Brusilov becomes commander-in-chief

On 4 June 1917 (22 May in the Julian calendar) the Provisional Government removed the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, General Mikhail Alekseyev, and entrusted the post to the commander of the South-Western Front, General Aleksei Brusilov. The decision was pushed through by the new minister of war and the navy, Alexander Kerensky, who for several weeks had been preparing the army for a great offensive. He judged that for this task he needed a commander who would not be an opponent of the revolutionary order in the army. The Western press reported the change on 5 June.

Alekseyev’s departure

Alekseyev, under the Tsar chief of staff to the Supreme Commander and the de facto commander of the army, had played a key role in the days of Nicholas II’s abdication. The government, however, appointed him commander-in-chief only on 15 April (2 April Old Style), after long hesitation. The general served the new authorities loyally, but openly opposed the “democratisation” of the army. Soldiers’ committees, Order No. 1 and the declaration of soldiers’ rights being prepared in the war ministry were in his view the road to the disintegration of the army. He considered an offensive necessary, but did not believe that the army in its present state could carry it out, and kept putting off its date.

In the spring his voice sounded increasingly alarmed. On 17 May (4 May Old Style) Alekseyev, Brusilov and the commanders of the Northern and Western Fronts, Generals Abram Dragomirov and Vasily Gurko, presented a grim picture of the breakdown at the front to the government and the leaders of the Petrograd Soviet in Petrograd. On 20 May (7 May Old Style), at the headquarters of the Stavka in Mogilev, Alekseyev opened a congress of army and navy officers with a speech that echoed throughout the country. “Russia is perishing. She stands on the edge of the abyss,” he said, adding that the enemy would not be bought off with the “utopian” slogan of peace without annexations or indemnities. The left-wing press unleashed a campaign against the general, and the Soviet had long been demanding his removal. Two days later Kerensky approved the declaration of soldiers’ rights, against which the Stavka had protested most strongly.

According to the memoirs of General Anton Denikin, then chief of staff of the Stavka, Kerensky stopped in Mogilev on 2 June on his way back from the front, but in a long conversation with Alekseyev said not a word about the changes. The telegram announcing the dismissal arrived during the night of 3–4 June. The general, woken up, is said to have had tears in his eyes, and later, talking to Denikin, he burst out: “Vulgarians! They have dismissed me like a servant.” The government announced that, despite Alekseyev’s understandable fatigue, it did not wish to lose so experienced a commander and was keeping him at its disposal. In his farewell order Alekseyev wrote that now, “when the foundations of military strength have been shaken”, he kept his faith in the calling of the Russian people and the valour of the Russian soldier.

The revolutionary general

Brusilov, a 63-year-old general of cavalry, was the best-known Russian commander. His offensive of the summer of 1916 had been the greatest success of the tsarist army in this war. After the February Revolution he quickly adapted to the new order. He talked to the committees and spoke at mass meetings, and when in May Kerensky, newly appointed minister in the coalition government, toured the South-Western Front, Brusilov accompanied him and assured the government that his armies would go on the attack. In Kamenets-Podolsky the crowd reportedly carried him about in a red armchair. On that same 4 June, still as front commander, he issued an order to form volunteer “revolutionary shock battalions”, which were to carry wavering units forward into the attack.

In his memoirs Brusilov admitted that on accepting the post he had no illusions: he believed the war was in essence over for Russia, because there was no way to make the soldiers fight. He nevertheless decided to stay in the country and serve it. Mogilev received him coolly. The Stavka officers regarded him as an opportunist who had agreed to the destruction of discipline for the sake of revolutionary popularity. He was succeeded at the South-Western Front by General Aleksei Gutor. Denikin left the Stavka after about ten days and soon took over the Western Front, and General Aleksandr Lukomsky became chief of staff to the new commander-in-chief.

Before the offensive

Brusilov’s most important task was to prepare the attack on which the Allies were insisting and on which Kerensky was building his policy. The main blow was to be struck by the South-Western Front in the direction of Lviv, with the other fronts supporting it. Brusilov toured the Western and Northern Fronts and found that their condition was even worse than that of his former armies. The attack, known as the Kerensky offensive, began on 1 July and collapsed after initial successes. At the end of July the government replaced Brusilov with General Lavr Kornilov. Brusilov had commanded the Russian army for less than two months.