwig
Emperor Franz Joseph
The elderly emperor had already ruled for 66 years by that time, having outlived all the other heirs. The only son and heir of Franz Joseph, Crown Prince Rudolf, according to one version, shot himself in 1889 at Mayerling Castle, having previously killed his beloved Baroness Maria Vechera, and according to another version, he became the victim of a carefully planned political murder that imitated the suicide of the only direct heir to the throne. In 1896, Franz Joseph's brother Karl Ludwig died after drinking water from the Jordan River. After this, Karl Ludwig's son Franz Ferdinand became the heir to the throne.
Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand was the main hope of the decaying monarchy. In 1906, the Archduke drew up a plan for the transformation of Austria-Hungary, which, if implemented, could prolong the life of the Habsburg Empire by reducing the degree of interethnic contradictions. According to this plan, the Patchwork Empire would turn into the federal state of the United States of Greater Austria, in which 12 national autonomies would be formed for each of the large nationalities living in Austria-Hungary. However, this plan was opposed by the Hungarian Prime Minister Count István Tisza, since such a transformation of the country would put an end to the privileged position of the Hungarians.
Istvan Tisa
He resisted so much that he was ready to kill the hated heir. He spoke about this so openly that there was even a version that it was he who ordered the murder of the Archduke.
On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, at the invitation of the governor in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Feldzeichmeister (that is, artillery general) Oskar Potiorek, came to Sarajevo for maneuvers.
General Oskar Potiorek
Sarajevo was the main city of Bosnia. To Russian-Turkish war Bosnia belonged to the Turks, and according to its results should have gone to Serbia. However, Austro-Hungarian troops were introduced into Bosnia, and in 1908, Austria-Hungary officially annexed Bosnia to its possessions. Neither the Serbs, nor the Turks, nor the Russians were happy with this situation, and then, in 1908-09, a war almost broke out because of this annexation, but the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky, warned the tsar against rash actions, and the war took place a little later.
Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky
In 1912, the Mlada Bosna organization was created in Bosnia to liberate Bosnia and Herzegovina from occupation and unify with Serbia. The arrival of the heir was very opportune for the Young Bosnians, and they decided to kill the Archduke. Six Young Bosnians suffering from tuberculosis were dispatched for the assassination attempt. They had nothing to lose: death awaited them anyway in the coming months.
Trifko Grabecki, Nedeljko Chabrinovic, Gavrilo Princip
Franz Ferdinand and his morganatic wife Sophia Maria Josephine Albina Chotek von Chotkow und Wognin arrived in Sarajevo early in the morning.
Sophia-Maria-Josefina-Albina Chotek von Chotkow und Wognin
Franz Ferdinand and Duchess Sophie of Hohenberg
On the way to the town hall, the couple suffered their first assassination attempt: one of the six, Nedeljko Čabrinović, threw a bomb on the route of the motorcade, but the fuse was too long, and the bomb exploded only under the third car. The bomb killed the driver of this car and wounded its passengers, the most significant person of whom was Piotrek's adjutant Erich von Meritze, as well as a policeman and passers-by from the crowd. Čabrinović tried to poison himself with potassium cyanide and drown himself in the Milatska River, but neither had any effect. He was arrested and sentenced to 20 years, but he died a year and a half later from that same tuberculosis.
Upon arrival at the town hall, the Archduke made a prepared speech and decided to go to the hospital to visit the wounded.
Franz Ferdinand was dressed in a blue uniform, black trousers with red stripes, and a high cap with green parrot feathers. Sofia was wearing a white dress and a wide hat with an ostrich feather. Instead of the driver Archduke Franz Urban, the owner of the car, Count Harrach, sat behind the wheel, and Potiorek sat to his left to show the way. The Gräf & Stift car raced along the Appel embankment.
Murder scene map
At the intersection near the Latin Bridge, the car slowed down slightly, switching to a lower gear, and the driver began to turn right. At this time, having just drunk coffee in Stiller’s store, one of those same tuberculous six, 19-year-old high school student Gavrilo Princip, came out into the street.
Gavrilo Princip
He was just walking across the Latin Bridge and saw the Gräf & Stift turning, quite by accident. Without hesitation for a second, Princip grabbed the Browning and with the first shot made a hole in the Archduke’s stomach. The second bullet went to Sofia. The third Princip wanted to spend on Potiorek, but did not have time - the people who came running disarmed the young man and began to beat him. Only police intervention saved Gavrile's life.
“Browning” Gavrilo Princip
Arrest of Gavrilo Princip
As a minor instead death penalty They sentenced him to the same 20 years, and during his imprisonment they even began to treat him for tuberculosis, extending his life right up to April 28, 1918.
The place where the Archduke was killed, today. View from the Latin Bridge.
