My Memoirs

To mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the Brusilov Offensive.

Among the military-historical and memoir literature devoted to the First World War and events in Russia in 1917–1922, the memoirs of Aleksey Alekseyevich Brusilov (1853–1926) occupy a special place. Brusilov was “the author” of the breakthrough named after him—genius from the standpoint of military strategy.

…1916. The mood reigning in the Russian army can be described in one word—gloom. The worst part: passivity and indecision had seized, above all, those who had been put in charge of the army, to lead millions of people. Fortunately, not everyone.

When speaking about the events of the summer of 1916, people often use the word “for the first time”: the first strategic offensive was carried out in conditions of positional warfare; the front was broken through with simultaneous blows in several sectors; for the first time, a sequential concentration of fire was used to support an attack. And most importantly: for the first time—after more than a year of retreats—there appeared a commander-in-chief who had not lost the ability to think strategically.

As history is known, it knows no conditional mood. But in the case of the Brusilov Offensive, there is no getting by without “if.” If Aleksey Alekseyevich Brusilov hadn’t been left alone, if he had been supported, the victory over Germany would have happened already in 1916—and therefore the course of Russian and world history would have been different.

But Brusilov is not only the genius breakthrough named after him. In the summer of 1917, having become Supreme Commander-in-Chief, he could again have saved the country from the looming catastrophe. Yet the then leadership of Russia didn’t need decisive people.

During the years of revolution and turmoil, everyone had to make a difficult choice. Because of his religious and moral convictions, Brusilov didn’t want to take sides in a fratricidal war. And he joined the Red Army only when the war, in essence, had ceased to be a civil conflict and the issue was repelling foreign intervention. “I consider it the duty of every citizen not to abandon his people and to live with them, no matter what it costs”—these are the words of a true Russian officer. But that did not save him from mental anguish and questions for which no answer was ever found: “My God!.. Where is Russia, where is my country, the old army?”