How the great dukes of the Romanovs destroyed the Russian army and navy

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The Russian Empire under the leadership of Nicholas II did not win a single major war. And here there is no fault of the soldiers, who went to their full height on machine guns for "faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland", they simply did not have the opportunity to win - there were not enough machine guns, cartridges, warships. At the same time, the country's leadership did not deny itself anything.

The brightest moments of incompetent military leadership and corruption at the decline of the Russian Empire.

Wooden rivets for armadillos and shame of Tsushima

Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Romanov, as best he could, led the Naval Department and the Russian fleet.

His contemporary, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich Romanov, recalled: “A secular man from head to toe, spoiled by women, Alexey Alexandrovich traveled a lot. The mere thought of spending a year away from Paris would have forced him to resign. But he was in the civil service and held a position no more and no less than an admiral of the Russian Imperial Navy. It was difficult to imagine the more modest knowledge that this admiral of a powerful power had in naval affairs. The mere mention of modern transformations in the navy caused a painful grimace on his handsome face."

In Paris, a generous prince was always expected. Alexey Alexandrovich stayed only in the luxurious Ritz or Continental hotels, where entire floors were rented for his suite. Alexei Novikov-Priboy, a participant in the Tsushima battle, wrote about the prince as follows: "Several battleships fit into the pockets of honest Alexei."

The prince was remembered for the huge embezzlement, under him the embezzlement of the embezzlement in the fleet reached unprecedented proportions and amounted to millions.

It got to the point that the armor of some ships literally sprawled, because the metal rivets were plundered and the armor plates were fastened with wooden bushings. One of the newest destroyers nearly sank halfway between Kronstadt and St. Petersburg, as someone stuck tallow candles into the rivet holes.

In 1905, the Battle of Tsushima was lost - the outdated Russian battleships were slow-moving, of various types, poorly armed, and the shells of their guns did not even explode, falling into the enemy's ship.

The dying battleship "Admiral Ushakov"

The outcome of the battle was sad: total theft had a catastrophic effect on the combat capability of the fleet. In the battle, 21 Russian ships were sunk, including 6 squadron battleships, casualties in people amounted to 5045 people killed. For comparison: the Japanese lost 3 small destroyers, and one of them sank after a collision with another Japanese destroyer, and 117 people were killed.

The lion's share of the stolen money went to diamonds and a luxurious life for the prince's mistress, the Frenchwoman Eliza Balletta, an actress of the Mikhailovsky Theater. She sported a necklace of diamonds, which the Petersburg wits nicknamed the "Pacific Fleet".

After the death of the Russian fleet, the society was seized with anger against Alexei Romanov, naval officers gave him the infamous nickname "Prince Tsushima". Demands for his resignation were heard louder and louder.

Under the pressure of society (it came to breaking the glass in the prince's palace), Prince Alexei resigned and went to revel in Paris. In the diary of Nicholas II, an entry was preserved: “May 30, Monday. Today, after the report, Uncle Alexei announced that he wanted to leave now. In view of the seriousness of his arguments, I agreed. It hurts and hard for him, the poor!.."

How Russian artillery was destroyed

During the reign of Nicholas II, Russian artillery experienced the strongest French influence, which negatively affected the combat capability of the army.

Since 1865, the Main Artillery Directorate and the Obukhov Plant cooperated with the Krupp company, which at that time created the best artillery pieces in the world (hereinafter taken from the "Encyclopedia of Russian Artillery").

Sergey Mikhailovich Romanov

Even in spite of the Russian-French alliance, the German Krupp regularly supplied his best samples to Russia, where they were rejected. The key role in this was played by the Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, who until 1917 led the Russian artillery. The prince and his mistress Matilda Kshesinskaya received large bribes and precious gifts from French firms and defense orders.

The result was an anecdotal situation: Krupp's guns won the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and Russia decided to abandon them in favor of the losing side.

For example, in 1906, the Main Artillery Directorate announced a competition to develop a heavy weapon for the Russian army. Three local plants were invited to participate in the competition - Obukhovsky, Putilovsky and Permsky; English - Vickers and Armstrong; German - Krupp and Erhardt; Austro-Hungarian - Skoda; Swedish - "Bofors"; French - Saint-Chamond and Schneider.

The competition was actually a sham, everyone understood who would win the order, so they did not show much activity. The finished system was sent only by the Germans, who nevertheless hoped for common sense from the imperial commission.

In the summer of 1909, the Germans sent in their 152mm siege cannon. The members of the GAU commission began testing the gun on October 11 of the same year.

The French from the Schneider company sent their gun only on May 1, 1910 - before that, the gun was being finalized.

After testing, the Krupp cannon showed the best ballistic data (rate of fire and range), although the accuracy of both guns was the same.

At the same time, it was possible to shoot from the Krupp cannon at an elevation of +35 degrees or more, and the rate of fire was only slightly reduced. At the Schneider's gun, firing at an elevation of + 37 degrees was already impossible.