For some reason, the wounded Archduke and his wife were taken not to the hospital, which was already a couple of blocks away, but to Potiorek’s residence, where, amid the howls and lamentations of their retinue, both died from blood loss without receiving medical care.
The rest is known to everyone: since the terrorists were Serbs, Austria presented an ultimatum to Serbia. Russia stood up for Serbia, threatening Austria, and Germany stood up for Austria. As a result, a month later the world war began.
Franz Joseph outlived this heir, and after his death, 27-year-old Karl, the son of the imperial nephew Otto, who died in 1906, became emperor.
Karl Franz Joseph
He had to rule for a little less than two years. The collapse of the empire found him in Budapest. In 1921, Charles tried to become king of Hungary. Having organized a rebellion, he and his loyal troops reached almost Budapest, but was arrested and on November 19 of the same year was taken to the Portuguese island of Madeira, designated for him as a place of exile. A few months later he died suddenly, allegedly from pneumonia.
The same Gräf & Stift. The car had a four-cylinder 32-horsepower engine, which allowed it to reach a speed of 70 kilometers. The engine displacement was 5.88 liters. The car did not have a starter and was started by a crank. It is located in the Vienna War Museum. It even retains a license plate with the number “A III118”. Subsequently, one of the paranoids deciphered this number as the date of the end of the First World War. According to this decoding, a means “Armistice”, that is, truce, and for some reason in English. The first two Roman units mean “11”, the third Roman and first Arabic units mean “November”, and the last one and eight represent the year 1918 - it was on November 11, 1918 that the Compiegne Truce took place, ending the First World War.
World War I could have been avoided
After Gavrila Princip assassinated the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, the opportunity to prevent war remained, and neither Austria nor Germany considered this war inevitable.
Three weeks passed between the day the Archduke was assassinated and the day Austria-Hungary announced an ultimatum to Serbia. The alarm that arose after this event soon subsided, and the Austrian government and Emperor Franz Joseph personally hastened to assure St. Petersburg that they did not intend to take any military action. The fact that Germany was not even thinking about fighting at the beginning of July is evidenced by the fact that a week after the assassination of the Archduke, Kaiser Wilhelm II went on a summer vacation to the Norwegian fiords
Wilhelm II
There was a political lull, usual for the summer season. Ministers, members of parliament, and high-ranking government and military officials went on vacation. The tragedy in Sarajevo did not particularly alarm anyone in Russia: the majority politicians plunged headlong into the problems of inner life.
Everything was ruined by an event that happened in mid-July. In those days, taking advantage of the parliamentary recess, the President of the French Republic Raymond Poincaré and the Prime Minister and, at the same time, Minister of Foreign Affairs Rene Viviani paid an official visit to Nicholas II, arriving in Russia on board a French battleship.
French battleship
The meeting took place on July 7-10 (20-23) at the Tsar’s summer residence in Peterhof. Early in the morning of July 7 (20), the French guests moved from the battleship anchored in Kronstadt to the royal yacht, which took them to Peterhof.
Raymond Poincaré and Nicholas II
After three days of negotiations, banquets and receptions, interspersed with visits to the traditional summer maneuvers of the guards regiments and units of the St. Petersburg Military District, the French visitors returned to their battleship and departed for Scandinavia. However, despite the political calm, this meeting did not go unnoticed by the intelligence services of the Central Powers. Such a visit clearly indicated: Russia and France are preparing something, and it is something being prepared against them.
It must be frankly admitted that Nikolai did not want war and tried in every possible way to prevent it from starting. In contrast, the highest diplomatic and military officials were in favor of military action and tried to put extreme pressure on Nicholas. As soon as a telegram arrived from Belgrade on July 24 (11), 1914, that Austria-Hungary had presented an ultimatum to Serbia, Sazonov joyfully exclaimed: “Yes, this is a European war.” That same day, at breakfast with the French ambassador, which was also attended by the English ambassador, Sazonov called on the allies to take decisive action. And at three o'clock in the afternoon he demanded to convene a meeting of the Council of Ministers, at which he raised the issue of demonstrative military preparations. At this meeting, it was decided to mobilize four districts against Austria: Odessa, Kyiv, Moscow and Kazan, as well as the Black Sea, and, strangely, the Baltic Fleet. The latter was already a threat not so much to Austria-Hungary, which had access only to the Adriatic, but rather against Germany, the sea border with which was precisely along the Baltic. In addition, the Council of Ministers proposed introducing a “regulation on the preparatory period for war” throughout the country from July 26 (13).
