Yet, despite Brusiloff’s fleeting success, the year 1916 saw the total elimination and retreat of the Slav armies—Russia was definitely defeated. The overthrow of Serbia at the end of 1915 had reached its climax in January 1916 by the downfall and occupation of Montenegro. The Germans of Austria had followed the Magyar example and, on October 11, 1915, “Austria “arose—to vegetate for three years—in the place of the old “Kingdoms and Lands represented in the Reichsrat.” The assassination of the Prime Minister, Count Stürgkh, on October 21, 1916, and the death of Francis Joseph on November 11 were omens of impending collapse.
The next year, 1917, was fateful for all the belligerent nations and above all for Russia. It had long been whispered that in Russia a storm was brewing. The characteristic premiership of Stürmer, whom Benckendorff regarded as a dangerous pro-German, had lasted from February 9 till November 28, and had been generally condemned; and though the rigorous Russian censorship prevented news of the extraordinary excitement from reaching Europe, there were too many Englishmen and Frenchmen in Russia for alarming accounts not to be sent or brought to the West. Attention had been drawn to the situation at Petrograd and in the army by the members of the Duma who visited Paris and London; and, later on, Milyukoff’s speech against Stürmer in the Duma of November 14, 1916, which culminated in the question “Madness or Treason?” illumined the position for the public at large. The original British view of the Russian Revolution was that the fall of the pro-German régime would enable Russia to wage war more efficiently and successfully.
The American Declaration of War.
Hard upon the Russian Revolution of March 1917 followed a second far-reaching event on April 6—the decision of the United States to declare war upon Germany and to join the Allies in the fight against the Central Powers. Less attention is usually paid to the naval war between England and Germany than to the fighting on land, though, in reality, this aspect of the struggle was extremely stubborn and of great importance in deciding the issue. Germany had challenged England by the undue expansion of the German navy and by the endeavour to show the German flag on every sea. Immediately after the outbreak of war, England and her Allies began by blockading Germany in order to prevent the importation of foodstuffs
