Brusilov Offensive

In World War I, major Russian assault led by General Alexei Brusilov against the southern sector of the Eastern Front June 1916 in order to relieve pressure on the Western and Italian Fronts by drawing German forces east. The offensive met this immediate objective but also had far broader effects: it cost the Russians almost one million casualties, which demoralized the army and aided the revolutionary cause; it brought Romania into the war on the Allied side, resulting in the eventual conquest of Romania by German forces; and the decimation of Austro-Hungarian forces made the German Army the dominant partner among the Central Powers thereafter.

Brusilov commanded the Russian 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th Armies, advancing on a line from the Prypyat Marshes to the Romanian border. The Austro-Hungarian 4th Army was almost totally destroyed, and the Austro-German ‘Southern Army’ was forced to retreat as a result. The attack achieved its purpose, since Hindenburg had to withdraw troops from many areas, including Italy, to bolster the defences in Galicia and Bukovina. Although an Austro-Hungarian counterattack checked the Russian advance north, Brusilov pushed forward in the south as far as the Carpathian mountains before his attack came to a halt due to exhaustion of his troops, poor supplies and lack of support from other Russian forces.