The Krupp gun could be carried in an undivided position. That had a positive effect on his mobility. Schneider's cannon could only be transported disassembled.

Transportation through obstacles (logs, rails) Krupp's gun passed without comment, Schneider's gun received three serious breakdowns at once and was sent for repair.

At the same time, the commission's conclusion was a mockery of common sense: it said that both systems were supposedly equivalent, but it was recommended to accept the Schneider gun, since it was lighter. Then the commission proposed to amend the Schneider system, increasing its weight by 250 kg.

As a result, the serial gun of Schneider weighed more than the Krupp gun. Serial production of guns was organized at the Putilov factory at the request of Schneider's firm. This can be easily explained: its shareholder was the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, the mistress of Sergei Mikhailovich, and earlier Nicholas II. She received, in modern terms, kickbacks for winning tenders and exclusive placement of orders.

The first eight 152-mm guns of the 1910 model hit the front in the spring of 1915 and were returned back in October. Cracks were found in the elements of the carriage, and its frames were deformed.

Worthless armored cars and a useless Tsar Tank

Nicholas II himself harmed the army no less than bribes. Due to his technical illiteracy, he made decisions that pushed the army towards the abyss. To begin with, Defense Minister Alexander Rediger, a highly educated person, the author of a number of scientific and military works, lost his post - Nicholas II did not like criticism.

When Alexander Rediger pointed out the deplorable state of affairs in the Russian army and recognized the need for change, his fate was sealed. He was dismissed by a rescript of March 11, 1909.

Vladimir Sukhomlinov

Instead of Rediger, the cavalry general Vladimir Sukhomlinov, who was pleasing to the emperor, was appointed to the post of defense minister. The result of this minister's activities was devastating for the army: immediately after entering the war, it became clear that there were not enough rifles, shells, cartridges, military equipment was purchased through intermediaries, corruption and bribery were rampant. The term "shell hunger" has even entered into the everyday life of historians.

Already on March 21, 1916, Sukhomlinov was dismissed from military service, in April he was expelled from the State Council. For some time he was imprisoned in the Trubetskoy bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress, but then he was placed under house arrest.

Under Nicholas II, it was not customary to build something at domestic enterprises - it was impossible to get compensation for this. Another thing is to buy abroad.

For example, to the proposal of engineer Vasiliev to create a tracked combat vehicle in the department on March 17, 1915, they replied: "The Technical Committee recognized that the proposed device of Mr. Vasiliev is not applicable to the military department." ("Complete encyclopedia of tanks of the world. 1915-2000, p. 30).

Years later, the British used the first tanks in the battle on the Somme, and their losses were 20 times less than usual.

Military officials preferred to buy armored cars in England. Documentary information about their quality has been preserved. For example, about the 36 Armstrong-Whitworth-Fiat armored cars that arrived at the end of the spring of 1916, it was said that they were unsuitable for service due to poor production quality (wheel spokes are cut off by brake bolts, the chassis is overloaded, a number of power transmission and chassis assemblies are unreliable, since low-grade materials are used for critical parts, etc.). ("The Complete Encyclopedia of World Tanks. 1915-2000", p. 32).

Fedorov assault rifle

Not only did the rifles have to be purchased even in Japan, the way for automatic weapons was ordered into the army. Seeing the Fedorov assault rifle in 1912, Nicholas II said that he was against its introduction in the army, since then there would not be enough cartridges.

However, one innovative project nevertheless found a response in the soul of the monarch. The engineer Nikolai Lebedenko was also a good marketer, realizing that drawings and diagrams were unlikely to arouse interest in Nicholas II, he made a wooden toy with 30-cm nickel-plated wheels and drives from a gramophone spring. He placed the model in a richly decorated mahogany chest with gold clasps and with its help he was able to achieve the highest audience.

In the "Complete Encyclopedia of World Tanks. 1915-2000. " this moment is described in detail: “the emperor and the engineer for half an hour“like little children”crawled on the floor, driving the model around the room. The toy ran briskly on the carpet, easily overcoming stacks of two or three volumes of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire (Complete Encyclopedia of World Tanks. 1915-2000, p. 29).

As a result, Nicholas II asked to keep the toy and allocated money for the construction of an obviously unsuccessful combat vehicle. The design of the Tsar Tank resembled a greatly enlarged gun carriage. The two huge spoke front wheels had a diameter of about 9 m, the rear roller was noticeably smaller, about 1.5 m

During the very first tests, the Tsar Tank hit a small ditch with its rear cart and could not budge. In addition, the huge wheels 9 m in diameter were very vulnerable to enemy artillery, and if it hit the wheel hub successfully, the car would generally fold like a house of cards.

It was not possible to pull the Tsar Tank out of the ditch, the structure rusted for another seven years in the forest, until in 1923 the tank was dismantled for scrap.