Questions about ww1 Russia

Okay so I have three questions?

What would it need and take to make Russia a truly modern army by ww1 so they can match the central powers as equals

How could the Russian empire survive (and win) ww1

What would the Russian Empire gain from the treaty of Versailles

Thanks in advance
 
1) I think they already were trying that, but the problem was that the modernization program wouldn't really culminate until 1917. Germany was also aware of this, and that it would be necessary to fight Russia before that.

As to the other two, I'd need to put some thought into.
 
The Russian army was huge and that was its main problem in terms of modernising ALL of it. You could certainly have modernised elements of it quicker, but the most obvious were also the most traditional, ie the guard units.

Being huge, logistics were again huge. There's no point getting a small army to your border with Germany or Austria-Hungary (arguably it would be OK to the Ottoman border) so yoou have to set up systems to get ALL of them there. This is why Russian mobilisation was so tricky - they couldn't PARTLY mobilise, they had to complete it.

As things stood, the Russians certainly matched the Austrians as equals, and in 1914 at the height of their mobilisation could arguably have beaten the Germans in the August 1914 campaigns and forced them back onto West Prussia.

Time was not kind to the Russians, the longer the war went on, the greater their problems became.

IMHO Russia's best chance to come out of the war victorious is for it to end earlier. Alternatively, the Ottomans remaining neutral would have had great butterflies in its wake and not only opened up the Black Sea supply route (and kept open the trade route) but probably have led to some sort of Southern alliance against the Austrians.

The earlier the peace comes, the less harsh the terms are going to be on the losers. A 1914 victorious peace would probably bring reparations from Germany and Austria, and the destruction of some border fortresses. A 1916 victorious peace would bring larger territorial adjustments, including something for Poland that pulls at least some territory from Austria and Germany.

Best regards
Grey Wolf
 
One of the major challenges was the low industrial output of Russia.

Although plans were there, it was just not possible to speed it up.

The internal communication lines - i.e. railways, were not great. That was the other big difficulty.

So, it is not just a matter of more men in uniforms, but just as much about simple things like logistics and production.

Ivan
 
WW1 was started with mature technologies. Modern bolt action rifles were mostly turn of the century, most countries had reequiped they Artilery once the French Model 1897 75mm showed the way. The Russian army of 1914 was beaten because of command issues, not for lack of modern equipment.
 
I think Russia's army reflected its society, if you modernise Russian society/economy more you'd get a more modern Russian army which would be a much tougher opponent on the battlefield.
 

Deleted member 1487

Avoid the Russo-Japanese war would help, which would prevent WW1 because then Germany wouldn't be eager to jump into war before their 'window' of Russian weakness closed. Without the losses in that war the Russian army would be able to build upon its existing strength, rather than needing to start over in 1906. Also avoiding the 1905 revolution wouldn't hurt.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
If Russia remained one of the key members of the Allied powers and the war ended in a clear Allied victory, I believe there was an understanding that the Dardanelles would come under Russian control (despite the fact that the British had just spent a century working hard to prevent this from ever happening).
 
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