A SEPARATE PEACE This is a war to end all wars Woodrow Wilson President Only the dead have seen the end of war George Santayana Spanish American philosopher countering Wilson’s words of the United States After three years of fighting World War I seemed like it could go on forever By the spring of 1917 soldiers had been fighting in the muddy trenches of France and Belgium for almost three years Millions had been killed or horribly wounded Even when thousands of men attacked they seldom gained any ground The war on the Western Front was at a bloody standstill But the stubborn generals on both sides sent their men into battle to an almost certain death By April the fighting spirit of the exhausted French army finally cracked Almost half of the French soldiers refused to fight They threw down their rifles in protest or simply disobeyed orders The French army mutinies were a serious crisis for the Allies It took a change of command and several months of morale building to fix In 1917 more than half of the exhausted French army refused to fight
A 1917 Russian poster with the slogan War Until Victory Meanwhile in Russia another situation was spiraling out of control Years of corruption and ill-treatment by the government had fueled serious unhappiness among the Russian people During World War I crushing defeats at the hands of the German army made matters worse
In March 1917 the Russian government finally fell apart Russia’s leader Czar Nicholas II was forced to give up power on March 15 This was the first part of what is called the Russian Revolution A loose collection of political parties then set up a temporary Provisional Government It was led by Alexander Kerensky He wanted to keep Russia in the war Russia’s Nicholas II was forced to give up his throne in March 1917 In July 1918 he and his entire family were murdered so he could not reclaim power Although the government tried to keep fighting things got worse for Russia Because of the war supplies of food and fuel were scarce There were massive shortages in major cities Russians began rioting in the streets People became desperate all over the country The Bolshevik Party the Reds was a political party led by Vladimir Lenin In November October in the old-style Russian calendar the Bolsheviks seized control of the country and overthrew the Provisional Government After this October Revolution the second part of the Russian Revolution the Bolsheviks set up a communist government Their goal was to give power to workers peasants and soldiers instead of royalty and other elites
Although the new government was supposed to represent the Russian people it often behaved like a harsh dictatorship People who disagreed with the government and resisted were often executed The communists did not want Nicholas II to reclaim power They murdered the czar and his family on July 17 1918 After the October Revolution the Imperial Russian Army collapsed Many soldiers deserted or refused to follow orders By the end of 1917 almost four million Russian soldiers had surrendered to the Germans or Austrians This further drained Russia of much-needed manpower Lenin said that the soldiers voted for peace with their feet Russian leader Vladimir Lenin speaks in Moscow in November 1918
