Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia

On 6 August 1914 the ambassador of Austria-Hungary in St Petersburg, Count Friedrich Szápáry, handed the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Sazonov, a declaration of war. The Habsburg monarchy justified it by Russia’s hostile attitude in the conflict with Serbia and by the fact that Russia was at war with Germany, Vienna’s ally.

A belated declaration

Although the whole crisis had begun with Vienna’s dispute with Belgrade and with Russian support for Serbia, Austria-Hungary was the last of the great powers involved in the conflict in the east to declare war on Russia. Germany had done so on 1 August. Vienna held back because its army was in the middle of mobilising and part of its forces had earlier been sent against Serbia. Berlin, however, pressed its ally to commit its main forces against Russia as soon as possible while the German army struck at France.

The front in Galicia

The declaration of war meant that the main front of Austria-Hungary became Galicia, a border province inhabited largely by Poles and Ukrainians. It was there, at the end of August, that great battles with the Russian army were fought. After initial successes at Kraśnik and Komarów, the Austro-Hungarian army suffered a heavy defeat. In early September the Russians took Lviv, and soon afterwards laid siege to the fortress of Przemyśl.

The Polish dimension of the war

For Poles the Austro-Russian war had special significance. For the first time since the partitions, two of the partitioning powers went to war against each other. On the same day, 6 August 1914, the First Cadre Company formed by Józef Piłsudski set out from Kraków and crossed the border of the Kingdom of Poland. A few weeks later the Polish Legions, fighting alongside the Austro-Hungarian army, were formed on the basis of the Riflemen’s units.

Significance

The declaration of war on Russia closed the circle of declarations of war between the great powers of Europe. On 12 August Britain and France declared war on Austria-Hungary. For the Habsburg monarchy this meant fighting on two fronts at once: against Serbia in the south and against Russia in the north-east. It was a war for which its army was not prepared and which within four years led to the monarchy’s collapse.