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinov
On July 25 (12), Austria-Hungary announced that it refused to extend the deadline for Serbia’s response. The latter, in its response on the advice of Russia, expressed its readiness to satisfy Austrian demands by 90%. Only the demand for officials and military personnel to enter the country was rejected. Serbia was also ready to transfer the case to the Hague International Tribunal or to the consideration of the great powers. However, at 18:30 that day, the Austrian envoy in Belgrade notified the Serbian government that its response to the ultimatum was unsatisfactory, and he, along with the entire mission, was leaving Belgrade. But even at this stage, the possibilities for a peaceful settlement were not exhausted.
Sergey Dmitrievich Sazonov
However, through the efforts of Sazonov, Berlin (and for some reason not Vienna) was informed that on July 29 (16) the mobilization of four military districts would be announced. Sazonov did everything possible to offend Germany, which was bound to Austria by allied obligations, as strongly as possible. What were the alternatives? - some will ask. After all, it was impossible to leave the Serbs in trouble. That's right, you can't. But the steps that Sazonov took led precisely to the fact that Serbia, which had neither sea nor land connections with Russia, found itself face to face with the enraged Austria-Hungary. The mobilization of four districts could not help Serbia. Moreover, the notification of its beginning made Austria's steps even more decisive. It seems that Sazonov wanted Austria to declare war on Serbia more than the Austrians themselves. On the contrary, in their diplomatic moves, Austria-Hungary and Germany maintained that Austria was not seeking territorial gains in Serbia and did not threaten its integrity. Its only goal is to ensure its own peace of mind and public safety.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Russian Empire(1910-1916) Sergei Dmitrievich Sazonov and German Ambassador to Russia (1907-1914) Count Friedrich von Pourtales
The German ambassador, trying to somehow level the situation, visited Sazonov and asked whether Russia would be satisfied with Austria’s promise not to violate the integrity of Serbia. Sazonov gave the following written response: “If Austria, realizing that the Austro-Serbian conflict has acquired a European character, declares its readiness to exclude from its ultimatum items that violate the sovereign rights of Serbia, Russia undertakes to cease its military preparations.” This response was tougher than the position of England and Italy, which provided for the possibility of accepting these points. This circumstance indicates that the Russian ministers at that time decided on war, completely disregarding the opinion of the emperor.
The generals hastened to mobilize with the greatest noise. On the morning of July 31 (18), advertisements printed on red paper appeared in St. Petersburg calling for mobilization. The agitated German ambassador tried to obtain explanations and concessions from Sazonov. At 12 o'clock at night, Pourtales visited Sazonov and gave him, on behalf of his government, a statement that if Russia did not begin demobilization at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, the German government would issue an order for mobilization.
If mobilization had been canceled, the war would not have started.
However, instead of declaring mobilization after the deadline, as Germany would have done if it really wanted war, the German Foreign Ministry several times demanded that Pourtales seek a meeting with Sazonov. Sazonov deliberately delayed the meeting with the German ambassador in order to force Germany to be the first to take a hostile step. Finally, at seven o'clock, the Minister of Foreign Affairs arrived at the ministry building. Soon the German ambassador was already entering his office. In great excitement, he asked whether the Russian government agreed to respond to yesterday's German note in a favorable tone. At this moment it depended only on Sazonov whether there would be a war or not.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire (1910-1916) Sergei Dmitrievich Sazonov
Sazonov could not have been unaware of the consequences of his answer. He knew that until our complete fulfillment military program There were still three years left, while Germany completed its program in January. He knew that the war would hit foreign trade, cutting off our export routes. He also could not help but know that the majority of Russian producers are against the war, and that the sovereign himself and the imperial family are against the war. If he had said yes, peace would have continued on the planet. Russian volunteers would reach Serbia through Bulgaria and Greece. Russia would help her with weapons. And at this time, conferences would be convened that, in the end, would be able to extinguish the Austro-Serbian conflict, and Serbia would not be occupied for three years. But Sazonov said “no”. But this was not the end. Pourtales again asked whether Russia could give Germany a favorable answer. Sazonov again firmly refused. But then it was not difficult to guess what was in the pocket of the German ambassador. If he asks the same question for the second time, it is clear that if the answer is negative, something terrible will happen. But Pourtales asked this question a third time, giving Sazonov one last chance. Who is this Sazonov to make such a decision for the people, for the Duma, for the Tsar and for the government? If history confronted him with the need to give an immediate answer, he had to remember the interests of Russia, whether it wanted to fight in order to work off the Anglo-French loans with the blood of Russian soldiers. And yet Sazonov repeated his “no” for the third time. After the third refusal, Pourtales took from his pocket a note from the German embassy, which contained a declaration of war.
Friedrich von Pourtales
It seems that individual Russian officials did everything possible to ensure that the war began as soon as possible, and if they had not done this, then the First World War could have been, if not avoided, then at least postponed until a more convenient time.
As a sign of mutual love and eternal friendship, shortly before the war, the “brothers” exchanged dress uniforms.
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