However that might be, Russia did not refuse her aid in the form desired by the Roumanians. From the long Russian front which, in turn, stood in need of reserves, troops were taken off and sent to Roumania. Two armies, under Letchitzki and Sakharov, and the great mass of cavalry under Mannerheim, were assigned by the Russians to assist the retreating Roumanians. This effective help by Russia achieved its purpose, stopping the offensive of the enemy, and towards 1917 the Russian Armies also took upon themselves the none too easy task of defending the greater part of the Roumanian front.
For the following year, 1917, Russia prepared for a decisive offensive on the German front, in common with the Allies. That was the first year that the Russian Army had at last obtained sufficient armaments and supplies. The Germans realized that most serious danger threatened them, and the Germano-Bolshevist provocation was now chosen as the means of disarming Russia. And yet, even during those terrible days of the collapse of the Russian Army and the Revolution, Russia was indispensable to the Allies.
During those revolutionary days of 1917 Russia compelled the enemy to maintain on the Russian front 162 divisions of German, Austrian, Turkish and Bulgarian troops, to the enemy's detriment on the French main front. On this front the enemy was enabled to maintain only 140 divisions.
Russia, although sapped by the Germano-Bolshevist conspiracy, was still formidable, and the enemy did not risk the moving of any of his troops from the Russian front. Russia was growing faint, but that honest Russia which had saved her allies in East Prussia, Galicia, on the fields of Poland, Lithuania, Roumania, in the Caucasus and Armenia, did not lay down her arms to the very last moment, remaining true to her obligations.
Russia's Losses—12,000,000
From this brief outline one can readily see what great and numerous objects Russia accomplished in the World War, and how important was her role in that final collapse of the Central Powers at which the Allies had been aiming in the four-year long struggle. In full accord with these efforts are the extraordinary sacrifices brought by Russia, sacrifices in men, sacrifices in material resources and money, and finally, that great upheaval through which the Russian people are now passing, as a result of their over-exertion in the years of the World War.
Among these sacrifices, Russia's losses in men run into such great numbers that the immense, extraordinary part played by Russia becomes at once obvious to anyone.
Of the many different figures quoted by various investigators the most reliable are undoubtedly those furnished by the official statistics of the Russian Army Staff.
Among these figures made public in the press the most important are those given by the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, pertaining to the year 1916, concerning the total number of mobilized soldiers and the number of those still in the service. According to this information, the Russian War Ministry called to the colors from the outbreak of the War up to the winter of 1916 more than 14 million men; but the commissary department of the Army had towards the close of 1916 less than 10 million on its rolls. The difference of 4½ million between these two figures constituted the absolute losses of the Army during 3 campaigns (1914, 15, 16). This gave the Staff the basis for calculating the yearly average total losses at 1½ million men. Adding, accordingly, 1½ million losses for 1917, we obtain 6 million total losses during the whole War.
But these are only the men who were a total loss to the Army, i. e., the losses in killed and prisoners, without the wounded, except a moderate number of crippled who were no longer fit for service at the front nor for service out of the ranks, and who therefore had to be discharged from the Army entirely.