The Year 1915

On 26 May, on the Southwest Front, there was very heavy fighting around the fortress of Przemysl. The Tsar departed Stavka for Tsarskoe Selo and arrived there the following day.

Berlin received numerous reports that the severe drought in North Germany had caused extensive damage to crops.

On 27 May, at Petrograd, opening of the first meeting of the Munitions Council, under the chairmanship of War Minister V.A. Sukhomlinov. He had convened the body on orders from the Tsar, which in part resulted from demands from Stavka and Duma President Rodzianko, who had demanded that a single agency be set up to unite efforts to solve the munitions crisis. The meeting included four generals, four Duma members, including Rodzianko, and four representatives of metal industries. There were various bureaucratic jealousies, excessive demands of industrialists, as well as intrigues among some at Stavka, all of which worked to delay concrete actions.

On 28 May, on the Northwest Front, Russian forces captured Bubie.

On the Southwest Front, the Austro-Germans threatened the Przemysl-Lemberg railway in their advance on Przemysl.

On the Caucasian Front, Russians captured Vastan on Lake Van.

On 28-29 May, in the Baltic Sea, four German minesweepers were sunk by Russian mines.

On 29 May, on the Southwest Front, the Russian 4th Army's III Caucasian Corps attempted a counter-offensive, storming Sieniawa, pressing south on the right bank of San River. They were forced to abandon the attack due to heavy losses and an acute shortage of ammunition. The Russian 8th Army was continually being forced back on Lemberg.

On 30 May, on the Southwest Front, Austro-Germans opened an assault on the fortress of Przemysl.

On 31 May, on the Southwest Front, von Mackensen's 11th Army reached the San River, where the Russians have re-formed their defensive lines. Austro-Germans captured Stryj and three northern forts at Przemysl.

At the end of May, the Russians reported that since August 1914 they had lost 3,880,000 men, dead, wounded or missing.

The Year 1915

On 31 May, the Second Imperial Conference on Military Supplies held its second session. On the basis of Sukhomlinov's report on these sessions the Tsar approved the work and expanded the body into the Special Imperial Conference to Increase the Active Army's Supply of the Main Forms of Material. It included military, naval, and other officials, plus representatives from industry and the State Duma.

During May 1915, at the insistence of Duma President Rodzianko and General Polivanov, Tsar Nicholas II finally agreed to remove Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich as Inspector of the Artillery Administration. He was replaced by General A.A. Manikovskiy, Commandant of Kronshtadt Fortress, who immediately ordered major changes in the procurement section within the artillery department.

By the end of May, the Germans had established eleven Fliegerersatzabteilungen (FEA), which were responsible for the replacement of flying and non-flying personnel and their training.

During May, in the Ottoman Empire, Turkish forces in decisive battle of Shaibah, crushed an uprising led by Kurdish chieftain Shaikh Mahmud, which was attempting to set up an independent government.

On 1 June, in Poland, the first time large scale use of gas by Germans in unsuccessful attacks on the Bzura and lover Ravka Rivers, west of Warsaw.

The Russian army began constructing additional armored trains and reorganizing their units. By the end of 1915 there were fifteen such trains operating on combat fronts; one each on the Northern and Western Fronts; eight on the Southwest Front; four on the Caucasian Front and one in Finland for coastal defense.

Bulgaria informed the Central Powers of the Entente's latest offers to join with them, in the hope that the Central Powers will raise the stakes. Bulgaria continued to hold out as the bidding war continued.

On 2 June, Stavka removed General Radko-Dmitriev as commander of the 3rd Army. He was replaced on the 16th by General L.V. Lesh. On the Southwest Front, the last of the Russian forces evacuated Przemysl. The Austro-Hungarians were defeated at Mikolajow on the Dniester River.

At Petrograd, French Ambassador Paleologue met with munitions multi-millionaire Putilov, who informed him that the days of Tsarism were numbered; that revolution is inevitable; the munitions problem was not merely a technical problem, the question of labor and output had to be solved; and the whole administrative system of Russia must be reformed from top to bottom.