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The Year 1915
On 28 August, the German Kaiser signed an order creating the 27th Jaeger Battalion within the German Army. By March 1916 some 1,500 Finns received training. The move would later give Germany an opportunity to promote the Finnish cause.
On 29 August, German forces approached Grodno and Vilna, advanced on Friedrichstadt and stormed Lipsk.
On 30 August, Stavka established the Russian Northern Front under General N.V. Ruzskiy, with HQ at Pskov. The new front included Churin's 6th "Phantom" Army at Petrograd, the 12th Army, headed by General Gorbatovskiy, and General Pleve's 5th Army. They were to hold front lines from Riga to Davgeli, southwest of Dvinsk, and then to Drissa, east of Dvinsk.
In south Galicia, the Russians scored some successes on the Upper Strypa River, capturing 4,000 prisoners.
At Petrograd, General Belyaev informed Paleologue that Russian losses have been colossal, from 350,000 men a month in May, June and July, rising to 450,000 in August. Since the defeat on the Dunajec, total losses had mounted to about 1.5 million men. The daily supply of shells was now 35,000 rounds, and soon to be 42,000. Russian factories were now producing 67,000 rifles a month, while foreign factories were sending 16,000 rifles a month. Still not enough.
The Russian government ordered the establishment of four Special Councils: the Council on National Defense, led by War Minister Polivanov; the Council on Transportation under S.V. Rukhlov's Transport Ministry; the Council on Fuel under Prince V.N. Shakovskiy; and the Council on Foodstuffs and Refugees under A.V. Krovoshein.
These official acts sanctioned the participation of the community-at-large, through elected representatives, in the work of state institutions. The new bodies were to have supreme control over all factories, state and private, employed in the manufacture of munitions and other supplies for the armed forces, to assist in construction and conversion of plants for making military goods, along with the regulation and distribution of orders, and to oversee the execution of orders.
On 31 August, the Russian Supreme Command at Stavka established the Western Front, separating it from the former Northwest Front. The Western Front, HQ at Minsk, was led by General A.E. Evert, who took over on 5 September, and was composed of the 1st Army under General A.I. Litvinov, the 2nd Army led by General S.M. Sheideman, the 10th Army led by General F.V. Sivers, the 4th Army led by General A.F. Ragoza, and the 3rd Army under General R.D. Radko-Dmitriev. They were to hold the front south of Dvinsk to the junction with the Southwest Front at Rafalovka, 80 km south of Pinsk.
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The Year 1915
General N.I. Ivanov headed the Russian Southwest Front, with headquarters at Berdichev, with General A.A. Brusilov's 8th Army, General D.G. Shcherbachev's 11th Army, and the 9th Army led by General P.A. Lechitskiy. They held the front line from south of Rafalovka to the Romanian frontier.
The Germans were engaged in investing Grodno, while the Austro-Hungarians were in the process of capturing Lutsk.
The Tsar ordered General Polivanov to hand his letter to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich at Stavka, officially relieving him of his command.
On 31 August, the Moscow City Council (Duma) unanimously approved a resolution that demanded a “government invested with the country's trust.”
During August, German submarine U.26 was reported mined and sunk in the Baltic Sea. By the early part of September, the Germans had six submarines in the Baltic, U.23 and U.25, with the U.9, U.10, U.17 and UC.4 having being recently added, all based at Libau.
On 1 September, on the new Russian Western Front, the German 10th Army was now only 30 km from Vilna, where the Russians were concentrating for defense. The German 8th Army was storming the fortress at Grodno.
On the Southwest Front, Austro-Hungarian troops entered Brody. As of 1 September the Austro-Hungarians had captured 699,000 Russian prisoners, up from 254,000 since 31 March.
Russian Minister of Interior, Prince N.B. Shcherbatov, threatened to resign his post over the conflicting and arbitrary policies of Military Governors and civil authorities. At the urging of the Empress, the Tsar dismissed V. Dzhunkovskiy as assistant Minister of Interior. The move was made due to his role in the investigation of the Rasputin incident in Moscow.
In early September, General N.A. Danilov was appointed as Quartermaster General at Stavka.
On 2 September, on the new Russian Northern Front, the Germans launched fierce attacks towards Riga. The Russians managed to retain a bridgehead at Friedrichstadt. Recent German attempts to take the Russians from the rear on the Baltic coast had been thwarted by combined actions of the Russian fleet and British submarines.
On the Western Front, the Germans captured the fortress at Grodno as the Russians continued to fall back.
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